miiu0751

I am a first year PhD student in a Comp Sci program. The program is devised such that you are assigned an advisor upon admittance, but you're not expected to do research immediately (funding via TA-ships). Further, they allow you to switch advisors fairly easily. I've come into the program from mathematics and neuroscience, but with no distinct research interests. They allow you to develop your research interests over the first year of the program during coursework, seminars, etc. If it turns out you've been assigned to an advisor that can facilitate these interests, great! If not, you may readily switch to another advisor given their approval. The good thing is that I've been honing in on the research areas of CS that I find thrilling and very much want to pursue seriously for my research: deep learning and artificial intelligence; specifically, spanning the gap between comp neuro and deep learning / ML. The problem is that, as it turns out, my university lacks faculty that operate in these domains. There are one or two that work with neural networks and deep learning, but they apply the tools to topics that I haven't the slightest interest in. The question is, "What do I do?" I have two advisors, and both of them are absolutely fantastic people. They want me to start doing research this semester, and have obliged me to take their courses. Multiple problems: First, I don't want to engage in research that isn't of interest to me (why would I put myself through the hell of a PhD to do something I don't want to do?). I don't want to waste my time, and I don't want to waste theirs. The problem is that they are a bit assertive, and I'm not. I don't know how to tell them I'm just not that into their research - despite how incredibly accommodating they've been for me. Second, I have sat in their classes for the first week and I am just not feeling it. I would rather take other interesting classes that would definitely benefit me more. If I drop their classes, that's effectively dropping them as advisors. And here's a big problem: I cannot drop them as advisors because I do not have another faculty that can supplant them. As mentioned above, simply no one is doing research remotely close to what I'm interested in doing. I've drafted a few options, but I am unsure of what is reasonable. Before I enumerate them I should quickly mention that I have been able to get my offer from another university reinstated and I can begin Fall 2017. The program is in applied mathematics, but it will get me where I need to be. Further, that university has an exceptional CS department that has many people working on the problems I want to work on, and a number of those faculty happen to teach a few of the A math classes. Options 1. Bite the bullet and remain miserable for this semester in the hopes that things get better (but how could they?). 2. Bite the bullet and pump out one paper with current advisors this semester (we have a March deadline), do some summer research with them, then leave my current program and start at the other program, effectively starting from scratch (which I don't mind all that much). 3. Drop both of their classes, take classes I'm happier with and that are more technical and beneficial, do something over the summer, then begin the alternative program. 4. Either beginning option for 2 and 3, but then take a leave of absence from my current program, go to other program and finish the master's, feel it out for a PhD there, and if it backfires I will have gotten the mathematical foundations I've been yearning for and I can return to my current program to pick up a second master's at minimum. At best, my research interests will have swung back into alignment with someone at my current program at that point in the future. 5. Either beginning option for 2 and 3, switch from a PhD student down to a Master's student in my current program, have no stress of needing to do research I don't want to do and just do the coursework master's, finish, then apply to a PhD program at a place that coincides with exactly what I want to do with my life. I have fairly strong academics, NASA internships, have done very well in the program currently, and have done quality work (so-far) that my current advisors are quite happy with. The problem is that I don't want to continue on in this fashion. As a friend told me, life is short and I should be spending it doing what I want. Or put another way, since I'm not exactly sure what I want: Life is short, and I shouldn't be spending it doing what I don't want. Does anyone have any advice for my lost soul? If so, I would immensely appreciate some outside input to the rumbling chaos that's internally churning away and gnawing at my motivation levels. Thanks for reading this!