Spotlights from my PhD Journey: Excitements & Crises!

After almost half a decade of research (~4 years), I finally defended my doctoral dissertation. My PhD were filled with events, excitements, and sometimes crises. I traveled to several countries and got to know about new places and cultures. In this article, I am highlighting the main events that shaped me into who I am today. This is directed to prospective students willing to learn more about the PhD journey, or to current PhD students passing through hardships or looking to make their PhD exciting. I organized the article as a set of independent chapters/titles in which the reader can pick the titles that sound interesting.

Pre-PhD: Graduate School Application

“If you want to do anything worthwhile, you have to get HUNGRY!”

Nearing the end of the first semester of my master’s at American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon, I decided to pursue my PhD abroad. For about 6 months, I spent every night checking universities’ websites and reading online forums, such as Quora, about pursuing a PhD abroad. I was the first one in our home to travel to a western country for studying, so I had no idea about how to do it. I checked different programs in distinct countries (Australia, Germany, Sweden, Canada, USA, etc.) while focusing on universities working on renewable energy. I emailed more than 40 professors, and got replies from about 11. Nine of the replies lacked the funding and were welcoming me if I can find an external fund for my PhD. One reply was from Queen’s University in Canada which recommended me to apply to the computing department, but I was not sure how fit I would be, so I did not apply. Finally, a professor at University of Minnesota encouraged me to apply, so I applied there, and that was my only application submitted. I even submitted my application one day before the deadline! This was so risky; If I will do this again, I will consider submitting about 4-5 applications to stay in safe side.

The two books that I was using for my master’s research were written by professors from University of Minnesota, and that was the reason behind my interest in this university. Additionally, the Solar Energy Research Laboratory there is one of the oldest and most famous ones in the world, so Minnesota was like the perfect fit for me (unfortunately, the solar lab was retired 2 years ago, so I ended up working on in a different Lab).

My First Travel to USA: Graduate Recruiting Event

Hello Minneapolis!

Many of the USA universities hold an annual Recruiting Event for prospective graduate students to learn more about the university and the department, and to decide whether to accept the PhD offer or not. On March 2018, I visited USA for 5 days to attend this event after receiving an invitation from University of Minnesota. This was one year prior joining the PhD program, while I was still a master student in Lebanon. The event included introductory sessions about the department, in addition to arranged meetings with the professors. It was also a chance to meet senior students to learn about their research and ask questions (such as what good places are to live at!). It was a very exciting trip, and the department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Minnesota was very generous to fully fund this trip for all incoming students (around 40 students from different countries all over the world). To the left is a selfie I took in front of Graduate Hotel at my early arrival to Minneapolis.

My PhD Advisor Left the University!

Sometimes you need to change your plans!

By the end of my second semester of PhD (Spring 2019), my PhD advisor suddenly decided to leave University of Minnesota and move to an administrative position at a different university. Here, I had to start looking for a new advisor, again! I spent the entire summer meeting with potential advisors and attending their Lab meetings to check the potential fit. Finally, I found my current advisor, Dr. Natasha. Her project was a perfect fit for me (in my opinion!). Natasha was a new professor joining the department, and was looking for a graduate student skilled in numerical computations, and at the same time interested in the energy and desalination industry, which matched my master’s research (focused on solar energy) and my research with my previous advisor on computational fluid dynamics, so I blended my past research within the new project.

To every disadvantage, there is a corresponding advantage. The mechanical engineering department was very supportive when my first advisor left. They offered me one extra semester of funding and was willing to offer more. In other words, they got my back! This made me feel connected to UofM and consider it as a new ‘home’.

Qualifying Exam

The most stressful part of the PhD

?It is not a full doctoral degree story if I did not mention the Qualifying Exams. This is the scariest part of the PhD. Qualifying Exam is an examination required for all doctoral students to prove their preparedness and capabilities to pursue PhD research. Each student has two trails to pass this exam, otherwise, will be pulled out of the PhD program (very serious!). I did this exam during my first semester of PhD (Fall 2018) and passed it successfully on the first trial. The exam is a three-subject exam distributed over three days. For each exam, I entered a room with two examiners (2 professors), each professor gave me a problem to solve on the white board within 20 minutes while explaining and discussing my solution methodology and answering their questions (a total of 40 minutes). It was a super scary experience, and it kept me busy day and night preparing to it for the first 7 weeks of my PhD. Finally, I did it and received my success message email from department.

