Project management for research : a guide for graduate students

Graduate research is a complicated process which many engineering and science students aspire to undertake. The complexity of the process can lead to failures for even the most brilliant students. Success with graduate level research requires not only a high level of intellectual ability, but also a high level of program management skills. After many years of supervising several graduate students, I have found that most of them have the same basic problems of planning and implementing their research programs. Even the advanced graduate students need the same 'mentoring and management' guidance that has little to do with actual classroom performance. It is my conjecture that graduate students could make a better job of their research programs if a self-paced guide were available to them. The guide provided in this book covers topics ranging from how to select an appropriate research problem to how to schedule and execute research tasks. The book takes a project management approach to planning and implementing graduate research in engineering, science and manufacturing disciplines. It is a self paced guide that will help graduate students and advisors answer most of the basic questions about 'how to do this and how to do that'. There is a need for such a guide book. The book will alleviate frustration on the part of the student and the research advisor.