The MANDA Lab Odyssey

 This post was triggered by tweets such as the one quoted here:  https://x.com/mnwsth/status/1800190073973137829. The complaint can be summarized as: ~Rs 35k for a PhD stipend is low. It is a full-time job, so why not pay PhD students similar salaries as the industry? PhD students bring patents and publications and help with improving institutional ranks. US PhD stipends allow us to support a family, own a car, and have a great time. As someone who did a PhD in a small-ish university town in the US and lived in the US for 12 years, I'd like to debunk a few of these claims.  First and foremost: a PhD is really an apprenticeship. The first 2-3 years are spent on exploring topics, learning new skills, with a huge time investment from the mentor (ideally, whether or not this happens everywhere is a matter for another debate). People online have been responding to this by saying that "Oh, even at Google you have to spend some time picking up new skills". Yes, sure. However,...

source: https://www.surepayroll.com/resources/blog/setting-goals-for-the-new-year All considered, 2023 was a productive year for the lab. We submitted several grant proposals (unsuccessfully so far, but I count submissions as a success), a couple of conference papers, one review paper for a journal, and brought a preregistration to 90% completion (expecting to register the document in Jan 2024). Some of these should be published in 2024.  We hired some talented and motivated RAs, one of whom went on to convert to our MS by research program. 2/4 students who sat for placements have gotten their dream job offers. I'm sure the other two will also land something good within the next several months. This is also a positive outcome given how tough this placement season was across the country. One of the offers was a PPO and the work done by the student at his internship was based on the research he is doing with us. For prospective students reading this, this is a good example of how und...

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machine#/media/File:Las_Vegas_slot_machines.jpg Academia is replete with failures with occasional high dosage rewards. This is not dissimilar to the strategy used in casinos to keep people addicted to the game. The DBT-India Alliance decision to me was a shocker given the feedback I got during the interview. The panel concluded with the following words "Your proposal is sound for the most part, we just have a few final comments" and proceeded to give me advice on my IRB application template and consent forms that I had sent them. During the interview, I had accidentally drawn on the projector screen instead of the white board, so when I said my goodbyes to them, I apologized once again for drawing on the projector screen and the chair of the panel replied "Don't worry, we will take it out of your fellowship". Everybody laughed, I thanked them once again, and left the room feeling quite happy about how everything went.  ...

Since DBT-IA was the most professional grant agency I've dealt with in India, my experience with them deserves its own post.  Their instructions were always crystal clear. Their webinars were always to the point and helpful. The first step is a preliminary application which is a short summary of the project and several other details about your career trajectory. If shortlisted, you are invited to submit a full proposal and you get around 30 days since the notification to submit this full proposal. The proposal itself is a hefty undertaking with lots of sections to fill beyond the proposal. Therefore, they get a complete and thorough picture of your trajectory and your future research vision and how the grant will likely help you get where you want to go. My proposal was based on ideas I had in my Google docs for several years now but it takes an incredible amount of work to communicate the ideas effectively within the 3500 word limit. I roped in my lab members to help me make some ...

Depending on where you set up your lab, the institute will provide some startup funds. This amount can vary from 0 to 50L+.  The amount at our institute is currently 10L which is allocated to you once you submit a research proposal. The amount is meager for an experimental lab, especially when there is zero existing data collection infrastructure for a cognitive neuroscience lab like mine. This of course makes sense for an institute like ours that doesn't roll in govt funds and has traditionally not focused on big experimental labs.  The institute does support 1 PhD student which helps a lot and there are some internal fellowship schemes students can apply for. There are other places that support 5+ PhD students per faculty but I have found that it really does not matter if you cannot recruit motivated and talented PhD students (which some of these other places face despite having the money to support more PhD students). What sets IIITH apart though is access to a large talent...

These were the words the Dean RnD uttered to me when I asked him for advice about a tricky situation where one option was punitive and the other was damage control and moving on. He said that there were always going to be some problems that labs experience but the only good way to move forward was to ensure that everyone ultimately has a positive experience. This then has a positive feedback effect where students join the lab for the right reasons and over time, you get good motivated students.  Related to the dean's advice on creating positive feedback loops, I came across this book recently (Fig 1) by Adam Grant. The author makes a compelling argument that givers , those who try to add value to those around them, have found success across domains. Therefore, being self-centered and extremely competitive does not have to be the only way forward. When you're a member of a research lab, this principle applies with great effect. If you are someone who likes to help people out, ge...

This is my first blog post on the matter and it has been a long time coming. It's been 2.5 years since I moved back to India to start my research lab at IIIT Hyderabad. I will share some thoughts about my journey so far.  Undergrad to PhD I did 5 years of physics (integrated MSc) at IIT Kanpur where I developed an affinity for research through an undergraduate research project on analysis of musical waveforms using complex systems methods. In my final year, I took cognitive linguistics courses with Prof Achla Raina which sparked a deep desire to understand the human mind. A last minute decision to take the GRE was followed by 2 weeks of frantic studying and quickly sending in applications to several programs in linguistics, psychology, and a few in music technology. I got into Georgia Tech for a funded master's in music tech, a linguistics PhD program at Northwestern, and a psychology PhD program at Ohio State University. I opted for the latter, mainly because my to-be PhD advi...