Hello, first things first, I am also doing a multi disciplinary PhD between engineering and another discipline [biology] so I fully appreciate the difficulties when doing this sort of research. Strangely I am also in my third year. What is the other discipline for you?

To get back to your question, DON'T QUIT!! You have come so far and y the sounds of it you do have some data, always keep in mind that a PhD teaches you how to research and is not totally about having results or all the answers to the question. When I started my research I thought it would be quite straight forward, theoretically, but after every experiment I have ended up with about 10 more questions! You seem to know the errors you unintentionally made so maybe you can put a different slant on the findings, e.g. change the way you are viewing your results. It is not easy commenting on things like this when you don't know exactly what you have done.

Regarding the models, you said others had tried them with DIFFERENT applications, the novelty of your work was trying to use them in another way. If this hasn't worked then you can show why they didn't and can also explain the reasoning behind this. In your thesis you can hypothesize on what modelling technique would be better suited for that application and also suggest an alternative approach regarding data to use to develop this model.

It is very easy to be negative about your results, especially if you feel they are bad due to a lack of help/support from supervisors about them. One suggestion might be to meet with the  main supervisors from the different disciplines and find out what each of them would view to get from your research, there must have been a joint goal at the beginning. Once you find this out you might be able to focus you final bit of time on looking at using the data you currently have and doing some final small experiments to tie it all together towards the goal of what your supervisors were after.

Hope this helps and any more information may help in trying to see the wood through the trees!!
;-)

I don't know much about pyschology but I know the topic is quite maths orientated. Because of this you may be given a large dataset that you have to sort and then plot. This is only a guess and I may therfore suggest that you make sure you are a demon at excel!

A lot of trouble you can get into is by not sorting your data very well or not setting up spread sheets in a way where you can find the data you are looking for quickly. This is only a guess, good luck and let us know what they WERE looking fow afterwards.

Where I am studying we have recently set up such a group. What I will say though it that it is as successfull as people want it to be. Trying to persuade everyone that it is a good idea is difficult as people only seem to want it when things are bad for them. Some aren't interested at all and see get togethers as 'wasting time'.

As I said earlier we have only just set it up so it still has'nt really got any momentum at the moment but hopefully this will change as the benefits for everyone could be great.

You don't really have to change your title. I use my PhD title for talks and then change what is in the talk. Admittedly the talks can sometimes be 80% old material but changing things about and adding little things makes a) your life easier and b) keeps the talks fresh.

Hi, most of us will have been in the position where experiments have failed. Firstly check over your protocols and make sure you are doing it right. Has the experiment been done before? Check this out and also other related experiments where similar techniques have been used.

If you could supply some information on what your experiment is doing, e.g. genetics, biology etc. someone may have a little tip. Also, just because they are your supervisor or a post-doc they really don't know everything so they may not have a detailed enough understanding of your topic to help out more

I would probably say no this is not a problem. You only ever hear about the ones that DON'T get on with their supervisor and not the ones that do. I am not saying there are bot supervisors out there who aren't any good but don't instantly assume ALL supervisors are bad.

My background is a little random. I left school with bare minimum GCSEs and went into fish farming for 10 years. Wanting a career change I went back to uni with no a-levels and completed a 4 year masters of environmental sciences degree at a good university based on my interview, then on to do a PhD.

Working hard with a good mentality is the way to go and not necessarily having all the right qualifications. I fyou want to do something and you enjoy it you will always succeed

a) look good on your cv
b) show how much you want to go on it

Allthough travel is good you shouldn't take it for granted

Ok, it is good to get trips away to conferences. I haven't been on one yet and I am in my second year also. I am going on one in July however to China but I was asked if I would like to go. One way you may be able to go is to find one you feel would be usefull and then find funding to go to it. By being proactive in finding funding it will:

I am also presuming that your transfer report included a literature review and a progress to date section. The lit review will be usefull throughout your PhD. I found the progress report bit usefull aswell in that it helped me write down and better realise what I had done so far and also helped in deciding the next stage in my reasearch.

Keep and hope this helps!!

Dont' panic! The idea of the transfer is to get rid of those that may not be capable of completing the PhD. I too had a lot of edits to do to my transfer report with a lot of this derived from supervisors with differing opinoins on a particular topic. By the end of the transfer review process I have gotten some writing that will provide a base for my final write up.

There is no denying a lot of it won't be used but during the next 12 months a lot of my talks and potential journals may well be based on a lot of what I have included in my transfer report.

Writing lit reviews aren't easy when new to a topic. First: Lots of reading of things you don't understand Second: More reading Third: More reading Fourth: The moment of clarity where it suddenly starts to make sense Fifth: Reread everything and begin to get a grip of the topic. The last bit is writing, getting a good outline and headings (even if general) is the key. The end is cutting and pasting everything you have written so it becomes coherent. Then the edits and finally the 'just one last reference' which can be the most annoying as you start discovering what you think are better refernces.

Nobody is truly happy with what they write but without deadlines nothing would be finished. Good luck and stay focused (never easy I know)!

Corrections!! When I submitted my lit review to my supervisors for comments before handing in the corrections were driving me mad. The thing is that they all have slightly different opinions on the topic ,this may just be because my PhD covers engineering and biology and therefore it is difficult to find a happy medium.

Hello everyone,
I AM NOT ASKING FOR MONEY JUST ADVICE!! My supevisor have said that I should try and get some money for travel costs for presenting at a conference in Asia and said I may be able to get some from my funding body or other society. I have tried these but to no avail and was wondering if anyone knows of any other potential sources, I am studing a civil engineering related PhD. He said that he can get the money anyway but that it is a good idea to be able to show on your CV an ability to apply for some sort of funds.

Has anyone else managed to do this or advice on places to search for funding to cover such costs. I have looked about a bit but feel some sources are likely to be not well advertised.

Hope this makes sense and I am not posting just because I am afraid of abit of hard work ;)

I think a lot depends on the topic. For example, someone I share an office with started there PhD in October and has authored a paper already as there weren't any good reviews on her topic. My supervisors have said that I could possibly publish 3 or 4 papers during my PhD (currently 1 year into mine), or maybe even more. Some universities will allow your thesis to be made up of journal publications only which is an incentive if you feel you may get a lot of publications out. I personally will publish if possible but won't go all out as I want to make sure I get a good PhD thesis finished above all else with hopefully 1 or 2 good first authored papers.

It would be nice to get published but think that you don't have to be published to get a PhD.