Corwin Olson

Engineering Your PhD Corwin Olson

Getting a graduate degree in engineering is not a trivial task, especially if you are pursuing a PhD: from obtaining funding to taking graduate courses to passing one or more make-or-break qualifying exams to presenting at conferences to writing multiple (accepted!) peer-reviewed journal articles and finally writing and defending your dissertation, it is not for the faint of heart. Just reading that sentence is likely to release a flood of wonderful stress hormones. So how do you tackle all that? First, breathe. Second, read this book: all those topics plus others are covered by someone that has successfully slogged through the entirety of a PhD program. Some of these other topics include: whether to go to grad school at all, and if you do, whether to pursue Master's or PhD; finding and selecting the right graduate program; establishing good work habits; how to find good research topics; research tools and implementation tips; how to "manage up" your advisor and other faculty; and returning to school as an older student after working full-time (perhaps with kids at home). Whether you are a prospective or current engineering graduate student pursuing a Master's or PhD, you will find plenty of actionable content in Engineering Your PhD, as well as the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself and others both before and during your time as a graduate student in engineering. About the Author Corwin Olson is a Research Associate at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of several journal articles in the fields of astrodynamics and spacecraft navigation. He received his Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and was a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow during his PhD program. He performed navigation and mission design analysis for the NASA Magnetospheric Multi-Scale mission, and trained numerous NASA astronauts while working in the Training Division of NASA's Johnson Space Center. He can be reached at CorwinOlson.com.