for (you in PhD): “self-taught code” to “professional code”

In this post, Seb Gilbert, a PGR in Mathematics, introduces us to the “We Don’t Byte” PGR coding club and talks about the value he has found in setting up and contributing to the club.

More and more often, coding is becoming an essential skill in academic research. Whether you are in a subject closely related to the language of logic (such as me in Mathematics) or having to analyse large datasets in the humanities; being able to code can enable you to process, compute and visualise data in a matter of minutes which previously would have taken months.

The problem is that, for many, coding is often a lonely self-taught experience. Even for the few subjects which touch upon coding during their undergraduate degrees, you only skim the surface of the vast technicalities. Teaching yourself how to code is a valuable experience in itself, yet, it can only take you so far.

Before beginning your endeavour with code, you might have had an image of multiple black monitor screens, running lines of luminescent green text and progress bars showing how long you have until you’ve hacked into the nation’s secret database… okay maybe not the last bit but that’s what you see on TV or in films. However, the reality for many involves writing line after line of carefully typed code to only be rewarded with the dreaded “Error” message. I know in the office I share with other PhD students, the comparison between expectation and reality is more like this…

With this in mind, and inspiration taken from BlueBEAR’s Coding Club, we thought to start a PGR coding club, calling it “We Don’t Byte”. The idea was to understand how as PGRs we could a) share solutions that help reduce our frustration, and b) bridge the gap between writing self-taught code and professional code. Specifically, how can PGRs early on in their coding journey pick up the essential tools needed to write reliable and reusable code.

We first invited our friends and soon their friends would come along too. Starting within one School and then expanding across the College, we now have members spanning all across the University.

The sessions so far have included talks presented by PGRs (in topics such as “Code Structure” and “Version control with Git”), peer feedback sessions (such as our “Advent of Code code review”) and an interactive workshop on data visualisation, with invited lecturer Dr. Ilija Rašović. The sessions are all decided and organised by the club’s members, so if you had something in mind, then please let us know!

This is now a rare way that PGRs can gather, irrespective of academic subject, to share their enthusiasm and share their ideas. Setting this up has truly been gratifying and not only through the improvement in my own coding but how the club has found a way for PGRs to help one another. Finally, as I am coming to the end of my PhD, I have the confidence to search for jobs that involve coding in their description, with the knowledge that my skills are to professional expectations.

At the very least, I know that my coding experience now includes less expletives than it did before.

Parenting as a PGR: embracing the challenge

In this post, Ed Clay, a PGR in the Department of Modern Languages and a father of twins, gives his tips for juggling parenthood and PhD research.

Lots of postgraduate researchers refer to their PhD project as their ‘baby’. That is, of course, until they have a real one! It goes without saying that parenting while doing a PhD comes with its difficulties, but none of them are insurmountable, and some may even end up helping to motivate you through to the finish line. I’m sure there are endless pieces of advice for PhD parents out there but hopefully my experiences might help people in a similar position to embrace the challenge.

Ed Clay

In my experience, the most important thing to do from the outset is to make sure you have the right mindset. Stop comparing yourself to PGRs who are not parents and stop feeling like you need to do everything they do. The reality is that you will need to make sacrifices and simply won’t be able to commit to as many conferences and other opportunities as you might like. However, this can also work in your favour because it forces you to be selective and only sign up to those things that you are sure will benefit you directly.

It is likely that you will go through periods of feeling guilty for being away from your children and for not spending all the time you have with them because of your research commitments. I find the best way to overcome this is, where possible, to make sure you have regular family time each day and each week that is protected and sacrosanct, and ensure that you put your research to the back of your mind during all those times. It’s not always easy to switch off like this, but the more you try to do this, the easier you will find it to cope with the feelings of guilt when you are away from them.

In practical terms, I have found that there are other seemingly small changes you can make to your day-to-day research routine which can have a big impact on your family life. If you are lucky enough to have children who sleep relatively well through the night, as ours now do, then try to make the most of the time that you have when they are asleep. I work well in the early morning, so I found getting up an hour or so before the children allowed me to increase my undisturbed working hours significantly per week.

This might seem like an obvious change, but at first I was rigidly sticking to my usual working hours that I had before children, and getting frustrated when my productivity was not as good. This wouldn’t work for everyone and some people much prefer working later in the evening, but it is important to think creatively about how you can block out a decent amount of time for yourself to get research done in a way that doesn’t affect the time you are able to spend with your children.

The main thing to remember when working your way through PhD research while also raising a family is that your research routine will look very different from most other researchers because you obviously need to prioritise your children. However, prioritising your children does not mean putting your PhD work on the back-burner, just that you need to be a little more creative in how your manage your time and be selective on what you commit to. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to things that don’t fit with your plans. After all, that great feeling when you finally submit your thesis will make those late nights (or early mornings) all worth it!