How to start your postgraduate study?

PowerLab-101: How to start your postgraduate study?

This page is intended for my existing undergraduate/graduate students, especially for the new ones. Please don’t hesitate to ask any problems you encountered to me or to your colleagues. You can find useful links at the bottom of this page.

1-Get Familiar with the Research Group Members

Meet with the research group members and talk to them about their research topics
Join to the PowerLab mail-list, and relevant WhatsApp groups (ask your friends how to join them).
Visit PowerLab offices and labs: C-114, ARC-300, E-101, Machinery Lab, Power Electronics Lab, Ground Lab etc.
Join to (or better organize) social events.
Get familiar with the laboratory equipments we have, software we use and meet with the technicians.
Be an proactive member, and don’t be afraid to meet to new people.

2-Improve your Software Skills

a) Version Control

It is your responsibility to back-up your data, I don’t want to hear any excuses on that.
Learn about version controlling and learn how to use Git. You don’t have to be an expert just learn the very basic stuff first.
Get an account from GitHub, and follow me, make sure I follow you as well.
Join to the GitHub ODTU teams and have a look at the existing repos, if you can’t access any repos ask for permission.
Open a repo for your research work and use it as your scratch pad. Keep all your important files, documents and codes there (only exception is large files such as FEA files).
I expect you to keep your repo updated (for a few examples: Eliftplgl, Ekremturanfirat, Ozgurgulsuna
It is good to have a weekly to do list, so I can follow your progress.
Use meaningful commit messages so I can understand what you are working on.

b) Following Recent Publications

It is your responsibility to follow latest papers in your research area.
Get familiar with Google Scholar and IEEExplore.
Scan new journal issues and conference proceedings for your research interests.
Set up Google Scholar Alerts to discover latest publications.
Scan relevant papers using the cited by feature.
Don’t store hundreds of PDFs in random folders, instead use a proper reference management software.
Although you are free to use any reference management software, I encourage you to use Mendeley.

c) To Do Lists

It is your responsibility to have an efficient method for tracking your to do items.
In the research group, we use GitHub Projects and use GitHub issues to track and manage projects.
We use (at least try to use) Kanban project management method. Please have a look at my blog on project management for more information.
Although digital methods is convenient, I still advise you to have a regular notebook for capturing your ideas and keeping your experimental results.

d) Efficient Writing Tools

Learn how to use LaTeX.
The quickest way to start using LaTeX is online editors. I advise OverLeaf
Once you have a grasp of it, it is always better to have a local LaTeX installed in your computer.
Use a good text editor. I personally use Vim, but you can use Sublime Text, Visual Studio etc.
Start writing your thesis in LaTeX and keep it in a GitHub repo.
Spend some time to have standard figures, have legible axis labels and numbers.
Learn the difference between vector and bitmap images. Don’t use “print screen” in your documents.

e) Be a Proficient AI User

Learn how to integrate AI tools into your research work but not blindly accept what it presents.
In our research group we commonly use Claude Cowork, several people also uses Gemini for Students
Do not use them just as a chat screen, learn how to use AI agents, build AI agents
It is also possible to integrate AI tools with Github, such as Claude, or Github Copilot

3- Get Advice from Others

Don’t just take my word (in fact don’t just take my word for anything), and talk to your colleagues and keep reading useful essays. Here are a few links for a start:

Useful Links

Here are a few useful links, that you can use later on:

Software Tips
Önce Küfür Sonra Teşekkür
IS500
Digital Research Tools
AI Research Tools
Top AI Tools for Research Note: Remember this page is kept in a GitHub repo. If there are any dead-links or any extra links that you think should be in this page, just send me a pull request.