text:
What if your advisor does not know anything about your research field?
I  am a PhD student in Mathematics. I have found one advisor in my local University who does not know my research field at all, but  has allowed me to choose my own problems and solve them independently.
Initially, I was quite happy as I didn't need to switch places (which I don't want at all). The problem started when my advisor could not assist me in solving the problems I chose. It even happened that I chose a problem to work on and when I told him about it, he said that's an excellent problem and I should solve it.Later on after meeting another professor  in this field he told me that it has been solved long before and hence I had no point working on that again.
He does listen to me when I say something about the problems but fails to give me any critical feedback in my topic. I searched the web but there are so many directions of the topic I am working on, I am feeling puzzled which way to go. Moreover there is no research group existing in this field in my local University with whom I can discuss or get some inputs abut my problems.
I am unable to answer the following questions of mine which is affecting my research considerably:

1.Has my decision to stay in my hometown and not go to reputed institutes and talking to experienced professors backfired on me? How can I come out of this situation?
2.Is  PhD done in this way only without any help from anyone ?At least my advisor says so.

Any comments/advice will be helpful.

Find someone else to help you. Help is essential.

The vast majority of researchers need support, that is why they co-author papers. For a PhD, the supervisor needn't know the area in advance, but they must be an expert who is able to understand the area. In your case, it sounds like that isn't the case. Given that you're "mid way," to "come out of this situation," I think you should seek external support. E.g., by co-authoring with people in your field, by finding a mentor (either directly yourself or indirectly with your supervisor's support).

Do not expect much of help from advisors in general. They can give you some general advice, however, in the end, it is going to be your Ph.D., and you have to be able to do it independently. Even if someone is an expert in your area, it does not necessarily mean that he/she will guide you through your Ph.D. step by step. It can be even worse; sometimes they might not agree with you on something which you strongly believe in and want to work on...

"I have found one advisor in my local University who does not know my research field" indeed implies "my advisor could not assist me in solving the problems I chose": When I read about certain choices, which appear quite frequently here, I can't help remarking that one makes certain choices at their own risk, and should be aware that they could get what they asked for.

Rishabh, @MassimoOrtolano is saying that it isn't surprising that an advisor who does not know your research field could not assist you in solving the problems you chose.

Well, then go and find another advisor. Do not get me wrong, I don't mean a new one, I just mean someone else to talk to. With a PhD, you are supposed to show that you are able to do independent research, that you are able to do more than just work on minor problems that dropped out of some paper/publication by your advisor (as it is often the case in Bachelor or Master thesises).
I think a PhD (at least in Mathematics, I don't know that much about other fields) where you only worked with a single advisor for multiple years is really uncommon. Go find other people, other professors, etc. to talk to.
Your advisor should help you with the following points in case you get stuck there (list might not be complete...):

How and where to find research material, maybe giving you access to institute libraries that are normally closed to regular students or access to the universities subscriptions to online journals.
Establishing contacts to other researchers on the field, giving you advice on who to talk to, maybe even recommending you for a research stay of a few months at another university for a project related to your research.
Administrative processes. That also includes questions on "How and where to best publish this result I came up with?" or "Which conferences should I visit, should I maybe even present something there?"

During a PhD, it is not the advisors job to do your research. You yourself have to decide what you look into, what you do, how much time you spend on one problem until you deem it too hard and move on, etc. If your professor could answer all your questions, then that would mean that your research is not really original and/or rather trivial and thus might not yield a PhD (or at least not an excellent one, and I'm sure you are aiming for that :) ).
So don't worry if the professor can't help you solve your problems. Maybe they will turn up to stay unsolved for centuries, who knows? Try to rephrase your questions, don't go and ask "How can I solve this?" but rather "Do you know of experts on this topic that might be willing to talk to me (maybe even at the same university)? Can you put us into contact?" or maybe asked more generally like "Do you have a suggestion on which direction to look from here on? Should I continue down this path or maybe try a different approach?".
So long story short: Even if the professor knew your research field, he would not be able to always assist you with your problems.
PS: As I am also writing a PhD in math just now I'm a little curious: What is your research field, for which there are no research groups and your professor has no idea about? :)

@Rishabh So your advisor for you math PhD is not even a mathematician?

