Changing My Research Problem

Last month, I was assigned my researcher supervisor. He had a well defined research problem in the area of Contract Theory and based on our preliminary discussions I decided to work on that. My General Test Committee (GTC) has been constituted and my zeroth GTC meeting will be on June 14, 2012, in which I would have to defend my research proposal on relational contracts. So I had already started reading research papers in this area. Meanwhile I attended a talk on cooperative game theory, given by none other than my research supervisor. He introduced the topic nicely and also discussed few research problems. After the talk, I went to his office and straight away told him that I want to work in the area of cooperative game theory and not on relational contracts. Initially he was not convinced because changing a research problem is not a good idea, but later he agreed. So I was once again back to square one. Before defining the new problem, I had to first study the basic concepts of game theory and so my research journey started with the self study of following reading resources:

• [Book] Multiagent Systems: Algorithmic, Game Theoretic and Logical Foundations by Yoav Shoham and Kevin Leyton Brown.
• [Book] A Course in Game Theory by Osborne and Rubinstein.
• [Book] Real Mathematical Analysis by Charles Chapman Pugh.
• [Lecture Notes] Cooperative Games by Stephane Airiau, ILLC-University of Amsterdam

I had been reading some research papers also by Laszlo Koczy, Lucas and Thrall, Myerson, etc., but I found it difficult to comprehend. Finally with the help of my research supervisor, I defined my new research problem which is about developing a solution concept for the stability of cooperative games with externalities.  

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Choosing My Research Guide

Almost three months are over and I am still not able to decide whom to choose as my research guide. Today I talked to almost all faculties in Operations. Now, I have to give 3 names as my guide's preference and the final name will be decided by the HoD, which is usually the one whom you have given your first preference. According to S. E. Widnall, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science - "The adviser is the primary gatekeeper for the professional self-esteem of the student, the rate of progress toward the degree, and access to future opportunities". Generally, the following points should be kept in mind while choosing a guide.

• What is your research area? Does it match with the research area of the professor? If there are more than one such professors, see who is having a well defined research problem. Because an already well defined research problem will save your time. - This should be the most important criteria.
• How are his past students performing? What is his expectations from his students in terms of no. of journal papers? How much time his past students have taken to graduate? Some professors have inherent tendency of delaying your degree irrespective of how good you are doing. It is always good to avoid such professors.
• Should you choose a senior professor or a very young assistant professor? - Now there is a trade-off. Young professors usually give more time to you, they will be helping a lot and be very friendly to you. Senior professors are so busy and inaccessible, that most of the time you will be feeling helpless. Depending upon their reputation, their research expectations from you will be very high and it further increases your pain. However, senior professors always have very good contacts and it will be very easy for you to get a good placement after graduation, which is a bit difficult in case of working with an young professor.

Now I think I have done enough research on this, it's time to finalize the names. I am going to submit the 3 names tomorrow in the HoD Office.

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MS (by Research) in Management - IIT Madras

Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras is perhaps the only institution in India, which offers MS (by Research) programme in management. The following write-up is based on my experience as an MS student at the department.

About the Programme

It is a post graduate, a specialized research oriented degree. It is very much different from MBA which is a taught programme. In this programme, apart from the course work, students also work on a thesis and publish their work in reputed journals and refereed conference proceedings. Duration of the programme varies from 1.5 years to 3 years. After completion of the degree, a majority of students go for  PhD, while some of them opt for campus placement.

Admission Process

You have to write any graduate level competitive exam like CAT/XAT/MAT/GATE/GRE/GMAT. Based on your score in any of these exams and your overall academic profile, you will be shortlisted for the next process which includes two rounds of interviews. First round is technical, which is completely based on your proposed research area. In this round you may have to defend your research proposal also, if asked. This is a screening round because a bulk of the candidates are rejected at this stage and very few are shortlisted for the next round which is personal interview. Final result is based on your performance in the interviews. Your academics and score in a competitive exam has no role in the final selection.

After Joining

Once you join, you have to undergo coursework. As per the credit requirement for coursework (16 credits), one has to complete 5 core courses and 3 elective courses, but you are free to take as many courses as you want, if your guide permits. After 2-3 months into the programme, you will have to choose your research supervisor and your supervisor will constitute a general test committee (GTC). By the end of the 1st semester, you have to propose your research problem to the GTC. So you will be parallely doing your research work along with the course work. Here some students continue doing coursework for 1.5 years and put less effort in the research work. As a result they take around 2.5-3 years to complete the degree. It is suggested that instead of taking extra courses, the major focus should be research. Publication in refereed conference proceedings and peer reviewed journals is not mandatory for MS, but almost every student does that. The main reason is that it gives your thesis reviewer an impression that your work is good enough and hence your thesis is accepted easily.

