Nov 12 2009
The end of every semester has its own unique set of challenges
You know how at the end of every semester everything just goes completely crazy? I remember when I was an undergrad, the crush of class projects and finals in the last few weeks always felt the same each and every time.
However, I’ve noticed that in grad school, the pressure of the last few weeks of each semester can be very different.
1st semester: Fall 2006
When you start at a new school, it is not unusual to encounter a discontinuity in the difficulty of classes. Sometimes the difficulty breaks upwards, other times the difficulty breaks downwards. In my case, the difficulty broke downwards. At the end of this semester, all I did was turn in two simple class projects, no finals. Although I had a tapeout in January, I managed to convince my advisor that I could go home and do layout remotely from 2,000 miles away. And guess what? I actually went home and did layout remotely from 2,000 miles away and nearly finished it. Imagine a 1 second lag on every single action you do in Cadence. Select an object? 1 second. Press Q to bring up the object’s properties? 1 second. Select a parameter box? 1 second. Type in value? 1 second. Hit OK? 1 second.
2nd semester: Spring 2007
I’d say the end of this semester was even easier than the first. All I had to do was turn in two class projects at the end of the semester and that was it.
3rd semester: Fall 2007
I had a tapeout deadline the same week as finals week, and this time I actually had a final. When I was an undergrad, I would think that I failed, only to get a B in the class. However, this time, I thought I failed, and I really almost did fail. For grad classes, B- is passing, C+ is fail, and I got a B-. When you set the curve on a homework on the low end, you know it can’t be good. I really didn’t have time to work on that homework because of my tapeout deadline.
4th semester: Spring 2008
Although I had a tapeout deadline at the end of the semester, it was a good 2.5 weeks after my class project was due and I was only taking one class which was a piece of cake. Very manageable pressure.
5th semester: Fall 2008
The end of this semester was not the busiest, but it was definitely the most stressful because of the qualifying exam. After I passed in November, I suffered a sudden surge of demotivation, but I couldn’t completely do nothing because of conference paper deadlines. Although the stress level went off a cliff after the qualifying exam, just trying to motivate myself to do anything afterward was an interesting challenge.
6th semester: Spring 2009
If there was ever a time my advisor was pissed at me, it was this semester. Imagine meeting with your advisor week after week with little research accomplished for 8 weeks in a row. I simply did not have time for research. Most of my classes were easy and I took a B- for one class because I was focusing on research, but this semester I was taking a heavy project class and I was a TA on top of that. Most grad classes don’t have homework assignments on most weeks so you don’t spend more than 2 hours outside of class in a typical week, but this project class was easily 20 hours per week down the drain. Add 15 hours of TA per week on top of that and you’re at 35 hours per week. Take a 40 hour week, subtract off 35 hours a week for class and TA, and you can’t get jack research done in 5 hours per week. Sure, some people are crazy and they work 60 hour weeks or even 90 hour weeks, but if you’re lazy like me, the most you can sustain over 8 weeks is 50 hours per week max. Even if you did 50 hours a week, you have 15 hours after class and TA and you still can’t do jack research in 15 hours per week.
Anyway, I finished my last class and TA in early May and I had a tapeout deadline and a conference presentation the same exact week in early June. Imagine doing a semester’s worth a research in a month and also presenting at a conference. Normally for a tapeout deadline, I freeze my schematic 3-4 weeks before the deadline and then work on the layout. Not this time. Started floorplanning with 3 weeks remaining. Schematic frozen with 2 weeks remaining. Not fun. The end of the Fall 2008 semester may have been the most stressful because of the qualifying exam, but the end of Spring 2009 is definitely worse in terms of things going really bad.
7th semester: Fall 2009 (Wow, it’s been 7 semesters. Time to seriously find a way out of here.)
This semester is my first semester without taking any classes or being a TA. I also do not have any tapeout deadlines at the end of this semester. However, when your advisor tells you that you need to finish certain things before going home for the winter, there’s still that end of the semester pressure.
1. Propose. If I don’t actually propose, I should at least have the proposal document ready before I leave for the winter. I will then actually get together a committee and propose in January or February. Proposing is nowhere near as stressful as taking a qualifying exam, but there is still this pressure that your Ph.D. work is going to have to all come together in one document even though it isn’t your thesis. The pressure is to actually make that a reality. It will happen, but what if it doesn’t? What if you discover that what you’ve been doing the last X number years is complete trash?
2. Test my latest chip and submit to RFIC (a conference) by January 5th. I do have preliminary results and they seem to be acceptable. However, they are preliminary results because I fried two of my chips and don’t have any chips left to test. I do have more chips, but they need to be post-processed and I ran out of post-processed chips to test. The pressure here is that when I finally get new chips to test, it’s a pain to set everything up so that I can test my chip and I also have to be careful not to fry my chip again (I bumped up some bias voltages a bit too high).
Unlike the end of most semesters where you know exactly what you need to and doing it is just a matter of time, this semester feels very different. Finals are on definite dates. Tapeout deadlines are also definite. Qualifying exam dates are definite. Paper deadlines are definite. However, paper deadlines don’t feel definite even though they are if you still have to test your stinking chip. If you have tested your chip, then it’s just a matter of writing up the paper. If you haven’t tested your chip, you have to hope that the testing goes smoothly, otherwise there’s this feeling of uncertainty that’s really annoying. If I continue to fry my chips or if I don’t actually get post-processed chips, then I guess I won’t be submitting a paper to RFIC and nevermind that there’s a deadline for the paper submission. Although the proposal shouldn’t be a big deal, preparing the document also has this indefinite feeling to it. Everything has to come together and you need to make it happen. But it just might not happen.