NAVIGATION
The expectations of you and your expectations of me will vary depending on your role in the lab and your prior experience and skills. You will also find that expectations change as time goes on and you gain more experience in the lab.
I expect you to please come to me if you are not sure what you should be doing day to day. Let me know if you are concerned about the progress of your project(s). Please come to me to get advice on experimental setup, data analysis and data collection. Show me plots. Show me sample signals. Get feedback from me and others about how the project is progressing. You should look at your data often, in particular to make sure that the various signals (kinematics, forces, EMG, EEG, etc) look as they should, and to make sure that participants are performing the task as we require.
You should expect me to support your work by seeking out research grants to fund the lab. You should also expect me to provide timely feedback (~ 2 weeks depending on the length of the document and other demands). I will support your travel to conferences to present your research. You can expect me to do my best to promote a positive, supportive, collaborative research environment in the lab.
You have a period of two years to complete a research project, write a thesis, and fulfill all the coursework requirements for your MSc degree. Your research project should be fascinating and represent a significant advancement in the field, regardless of the results. We will collaborate to come up with a project that aligns with your interests and goals. Typically, an MSc thesis focuses on a single scientific question and a single study designed to test a specific hypothesis. The scientific question should be original, and often requires the development of new techniques or experimental paradigms. You will be leading the process.
We have numerous sources of technical support and expertise within the lab and SKHS, including myself. You will learn to leverage these resources to execute your experiments as per your vision. Our lab does not follow a "plug and play" approach, as the most interesting scientific questions require unique solutions. As a graduate student, it is your responsibility to ensure that you complete your research project. I am here to guide and assist you, and the more we interact, the more likely you are to stay on track.
It is your responsibility to secure funding to support your salary, such as OGS, NSERC, CIHR, or other external awards. In the absence of external awards, I will support you using research grant funds on the condition that you take on teaching assistant positions (as applicable) to partially support your salary.
Best regards.
You will have 4 years to complete your PhD thesis along with any necessary coursework. A typical PhD thesis consists of 5 or more chapters. Chapter 1 will be a general introduction which will include a literature review in the context of your research topic. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 will be individual studies that may be published papers or papers that are to be published. Chapter 5 will be a general discussion where you will combine your experiment results and discuss the implications of your research in the context of existing literature. In some cases, 2 chapters may be considered acceptable, but typically only one is preferred. It is possible to have more than 3 chapters, but this may test the patience of your thesis examiners. Once you begin developing a general scientific question or hypothesis, we will work together to guide the subsequent development of individual experiments. The general scientific question should be novel in the context of existing scientific literature, and each individual study should be capable of being published. In some cases, Chapter 1 may also be publishable in the form of a review article.
As a PhD student, you will quickly gain independence in the lab. Similar to MSc students, you will be primarily responsible for seeking technical and scientific assistance within the lab to carry out the experimental paradigms required to test your scientific ideas. While I am here to assist and guide you through the process, you are in charge of your research project. You will learn to work independently in the lab, so that by the middle of your PhD, you will be approaching me with fresh ideas, new pilot data, and results from your work in the lab, seeking your next interesting scientific question. It is not advisable to rely solely on me to provide you with scientific questions for your thesis studies. However, you can count on my experience and knowledge to help guide you towards scientific questions that are interesting, relevant to the field, and feasible for graduate studies. Together, we will work on developing the scientific questions that will guide your thesis work. At the beginning, the balance may be more towards my end, but as you progress towards the middle or end of your thesis work, you will likely be pursuing questions of your own. It is crucial to pursue research questions that interest and excite you. Do not make it your goal to come up with questions you believe I will like or hypotheses that others in the field will appreciate. This is a recipe for disaster. Your motivation for pursuing your PhD research must come from within. This is critical. A PhD is a lengthy process that involves many ups and downs. You must be self-motivated, and one of the best ways to achieve this is by pursuing scientific questions that excite you.
I can certainly help you navigate the literature and the scientific landscape, and give you feedback about your ideas. We can work together to develop your own ideas but they must be your own. You are responsible for applying for funding to support your salary (e.g. OGS, NSERC, CIHR, etc). In the absence of external awards I will support you using funds from my research grants, providing that you take on teaching assistant positions (as applicable) to partially offset the funds required.