Financial Assistance

If you are admitted in HTRA category (e.g. through GATE exam), you will be given Rs.8000/month. A financial assistance of Rs. 1.5 lakhs is available for attending an international conference and Rs. 10,000/year for attending conferences in India.

Life during MS at DoMS

I will divide the life of an MS at DoMS into two parts: during coursework & after coursework. 

When you are doing coursework, the life is hectic. Usually a day starts with attending lectures with MBAs at 8am. Almost everyday, you will have to be ready for a number of assignments, case studies, surprise quizzes, etc. Some courses which are offered only for research scholars at DoMS and some courses which are offered in other departments of IIT (e.g. Maths or Computer Science Department) are helpful from research point of view, otherwise MBA courses are not of much help. Depending upon your GTC recommendation, you do take those courses also which require very serious effort for getting good grades. You will also be doing some part time work in library and other HTRA duties, if assigned.

Once your coursework is over, life is too easy. You are given complete freedom to do your research work. You will have 24x7 access to the lab. There is no compulsion of 85% attendance. Depending upon your research supervisor, you will be meeting and updating him/her about your research progress once in a week or two weeks. You will also be working towards publishing your work or sending a paper in a conference. If you work as a TA (teaching assistant) with a professor, then sometime you will be taking lectures for MBAs or B.Tech students, correcting quiz papers, conducting tutorials, etc.

Overall, I must say it's a very enriching experience.

Towards the End of the Programme

Once you complete around 1.5-2 years, you have two important things to do - (1) Publish your work. (2) It depends on your career plan after MS. If you want to go for a PhD degree, write GRE/GMAT and start applying to the universities of your choice. If you want to opt for industry job, then prepare yourself for the campus placement. MS has its own merits and demerits for industry job. Placement usually happens with MBAs at the department level and with other PGs at the institute level. At IIT Madras, a regular taught programme like MBA or M.Tech is more preferred by recruiters than a research programme like MS for a generalist profile. However, for a specialized profile some companies give priority to MS students, but the number of such companies visiting the campus is very less. 

After MS

This programme makes you highly competitive in research field. It gives you enough training for a smooth PhD degree ahead. It also equips you with necessary domain skills required for industrial research which an MBA may not have.

Some Suggestions

Entry into the MS programme is said to be easy as compared to MBA. But, getting the final degree is not easy. You have to do research and publish it. Do not join this programme unless you have some interest in research. If your only aim is to get a job in industry, you better try MBA. At IIT Madras, an MS student, if performing well, is given an opportunity to upgrade into PhD. If you want to join for PhD here and since a fresh PhD admission is a little bit difficult, you can first join the MS programme and later upgrade into PhD.

P.S. If you have any further query, write in the comment box below.

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My Interview Experience at DoMS, IIT Madras

Date: 17/11/2011, Reporting Time: 9:00AM, Venue: Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.
Programme: MS (by Research) , Specialization: Operations Management

ROUND-1: TECHNICAL 

(Based on the specialization, Interview Panel: M1, M2, M3, M4, F1, F2)

Me: (Entering into the room) Good morning sirs! (Only M1, M2 and M4 were there.)

M1: Good morning. Take your seat.

Me: Thank you sir.

M1: How is it all the way from Gopalganj to Kochi?

Me: (Actually Gopalganj is my native place and I did my B.Tech in Kochi. So... bla..bla..bla)

M1: You are late by 2 and ½ hours?

Me: (Due to heavy rain and traffic congestion, it took 2 hours for a 30 min. travelling distance. However I didn’t give any excuse and simply said "sorry")

M1: Have you applied anywhere other than IIT Madras?

Me: Yes sir, at IIT Delhi.

M1: Which department? Mechanical or Management?

Me: In the department of mechanical engineering.

M1: But here you have applied for management. First be sure about your career objective. I think you just want a seat in IIT and not interested in MS seriously.

Me: Sir, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi offers MS in Industrial Engineering and that’s why I’ve applied there. I’ve decided to study Operations or Industrial Engineering during MS, because of my interest in the subject.

M4: What are you doing currently?

Me: Sir, I am working in a Ranchi based EPC company as a Graduate Engineer Trainee.

M3: EPC? What is this?

Me: Sir, Engineering Procurement and Construction. This type of company basically... (M4 interrupted with a question.)

M4: Why do you want to leave your present job?

Me: Sir, my present job doesn’t come into the picture, when I think about my long term career goal. I’ve always been better in management papers which I had in my B.Tech.

M4: MBA could be a good option. Why MS? By the way, what is your long term goal?

Me: Sir, MS is research oriented and I see it as a strong foundation for Ph.D. As Ph.D is my next target, MS best suits to me than MBA.

