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Do professors read youth research?
Scientific journals for young people publish research for high school students. Does this mean that high school student only reads those researches of young people and not professors??
I have some wonderful research that a professor reviewed, but it is not specialist, and I decided to publish it in a youth journal. Is this decision right because I want it to reach a professor?

It wasn't exactly clear if you meant you want your research read by professors or if you aspire to be a professor. Maybe both, of course.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18184/is-it-possible-for-a-high-school-student-with-no-academic-qualifications-to-publ

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/135156/where-can-should-i-as-a-high-schooler-publish-a-paper-regarding-the-derivation

Let me try to paint a picture since you have hidden a few different questions here.
For the title question, some professors will read young-student research and others won't. Those most likely to are those teaching young people such as high-school teachers, but also professors in teaching oriented colleges and universities. They are looking for things that are at a level that their own students can appreciate. Research institute professors are less likely to do this as the questions they consider are much deeper.
But, if your publication is truly interesting to one of the above people, they will very likely mention it to others in their circle, even a serious researcher. And someone who reviews for a youth journal is likely to have a fairly wide circle.
There is also a field of "recreational math" that is accessible by young people and some professors have an interest. You don't specify math, of course.
For the question in the first paragraph, most which school students don't have the background to read and understand professional level research, but a few do. There are occasional surprises in this regard. Sometimes it is due to an especially astute teacher who coaches a student in a good direction. I remember elementary students doing real research on the biology in small streams in their neighborhood. It was publishable.
For the last paragraph, yes, you did the right thing for a lot of reasons. The experience of doing it is good to have. It can increase your confidence. It can increase your curiosity. For the best venue to publish what you create, however, it is good to ask someone with more experience than you have. It is possible that some things created by the quite young have a value to professional academics.
You are on a good path. Follow it. One step isn't enough. But it is a start.

I wrote a paper in high school for a contest. It was very interesting to me and I learned a lot and it helped me decide to become a mathematician. However, there were some things I didn't know at the time, nor did my teachers, so it turned out to be very incomplete and not interesting in general other than to spark my interest. In that sense it was very valuable personally.


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My University has no formal faculty awards, but I'd like to nominate my professor for her amazing work and teaching
I have searched my university's site to see if there's a submission or packet I could send to nominate a professor for her amazing abilities as a professor. She's exemplary in teaching, and is professional, understanding, and above all, an amazing person.
How should I go about nominating her or simply, having her recognized.
I've already thanked her for the amazing year, and so have other students, but we want to do more to show our appreciation to her.

Perhaps just an email to her and maybe cc the head of school or/and dean.

Depending on where you are, there may be other awards for which you could nominate her (e.g. by professional societies). I don't know if any of these awards accept nominations by students, but if not you could write your institution that you would like to suggest to nominate our professor for this specific award. In case you can't find such an award you could still do what was suggested in a comment: CC the head/dean/dean of student affairs in an appreciation letter for her.

You could just contact the head of your department or the university and ask them this very question. Having enough people ask if such awards exist might even inspire them to to actually establish one.

Go to the head with a few other students if possible.

I had the exact same case for my PhD supervisor. An exceptional supervisor on all aspects and great mentor. I contacted several past students (who are now very successful in academia or industry) and we nominated him for a mentorship award via a professional society (in our case via an award from the Acoustical Society of America). Scientific journals also sometime have mentorship awards (see this example from the journal Nature). So perhaps, look for the different awards offered by the professional societies/associations and journals in your domain.

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Do you need to ask permission to use video from a video game in your research?
For my PhD experiment, I am using a video game for my control condition, do I need permission from the video game developer?

You can only answer this question by reading the license on the game.

The fact that it's research is not relevant.  The details of what you are doing probably are relevant.

Actually, not every "license" is binding. Courts have held that some companies overstep legal bounds with stated restrictions. Even some book publishers do such things.

Perhaps you could clarify a bit about what you want to use from the game? Images, rules, something else? Use how, exactly?

If you are using, say, timings of people playing a video game as data in an experiment, as long as you don’t use images from the game or pictures of people playing the game without appropriate permissions, then you’re probably OK, but I’d ask your university’s legal department for advice before starting such experiments. It’s their job to protect the university from ignorant (of the law) researchers like us. If y’all have a law school, go see if there’s a legal clinic that’s there to a specific case like this (research on the edge of legality). Otherwise, I’d check with your grants compliance office since they try to protect you, too. I’d do this even if you’re not grant funded on this project. You are also going to need to run your plans past your institution’s IRB and demonstrate that you human subjects will be treated humanely and according to requirements.

As has been suggested, the license is the place to start. But not the end of the story. Not every possible thing that could be found in a license agreement is reasonable. It has happened that some things in license agreements have been voided by courts.
The details of the license regarding how many people are permitted to use a given copy probably are binding. So if a video game license says "one person" or "three people" or some such, that probably means just that. Lots of software has such limitations. Other possible phrases are "exclusive use" or "non-transferable" and so on.
Also, if you need to copy images or text from the game, the licensing conditions regarding that are probably binding.
There is another aspect to it. Suppose you make use of a video game. And suppose the owner of the copyright decides they don't like that use. You could find yourself inovled in a struggle with lawyers and trips through courts etc. Even supposing you win in the end it could be a horrible time wasting experience. It could put strain on your life, your relationship with your university, etc. If the copyright holder is particularly nasty they can make such things last years.
Far better to get permission in advance. In writing.  If you make a polite request to the video game maker and get permission then Research Time! If they say no, or they try to put on conditions that you can't live with, or they don't respond at all, there are other video games.

+1, but if you don't need pictures out of the game  or of users using the game with pictures of it in the background, see my post. There's probably no copyright issue since you haven't copied anything that belongs to game developers, only reported on the use of the game. My biggest point though is that if humans are being studied, your uni, and your journal are going to need some sort of evidence that you had your ethics reviewed (IRB, typically, in the US). Not having this will stop you dead in your tracks nowadays.

That depends on what you do with the video. It is probably covered by copyright and it is conceivable that patent law also applies. If you cite things it will help, but reproducing segments of video or image captures from it requires you give thought to fair use and copyright restrictions.
But, if it is software that you have a valid license for, you can use it for its intended purpose without further permission, just as you can use word processing software to write. It is the reproduction of copyrighted content that you need to be concerned with. And, copyright law varies.
Note, especially, that images are a bit special. While you can quote from text, reproducing images has issues since an image can be construed in some cases as "a complete work" even when within another.

Don't even think about reproducing anything that Disney has copyrighted.

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Is it inappropriate to ask to work with a professor at a phd program I was rejected from?
I have opened dialogue with him before and he said he would tell the admission committee about our contact. I have not been rejected yet, but I would really like to work with him (payment does not matter). I am already enrolled in another grad program without many resources, so being able to contribute to his project would be a blessing to my resume.

No, it isn't inappropriate to ask, but don't expect that much can be done. In the US, grad admissions are normally up to a committee that evaluates your entire application. The professor may have something to say in your favor, but, unlike other places, it may not carry much weight.
But, if you mean whether you can ask the committee (rather than the professor), then it probably won't be considered at all (most places) as it is beyond the application materials. Rules may prevent such additional "information" from being considered. There are exceptions, as every department is different from every other in the US.
But, even if you are rejected, you can still work with him externally if your own advisor agrees. That is a matter of personality and such. So, you also need to ask the advisor of the program you are enrolled in if you need to continue to work with them. And note that there is little advantage to the professor for working with an external student unless your research ideas are especially interesting. There wouldn't be any pay increase or load reductions for such things.
But, you can ask.

would asking before decisions are made be pushing it ? thank you for the response buffy

You can ask but only after you get rejection.
You must have some solid grounds like some work in that field (lab work, research work, training, internship or something that will really impress them).
My son applied for MS in a University and was rejected. Then he asked the professor or committee. He told about his achievements and other work. They agreed to take an interview and finally he got admission.
But all should be done very politely.

You're perfectly allowed to work for anybody you want who is willing to employ you, under any conditions that don't fall outside of applicable labor laws.  This has nothing to do with any acceptance or rejection from an academic program of study.
If you see some advantage of taking such a position, there is no reason not to.  It is completely "appropriate".  There may be fewer options for pools of money the PI can pay you from, but your question states that being paid is not an issue.  If you are not an "official" employee of the university, you have no formal protection that traditional workers do, such as workman's comp if you get hurt while working, unemployment insurance, health care policies, ...
Beyond that, only you're in the position to know whether such a role will serve to advance your career.  If you plan to use the experience to strengthen future applications to this program or others, so you get accepted, it is possible that it is advantageous.   Beyond that, though, my own opinion is that there may well be better ways to spend your time.


