|
|
|
|
|
|
by gradschool
431 days ago
|
|
|
I supervised a few students doing senior research projects back when I
used to be a faculty member. I think a senior project is a different
situation than a master's or Ph.D. thesis because it's more about
demonstrating your employability than making original contributions to
knowledge, and your time is very limited. To that end, it's important
that you finish up with something to show for yourself. Unless you
plan to go into academia, working code counts for more with employers
than a research paper in itself. A null result even when properly
investigated and analyzed is less impressive than a success, so a good
way to hedge your bets is to find two or three competing technologies
addressing the same need, implement a small similar project using each
of them, and compare their relative strengths and weaknesses. That way
you improve your chances of a successful outcome even if not all of
them work out, while also demonstrating a broader variety of skills to
potential employers than you would if you focused on just one thing.
Read enough of the literature to avoid embarrassing yourself but not
to become a world class expert because the latter would waste your
whole year. Be careful of faculty members drawing you down a rabbit
hole. They like thinking about cutting edge research problems, some of
which might be of industrial interest, but even so, no company is
going to put somebody fresh out of school in charge of that regardless
of how smart that person seems to be. |
|
|