PhD: Why and How?
Okyay Kaynak
Embarking on doing a Ph. D. is an important decision. It should not be taken lightly. In this presentation, the difficulties one is likely to meet on the way to Ph. D. are discussed and if you cannot come up with strong arguments in favor of it, it is suggested that you should perhaps go for a master’s degree. The second part of the presentation focuses on the journey itself. The skills that you should have or need to acquire for a successful completion of your journey as sanely as possible are discussed. The final remark is that dissertations are never completed but abandoned.
The Art of Technical Paper Writing
Okyay Kaynak
Now that you have embarked on your Ph. D. journey, you will be expected to publish. It may even be a prerequisite to your degree. In this presentation, the art of technical paper writing is elaborated upon. Firstly a three dimensional view of dissemination of research results is introduced and where a good scientific paper should position itself is discussed. Secondly, the basic rules that a good scientific paper needs to follow are presented in relation with the typical arguments behind a quick rejection. Thirdly, how to organize a technical paper is discussed with specific references to its main parts, i.e. the title, the abstract, the body, the mathematics used, the conclusions and the references.
Short Biography of Okyay Kaynak
Okyay Kaynak received the B.Sc. degree with first class honors and Ph.D. degrees in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 1969 and 1972 respectively. From 1972 to 1979, he held various positions within the industry. In 1979, he joined the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, where he is presently an Emeritus Professor holding the UNESCO Chair on Mechatronics. He has hold long-term (near to or more than a year) Visiting Professor/Scholar positions at various institutions in Japan, Germany, U.S., Singapore and China. His current research interests are in the fields of intelligent control and mechatronics. He has authored three books and edited five and authored or coauthored more than 400 papers that have appeared in various journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Kaynak is a fellow of IEEE. He is or has served on the Editorial or Advisory Boards of a number of scholarly journals. He has just completed a 3-year term as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics. Dr. Kaynak is active in international organizations, has served on many committees of IEEE and was the president of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society during 2002-2003. He received IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2001), IEEE/IES Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award (2005) and IEEE/IES Dr.-Ing. Eugene Mittelman Achievement Award (2011). Most recently, he has received the China Friendship Award (2016) and Humboldt Research Prize (2016).