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Is a pilot study sufficient for a PhD in Psychology?
My original PhD plan was to do a pilot study, followed by a main study based on the results of the pilot study. However, the complexity of the project is growing, and I've realised that I probably can't complete the PhD within my allotted 3 years if I do both.
The pilot study by itself would be worth at least two, maybe three papers. I believe it would provide enough novel data to earn a PhD. But I'm curious - have you heard of people completing their PhD based only on a pilot study in Psychology?
Also, is this a bad strategy for getting an academic job post-PhD? I already have a few publications under my belt (including a journal article from the literature review for this PhD), but not much of a funding record at this stage. Will the lack of a main study affect the perception of my PhD's quality?
Thanks a lot!

Talk to your advisor.

What is acceptable in a doctoral dissertation is up to the university and your advisor. If they agree then it is fine, otherwise not. So, you need to ask them for a definitive answer.
I can, however, see situations where it might be possible and others where it wouldn't be. If the question itself is very "novel" and the difficulty of gathering data very large, then a pilot might give useful information on its own. But if it lacked either of those characteristics, I'd worry about it.
Your advisor should also be an important influence in "scoping" your research if there are time constraints. In general, it is impossible to impose deadlines on research since it is a look into the face of the unknown. You can schedule things that are themselves more or less deterministic, but that doesn't include academic research. Talk to your advisor to se what is possible and reasonable.

There is no strict definition of a "pilot" study. I assume part of  your reservation is the sample size would be fairly small.
Either way, yes, absolutely pilot studies are acceptable for PhD dissertations in psychology, especially if you are describing the creation of a new instrument or something similar. Psychology studies are expensive and difficult and take a long time.
That said, your advisor, department, and university have final say, but it is not unreasonable to propose a "pilot study" for your dissertation


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In citations, how to find out if it's a compound name?
I have a paper that I want to cite in my own work, in the form
"J. Wayne" (for John Wayne) in the bibliography part of the paper and Wayne in the body of the paper.
The full name of the author appears on the paper as Aaaa Bbbb Cccc, and is typically a non-western name.
Say, consider something like John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but let's assume you never heard of them, and they obviously are from a different culture, and you don't know if their last-name is Kennedy or Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Should I note it in my Bibtex file as Kennedy, John Fitzgerald or
Fitzgerald Kennedy, John ? This will change things when printed with last-name only, it will appear either as Kennedy or Fitzgerald Kennedy.
So, more generally, is there an academic naming convention for this kind of situation ?
Edit: To be more precise, what I want to know is if there is a standardized way for an author with such a name to sign his paper, for example Aaaa Bbbb-Cccc, so no ambiguity is left for the reader. Or for the reader, if one has a guaranteed way to know this (seems not).
I must add that I have seen the considered author cited as Bbbb or as Cccc, one of these being obviously incorrect (even both could be).

So the question is really "How to find out if it's a compound name?" rather than "How to handle a compound last name?"

This can get arbitrarily complicated depending on the background of the author; for some, there is no clearly defined last name. If Google or domain-specific literature databases are no help, and you really care, you could always send the person in question an email asking how they would prefer to be cited. I'm sure the effort would be appreciated.

@Christian Clason: yes! I re-edited the title to reflect this.

Thanks, it's much clearer now. (You could also remove the reference to Bibtex, since you already seem to know how to correctly indicate the last name there.)

No.
(aeismail has already addressed nicely how to deal with this, but what follows is too long for a comment.)
As far as I know, there's no standard way (i.e., the same for every name no matter the culture) of indicating which components of a name are considered to be the last name. In fact, even the concept of last name is different from culture to culture and may even be absent -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Names_by_culture. Even in Europe, you can get quite complicated naming systems. So you are really trying to identify the "main professional name", whatever that may map to in a given culture. To identify it from the list of names as written within that culture, you have be familiar with the specific naming conventions (maybe the Wikipedia page helps, or if you know someone from that culture, you can ask them).
It's worth keeping in mind that getting it right serves two purposes:

Making sure everybody knows the person you refer to, even if they don't know the full name.
Showing courtesy towards that person.

While the second point is the only one of importance when addressing the person directly ("Dear Professor/Dr. X"), in your case the first point is actually more important: If (say) a referee wants to check the bibliography whether you cited a relevant author's works, they would expect to find them in a certain form. If everybody uses the same (wrong) way of parsing the name, it would arguably be the right thing to do to follow that choice.
(Finally, you could also chicken out and just list all authors in full, native name order; in Bibtex, you can do this by wrapping the full name in curly braces.)

Concerning the very last paragraph: The citation style, and thereby the style that authors' names are written in, is hardly something the citing author can decide about; in some fields, conference editors generally require authors to follow a particular citation style.

@O.R.Mapper - that is of course true; the comment was partly tongue-in-cheek (although I have seen good journals with a rather lax attitude to citation styles).

Accepting this answer, as it clearly states the answer, although the one by @aeismail could also fit. To conclude, in the general case, if that person has no reliable academic record (and you -can't/don't want to- get in touch with), you just have to... guess!

The convention, inasmuch as one exists, is:

Write the name the way the individual wants it to be written.

For example, one of my co-authors has four names:

(First Name) (Middle Name) (Adopted Married Name) (Given Last Name)

but chooses to use

(First Initial). (Middle Name) (Adopted Initial). (Last Name)

as his "formal" academic name.
As a more concrete example of this phenomenon, this is a significant issue with a lot of British folks, who eschew the hyphen in a "double-barreled" last name. For instance, you'd cite:

Vaughan Williams, Ralph. The Lark Ascending. London: Oxford University Press (2005).

and not

Williams, Ralph V. The Lark Ascending. London: Oxford University Press (2005).

In such cases, you just need to look up exactly how the author writes his or her name, and follow that trend. Google Scholar can be a good source of such information; Web of Science and other citation-tracking sites are often better.
The most useful method of all would be to find "self-citations": works where the author cites his or her own work. How the name is written under those circumstances should be the most unambiguous statement.

+1, but I wouldn't trust Google Scholar on this, especially if the name is ambiguous enough to give you trouble. Unless the person carefully curates their own profile, all information is auto-scraped without checking.

Good point. I think I found an even more reliable solution, which I've added.

You could google the person and see how they refer to themself in their publications on their group's page. This would probably be the easiest general way to solve this problem.

Thanks, so the answer to the question seems to be "no".

The convention, as aeismail points out, is to try and find out how they write their name. I have merely identified the simplest way of doing so.

A good idea, with the one restriction that it doesn't work if their group's page uses the name in its "natural full form", i.e.    ..., still providing no hint as to which parts get abbreviated in citation styles where given names are to be abbreviated.

@O.R.Mapper I think you misunderstand slightly; their group page will likely contain publications they have written, and so you will see how they write their name.

@Sam: Those publications may just as well use the    ... form. Or, to use aeismail's example: Ralph Vaughan Williams's group page may well list his publications, but if those publications happen to indicate his name in the format "Ralph Vaughan Williams", that leaves you none the smarter if you have to write his name in the <full last name(s)>,  form.

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Are computer science courses supposed to be basically math, or not?
I have heard in many places, from highly qualified people, whom I can't remember the name to cite at the moment, that computer science is mostly related to math. However, looking at the actual computer science curriculum in UK universities, I find something different.
For example, here is the CS curriculum of Warwick university UK in 2023 only as example, (its very similar in other UK ones like Leeds). I see only minimal overlap with it and a mathematics degree. In fact, the overlap doesn't seem to go beyond topics which comes in first year in a mathematics degree.
How exactly are mathematics degrees and computer science degrees related? Or are they not related at all?

I have no idea what you mean by a "spurious overlap". And some of the Warwick second year modules seem to me to be mathematics-heavy.  And the Warwick course emphasises the fact that a strong background in Mathematics (A* at A-level) is a pre-requisite.

Its nothing more than minimal things done in first year math bsc @erstwhile editor. also A levels it not even "real" mathrmatics imo

One think you may be missing is that there are some sub-fields of mathematics that have simply migrated from the math department into the computer science department. I notice Warwick has a module on "Formal Language Theory". I think if  you looked at the materials for that you'd recognize that it's a mathematical sub-field, it's just that math departments leave it to the computer science departments these days.

"Supposed to be" is one of those phrases like "allowed to" which is so often used in the passive voice, that people forget verbs have subjects. Counter-question: who supposes that CS courses are basically like math? And more importantly, is their supposition reasonable and/or correct?

Just because something isn't part of a mathematics degree, it doesn't mean it isn't math.

It's not a policy, but I think it best not to refer to specific programs. And, if Warwick changes anything, your link will no longer be informative to the question. You should edit in the important details.

That said, I'm voting to close as "the content of coursework" is specifically off-topic, but CS/math questions usually get a pass here.

In the comment above you say "A levels it not even "real" mathrmatics imo " and I think here is where we find your problem. You've got a specific idea of what mathematics is and, when something doesn't conform to that narrow view, you dismiss all else.

Every STEM field is math at heart. CS is the part of math that allows us to describe computability issues, just like quantum physics is almost entirely the area of math that allows us to approximate the extremely hard field equations that arise from its model of the world.