M1: Coming to your area of specialization, what do you know about Operations Management?

Me: (Just defined the term.)

M1: Tell us some topics of your choice, so that we can ask some questions.

Me: Inventory Control, Material Requirement Planning, Scheduling… (M1 interrupted with a question).

M1: What is the formula for Economic Lot Quantity?

Me: (asked him to be more specific) Sir, for which inventory model?

M1: Any model.

Me: (Wrote EOQ formula for basic inventory model and explained the terms.)

M1: What is the production model of inventory problems?

Me: (Explained with graph and mathematical expressions.) 

(There were continuous questions by M1 from the following topics: Safety Stock, Selective control techniques, MRP I & MRP II, Exponential Smoothening. All questions were answered satisfactorily except MRP II. )

M1: You had Operations Research in your B.Tech? Which topics do you like most in OR?

Me: Sir, Linear Programming. (Told only one topic)

M1: What is linear about Linear Programming? Why is it called so?

Me: It is called linear, because decision variables always occur in 1st degree. (incorrect answer).

F2: Are you sure?

Me: In linear programming problems, all the constraints are linear function of decision variables. (still incorrect answer)

F2: Solve this problem. Max X1X2; X1+X2 ≤ 4, X1, X2 ≥ 0. Is it an LPP?

Me: Yes, ma’am it is an LPP. (Again a big mistake, it is not an LPP, had a lot of discussions on this problem, but couldn’t get what they wanted to hear from me.)

F2: (Shouted at me!) Draw the graph of X1X2 = 1. Is it linear?

Me: No ma’am, it is hyperbolic. (With this hint, I got the point and cleared the funda quickly.)

M2: What is the fundamental principle of Linear Programming?

Me: I don’t know sir.

M2: Do you know any probability distribution?

Me: (Asked in doubt) Sir, probability distribution related to Linear Programming?

F2: (Shouted again!) Why do you ask such a non sense question?

Me: Sorry ma’am. (Answering to M2) Sir, I know Poisson’s, Normal and Binomial distributions.

M2: What is the probability of getting 7 Heads out of 10 Tosses of a coin? Which distribution law do you use to solve this problem?

Me: (Solved using Binomial distribution).

M4: Draw Joule’s Cycle on PV Diagram.

Me: Sir, Joule Cycle is nothing but the first law of thermodynamics. It can’t be drawn. (Bell Colleman Cycle in refrigeration is also called Joule cycle which can be drawn easily, but I didn’t know that.)

M4: No, Try to draw.

Me: Sorry sir, it can’t be drawn.

F1: What are ABC and VED?

Me: (Explained easily. Forgot, what ‘D’ stands for in VED.)

F1: You had a paper called Industrial Management in your B.Tech. (Going through my mark sheets) What have you learnt in that paper?

Me: Organization, Human Resources, Financial management, Marketing

F1: What have you studied in Finance?

Me: Breakeven Analysis, Costing and Budgeting, IRR, Payback… (Murmured some more topics, but she didn’t ask any question further.)

M4: One last question to you, why do you choose Operations Management as your MS specialization?

Me: (Expected question.) Told about my interest, past performance and my B.Tech. project.

F1: Whatever you are saying has nothing to do with operations management. Do you really know the meaning of Operations?

Me: (Added some more points) Told about vendor management, purchasing, etc. (F1 agreed this time.)

M1: (To others in the panel) Any question? (No one said “Yes”)

M1: Thank you Rajeev. Your interview is over. You may go now.

Me: Thank you very much.

[Note: Result of ROUND-1 was declared at 1:00PM. I was one among 12 candidates shortlisted for the next round.]

ROUND-2: GENERAL PI 

(Interview Panel: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, F1)

Me: (Entering into the room) Good afternoon Sirs. Good afternoon ma’am.

Sirs: Good afternoon.

M1: Rajeev from Ranchi, right?

Me: No sir, I am from Gopalganj, working in Ranchi.

M1: What is Gopalganj famous for?

Me: Sir, Jiradei, a village near Gopalganj is the birth place of the first citizen of independent India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Gopalganj is also the home town of Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. 

M2: Who is the son of Ranchi? (Suddenly thrown a question. Think World Cup!)

Me: Sir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

M1: OK! Tell me about yourself very briefly.

Me: (I told…)

M4: (Interrupted) How did you get admission in CUSAT?

Me: (Told about CUSAT-CAT…)

M3: How do you find Kerala different from your home state?

Me: (.bla..bla..bla..)

M2: What is your motivation behind higher study and why MS?

Me: Sir, I don’t want to be treated as a commodity by corporate world. I want to be the master of myself and an expert of my own field.

M1: So, you will become an expert after MS?