Yes @TobiasKildetoft;but he has a BS-MS in Mathematics but did his PhD in Theoretical CS

@RishabhPant you are doomed. it is important that he has a phd in math

@Rüdiger Don't be such a snob. As long as they're an expert on the topic, it doesn't matter which department gave them a PhD or which department gave them a job. Spectral graph theory lives at the boundary of math and TCS; you can find experts in both math and CS departments.

You should remember that quite a number of computer scientists (especially theoretical ones) came from math, some of them even hold a math PhD. The line between applied mathematics and theoretical computer science is often blurry.

@JeffE I agree with that. My surprise was due to the fact that the advisor also does not apparently know the subject. Given the choice between two advisors who don't know the topic, I would expect one in the same discipline to be a better choice on average, since then at least they will be familiar with the various other aspects of the discipline, such as where papers are published.

In mathematics at least, the number one job of the advisor is to actually assist you in formulating a problem (or series of problems, even better), which if resolved would result in a reasonable/acceptable PhD thesis.
If the advisor has no idea about your field, I don't see how he can help you do that. It may happen that you are lucky/capable enough to choose and solve good problems on your own, but a very small percentage of grad students are in that category. So you may end up biting much bigger than what you can chew, or aiming too low and end up with small problems which make no impact on the field.
For instance, how will your advisor judge if/when you are ready to graduate ? Is he simply planning to count publications/preprints that make up your dissertation and put a stamp on it ?
At the very least, I suggest getting a co-advisor who knows your area. Doesn't have to be at your university, professors from other universities can be approached.

I have found one advisor in my local University who does not know my
  research field at all but has allowed me to choose my own problems and
  solve them independently.

Most of the problem solve independently, advisors can only advice you about the research that how to conduct it, he provides feedback, make critical analysis of your work, but evaluation of the research purely dependent upon your knowledge that you will provide to your supervisor. Certainly, Phd work is a kind of novel work and your supervisor also poses same knowledge that you have, that you will provide to him.

The problem started mid way when my advisor could not assist me in
  solving the problems I chose.It even happened that I chose a problem
  to work on and when I told him about it,he said that's an excellent
  problem and I should solve it.Later after meeting another professor in
  this field he told me that it has been solved long before.Hence I had
  no point working at that again.

Well in current age of science and information, you selected a topic that already covered Long before. Before selection of the topic, why did not you conduct a comprehensive study or search? Did you make any discussion with your adivsor? Most of the advisor can't do this job for you that they search novel topic for you. This is your mistake that you didn't make the selection of novel a topic. It is expected from a PhD student that he know preliminaries of the research.

He does listen to me when I say something about the problems but fails
  to give me any critical feedback in my topic.

If this statement is true then, surely there is something wrong with the advisor. No matter that you don't know about a sub-topic of your field but you can make critical analysis of it. Even a common PhD student or researcher can do this in his field and this behavior expectation become increase for advisor. surely something wrong with advisor.

I searched the web but there are so many directions of the topic I am
  working on,I am feeling puzzled which way to go.
  You should need to do this work earlier before selecting the topic.
The problems are cropping up now after 1 year,Initially all was well
  and fine.
Moreover there is no research group existing in this field in my local
  University with whom I can discuss or get some inputs abut my
  problems.

Internet, Google, Social Media, forums, are your friends, always ready to help you. Search expert of your fields on social media, make them friend/follow, get advice from them. Its easy now.

Has my decision to stay in my hometown and not go to reputed
  institutes backfired on me?

You should travel to seek knowledge. This is common and very helpful also.

How can I come out of this situation?