@Helena Corollary: Just because a course is offered by a department that isn't the Mathematics department, doesn't mean that it isn't fundamentally a math course.

I think your question needs more clarity. Why would you expect to see a big overlap between a mathematics course and CS? If this was true why would we have two different degrees? CS, as Physics, has its foundations in mathematics, but they are not supposed to be the same subjects.

@KilianFoth Do you really consider fields like botany and horticulture to be math at heart?

Computer Science, like many other academic subjects studied at higher levels, is a term that covers a very broad range of studies that include both theoretical and practical topics. As a result different computer scientists specialise in different genres within the wide range of topics focusing on that which interests them. As a consequence different schools of Computer Science include different mixes of academics and offer different mixes of computer science in their taught curricula.
Such variety is also represented here on Stack Exchange, where we have Computer Science, Theoretical Computer Science, Software Engineering, and many many other sub-genres that would come under computer science.
Some academic departments are mathematics and theory focused, some are digital electronic focused, some are programming and software focused and so on. As a potential student or researcher you can find a place that has the mix of specialisms that suits your needs and interests. There are plenty of computer science departments that have a very low mathematical course content; but equally there are some with a highly theoretical mathematical content (but still being computer science).
So yes: in some places similar subjects would overlap between a maths freshers course and a computer science course. In other places not so much, but  there may be overlap with an electronic engineering course. Some place may have overlap with a business degree and so on. In every case computer scientists would know where the boundary of the computer science part is located, but it would  be hard to specify to an outsider.
We'd know computer science when we see it.

Though even in the most math focused CS departments, there is likely to be a lot less overlap with a math BSc course than 'basically math' would imply, as the areas of maths a CS course will focus on are very different from those most BSc maths degrees focus on.

@user1937198 On the other hand, noncommutative geometry is also "basically math", and yet there is pretty much no overlap between a noncommutative geometry course and a math BSc course. So "basically math" and "overlapping with a math BSc course" appear to mean two different things.

Convince me, s’il vous plait, you’re not a chattroll.

Taking a look at the available modules, I see something entirely different. Math-heavy or purely mathematical modules are many, and feature in all three years. The misunderstanding might be due to lack of experience on your part: you should know that topics like algorithms, data bases, machine learning, and principles of programming languages are mathematics, and I mean this in the most literal way (you will learn theorems and have to prove stuff).
The small overlap with the modules of the Department of Mathematics is due to the fact that most computer scientists won't use differential geometry, and most mathematicians work in fields other than theoretical computer science.
I did my maths PhD in Warwick and was TA for Discrete Mathematics I and II to first-year computer science students through all four years. I guarantee that the maths we did was entirely rigorous. Warwick has some renowned theoretical computer scientists (including a couple of my co-authors) whose work is entirely mathematical. It also has DIMAP, which holds an excellent discrete maths seminar.
If you want to do discrete mathematics, you'll be spoiled for choice. If you'd rather go into tropical geometry, the maths department is for you. And if you wish to avoid mathematics altogether, you may have a hard time reading CS at Warwick.

Indeed, at my defense of my PhD—in computer science—committee members asked me questions about Gaussian elimination and Bernstein polynomials. And my dissertation is a series of theorems and proofs (and algorithms, I’m pleased to say).

Just a minor remark, as it isn't the main point of your answer and I agree with you, but even tropical geometry isn't as far from discrete mathematics as it might appear at first glance - see overlapping work by Joswig and others on tropical combinatorics, for instance.

This is over simplifying but:
CS is math the way statistics is math and some branches of economics are math. Also maybe operations research, actuarial science and some other areas.  Here are reasons these disciplines are math.

Do they do proofs of the same kind of form as mathematicians do? Yes.
Is probability an essential part of their discipline? Yes.
Do they deal with graph theory? Yes.
Do they care about optimization? Yes.
Do they focus on abstractions? Yes.

Are they different than math?

Do they use data? They do, math does not.
Do they make testable predictions about the real world? They do, math does not.
Do they code? Yes. Sure some mathematicians do too, but plenty just do the required course and move on.
Do they care about math ideas like trees, groups, etc? Some do. But having one of those specific interests is much more likely to be seen in math.

You could also ask if math really is philosophy or if philosophy is really math, but that's a different discussion.

I upvoted for the overall logic, but I do have interrogations regarding individual points. Regarding point 2. in "different than math", I find it a bit unclear what is meant. Math predicts that the sum of angles in a triangle is going to be 180°, and that if a triangle ABC has a right angle at A then AB^2 + AC^2 = BC^2. Those are predictions about the real world. Math also tells me that if I cut pizza slices with an angle a such that cos(a) = 1/2, then the pizza is going to have 6 slices; that's a prediction about the real world which I use regularly in my real life.

Could you clarify what you mean by "tree" in point 4. of "different than math"? I've seen decision trees in operations research, and lots of binary trees in computer science, and parse trees or "abstract syntax trees" when studying programming language compilers and interpreters, and "tree" in graph theory is a connect acyclic graph, but I'm unsure what "tree" you mean that is "much more likely to be seen in math" than in computer science or operations research.

@Stef And groups are seen in advanced cryptography, which is present on pretty much every computer these days (excluding, perhaps, un-networked embedded devices). There's a difference between seriously studying something, and using it as a conceptual tool to study something else.

@Stef the examples you give are deterministic; you know the exact values, so you're able to calculate the exact result. I think most people here would think of "predictions" in a context where there's data with uncertainty, stochasticity, etc, where you don't get exact answers. I could definitely see someone doing pure math thinking of predictions the way you do, but anyone doing anything statistical is going to have a different definition for it.

@anjama I find your distinction about predictions unhelpful. Measurement tools have [statistical] uncertainties, people cutting pizza have uncertainties, even triangles based on Euclidean space have uncertainties which are less uncertain when we account for our distinctly Non-Euclidean space. Which brings me to the real point: We absolutely use math to make predictions about our world, and when we find they aren't working, we make new math. If you were not on Academia, I might have to think harder before disagreeing with you, but the Academy studies everything.

Math absolutely does make predictions about the real world. Math predicts how much one can earn on a fixed rate bond, how many hours it will take to travel 400 miles at 50 mph, and whether you'll run out of fuel doing that. If that sounds trivial, that's because it's done too often to notice.

Math doesn't use data?!?  Gauss and Euler assembled many numerical tables (counting primes, counting equivalence classes of quadratic forms, listing generators of  nonzero numbers modulo primes, etc) in order to discover worthwhile patterns that they then wanted to prove. That tradition continues to this day: see https://www.lmfdb.org/.

I think many of you miss "over simplifying" but when I am saying math I am not talking about calculation of results (like compound interest), because the OP talked about what math undergraduates would be studying.

I don't think this answer quite nails it, but it's close. CS is much closer to math than statistics or economics.
The core of CS includes everything at the foundation of modern math: formal logic, Godel's incompleteness theorems, decidability, countability and complexity. All of those are arguably "more math" than most chapters in a traditional university math degree.

I'd also quibble with the assertion that everyone who studies Computer Science codes. It might be fairly uncommon, but it's perfectly possible to study and do novel academic work in Computer Science without any actual coding involved. As Djikstra said, "Computer Science is no more about computers than Astronomy is about telescopes".

No, I was saying that everyone in Economics and Statistics codes! Not the other way around.  That's why they are different from CS.
Is CS closer than others, I probably buy that, but then I have a whole math department who thinks they know statistics because they have math PhDs. @JustinHilyard  I don't think I said that CS people code any more than Econ, I just mean they are more likely to code than a math person. But nothing is 100%, that is for sure.

By the way, I left out physics.

One thing to bear in mind is that the separation between math and computing programs increases (making them more distinct) over time. Obviously computing started in mathematics departments, and in many places now that's been spun off into its own department, etc. So it's possible that somewhat older academicians will maintain a perspective that CS is just a branch of math more firmly than is the case on the ground today.
As an example, I'm on staff at a joint Mathematics and Computer Science department, teaching in both programs, at a two-year community college in the U.S. (frequently ranked in the top 5 nationally). Up until about 6 years ago our CS program still required all of the following within the 60 credits -- Calculus 1-2-3, Discrete Mathematics, Statistics, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations, which indeed perfectly overlapped the core sequence in the math major. (Meanwhile, math majors had the option to take the exact same CS programming courses, or else classes in Finite Math, Set Theory, and/or Vector Analysis). In 2017 the need for Differential Equations in CS was cut, and then sometime in the last four years the Calculus 3 requirement was removed (partly due to admin pressure for reduced credits and to accommodate prerequisite-lacking incoming students).
So even in just the last few years I can see this trend playing out. I can easily imagine there are faculty in my own department teaching just math who may not be aware of those changes in the subject matter plate-tectonics.

