Parisa Kordjamshidi

My mentoring plan for PhD students

I have created a document outlining my lab policies, which is shared with all incoming students. The priority is to maintain a socially healthy environment that fosters an excellent learning and research experience for students and all lab members, where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. To ensure scientific and research progress, I hold regular weekly meetings with mentees. In these meetings, I discuss the conducted work, research results, challenges faced by the student, and possible solutions. We brainstorm, identify the next steps, and determine the resources or information that need further exploration. The student ensures they have received enough guidance and are clear on how to proceed with the next steps. The students create brief semester-long research plans with the advisor to set the goals. Moreover, the students write brief weekly reports by Email summarizing their work, challenges, and potential plans. We also set annual deadlines for the submission of research results to conferences or journals. Plans and milestones are created to meet these deadlines. We discuss the courses students need to take to acquire the required knowledge and skills. We hold weekly group meetings where students present their research to their group mates and discuss their progress and challenges. We hold reading group meetings where students review interesting papers and discuss the published ideas and results. The students are encouraged to participate in local, national, and international conferences, workshops and other scientific venues to enhance their learning and networking. Students are encouraged to gain experience outside the university through summer internships. However, if they decide to work in the HLR lab during the summer, usually they are supported by either a TA or RA position.