Review your topic again, check its novelty and evaluate it yourself. If it has already solve then your methods can make it more efficient or can make any significant difference? Make questions, get technical feedback from advisor. If he satisfy you then, continue otherwise quit. BUT also tell him all the story that why are you quitting maybe he will advice you a lot better than this forum and my answer. He is advisor surely poses more knowledge and wisdom of his field than us.

ask is Is a PhD done in this way only without any help from the
  Advisor ?
  Blockquote

No help of advisor is necessary but i don't know what are you getting from the meaning of "help". Mostly the adviosr don't bother for you to search novel topic and conduct any comprehensive study for you. you should do it yourself and get feedback from him.

Would the situation been better if I had chosen an experienced
  advisor?

certainly, but again its dependent on you also.
Note: I am not a PhD student but I conducted some of the research recently write a few papers and currently doing MS thesis in computer science. The answer based on my last 2/3 year experience in research and relationship with my supervisor. And the fact i get to know during this short period that you have to do everything yourself. Supervisor make critical and helpful comment on your work.  And assist you if you are caught in any problem.

Hey Mohammad, your answer will be easier to follow if you proofread carefully.

@aparente001 you are right, i proofread it hopefully it is much better, please can you confirm that it is better or you can edit it also

Sorry, Mohammad, there are just too many mistakes.  I really think you can do a better job with this.


text:
What strategies can bring technology resistant faculty on-board?
Faculty tend to fall into these groups:

early adopters
hesitant but willing
refusing to adopt b/c no time
refusing to adopt b/c not technically inclined

I would like to know what strategies I can use to bring the 3rd & 4th group on-board.
Context
A new learning management system has been adopted where instructors are encouraged to post their slides/lecture materials online.

Unfortunately group 3 often has at least two components, those who are not technically inclined and those who simply do not have the time. This should proably be considered when adopting a strategy since one side can be resolved by providing time.

You forgot "4. think they can do better on their own".

@JeffE with learning management software, that's almost always true :). and with CS faculty, it's even more likely.

Sick to the gills of NPM University level management imposing constant systems change to weaken the union / employee job control /n  7. Dispute the claimed pedagogical or cost/benefit ratio of lms tools.

First of all, you need to make it exceedingly easy for the Luddites to put their material online.  If it is hard to do, or if it takes a particular skill other than "go to this website and click a few links" than you're going to have a hard time ever convincing them to get onboard.  If they absolutely need to be trained, you may have to have a mandatory training session where they get their first set of lectures or whatever online (but don't expect any other forthcoming material to be posted without more prodding--then again, they may see the light if it is easy enough and they can see the results online).
I'd suggest one or more of the following four suggestions, in order of preference:

Ask for student volunteers to help these faculty put their material online.  Whether these are TAs for the class, or paid/hired students not already assigned, or strictly volunteers is up to you and budgeting concerns.  You may have to continue this process for subsequent classes if the faculty aren't willing to learn how to do it themselves.
Automate the system (which goes back to my original comment).  If paper is involved, have someone set up a scanner to handle loose-leaf material, or via a photocopier/scanner.  If it is just soft-copy document uploading, this can be automated with a drop box on a shared drive -- just drag materials into the box and it ends up online.  This won't make for a particularly organized system, but at least the material will be online.
Wait them out and let attrition work its magic.  You may always have reluctant faculty, but as older Luddites retire you should find this less of a problem.  If there are only a few faculty that don't want to come onboard, this is definitely the easiest method, and you're really not losing too much by waiting.
Make posting the material mandatory.  I can almost guarantee this won't be possible for tenured faculty, but maybe you can provide some incentive rather than simply encouraging them to put the material online.

I don't think you'll get very far with a simple plea for coming into the 21st Century -- if they are refusing to adopt, they probably feel they are too busy, or don't like the whole idea of it.

Excellent suggestions. Thank you. I like the idea of volunteers but my concern is that those faculty members won't know how to post the materials themselves and will always need help from others.

@techmsi - As a general rule of thumb, avoid selecting a particular answer as "correct" for at least a day or two after posting. New answers may still be posted that are better than the ones already here, and by marking as "accepted" you discourage new answers.

