Hi there,

I am a second year phd student, and joined directly from B.Sc. Major: Computer Science.

Since i joined the school, i've experienced a number of research works, and have taken a number of courses.
This has caused a shift in my research taste: I am no more really interested in what I joined the lab for. The problem is that among to other supervisors which share my new interest, one does not reply my emails(!), and one works on special types of problems, resulting in small payoff for moving to the new. To make it clear, it's quite common to change labs/supervisors before third year in our school, as there is little chance of making sense of the world while having courses and qualifying exams.


I am facing another issue as well:
I have lost the trust in my supervisor. While being old, he is quite new to the field and sticks to a the system he has recently developed. The rest of the group are working on problems related to the system. According to him, the system design is based on 'intuition,' which I believe is absurd, compared with other proposed systems, all of which have certain solid design goals. The problems the group works on, have sophisticated solutions in related fields. I feel he doesn't have the vision and I dont wanna go into the well with he holding the rope.


I'm thinking of neglecting his presence, and work as if I am working with one of those busy supervisors which you might see once in six months.

I am also thinking if downgrading to masters might be a good option.

Any comments are greatly appreciated.


Thanx in advance

hi Olix
welcome to the forum
I'm not too sure what your issues are. From what I've read:
1. your research interests have shifted but in your opinion it looks like things will not go well if you change labs/supervisors

2. now you have lost confidence in your supervisor and are thinking working "away" from him

3. you might consider working up to masters

my comments:
1. research/study interests shift for everyone; people grow by and by; nothing is ever the same all the time. I think you need to ask yourself if how you can continue with your present topic, how make it better, what else you can do for it; and weigh the pros and cons of changing labs/supervisors. My biggest advice in this for you is to do what you feel is right; an example: monetary reward is not as valuable as personal satisfaction

2. neglecting the presence of your supervisor is definitely not a good idea; everyone has supervisor issues; we like them, we hate them, we get angry with them, we develop crushes on them. There may be a solution to your issue; but I dont know the rest of the story. Here's an example: one student and her supervisor couldn't get along, in the end, they decided it was best that she got someone else to supervise her.

3. working up to a masters is an option if you find that you've gone too far (to stop) and there seems to be no other way; you dont want to continue but you have enough stuff for a masters.

hope this helps

have a nice evening
love satchi