I think that some history of the topic is relevant here, and would help to clear things up a bit.  Before I launch into anything, I would like to point out that the "subject hierarchy" is not fundamentally a tree structure:  There are connections and cycles that make the whole concept muddy.  For example, a Biology department may offer a Statistics course.... is it Biology, or is it Statistics, or is it many things at once?
The term "Computer Science" is a very recent development.  My grandfather could not have signed up for a course called "Computer Science" when of school age.  However, he might reasonably have signed up for a course that taught many concepts easily recognizable as "Computer Science".  Algorithms, Complexity Theory, Logic, etc are all topics that have been studied, perhaps not under those names, long before the use of the term "Computer Science".  In general, these topics simply fell under the umbrella of "Mathematics", which is a much, much, MUCH older concept.  Notably, all of the "founding fathers" of "Computer Science" were not "Computer Scientists" (naturally, since the term was not available), they were, in many cases, "Mathematicians".
In this light, one can begin to look for aspects of a "Computer Science" education that are founded upon things that are generally considered to be "Mathematics".  Algorithms, Complexity Theory and Logic are notable examples.  Even basic concepts in programming are largely the product of the study of Logic (think IF/THEN, AND, OR, variables, functions).  Even though you may be taking a "Computer Science" course, you are learning about many topics that have been bootstrapped out of "Mathematics", with a thin coating of computer-y-ness painted on.

From a math point of view, once you figure out how to program a Turing machine to do something, you've solved the computational problem. Obviously that's not the perspective that computer scientists have.
While abstract principles of data manipulation are an important part of Computer Science, they are hardly the end of it. Programmers (and we can get into a discussion of the difference between programming and Computer Science, but I'm going to put that aside for this answer) have to deal with not only theory, but also practice. They have to deal with the physical limitations of what is actually implementing algorithms. If you take df.sum(), and it returns the sum for axis 0, but you want the sum for axis 1, what do you do? The math answer is take the transpose, then take sum(). The CS answer is to feed in axis=1 as a parameter. Big-O notation is a mathematical concept that people generally think of being CS, but in reality, if you have a choice between a O(e^(n/googol)) algorithm or a O(n^googol) one, the exponential function is clearly superior in practice.
CS also involves human being in a way that math doesn't. Programming isn't just about writing a program that does what you want, it's about writing a program that others can understand and adapt to new situations, and it's about understanding and adapting programs that others have written. You can't "prove" ASCII from mathematical axioms. It's something that has developed by humans for humans. CS is all about building and interacting with frameworks to facilitate working together.

From a math point of view, once you figure out how to program a Turing machine to do something, you've solved the computational problem. --- I'd go even further, at least for mathematicians who are not constructivists, and say that once you can prove that a program for a Turing machine exists to do something, then ...

In academia, many professors tend to focus on the math behind computer science subjects (e.g. theory) because math does not change often. However, compilers, algorithms, programming paradigms, and computer languages evolve. This evolution carries significant changes that requires constant learning, something that may be overwhelming to faculty given their tight agendas with grant writing, teaching, advising, leading research projects, writing research reports, and publishing research papers.

ABET explicitly states:

Basic Science: The EAC considers computer science to be engineering science, and NOT basic science. It is therefore an engineering topic.

as ABET-accredited programs have basic science, mathematics, and engineering credit load requirements. This places computer science topics explicitly in the engineering camp.


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Should I contact professors before applying for Masters in Canada?
I am looking into sending out applications for M.Eng in Aerospace in Canada. I was wondering if it is necessary for me to contact a professor before applying as M.Eng is mostly project based and not research based course. And if I have to contact a professor,  what is the best way to frame an email?

Does such a degree require a prof to be your supervisor? Or can it be completed entirely by taking classes? If you need a supervisor you probably need to arange that very early in the process.

It is a good idea to contact the professor.
But first of all, you find level and field of your interest and the field the professor is working in. If the two match, e-mail the professor(s) about:

Your current level of knowledge.
any work, training, workshop in this field you did during
undergraduate studied.
your undergraduate project.
membership of any related society, club or group.
your future plans and ambitions.
anything showing your keen interest and enthusiasm.


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Should I mention the mutual acquaintance who recommended me to a professor in an email?
I'm applying for graduate school in the coming fall. I asked a professor - who I never worked with, but who liked my CV - if he could get me in touch with one of his colleagues to see if I can get a research position at his lab. The professor did so, and his colleague was interested in my CV enough to tell my professor to ask me to get in touch with him.
I didn't want to email this professor until I was done researching his stuff and sending my application. It's been a couple of weeks. I don't know if I spent too much time not sending the email, but I didn't want to make a poor job of that. But the question is, now that I'm writing the email, should I mention the professor who recommended me in the subject line?
My current subject line is:
"Cady Heron - Prospective [major] Graduate Student"
The one I was thinking:
"Referred by Dr. Karen Smith - Cady Heron"
(Frankly, I got this from a Business Insider article.)
Any help, please? I just don't want to sound like I'm shoving nepotism or something in his face.

Put your name first. Don't hide behind this prof you barely know. "Cady Heron - Prospective Grad Student Referred by Karen Smith" should work just fine. Though, be sure that Dr. Smith actually referred you, and didn't simply pass along your information.

In regard to the time delay: I wouldn't have waited that long, but I can guarantee the professor you're applying to work with will never notice (b/c he/she isn't actually spending any of their busy time thinking about you [yet]). Also a good mantra to always keep in mind about pursuing a question/request/etc.: "The worst they can say is no."

It's a good idea to remind the prospective advisor of who you are (namely "prospective student that colleague X recommended"), but doing so in the subject line might be overdoing it. I'd suggest writing that reminder in the first line of your email, since most people seem to read emails using applications that will display the first line, even if they don't open the email. Also consider cc'ing your referring professor on the email.

OK, thanks a lot for that! I was scared of accidently emphasizing that "Hey! I know a guy!" instead of saying that I can be of use to his research team. But do I have to elaborate on what I like about his research and stuff? I'm just writing in reply to HIS reply to get in touch with him, so I don't have to expand on why I think he's awesome, right? Like, just wait for what he wants to ask me (he even suggested to my professor that i could Skype him).

(My two cents) Being of use to the team is the major thing. Give him reasons to think that you will be motivated and creative and productive in his lab. Demonstrating that you are inspired by, interested in, and knowledgable of his work is important towards that goal, but you don't need to resort to outright flattery. Perhaps unfortunately, "Hey! I know a guy!" is also part of the package, because it greatly reduces the chances that you are good on paper but useless on the job.

Solid answer from Patrick.  @Kaya311 - you need to write a short email (maximum 3 paragraphs).  You need to explain who the heck you are -- that requires mention of your mutual connection -- and why you're writing.  Also you need to make a human connection with the person.  If you can mention that you read such-and-so paper of his or her with particular interest, and then say a little about why that was interesting for you -- that would do the trick.

+1 for CC'ing. Whenever I did that, the initial response has always been to both me and the referring professor, including at least a line or two directed at my professor.  I also know that personally, I'm far more likely to pay full attention to the e-mail if a friend/colleague has referred the student to me (hence I'll also respond to the referring person, if for no other reason than an excuse to say hi depending on long it's been).

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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Interdisciplinary PhD: How to connect dots
I've started researching in an interdisciplinary PhD with almost complete independence.
The problem is my background (computational engineering) is way different from the main theme of my current project (brain research). Naturally, after I started, I tried to read as broadly as possible and not necessarily stick to my interest. Yet, the field is vast. The more I read, the more I feel like I'm merely discovering distant areas without being able to bridge them together.
It's not that I expect to understand things right away, but eight months have passed since I started, and yet, I feel I haven't learned much. More accurately, I often feel lost among some random papers.
How do you, the interdisciplinary researchers, manage to handle vivid thoughts like the following after reading papers outside of your comfortable field?

"Cool, but I don't know how it could possibly help later on", or
"I don't feel this really added anything to my knowledge"

Maybe important: Since my supervisors are engineers like me, I cannot get the correct question to work on from them -- I have tried, but it didn't work. Instead, I have recently started to connect to researchers in other institutes we collaborate with. They are more into the topic, and I hope it gives a bit of direction to the research.

It seems to be hard to be "interdisciplinary" if you are only getting advice from one discipline. Can you expand your range of contacts?

Computational Neuroscience is a huge field with many people in it.

I'd echo Buffy's comment: it doesn't sound like you're being interdisciplinary, except for having some aspiration towards it.
I am myself a neuroscientist, and tend towards the computational side of things. I came from the biology side, but frequently interact with people coming from the engineering/CS side of things. Those people coming from an engineering/CS background can contribute to knowledge of how brains work, but they need either to fully immerse themselves in learning the biology side from the ground up, or they need to be guided by people who do have the expertise in that area already.
I'd strongly suggest expanding on the collaborations. You need to interact with people who have a background more different from your own to develop an interdisciplinary project.
"Cool, but I don't know how it could possibly help later on" and "I don't feel this really added anything to my knowledge" are normal feelings to have when reading papers. I don't think that's particularly special for interdisciplinary work. You just have to decide what you read deeper into, and what organization strategy works best for you to get back to things you've read in the past when you recognize a need for it some day.
I'd also advise that you aren't in a particularly novel interdisciplinary zone. Lots of people have published on the intersection between the fields you are interested in, so don't try to bridge them on your own. The bridges are already there, you'll just be contributing to some aspect of what's out there.

