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- From: Carl Patenaude-Poulin <carlpaten AT protonmail.com>
- To: "coq-club AT inria.fr" <coq-club AT inria.fr>
- Subject: [Coq-Club] PhD programs in programming languages and formal methods
- Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:23:06 +0000
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Hi all,
I am a young software developer with a hobbyist's interest in formal methods,
including and especially Coq. I feel like I've taken what I could from working
in industry as a software engineer, and I am extremely interested in
transitioning to a career in research. I am humbly asking for pointers on
entering the field of PL, Coq and formal methods. I am also trying to adjust
my judgment with respect to what's realistic and what isn't for me.
My academic pedigree is underwhelming; I have an undergraduate degree with
middling grades (GPA 3.24/4.00), and do not have research experience. I am
confident I can do better after maturing for a few years in industry, but I am
not sure how to best make that case.
The first thing I've tried was cold-emailing a few researchers who I would be
enchanted to work for/study under. I've consciously aimed too high by writing
to those whose work I found the most interesting; not coincidentally, lots of
other people would like to work with them, and I'd imagine they have their
pick without taking a chance on cold emails from unknown undergraduates. I did
not receive strong returns, and halted this approach after I saw this bit on
Philip Wadler's page (http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/wadler/phd.html) which
suggested that I had not been demonstrating sufficient effort in the emails I
sent:
>When you apply, pay particular attention to the research proposal. The
>purpose of this is not to fix an area of study, but to assess your ability to
>select a suitable research problem, to justify why it is interesting, and to
>express yourself clearly.
On to some questions:
- The blurb from Wadler's web page implies that cold emails should include a
research proposal with a non-trivial amount of detail. Should I pick a
problem and start working on it _before_ I apply for a PhD program?
- What approaches might I use for finding potential advisors that would be
open to taking a chance on an unproved student? Surely it would be uncouth
to email-blast the >100 authors of papers I've found interesting in the past
few years? I don't want to make a bad name for myself when I've not even
started working in the field.
- What should I include in such an email? I could put my CV and/or my
undergrad transcript, would that be helpful? Should I attempt to signal that
I've meaningfully engaged with the recipient's research (which I have,
otherwise I wouldn't be writing to them)?
- One of my professors from undergraduate once offered to recommend me to a
researcher they know, someone I would be enchanted to study under - this is
probably a best case scenario, right? I should probably start by pursuing
that?
All of my gratitude for your time and attention,
Carl Patenaude-Poulin
B Eng Software (McGill University)
- [Coq-Club] PhD programs in programming languages and formal methods, Carl Patenaude-Poulin, 04/17/2020
- Re: [Coq-Club] PhD programs in programming languages and formal methods, Jeremy Dawson, 04/18/2020
- Re: [Coq-Club] PhD programs in programming languages and formal methods, Samuel Gruetter, 04/22/2020
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