Note to Research Students

NOTE: I am a member of the Faculty of Graduate and Postgradute Studies, which means I am qualified to supervise graduate students.

WHAT I ASK FROM STUDENTS (both grad. and undergrad.):

1. Motivation: If you do not like your job, you cannot be happy
2. Independence: You are the person who does your own research. As a supervisor, I am in a position to guide the direction of your research. When you have a meeting with me, please show your efforts and propose all possible solutions. At least show which papers you have tried to read in order to understand the topic, the problems you have incurred and the solutions your have sought. Never come with empty hands and ask for the solutions.
3. Publications: You are expected to publish at least one conference paper each year from your second year and at least one journal paper for the PhD course. Of course more papers are recommended such as 1~3 conference papers and 1 journal paper each year.
4. Implementation: You are expected to realize your idea with a working system, which then could be shown during public demonstrations.
5. Weekly report: All of you who are working on projects or on thesis work are expected to write a report every Friday. Reports should contain the work you have done during the week and work that will be done during the coming week. New ideas and critics are always encouraged for discussion.

1. When you read a paper, first read abstract/introduction and imagine (i) what your approach would be with this topic (ii) how you would implement (iii) how you could have argue around. Then read the remaining and compare with yours. When you read a paper, try to catch (i) what the idea is (ii) how the authors convinced the audience (iii) problems and limitations. Unless your idea is one of literature reviews, or very similar to the paper, you may find new material to write a paper.
2. Whatever you work, whatever the results are, try to write a paper always even though it might be "it didn't work" though. Writing must be a habit for you.
3. Discuss with people. While you explain your idea, you will find some missing points. Usually people will criticize your idea and while you convince them, you will find what the advantages and disadvantages of your idea are. It will also help to write papers.
4. You (not the supervisor) need to be active and to be the leader for the research.
5. Try to write papers even before you decide your thesis topics. Try to implement small ideas and submit papers to workshops/conferences. Both to get rejected and to get accepted will help you to train yourself in many ways.
6. If you have a good idea, you can collaborate with colleagues. 2 papers alone are more difficult than 4 papers with another person.
7. The first author of the paper is the one who is the main writer, not the main idea provider or main developer. Writing is very important and sometimes more important than the actual work.
8. Research is timing! I always believe the idea is around in the air and several people can catch it at the same time. The person who work and publish first is the winner. If you have an idea, concentrate on working immediately. 1 year-long light work is worse than 6 month concentrated work and 6 month vacation.
9. The importance of a topic fully depends on how you argue. Convincing argument and systematic and analytic writing are extremely important.
10. To defend a thesis, previous discussion with various people will help a lot. You will also find good ideas while you discuss with people with difference backgrounds.

1. There is a seminar course you need to attend at least 10 seminars and you need to pass it to graduate. The course is offered only in Fall and Winter (not in Summer) and you can have 10 seminars only in consecutive semesters. It means if you take the course in Winter and can not finish 10 seminars, you have to start again in Fall from zero. So please take the seminar course in Fall (and in Winter if it's required to make 10 seminars). If not, it may risk your graduation plan.

1. VirtualDub for video editing: http://www.virtualdub.org/ [Documentation at: http://www.virtualdub.org/virtualdub_docs.html]
2. Fraps for video screen capture: http://www.fraps.com/ [Documentation at: http://www.fraps.com/faq.php#videocap]
3. Audacity for audio editing: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ [Tutorial at: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/tutorials]
4. Sub-Station-Alpha for subtitles: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Sub_Station_Alpha [Tutorial at: http://www.geocities.com/rmisw/iat1/subtitling.html ]

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:

1. Financial support from me: Support is always subject to the availability of funds, and you must realize that the grants I receive are subject to renewal and can be cut. The people who work on projects with fund will have higher chance to get paid. By the rule in the University, Master student - maximum $1,150/M,    PhD student - maximum  $1,300/M.

1. Scholarship: You are encouraged to apply scholarship. 

• Admission scholarship : If you are qualified for the nomination, please inform me.

• Other scholarship: More details can be found in http://www.genie.uottawa.ca/mcg/eng/grad/whygrad.php

1. Teaching assistantship: I don't control this. You have to apply to the University and get it through competition.

Professor WonSook LEE, Ph.D.

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
University of Ottawa
800 King Edward Avenue
P.O. Box 450, Stn A
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5

Office: CBY A509
Tel: (613) 562-5800 ext. 2501
Fax: (613) 562-5664
Email: wslee@uottawa.ca
Web: http://www.eecs.uottawa.ca/~wslee

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