How do I do Research

Matthias Felleisen

This talk presents a personal reflection on how I shaped my research program over three decades and how these lessons may apply to a beginning PhD student. I explain what my long-term projects look like and how they came about. In this context I discuss and illustrate two scenarios for the development of a research program for a new graduate student. First, the student can find a topic that closely relates to some current PhD student's work and contribute to this work. Doing so will naturally lead to ideas for a dissertation. Second, if a student comes with pre-shaped ideas, the situation calls for mutual education so that the advisor can figure out the landscape and help the student set up a research program.