I am always looking for motivated, enthusiastic and creative students. If you are interested in joining our lab, please read on.
Why Join Our LabThis is an important question to answer. I get lots of emails from applicants who do not even bother to check our work. Unfortunately, many students rely on the ill-advised practice of sending generic inquiry emails to tens if not hundreds of faculty in the hope that one or two research groups will seriously consider them for graduate school. I ignore these emails. I am interested in students who are genuinely excited about our research, and especially those who can show how their interests intersect with our projects in a coherent, specific way. If you can articulate a vision of the future that combines your interests and expertise with ours, we are off to a good start.
Your Skills and AbilitiesA lot of students emphasize where they went to school, their grades, and what programming languages and tools they know. This is all good, and I am interested in this information. But the right away to think about your skills and qualifications is in terms of what you can actually do; this could be writing great code for mobile devices, designing and running user studies, building hardware, coming up with new algorithms, etc.
What You Want to Work OnThis is a critical question. It is understandable if you are not sure what you want to specialize in at this stage, but I hope you have some interests and ideas and are self-driven enough to take the first steps to validate them. Think about it this way: If you are accepted into the program and are given the freedom and resources to work on whatever you want when you join our lab, what would that be? I am looking for students who are creative and do not sit around waiting to be told what to do.
Your AvailabilityMany students, particularly undergraduates, reach out to us at the beginning of the semester full of excitement to join the lab and have a research experience. However, as the semester progresses, students get busier with assignments and exams. So, be honest with yourself about how much time you will be able to dedicate to a research activity. I expect that students will be able to work in the lab multiple days of the week. If you believe that you will be able to put the time and effort to make a difference, we will be more than happy to help you succeed. At this point, working with students remotely is not my preference.
Communication Skills are KeyA big part of being a successful graduate student is having good communication skills. This means writing well, speaking clearly and coherently, and also knowing when to step back and listen. Not everyone is a great communicator; if that's your case, we can help you, of course, but you should be open to the idea of investing the time to get better at it.
Ready and a UT student? Fill out the Prospective Student and/or Researcher Form:Please complete the interest form. Once I receive it, I always aim to review it within a few days and write back to you. If you don't hear back right away, do not be alarmed. Sometimes things get busy, especially during the academic semester; I might be also away on travel. If I decide that you are a good fit for the lab, I will contact you to schedule a meeting.
Yes, we are actively looking for graduate and undergraduate students at this time.
The short answer is yes. But I typically do not fund students to work on research projects unless they have either taken a course I have taught or they have spent at least one semester working on research with me and my students, typically for class credit. Once this criteria has been met, decisions about funding come down to a number of factors such as whether a student is a good fit for a funded project.
If you are looking to become a graduate student, what you should do is formally apply to the Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate program at UT Austin. The application deadline is typically in December. Please keep in mind that I do not review applications year-round. When you apply, please make sure you indicate in your application that you would like to work with me. You can apply to the DICE, SES, or bioECE academic tracks; please review the tracks and choose the one that would be the best fit for you. I review applications in all of these three tracks. During the review process, I check all relevant applications and invite some applicants for a chat. Keep in mind that we receive more applicants than we can admit into the program, and the process is extremely competitive.
If you would like to join the group as a visiting scientist, it might be possible. There is usually no funding for these positions, but we have hosted temporary visitors in our lab who brought their own funding in the past. If you are looking for a postdoc position, first make sure one is available and advertised in the front page of this site. If so, please complete the prospective research form using the link above.
I usually teach one class every semester and I am often looking for a TA or two. I tend to favor students who have TAed in the past and done well, have taken the class and got a good grade, and have been recommended by other faculty in the department. If you would like to apply to be a TA, you need to be in good standing with the department and submit an application using the department TA application system. Please reach out to me or the academic advisors if you are not familiar with the system.