Christian Niestroj /
PhD School, Real-Time Mining
Within the scope of the Real-Time Mining research project, PhD candidates of the different project partners were invited to visit Aachen on 25/26 January 2016 to attend the very first round of the PhD School program. The aim of the first PhD school meeting was to bring the different PhD candidates together and define further goals in the course of the meeting. Originally, the idea for the summer school emanated at one of the projects meetings between RWTH Aachen University and TU Bergakademie Freiberg when the persons involved shared their desire to engross their mindset and thoughtprocess beyond the plain project work within Real-Time Mining.
The response to the call for the first meeting of the PhD school was very positive as PhD candidates from TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TU Delft, and RWTH Aachen University followed the invitation and a prospect candidate for a future PhD from Sonic Samp Drill joined as well. On the first day of this convention the candidates had time to get acquainted with each other and share expectations about the PhD school program. After an exhausting brainstorming and the following clustering, the candidates met up later that night again for a joint dinner and subsequent get together. Not only was it therefore possible to exchange on a professional level but also on a more personal level including one’s individual experiences in different PhD programs.
The following day was used to further process and refine the PhD candidate’s expectations and mould them into proper goals to be achieved by the PhD school program. Five main goals were defined for which the PhD school will help develop in the future: Firstly the PhD school should serve as a platform for networking and secondly for technical exchange also outside the scope of the Real-Time Mining project. Furthermore the desire to improve one’s soft skills was expressed. This includes the exchange of personal experiences as well as hands on training regarding areas like presentation skills and project leadership to name only a few. Fourthly the dissemination of research results was one of the key aspects. Lastly, goals for the time after the Real-Time Mining research projects as well as the individual PhD dissertations were established. These include alumni networks and mentoring of new members.
Moreover on the second day, time was used to contemplate about concrete future plans for the PhD School regarding organisation, financing and future meetings. Only for 2016, already two more meetings were scheduled and a two meetings per year cycle was agreed upon. As for organisation David Horner of TU Bergakademie Freiberg was named spokesman and head of the PhD School program.
By the end of the second day all members of the first PhD School party were exhausted but happy for all the work undertaken in these two days. Successfully a program was drafted and will be used as a road map for the constitution of the of the PhD School program in the future. It was already felt that through the intense exchange and discussions, personal developments were achieved. Of course this is not yet a measure for the success of the program but it is a promising indicator. The next meeting will be held in June and takes place at TU Delft. All PhD candidates involved in the Real-Time Mining research projects that could not attend the first meeting are more than welcome to join the program at future meetings.
Fig. 1: Written and collected expectations for the PhD School of the different candidates
Fig. 2: Full scale discussions of the PhD candidates
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 641989 Seite 1 von 2