I disagree with (1); it seems to suggest that "luddites" are lazy, which might not be the case. I have declined to use related systems in the past, and it was because I was not persuaded that they were a valuable use of time -- either my own or someone else's.

@Anonymous I didn't mean to imply they are lazy, but that they don't know or don't want to learn how to put the material online.  I can see how in cases like your example, that would be an incorrect assumption, but without more context to the question, I assumed that "refusing to adopt" could be overcome with help to put the material online.

The question has a hidden assumption: that the technology has no problems and it's merely the faculty that need to be convinced. Having used a few different learning management systems (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, homegrown stuff), I can tell you that this is rarely true.
The people resistant to change are probably resisting because they've seen different incarnations of this technology come and go, and find it annoying to have to keep learning a new system that doesn't present any significant advantages over what they're doing. The significant part is important. There's a cost to making a change, so the new system can't just be as good.
So I'll add to Chris's excellent suggestions as follows:

make it seamless not just to import, but to export easily. In the world of online software, it's important not to have things be gated. I want assurances that if your new system goes away tomorrow, to be replaced by the next new system, that I can easily transfer material from the old system to the new with a few clicks.
demonstrate why this new system isn't going away in a year to be replaced by something else. How you do that is up to you and depends on the system you're pushing.

Bottom line: the perceived attitude in the question is that the faculty are at fault for not adopting new technology, but the truth is that most new tech is crappy and short-lived, and it's natural to want to wait things out. So you have convince people that the new approach is not crappy and will last.

Exactly. The system I'm told to use (which I do use, grudgingly) for uploading homework assignments, etc., makes it way more difficult than just slapping together a simple webpage with links would be, with less control over the final layout, and no apparent advantages. And who wouldn't shudder at the phrase "learning management system"?

I can think of three strategies, which complement each other:

Win Group 2 over first.
If there are external reasons for using the technology, make them clear. For example, you might not persuade faculty that using this software is intrinsically a good idea, but you might be able to persuade them that making the dean happy is reason enough.
Take the time to listen to their objections. They will be more willing to listen to you if they feel that you have listened to them, understood them, and respected them.

True, listening is key when implementing any change.

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text:
Does having much knowledge in other branches help one's research in mathematics in one's own field?
I am wondering if having much knowledge in other (seemingly not directly related) branches of mathematics is helpful to a mathematician in his own research. Say there are two algebraic topologists A and B. A also has some knowledge in PDE (say he knows the basics of graduate level PDE well and can even teach a graduate course on PDE) and B does not even know the very basics of ODE. Does this make any difference in their ability in doing research in algebraic topology?
I know that some fields are somehow related; for example, it will help a group theorist if he knows algebraic topology or number theory; but how about other fields that are not apparently related, such as the example that I have quoted?

IMO this is better for MathOverflow.

MathOverflow has this question: "Is your question about research level mathematics?" My question is not even a mathematical question though it is related to mathematics.

Your question is literally about if something is "helpful to a mathematician in his own research", so I'd say this sounds awefully like being about research level mathematics.

@Zuriel There's a label called "soft-question" there for questions not directly about the details of mathematics but of concern to mathematicians. There are plenty of questions like yours under that label :-) I'm afraid this question is the perfect fit for MO.

Thank you @xuq01! I misread their requirements.

Applications of PDE in algebraic topology can even win you a Fields medal.

@NateEldredge or two

What is PDE and ODE?

@problemofficer, partial differential equations and ordinary differential equations.

The answer is yes. It helps. Mathematics is very broad. In the various major branches, such as Analysis, Algebra, etc. different insights are needed to really understand what is going on and what is important. In addition to the all-important insights, different proof techniques are common.
When you are doing real research in mathematics you are engaged in a very narrow study. But having a wide variety of ways to attack a problem, even if they might be suggested by ideas from another subfield, will give you an advantage.
Both breadth and depth are needed. Depth is usually what is most valued, but the breadth of knowledge helps you get there. So, don't completely neglect other mathematical subfields than the one you are most interested in. You don't need to be equally skilled in all of them, but being able to grasp the essential insights is a plus.