I think this answer and the comments under my question are very reasonable. Reading these also clarified that what bothered me wasn't really the hardship of connecting the dots but rather the professional isolation - amplified by the pandemic.
Although expanding collaboration doesn't happen overnight, I'd mark this as the answer as it truly highlights the main reason behind my feeling.


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May a university lecturer wear a cap while teaching in the North American Setting?
If not, can one refer to any formal (written) prohibition of wearing caps for lecturers, in a North American university?
The cap may be text-less or have any non-offensive text/image.

‘North American’ universities are not a monolith and don’t have one dress code. I imagine the standards at Salt Lake City Jesuit college are different to South California state college or whatever.

For a male religious (conservative or orthodox) Jew, wearing a cap would be mandatory.

What kind of cap? A baseball cap? A religious head cover? A bandana? My (R1 North American) university has no restriction on head covers, or a restrictive dress code for lecturers to my knowledge. Other universities vary.

Of course university lecturers wear academic gowns and mortar-boards while teaching :)

I very much doubt that you're going to get a positive answer, and a negative answer ("there is no such rule at any North American university") would be almost impossible. I've never heard of a dress code for faculty at a North American university (again, doesn't mean that one doesn't exist somewhere, even at an institution where I've been ...)
As support for the claim that this probably doesn't exist, I looked up the dress code at Brigham Young University, which is likely to have among the strictest/most conservative rules. The code applies to "students, staff, and faculty", but hats are not mentioned, either for men or women:

Men

A clean and well-cared-for appearance should be maintained. Clothing is inappropriate when it is sleeveless, revealing, or form fitting. Shorts must be knee-length or longer. Hairstyles should be clean and neat, avoiding extreme styles or colors, and trimmed above the collar, leaving the ear uncovered. Sideburns should not extend below the earlobe or onto the cheek. If worn, moustaches should be neatly trimmed and may not extend beyond or below the corners of the mouth. Men are expected to be clean-shaven; beards are not acceptable. Earrings and other body piercing are not acceptable. Shoes should be worn in all public campus areas.

Women

A clean and well-cared-for appearance should be maintained. Clothing is inappropriate when it is sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing; has slits above the knee; or is form fitting. Dresses, skirts, and shorts must be knee-length or longer. Hairstyles should be clean and neat, avoiding extremes in styles or colors. Excessive ear piercing (more than one per ear) and all other body piercing are not acceptable. Shoes should be worn in all public campus areas.

(I also looked at the dress code for Oral Roberts University, another religious university: the rules only apply to students, but again nothing is mentioned about hats for either men or women ...)
As mentioned by commenters, even if there were such a rule there would probably be an exception made for religious observance (Jewish kippot/yarmulkes, Sikh turbans, etc.)
(The only prohibition on hats I've encountered is that students are sometimes forbidden to wear hats with brims that project in front during exams — if they're wearing a baseball cap they have to turn the brim to the back, so that the proctors/invigilators can see where they're looking.)

This is entirely context dependent from my experience. Most universities are quite casual now. As others have noted, it is also dependent on what department you're in as to what the informal dress code is. Also, I expect seniority plays in. If you're a PhD teaching assistant you could easily get away with dressing more casually than a full professor.

There is no dress-code at my university nor at my previous universities. The only ones wearing caps are undergraduates who are rumored to (a) not had time to shower in the morning, (b) worried about bad hair, (c) be socially inept.  ;)
Wearing a cap or a hat indoors is still considered bad etiquette and would elicit comments by colleagues. They might also assume a good reason for covering up ones head such as an injury - bandages or some other medical condition. (Edited: Or because of religious tenets etc.)

"The only ones wearing caps" and follows list of possible "deviant" behaviour from the "norm".
Could not express better the anglosaxon marvellous attitude to accepting diversity.

I know at least one well-known US professor who I've never seen without a bright red cap. So far I have never wondered if he is covering up some medical issue, truth be told so far I have never thought about this at all. I assumed (and still do) that he liked red caps.

Depending on the discipline, non-conforming behavior might be part of the professional persona ;)

I unfortunately had to take several cycles of chemotherapy while I was a graduate student and would wear a baseball cap while teaching (and the rest of the time) to keep my head warm/cover the patchwork of hair that would grow then fall out of my head. No faculty or administrator ever took issue with it, but I did receive the incredibly unhelpful suggestion from an anonymous peer reviewer that I should remove it to look "more professional".

@CompEcon Did you submit a manuscript with your photo included? I'm curious why the reviewer is commenting on your appearance.

@Allure Peer review isn't limited to journal publications. If it wasn't clear, a fellow graduate student (peer) tasked with evaluating my teaching (reviewer) offered this comment behind the veil of an anonymous report.


text:
Can I ask for a LOR from a teacher that didn't teach any of my classes?
I want to do a Master's in CS, but I didn't do the undergraduate in CS, so I want to know if I can get a letter of recommendation from a professor that I know but who didn't actually teach me.

So.. if you didn't have any classes with the professor, what will they know about you and from where - i.e. did you frequently stop by his office to talk about a project of sorts, or were you involved in a club or student organization which he was a part of?

The deal with letters of recommendation is you've given the author some measure of critique of YOUR character. If all he has to write in this letter is "I knew this individual," there's simply nothing to recommend. Speak in office hours, let this person know your aspirations and abilities so that they have a gleaming letter to send on your behalf.

@Kendall: While it's not necessary for the interaction to be formal, it would be dishonest for a professor to send a "gleaming" letter concerning someone they just met, merely repeating things the student has told them.  Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a mentoring relationship.

Sometimes professors/researchers ask the candidates to draft a LOR and send it to them, as they are busy people, and would like to optimize their time. So put yourself on his/her shoes, and draft a recommendation letter for yourself from the point-of-view of the professor, if you are struggling to come up with anything concrete, then perhaps you should rethink whether to ask that person for LOR.

@BenVoigt I poorly worded that, it was my intention to allude that a developed relationship is what would lead to a good letter!

The only way to figure out is if you ask.

The general rule when it comes to letters of recommendation is that you should not ask for a letter from someone who does not know you well.
In this particular case, it's not sufficient that the professor you want to ask knows you. It is more important that he knows your work well, and can comment on that to graduate schools regarding your potential as a future student in their program.

I don't think this is true.  Letters aren't binary, it's not "letter or no letter".  Their length and content matter.  You can write a short letter confirming you think someone is bright or honest or whatever and worth a shot even if you only know them and not their work.  Not for a tenure-track faculty position obviously, but for a masters that might be sufficient.  If the student also has strong marks or good letters from an employer, having an academic say that they've talked to the student for an hour and they seem to understand what an MSc involves could be a useful plus to an application

You can get a letter from anyone who is willing to write one for you.  They will normally only say they will write the letter if they know something about you.  I've personally written letters a few times for students who had problems with their dissertation supervisor, and I knew something about their work for one reason or another, e.g. they'd tutored for me, I'd second marked their (undergraduate) dissertation, they've turned up regularly to research seminars and asked good questions or even given a talk, they've done research with me or my PhD students.  Actually, some of those can be more important than having taken a class with someone.
If someone asks me for a letter and I don't know them, if they just ask me because I'm well known in my field, and they can't say why they want me to write the letter, then I will tell them I can't write a strong letter. If I have time and they still insist, I write a letter that says "I can confirm that this is a student at my university, their GPA is [whatever, I look it up], and I have no idea why they asked me to write this letter."  Depending what you need the letter for, it's possible that would be enough.
A better plan would be to exploit office hours, sign up and visit a few times, discuss (first read!) their papers, and then asks for a letter.  Then the letter might be made stronger by the impression you've made.

Keep in mind the overall goal -- you want to convince the admissions committee that you're a great student, and would do well in their program.
Of course you can point out your own strengths yourself, but it's even better if someone they trust testifies to your strengths. If the person your asking hasn't seen your strengths personally, they won't be able to write a personal letter attesting to them.
So get to know people, either by going to office hours (as said above), taking a class, taking up a side project, or working for them.
If you want to stick with people you already know, you should be aware yourself about how your background in ___ prepared you for a CS degree, or shows you're likely to succeed. If you can let the recommenders know how they can help and why you chose them, they might realize they can help rather than thinking they cant.


text:
Does scientific experience matter for a funded PhD application?
I have some scientific experience, some papers in conference journals with impact factor, and a couple of papers in scientific journals. I am in a bad situation and may be unable to keep my current PhD (I am a final year student without funding).
I would like to know if I have good changes to be accepted in a funded PhD program in my field of research in another University in EU because of my research experience, or do only the BSc, MSc grades really matter? Mine are not too high. Also, do the MPhil grades also matter for application to a funded PhD program? Mine are high. People aren't supposed to have one when they apply.

