PhD thesis theme, help please

Question

Hi everyone! I would like to attend graduate courses for PhD degree, but still don't have an idea about my future thesis topic. Could you help me please, maybe any ideas? I'm in despair! I'm an application programmer, have quitly big experience of practical programming on Java and less but also good knowledges of Python. In Java I know SE, also know a bit Spring, HIbernate, Ant, Maven. Some RMI, Jini, Corba... Which are the promising topics now and what are trends in application programming? Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

As a PhD student I can tell you that, in general you will (read SHOULD) be doing a great deal of reading papers on topics that are interesting to you, and that you will want to spend the several years researching for improvement. I'm on the Computer Engineering (Architecture and memory optimization so I don't know that particular programming research topics, but they tend to be defined by things like networking, security, data storage, etc.

In particular there is a lot of work being done with large scale computing such as supercomputers, due to the limitations that are being encountered for scalability, storage, etc.

Also, it is pretty unlikely that you will A) necessarily have a research topic ready to go when you first get to grad school, or B) that you will stay with any one topic in the beginning. The first couple of years you will be taking your classes, and trying to get through everything on that front. You should also talk to your adviser, as they can (and should!) provide you with parts on projects that they are working on, and this will start to get you exposed to the research.

Bottom line is try to be open about which way you're going to go before you decide on any ONE particular topic that will become your dissertation.

Answer 2

I recommend three step approach:

1. Use a google scholar http://scholar.google.de/scholar?hl=en&q=challenges+software&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0 to find recent surveys (use keywords, such as: "challenge", "survey") on software development. Look for such articles using other search engines, e.g., http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ (here you will find a list). From the most recent surveys (from good conferences) you will learn about key challenges in a research domain related to software development. A key challenge is a good start point to define a topic. The book of Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams -- "The Craft Of Research” can be very helpful in defining a topic.

2. After finding a more-less topic, find a professor who can supervise you and discuss your topic with him.

3. Read this book meanwhile to get a pragmatic view on your Phd: http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-Science/dp/0201626632