Indeed, just to provide evidence: the prime number theorem (a number theory problem) has deep connections to complex analysis, but on the surface, you wouldn't naturally connect the two.

Here are two anecdotes from my own career. I wrote a thesis in summability theory, despite a background in algebra. In that thesis I used the 5-lemma to deduce an isomorphism between two subalgebras of a Banach algebra given an isomorphism between two related subalgebras. Later on, working in algebra, I used familiarity with matrix methods of summability to prove that a countably infinite dimensional vector space V over a field k is not Hopfian, that is there is an onto linear transformation T from V to itself that is not one-to-one. The transformation T mimicked the usual shift map that demonstrates this fact, but I did not have to know it based on my summability experience. So I was lucky to get cross-fertilization in two directions. I might have obtained the results in each case eventually, but it saved a great deal of time knowing something from a different area of mathematics.

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text:
Is there any paper submission deadline timezone convention?
Conference papers and special issues of Journals usually have deadlines for submission. However, it is sometimes not clearly stated what timezone the deadline is in. Is there any convention for this? Is it the location localtime, UTC or others?

However, it is usually not clearly stated what timezone the deadline is in - really? All the conferences I submit to specify the timezone, either on the conference site or the paper submission site. Can you give an example?

In general, you don't want to put yourself in the position of submitting in the last 24 hours, so it shouldn't matter... If in doubt either assume worst case or contact them and ask.

@keshlam ... and in practice, 80% or so of submissions get uploaded or updated on the last day :)

@ff524 My experience is exactly opposite. I've yet to see en example when the timezone is specified. I usually expect it ste timezone of the person signed below the call for papers.

related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/15727/1471

Primarily, you should really try to find out what time zone a conference uses rather than assume a specific one. As ff524 says, even if it is not on the web site, the submission site will often tell you.
That being said, at least in my discipline, there are two conventions that are common:

Local time at the conference location
AOE (anywhere on earth), more formally known as Howland Island time.

The latter is probably the more common one.
(Howland Island time is called "Anywhere on Earth" because it is the last time zone. That is, if you say that a deadline is friday, 24:00 AOE, the real deadline will nowhere be earlier than friday, 24:00, reducing the possibility of feel-bad moments when paper writers forgot about time zones and assumed their own time zone.)

I've also seen "local time wherever the paper submission site is hosted" (not necessarily the conference location) pretty often. And conferences that use EDAS for submission tend to use NYC time a lot.

@ff524: "local time wherever the paper submission site is hosted" -- by the active preference of the organiser, or due to lazy/buggy programming on the site?

I've seen local time at the client from where the documents are submitted.

I have encountered a situation where the deadline did not specify any timezone, and I have emailed the organizers but they said "there is no timezone for the deadline", which is more confusing.
My professor said just assume that it is Anywhere on Earth (AoE) timezone, 12 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

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text:
Effective open-ended student evaluation questions
As we reach the end of the semester, the students in my class are being asked to do their evaluation of my teaching, as is common at most universities. As with most evaluations that I know of, I have been given an opportunity to provide open-ended prompts for the students to respond to.
I would like to craft open-ended questions for the students that will help me to improve my class/teaching style. This class was a large (~100 students) lecture, so I would like to focus the questions on how to improve myself in teaching large classes. Has any research been published showing which questions (or which types of questions) generate answers that are most effective at helping teachers to improve at teaching large lectures? If no research, is there any anecdotal evidence of "most helpful" questions?

The more multiple-choice questions, and structured question, the less student will write in the open-ended questions, i think.

Related: UPenn Alternative Open-Ended Questions for Faculty Not a study, but a bunch of questions that are recommended that don't ask the generic stuff.