From personal experience, and this is not always the case, publications matter and they matter because they show prior research which helps in situations of lower grades.
However, do be prepared to receive questions in either the interview phase or via email when discussing with the university you will be applying to on why you are leaving in your last year. If your current advisor is in knowledge of your current situation and is willing to recommend you then this may not be a problem at the end.
Hope this helps...


text:
Can I do a PhD in Mechanical Engineering without experimental work?
I am a final year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. My PhD comprises only numerical work with a Finite Element Method software, and structural optimization with a developed MATLAB code. I have already a good number of publications, and a few innovations in my project, like structures with a new configuration. However, my supervisor tells me that I need to validate my numerical results with an experimental test. Do I really need to validate my results experimentally to have a "safe" work, I mean, work with results that I can trust? I did a mesh sensitivity analysis for every geometry I have tested.I am sure the mesh is fine enough to obtain converged results. Is it safe to assume the accuracy of the numerical results? And if numerical work alone is not enough, is there any alternative to experimental testing, that would delay my thesis defense and is expensive (allocation of funds is very difficult right now due to crisis in EU?"
I am asking this because I don't have any experience in experimental work, and this will delay my thesis defense 1 year or so. I don't plan on working with anything experimental after my PhD graduation. I would like to have arguments to convince my supervisor that I can do my PhD without experimental work, presenting results in my thesis that are accurate, and that anyone can trust.
I am asking for help of Mechanical Engineering PhD graduates, specialists in numerical work. I would also like to know if you did experimental testing to prototypes in your work, and if not, the arguments you had to defend yourselves in the thesis examination, if you confronted with questions like :"why haven't you done experimental work?"
P.S. I know someone that did his PhD without experimental work, but it was in a different field, like Biomedical Engineering, or so.

Sounds like you have leaned much heavier towards applied mathematics than straight up mechanical engineering. This is totally acceptable, and many people across many fields are doing this. That being said, your advisor knows best about your specific situation. And if he/she says you need an experimental validation, then that's probably a good idea.

My supervisor tells me that I need to do X. Do I really need to do X? — As a general rule, unless you want to find a new supervisor or just not finish, yes, you do.

You need to determine whether your advisor wants you to do some experimental work because he believes it is good for you to have experience conducting experiments, or whether you just need the results to verify your simulations (further evidence that your findings are correct). In the latter case, I would see if you can get away with running some simulations to reproduce some other experimental results from the literature.

I'm an expirmentalist, and I have worked with FE modeling for a long time now. I have many publications based on tests, validated models and purely numerical "without validation". I can tell you this much, the ones that keeps me awake at night and the hardest ones to publish are those with "numerical models without any experimental tests" to back the numerical predictions up or at the least include some sort of validation.
My MSc (structural engineering) was all numerical (but based on full scale tests done by others), so I did not have to test my own specimens (validated my models against experiments that were already published). I can tell this much, without a validation, your model is just a model! As you know FEA is just an approximation with multiple simplistic assumptions of a real phenomenon.
However, I tend to agree that whether needing to validate your model against measured data (solely by doing your own experiment or simply against other published work) is case specific. I do not know your "thesis problem" and the fact that you have published a good number of articles (if published in high quality journals) and your advisor was fine with that "until now!" leads me to think that you may be able to get away to a "numerical" thesis.
Perhaps you can discuss the following ideas with your advisor/committee;

If they insist on an experiment (although they are tight on funding as you have mentioned [not a very good sign in your case since you are trying to avoid that!]), try to find a somehow similar published work, use your model to validate it. I understand that this may not be a "direct validation" but at least your advisor/committee can be assured that your model is capable of simulating a real problem. In other words, your model is "not-directly" more than an FE model.
Ask if you can validate your model with some other ways i.e., analytically, hand calculations, published methods etc. (I hope you have done this by now!). You can always do a parametric study (I assume you did already), pick parameters that can relate to an actual problem (either from literature or industry) and see how your model performs. If possible/applicable, contact an industry firm (that is willing to share) and see if they have anything on hand that you can use to validate the model.
Discuss with your advisor why did not he ask you to do this long time ago ("usually" one will do an experiment and then develop a model! [that's what I always do, keep in mind this is different that finding a problem and trying to get some funding for in which you will develop a model first to show the feasibility of your problem rather than spending money on an experiment that turns out to be "worthless"]). I understand this is too late to ask now, but if you know the "inside" of whats going on "with your committee (perhaps?)", you will know how to tackle this issue more specifically.

Remember this, you do not have to prepare a 6 months, $ 100k experiment to validate your model. Sometimes, all what you need is a well organized set-up, few strain gauges, loading-inducing actuators and a specimen (of course this is a simplification - but you get my point).

I would like to thank "The Fire Guy" for the very helpful insights into the matter. Thank you!!

@KingBaboon I'm glad My answer was of help!

In an industry setting, numerical simulations are often used to rule out bad designs before the prototype phase to reduce costs. But the end product of that process is a prototype, not a thesis.
Validating FE simulation with experimental data is standard for academic works in that field. It's going to be hard to argue, on a scientific level, that it is not useful to run experiments.

my supervisor tells me that I need to validate my numerical results with an experimental test

This is a strong reason to believe it's necessary in order to write a thesis that will be recognized as valid in your field. Beside the fact that you probably want to graduate, the purpose of the PhD is to give you the necessary background and credential to pretend to good academic positions.

allocation of funds is very difficult right now due to crisis in EU

If your adviser requires you to do more work, then (s)he should arrange funding. You shouldn't be worrying about that bit.

If your adviser says that you need to do, you don't have a whole lot of options. After all, the first one who needs to sign off on all pieces of paper you need to graduate is your adviser, and if your adviser doesn't sign it, none of your other committee members will either.
In either case, it's a topic to discuss with your adviser.

In real-life mechanical engineering, numerical simulations are generally used to reduce the number of physical prototypes that need to be built and tested. In some situations, the simulation results are so well trusted that no physical prototype is ever built -- people go directly to production. But, where human lives are at stake (passenger aircraft, automobile crash testing, etc.) physical prototypes are necessary.
There are a few situations where it's not practical (or it's prohibitively expensive) to test physical prototypes. Examples are spacecraft that are designed to function in zero gravity. For those situations, like it or not, numerical simulation is all you have.
But you're not doing real-life engineering, you're writing a thesis. So, in your situation, as others have said, you probably have to do what your advisor says. It's worth arguing for a while to see if you can change his/her mind, but ultimately you are powerless, I suspect.

It's definitely possible. My Aerospace engineering PhD was entirely numerical, and only included some peripheral comparisons to the experimental work of others. ME and ASE are pretty close in a lot of ways, but this is going to depend more on what your advisor and your committee think than anything else. It's definitely possible to do a numerical-only PhD in engineering, though.

The point is: Does a commerical Finite Element software ANSYS Mehanical APDL, if used properly, provide reliable results?? This is what I would like to know. German companies are a lot focused on FEM engineers, but there is still the thinking that "numerical is an approximation", and the real results are experimental. Can you comment on this ideas? And can you send me the reference of your thesis, so I can have arguments to my teacher?  Many thanks for your reply!!

@KingBaboon, there are plenty of companies that use or are attempting to use such software to completely eliminate physical tests. However, if that's your real question, maybe you should edit your posted question with this updated information. My answer is unrelated to this update.

Hi Bill, No, that's not my real question. However, it's a question whose answer can give me arguments to discuss my position with my supervisor. Thanks for all the help. Can you post a link to your PhD thesis, if it's published online?

@KingBaboon, it's not published online.


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My adviser submitted an abstract to a conference that we submitted elsewhere before but changed the authors orders
About two months ago me and my adviser attended a conference, where he had a talk about my PhD project. For this talk, he submitted an abstract, where I was the first author and he was the second one. Yesterday, accidentally I became aware that he submitted the same abstract for an another conference but just flipped the order of authors. I didn't know that he's going to talk about my PhD project in that conference, but my main concern is that why he flipped the order of authors?! The title and abstract of the talk are the same verbatim as previous conference, so why the order of authors should be flipped?! My guess is that because this conference is much more prestigious than previous one, maybe he wanted to be first author, but that's not fair...
So, my main question is that should I say something or just let it go?

It may be the case that this conference requires that the presenting author be listed first--this is occasionally a requirement in conferences I've attended (at least in my field, biology)

Or it was an invited talk, and again the convention is that the invited speaker is first on the list.

I checked both of these possiblities and there is no requirement for first author to be presenter and it's not an invited talk.

Ask him. If your name is on something then you have a right to know.

In my field, both for conferences and invited talks, there are no requirements for author order. If this a verbatim from another conference, this definitely warrants a discussion with him to see what's going on.

Is this for a mathematics conference?  Does your adviser's last name alphabetically come before yours?