One year following the Qualifying Exam, I had also to pass the Preliminary Exam (also known as mid-candidacy exam) in which I had to write and present a full research proposal for the upcoming 2-3 years of my PhD. However, this was not a challange for me.

Traveling to India

The international aspect of my research!

After a semester of working with Natasha, we traveled to visit our industry partner in Delhi in January 2020. I was very excited about the international aspect of my PhD project. The trip lasted for 10 days. We were working almost all the time preparing the experimental setup and exploring the company’s facilities, but we still had time to try some Indian food. During the last 2 days of the trip, our friends there took us to visit a historic place called ‘Qutub Minar’, and on the last day I went to visit another historic place called ‘Humayun’s Tomb’, then I travelled back to Minneapolis. To the left is a photo for me at Humayun's Tomb.

COVID-19 & Travelling to Abu Dhabi

It’s O.K. if things go unexpectedly!

During February and March 2020, we received several updates from the UofM Office of President about the spread of COVID-19 virus, and on March 11th, the university suspended the in-person instructions and moved to online working. It was a new experience, that no one expected to live such one. At the beginning, it was an interesting experience, but after that I started to feel isolated.

As my family, at that time, had recently moved from Lebanon to Abu Dhabi in UAE, I decided to visit them there for a couple of weeks; then the 2 weeks ended up being 6 months of remote working from Abu Dhabi. During that time, I was a teaching assistant for Solar Thermal Technologies course. My office hours, as a teacher, started at 11pm Abu Dhabi time, so my nights were turned days and my days turned nights; however, I managed to cope with my teaching duties while keeping my PhD research going. Finally, UofM announced that all employees (including research and teaching assistants) need to get back into US if we want to keep receiving our salaries, so I went back to Minneapolis. But since that time, I continued working remotely from home until I defended my PhD and graduated in October 2022. To the left is a photo for me in front of Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the world’s tallest building).

Winning the NREL Prize and Landing a Research Internship

Dreams can come true!

By the end of Spring 2020 (early months of COVID-19 lockdown), my advisor and me decided to participate in a Solar Desalination research competition organized by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The competition theme was very related to my PhD topic which made us excited about it. After months of preparation, we were finally 1 of 19 winning teams in the Innovation Contest, and we were awarded a funding of $50,000 to continue my PhD research project.

Winning the Innovation Contest helped me to stand out of the crowd and to land an internship at NREL. Working at NREL was a dream for me since I was an undergraduate student in Lebanon. And again, in midst of every crisis lies great opportunity. The positive side of COVID, in addition to visiting my family in Abu Dhabi, was allowing me to work with NREL remotely for 11 months which enabled me to continue my PhD research in parallel.

Traveling to Lebanon for the First Time after 3 Years

It is always good to be home!

It was?the first time to be away from Lebanon for this long time. I traveled back to Lebanon to renew my US visa. It was a very emotional trip, remembering all my old memories. It was a short vacation (just11 days), but filled of activities, energy and trips. Lebanon has changed a lot during those 3 years due to the lockdown, Beirut port explosion, economic crisis, etc. but I still succeeded to have a memorable trip.

Traveling to Gran Canaria, Spain

Viva Espana

The last summer prior my graduation, I traveled to Gran Canaria, Spain, to present my research at the European Desalination Society (EDS) conference. Due to the two years of lockdown, that was my first chance to present in-person at a conference. Gran Canaria was a nice, cozy island. The Corniche area (sidewalk by the beach) was very similar to Beirut Corniche; I even found a Lebanese restaurant there. This conference allowed me to meet with other researchers in the field. One researcher from a European company was very interested about the developed technology in my PhD and was interested to potentially commercialize it. And by the way, that was the first time to see a large farm of wind turbines which was a phenomenal experience for me!

PhD Defense Day

The Big Day!

?After almost half a decade of research (4 years), I was finally ready to defend my doctoral dissertation. My parents came all the way from Abu Dhabi to be with me on this special day. Many of my friends came to attend the defense; almost every other chair in the room was filled, in addition to many friends attending remotely over Zoom. I got several questions from the audience, which was notable and an indication that people understood my presentation and were interested in my work (even my professors noticed and commented on that). The committee on the other hand were satisfied. They described my work as "complete" and praised me for being "very prepared" (they were surprised that I have prepared a 100 backup slides to be ready to answer people’s questions). Finally, I passed without any edits. After the defense, Natasha and my labmates were preparing a small reception with cake and juice to celebrate that day. I am thankful for them, and for my friends who celebrated my success with me. It was a day to remember. The photo to the left shows me with my parents after the defense.