@Compass Thanks! There are some other links on a document from that page as well: http://web.princeton.edu/sites/mcgraw/midterm_eval_question.html http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/

I think the question is too broad.  Assessment is a major branch of education research, which frequently uses qualitative methods such as open ended questions.  I suggest you identify a more specific kind of improvement you wish to achieve.

@AnonymousPhysicist Ok, that's a fair point. I've added some text specifying questions relevant to improving large lectures. Thanks!

It might be helpful to give the students some hints regarding the issues they can address. For example, I used free text to assess presentations, but gave students a list of criteria (e.g., slide design, articulation, etc.). Students picked what they found noteworthy (positive and negative). In any case, if you suspect some strengths/weaknesses in your style, you might want to narrow down the questions to these specific issues.

Actually, based on my experience, it is better to ask the questions to the students at the end of the next semester.
During the semester, an average student usually concentrates on passing the course, rather than thinking about the outcomes of the course.
I think one realizes what the course gave him/her after about one semester.
And this is the time that they use their knowledge of your course to understand or pass another course.
Of course, the questions are highly dependent on what you want to improve.
However, it is always more clear what to improve when the students have a chance to use the course outcomes without any expectation of the grade.
If a student says "I wish you underlined the importance of Unit 6. Thus I could understand XX201 better", this is a good feedback, whereas
"This course is sooooo hard." is not.
As for the questions, this is what I ask to my students after one semester. Not like a questionnaire, but face-to-face:

Do you use what I've taught you for this semester?
Are there any redundant topics that I've covered?
How would you study if you were to take the course this semester?

This is great advice, but I don't think my university provides a mechanism to do this. I could probably contact the students outside the official mechanisms, but that seems likely to be no as helpful as anonymous feedback. Anyways, thanks for your comments!

I asked a similar question in April. In my case, I was specifically interested in a very short survey that I could ask students to fill out out after every every single class so I could make adjustments to lectures, class organization, and readings as the course progressed.
As I detailed in my answer to my own question two quarters later, I went ahead and used a series of four open-ended questions very successfully. Since late September when I left that answer, I have used those four questions very successfully in another class as well.

I will provide a no-answer (which someone can delete if need be).
It seems you are primarily looking for feedback on your teaching in order to improve. In so doing you are looking for questions to have the students provide that input. Although I admire your trust in students, it is a bit like the blind leading the deaf. The likelihood that you will receive in-depth feedback on how to improve seems small. I am sure you will get lots of pointers about many details so it is not pointless but you should probably consider one or a few other approaches in parallel.
First, consider looking into a university pedagogics course. Hopefully your university provides such courses for teachers where experience is the foundation for the teaching. Second, ask fellows to attend your class(es) and provide feedback from their point of view. Third, have a fellow video-tape a lecture from the back of the room (communicating with the first rows is not difficult but the back of the room is different).


text:
Is experience as a Lecturer in Europe/UK considered relevant in Indian inst. (IIT/IIIT/NIT) for Assistant Professor positions in CS?
Is a Lecturer in the UK or Europe considered pretty much the same as an Assistant Professor in the US, considering the fact that this Lecturer position involves teaching, research and service?
Do Indian institutions (IIT/IIIT/NIT) consider the experience as a Lecturer in Europe or the UK equivalent to the US for Assistant Professor positions in CS?

The best explanation I have found on this subject is here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/49026
Briefly, the positions of lecturer UK and assistant professor USA are almost equivalent. Almost has to do with the fact that tenure is decoupled from your rank in UK, you could be a tenured Lecturer. At the same time, in the US, assistant professor positions are usually tenure-track.

In the UK, a Lecturer position is approximately equivalent to an Assistant Professor position in the US, with the exception that in the UK it is usually a permanent position, while an assistant professor in the US needs to get a tenure before becoming a permanent faculty. (On the other hand, the UK system doesn't have tenure at all.)
The 2nd paragraph of the OP is unclear.

can you explain a bit the term "approximately" here plz?

Approximate here stands for the different systems in the UK and US, which makes any mapping between them approximate. I don't know of a specific difference though.