@JoelReyesNoche No it's a physics conference but yes my adviser's last name come before mine alphabetically.


text:
How do I ask my teacher for his honest opinion about my capabilities
I just ended my internship on bad terms. Both the company and my teachers think that my programming skills are insufficient for a passing grade. We decided to end the internship as continuing would be a waste of time. I now have two options.

Take a step back and enrol in a study that is at a somewhat lower level
My teachers will train my programming skills. This will take about a year and after that I can look for a new internship. This no guarantee that my programming will be good enough after (depends on myself)

I find it very hard to choose between the two. It's about my future after all. That is why I want to ask one of my teachers for some help. This is the question I would like to ask:
"You have taught and known me for some years now. Do you think I have it in me to complete option 2 with success and finish a next internship?"
I realise this is fairly personal question that maybe difficult or awkward to answer. His opinion matters greatly to me however. It would provide me with information to make an educated decision. Some extra details:

He has been my teacher for almost 7 years
The atmosphere at the study is fairly informal at times. I can call teachers by their first name for example
Programming was never my strongest asset
I tend to overestimate my programming skills so an outside opinion is greatly appreciated

What I would like to know is how to approach this. Do I send him an e-mail with this question or do I ask it in person? I would also imagine that someone has to think about this type of question. Or should I request a meeting to discuss this? Or not ask at all?

As your teachers have offered to train you, it is highly unlikely that they don't believe you capable. It probably wouldn't be in either their interest or yours to continue if they thought you weren't.
Having said that, in your position, I would still seek guidance from your teacher. The way I'd go about it is to speak to your teacher face to face and say something like:
"I'd like to take the opportunity you offered to train my programming skills. Could I set up some time with you to discuss what I need to change in order to be successful this time?"
And go from there. Good luck.

I'm still enrolled and pay tuition so basically they have to help me as long as I'm a student there. That doesn't take away that they are willing to make a study plan just for me which is a huge favour in my opinion. I've edited my question. Arranging a meeting is still a good idea. Thank you for your answer

@Iarwain Not necessarily. Good teachers will be looking after the interests of their students too. If they believe that you don't have the aptitude to succeed they should be having that conversation with you. It would be quite unprofessional if they were just stringing you along, with no hope, just to collect the fees. However, this seems unlikely given, as you say, that they're going out of their way to help you.

I accepted your answer because I have spoken with said teacher. I send him an email outlining that I appreciate his opinion and honesty and would like his assessment. I got an email back where he flipped the question around and asked me to deeply reflect on the years I spend pursuing this study. I accepted your answer because asking him was a good move. He told me exactly at what level (he thinks) my skills are at. My apologies for accepting your answer so late


text:
How to find collaborators for a research project(paper or a series of papers)?
Recently, I have read new papers and seen new different approaches and the very interesting physical effects in alternatives to general relativity, and I think I see a bit of ideas for future papers, but I don't have any expertise in these approaches, I have published papers only in general relativity(from physics point of view). At my university, no one is interested in these topics(general relativity or alternatives, only on numerical simulations of hot plasma in accretion disks around black holes). I have proposed some ideas to some friends and peers and  although at first sight they seem to be very interested, after I send them the differential equations and papers to be studied everyone lost interest. The question would be how to find a collaborator interested in such a new approach that would lead to papers in good journals where I have published before?

I guess you can find some at conferences. You can also try to see if you can contact some of the authors of the papers you have just found (maybe they will interested?). What about contacting faculty (in the same department as yours) but in different institutions/universities?

Start the research yourself first. If you propose something when you have already invested in the research yourself, it is easier to join the project.

I have edited with my current background, I am only a PhD student with a few publications, I am not a researcher in the field.

The best place to begin to look for collaborators are researchers who are currently publishing in your topic/field of interest. I would recommend contacting the authors of journal articles you read and can contribute to the topic in a significant manner (enough to be published). Contact the researcher and suggest a collaboration, with what skills and expertise you bring to the table and your intended result of collaboration.

As a rule of thumb, if your approach even scared away internal ("friendly") collaborators, trying the same with external researchers that you do not have existing connections to seems like an exercise in futility.
This means that you first need to figure out what went wrong the first time you reached out to people at your university. Of course it is entirely impossible to debug your approach to find collaborators over the Internet and based on 5 lines of text, but I have a few educated guesses:

Maybe you can work on your clarity of expression. Based on this and other questions you have put to Stack Exchange you seem to compress quite a lot of information and assumptions into a few meagre lines of very tense text. Without having actually seen a research proposal by you, I assume that it may come across rather convoluted.
You seem inexperienced as a researcher. I say this because the only people I have ever heard talking about a string of papers in leading journals (with a specific IF, no less) even before any actual work has been conducted to be researchers with little experience in publishing at high-impact venues. While being inexperienced is no problem per se, people obviously tend to regard the research proposals of juniors with a little more scepticism.
Have you considered what is "in it" for your collaborators? What qualities do you have that they don't (note that "a lot of time" can be a solid answer)? How will this project fit in with their current work and interests? How and what can they contribute? Always keep in mind that "I need skill A and you are an expert in A" is a terrible reasoning from the other side of the table.
Are the roles in the collaboration clearly defined, and have you made those roles explicit? Are you looking for a mentor? People that help you with specific scientific / methodological aspects? Programmers or wet lab staff? Again, consider what is in it for them - if you are looking, for instance, for a mentor, why would this person supervise you, and not spend the same time on her or his own students?


text:
With only 16 weeks left in the PSYD program, the school put a hold on my account
I apologize if my statement is wordy and all over the place. The entire situation is a bit emotional for me, so I am trying to figure out how to best explain the circumstance from a factual, unbiased, and objective standpoint. Please take a read and bestow me with your guidance. Thank you!
My PsyD Experience at Touro University Worldwide is as follows In 2017, I enrolled in their Human and Organizational Psychology online doctorate program.  The dispute occurred sixteen weeks away from being done with the PSYD program and deep into my thesis I experienced an abrupt halt. At the Mid to end of 2019, after I had written my proposal and gained the approval of the school’s (IRB) Institutional Review Board to conduct my research study. Approximately 4-6 weeks after IRB approval and well into the next term.  The administrative staff informed me I had been dropped from the course that I thought I had been attending for the past  8 weeks and wouldn’t be able to register for the second to last course in the doctoral program.
According to the TUW  and the Registrar, my dissertation chair,  forgot to input my grades from the last courses I had enrolled and completed, of which included the course where I obtained IRB approval. (I have emails stating I completed the tasks required to move forward, from my dissertation chair and the PSYD department director).  The bursar and registrar both informed me of the hold on my account. There was an outstanding balance of $1,000 for the extension course. What extension course? Without my knowledge, the registrar dropped me from the course I had enrolled in and completed more than half of, and after I secured financial aid for the term. Thus,   I chose a leave of absence to save up $1,000.
When I had the $1,000, approximately 6 months thereafter and requested  reinstatment into the program, the bursar stated I now owed $8,000 out of pocket, $4,000 they required up front to reinstate.
The information gets confusing because I could not get a straight answer from anyone. For months I had attempted to contact admin and could not get any concrete information why there was a hold on my account. the Bursar explained that because my grades we missing, they presumed I was unreliable and not allowed to apply for financial aid to pay for school. Instead, I had to pay TUW for paying my financial aid disbursement back to the department of education.  I had maintained a 3.9  and ranked among the top 5% of the students in TUW’s MA’s in Industrial and Organizational Psychology Summa Cum Laude 4.0.  And for the preceding 4 close to 5 years, I had received financial aid. TUW claimed they paid FAFSA $8,000 to cover the cost of my financial aid disbursement and living allowance.  Financial Aid policy is as follows, if you drop a class early in the term, you don’t have to pay back the loan instead you give back the money right away.  If you drop a course after a set date, after the second or third week of the term, then the student keeps the financial aid disbursement then the repayment is the the student’s obligation.  Never have I encountered or heard of a time when a higher learning institute repays a FAFSA loan disbursement and living allowancce that the student kept.
I’m very confused and not sure what to do because I’ve attempted to contact their Bursar and my dissertation chair with with little to no responses or from my perspective, unhelpful.
What I would like to happen is to be given the opportunity to use and apply for financial aid like I normally would to pay for the class and and not be required to pay 4000 up front and 8000 total out-of-pocket. I would be happy to continue working with my dissertation chair, and if she declines then perhaps the support of my dissertation committee members would suffice. I just really want to finish, more than anything in the world!
(I am not sure I use the right legal jargon, or if this paragraph is worth adding to my dispute)
In an ideal world I would be able to finish the program. As well as  compensated for the emotional damage that I experienced as a direct result of the lack of communication from TUW administration and faculty as well as the for the inability to finish my the program resulted in a loss of career opportunities, and a loss of professional opportunities that depended on completing my research and obtaining the doctoral degree. One such lost opportunity was Dr. Georg Lind’s invitation to speak at the Moral Democracy Symposium in Germany 2020. As a formal complaint is structured on factual assessments, I will forego discussion of my subjective experience.
TUW Mission Statement: “The mission of Touro University Worldwide (TUW) is to offer online degree programs to serve the needs of adult learners (service to society), professionals (intellectual pursuit), and the underserved (social justice). TUW is committed to offering doctoral, graduate, bachelor and associate degree programs to support this mission. The mission is also shared through the campus-based undergraduate education programs at Touro College Los Angeles Division which serves a specific student body. Together, the campus based and online programs contribute to the achievement of the overall Touro core values driving this mission to provide opportunities for those who are underserved, provide service to society and achievement of the overall Touro University Worldwide student success”.
As a mixed race female first generation immigrant, who is classified as living under the poverty level and currently resides in section 8 housing program- I may fit the description of underserved peoples.  The Bursar did not make any statements regarding finding ways to help me to get back in school. His voice changed becoming increasingly fast and louder, as we discussed my predicament. He also, was unable to provide me with any documentation of their decisions to drop me.
On a side note, I fell into a deep state of depression since I had put my entire life and soul into my work or so it felt like it and I had been working up to this point and so close to finishing that it was hard for me to accept it first. I was thinking I would just conduct my research anyways but I believe  conducting my research out of school is against IRB regulations. I reached out to my dissertation chair, asking if she would like to still help me reach my goal. No response. I emailed the director, no response. The admin, from my perspective, lacking in solutions and/or  empathy.