Me: After MS, I will go for Ph.D. (M3 interrupted-“Oh! Then you will become an expert”, everyone laughed.) Sir, learning is a lifelong process. So continuous learning can only let you gain some of the expertise. I think MS and Ph.D. are just milestones of this process.

M2: Suppose, I am a student of MS (Operations) and my area of research interest is “inventory management”. Think yourself as my research guide and suggest me a good topic for my research work.

Me: Sir, inventory basically… (M2 interrupted-“I am your student. Don’t call me Sir”.). OK! You know inventory basically deals with commodities in stores which are to be used for further process. Human resource is also treated like commodities in organizations. It will be a matter of great concern, if you could think about developing some theories to deal with inventory problem of human resources. (Something crap came to my mind and I said)

M2: Typical inventory theories can also be applied to manage human resources like other commodities. Why don’t you think something better?

Me: I don’t think typical inventory theories give correct result when applied to deal with human resources. In such type of problems recruitment cost and wages of labors- these two look analogous to ordering cost and holding cost respectively but apart from these two, the Economic lot size must depend on certain other factors also. Moreover since recruitment cost is negligibly small as compared to labor’s wages, typical EOQ formula is totally ruled out as it doesn’t consider such type of case. (I had to say something in favor of my crappy research idea, that’s it!)

M2: Oh! It sounds too conventional and already a lot of HR management books are flooded with such theories. Why don’t you suggest me something else?

Me: (I was mute for a minute, but everyone was waiting for my answer) Sir, as per my knowledge of this subject (oh! I again said Sir) and whatever I’ve studied about inventory management, I find that most of the inventory models deal with deterministic problems very well. A lot of theories have been developed for such type of problems. As compared to that, I find that there is no proper theory to deal with inventory problem of perishable items correctly. Some better stochastic theories can be developed in this area.

M2: Yea! OK.

M3: Have you heard about NPTEL?

Me: No sir. (a miscommunication! I heard “NPTL”.)

M3: A quizzing enthusiast has such a poor general knowledge! (During my introduction, I had said that I am a quizzing enthusiast.) You should be knowing about NPTEL. (Now I heard “NPTEL”)

Me: Oh! NPTEL. It stands for National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. It is an educational programme run by IISc Banglore and 7 older IITs, which offers free online access to video lectures and other course contents on 42 core areas of engineering and science to improve the quality of technical education in India.

M3: There are more than 200 topics not just 42. Well! Have you used those courses ever?

Me: Yes sir, I used to refer video lectures and notes of some of the topics like Operations research, Thermodynamics, Strength of materials, etc during my B.Tech. (actually NPTEL is very popular in CUSAT)

M4: Have you seen any of us in those video lectures?

Me: (Looking at M2) Sir, I’ve watched your lectures.

M2: Oh! Mine, which topic? Operations Research or Thermodynamics? (Actually I had never seen him before.)

Me: I am not sure about the topic, but I can recall your face. (All laughed. However M2 was Prof. G Srinivasan, whose lecture on Operations Research is the highest viewed NPTEL lecture on Youtube and my guess was correct.)

F1: After MS and Ph.D., what is your next plan?

Me: I want to be a management consultant of my own consultancy.

F1: Don’t you like teaching as a job?

Me: Ma’am, in my opinion teaching is not much different from consultancy job.

M5: (for the first time) Rajeev, don’t act too smart! How can you compare teaching with consultancy job.

Me: Sorry sir. It is just my opinion.

F1: If you are not getting selected today, then what is your backup plan for that?

Me: Ma’am, I haven’t thought about it. Well, I am expecting a call from IIT Delhi for MS in Industrial Engineering. I’m also writing GATE 2012 to improve my score so that next year I could apply here with a higher score and better preparation. Meanwhile, I’ll continue with my present job.

M2: OK Rajeev. Thank you.

Me: Thank you very much.

[Note: Result of ROUND-2 was declared at 5:00PM. Total 7 out of 12 candidates were finally selected. I was the only one selected for Operations.]

PS: Since this has been written based on memory, the order of questions and words used here might be slightly different from the actual interview.

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About me

I am a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from CUSAT of 2007-11 batch. After completing my engineering, I worked in a thermal power plant company for 6 months. Meanwhile I came to know about MS (by Research) in management studies at IIT Madras. It is a research oriented programme, where one can come up with his own research problem and based on that he can choose his own course work. When I browsed through the kind of courses which were being offered across various domains, I found that I should join in operations management, where I can do research in game theory (one of my areas of interest). Being a GATE qualified with satisfactory academic record and having studied some 4-5 operations management related papers in my B.Tech, I easily got selected at IIT Madras. So I left my job and joined IIT Madras in the spring semester of 2012. (Most of the IITs offer MS/Phd admission twice in a year).

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