Has the correct grade been inputted for the class you completed and were not given credit for?

From my perspective, this is not going to get resolved unless you can get your dissertation advisor and hopefully your departmental chair on your team to sort this out. Have you tried contacting other committee members? Also, consider reaching out to the office of diversity, equity, and inclusion for any tips they might have on working with the fAFSA situation.

@Dawn, that is probably the core of an answer.

Alethia,
I have over 20 years of experience in higher education, specifically teaching and administration in doctoral psychology programs offering the PsyD.  First, Dawn is wise to recommend building bridges with the department leadership and your dissertation chair.
Second, begin documenting EVERYTHING.  If you have the capacity to audio record telephone calls, do it.  If you have the ability to record video conferences, do it.  If not, take detailed notes both during and after all conversations, especially noting who, when, and what about interactions.  When you send an email, be sure to track when it is received and when it is opened.  Better than email, if you have the telephone number of the administrator or your chairperson, call.  Call methodically, documenting the frequency of your efforts.  At the same time you are contacting PsyD faculty, be sure to reach out to student services.  in the catalog for telephone numbers.  Call in the morning, call at noon, and call at the end-of-business.  Leave brief polite messages.  If these efforts fail to gain allies, it will be time to act on your own behalf
It all begins with your student handbook and/or university catalog.  These contain any binding conditions related to your education with the school.  It will also contain policies and procedures related to changing grades, appealing grades, appealing university decisions, etc.  These documents lay out all the rules, policies, and procedures for actions, and appeals of actions.  These docs will be the first thing any "referee" or "adjudicator" will examine. For example, from the 2019-2020 catalog about grade appeals.

Grade Appeal Process
-- Once final grades have been submitted, a failing course grade may be changed only by the course faculty.
The grade appeals process varies according to a student’s academic program. Students must see their
academic program handbook for details. The decision of the course faculty will be communicated to the
Registrar in writing within two instructional days of when the appeal was approved

Know their policies and procedures better than they do.  Know them like the back of your hand.
Finally, I would recommend two additional steps taken simultaneously in conjunction with the above efforts.  One A, I would contact the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs.  They have a page discussing https://www.bppe.ca.gov/enforcement/complaint.shtml making complaints.  And One B, contact an attorney experienced in helping students navigate problems with university administrations. You can google search "higher education lawyers for students California"
I hope this helps.
~mwm


text:
How does the statement of purpose of students help professors to write letters of recommendation for graduate school application in U.S.?
Usually, professors need to see students' statement of purpose before they write letters of recommendation for them. However,
(1) The most important part of LoRs is the comparison of the applicant with their classmates/peer, which is normally not shown in the statement of purpose.
(2) Professors often talk about students' strengths in LoRs, but they are not supposed to use the strengths mentioned(or boasted of) in the students' statement of purpose when the strengths are unknown to professors before they see the statement of purpose.
(3) Professors may want to know students' experiences, interests and plans for future. But such things are already mentioned in students' statement of purpose and they don't have to repeat them again in the letters of recommendation(professors are not supposed to know students experiences, interests and plans for future better than students themselves, right?).
So my question is, given (1), (2) and (3), why do professors need to look at students' statement of purpose at all when they write LoRs for them? How does the statement of purpose help professors to write letters of recommendation?

I'm not a professor, and don't write LORs for undergraduates. I do manage a research group and write LORs for post-docs applying to faculty positions, so perhaps I can give a wider perspective. The point is to help the person you are writing a letter for put together a comprehensive application that specifically addresses a job posting. Knowing about other parts of the application can definitely help with tailoring a LOR for that given posting. Perhaps (well, likely) more true of things like faculty positions, true (hence just a comment).

Another possible reason that hasn't been mentioned yet is the fact that the application should provide as much information about the student as possible. Therefore, if a student talks about a certain experience in their SOP, the professor might not want to repeat the description - (s)he can instead focus on a different event or highlight another perspective regarding that experience

Why do you think that professors "are not supposed to use the strengths mentioned(or boasted of) in the students' statement of purpose" in their letters?

Another aspect may unequal familiarity: a student might "know" only one or two professors; to a professor, a student could be "one from a group of 60+" and many might be no better known than "someone who comes to my lectures". Having statement of purpose might help the professor identify a particular student from the masses ("Oh yes, Ti Wen was the student who showed an interest in xxx subject").

@D.W. Thank you! I should be clearer. I meant if such a strength is unknown to professor before (s)he is reading SoP, (s)he is not supposed to put it in LOR, right?

What TripeHound said: For all sorts of purposes the student's statement can jumpstart my brain/memory. I often ask them what they think I should remember about them. Some are spot on or come up with a specific example, others are too boastful and I use both pieces of information to then draft my letter about what I do remember and how I evaluate the student.

The statement of purpose is helpful to me in writing a letter of recommendation for a student because I can say things in the letter that relate to the specific plans that the student has beyond the more general plan of entering a graduate program.
For example, a student might ask me to write a letter of recommendation for admission to a PhD program in applied mathematics at University X.  Knowing that the student plans to specialize in a subfield (say computational optimization) gives me the chance to write into the letter that the student is well prepared for graduate study in this area because of (whatever factors might be relevant, including specific courses taken, programming languages the student knows, etc.)  Those same experiences might not be relevant if the student wants to work in a different subfield.
Another reason for me to want to see the student's statement of purpose is so that I can provide helpful advice to the student.  Many students are naive and prepare draft statements that won't help and might actually hurt their chances of admission.  If I've read the draft statement I can suggest changes.  If it's really bad, then I might decide that I'm unwilling to write a recommendation letter for the student because it would reflect badly on me.
Ultimately it really doesn't matter why the recommender wants to see your statement- you're not in any position to demand a letter of recommendation, so you should provide whatever information the requestor asks you for.

I think you may be underestimating the importance of item (3). A good letter of recommendation should be convincing an audience that the recommendee will be successful in the position they are applying for.
The letter writer hopefully knows some of the student's strengths, but knowing their goals is helpful in formulating the argument that strengths apply to those goals. Grad programs can be interdisciplinary, and accept interdisciplinary students, so the name of a program and knowledge about a students' undergraduate degree don't necessarily translate to graduate school.
A recommendation letter would look weak and out of sync with the student if it implies the student has different goals than what they are telling the committee - that could suggest that the letter writer doesn't actually know the student as well, or reduce the impact of their support.
Of course not every letter writer will need or want to rely on a statement of purpose, but it makes sense for a writer to request one just in case it is helpful, and they might realize from reading it that they have some other questions for the student as well.

I don't look at students' statement of purpose when I write letters of recommendation for them.
My primary source is my one-on-one personal interactions with the student, supplemented by any records I have (incl. grades) from courses they took with me. I also ask for a transcript, to understand where their courses with me fit into their overall undergraduate experience.

My practice with letters is similar to Tom Church's.  The statement of purpose does not help me write them.
However, I still ask to look at them.  In my experience, a good SOP won't have much of an effect on grad school admissions, but a bad one can really hurt.  If I see any red flags in a student's SOP, then I warn them that it should be changed.

Nobody knows you better than you do. You can give the recommender helpful information that s/he he may not think of on her/his own.  Plus the recommender may appreciate a memory jog.

Primarily, we've looked at applications and letters before, and if we have a fairly whole view of a recommendee's package, we can identify the thin spots and patch them where we can.  Having the statement of purpose makes this easier.
Also, it really helps to personalize the letter, as it makes it read less like a form letter, making it less likely to be discounted.