The PhDCast: Recent Episodes
CBIS GPA
Welcome to the PhDCast! We are a group of PhD students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that are here to discuss everything grad school, bringing in personal experiences to give unsolicited advice on issues that we face. Tune in every week for a new episode!
Diego Machado-Reyes and Nicole Gomez-Avila take over the episode to speak with Dr. Andres Munoz-Rojas from the BME department. He talks about his ongoing research at RPI, what its like to start a new lab from scratch, and his experience as an international researcher. The second half of the episode is carried out in spanish, their native tongue!
We have Dr. Osama Rais joining us to answer some of our questions about quantum computing and what it is doing for science.
What the skibidi? We attempt to translate gen alpha colloquialisms in science then fall way off topic. Major negative auro. Send us emails at cbisgpa.phdcast@gmail.com. Please we're running out of ideas. Ohio
We stranded on a desert island this week and we need some reading material to pass the time. I hope no unsavory pirates appear.
Join Frank, Noah, and Brycelyn as they talk about the connections between art and science
Chris Wiedeman form the Electrical Engineering department comes to discuss how AI is being used to improve medical imaging
CBIS GPA President Diego Machado joins us to share his research revolving around predictive AI in helping diagnoses of patients. This is the part part of a 3 part series on computation in medicine and biology.
On this episode Frank, Noah, and Brycelyn talk about some of their favorite science conspiracy theories. Will they debunk them or fall victim?
Lucas Sutton comes on to discuss his recent experience on conducting research in a national lab
Sonya, an RPI alum, comes on to share her insights on product development, commercialization, and design thinking.
For PhD Cast Bingo use this link:https://rpiexchange-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/machad_rpi_edu/Ee6eprJGkW9CtIeJwFTcsrABBVd1PrWL7gkodvD69GFPrQ?e=Lcjwjo
Meet Dr. Genevieve Grivas, a recent grad from our department, to talk about which softwares were the most useful throughout her degree. We also compare and contrast wet lab and computational work and analysis techniques!
We brought in our two friends, Diego Machado Reyes and Noah Allen, to talk about what it was like starting a PhD program in the middle of a global pandemic.
Ah, we're finally back - but with a little change! But, we'll be back to regular scheduling this week :)
Happy New Year! We are back with our final roast of the season, our very own Micah Rambo! Well, it's not really much of a roast, but it's still a fun one!
Time to roast the third member of the PhDCast, but who was that again? Our agreeable acquaintance, Nate faces the music for his, silence during the podcast, lack of social media and for never hanging out with us!
Happy Halloween! In our special Halloween episode, we bring back our friends, Rob and Sam, to talk about some scary lab stories, from bloody equipment to necromancy!
From not having fun in undergrad to not having fun now, Meghan roasts herself with a couple of chip-ins from hosts Nate and Micah along with special guest Meghan's Fiancé Jake!
We're back with another series for you to get to know us better, but we're putting someone in the hot seat. Listen to learn about what makes Ahmad so roast-worthy: he's long-winded, he's homeless, and more!
Nate, Ahmad, Meghan, and Micah sit down with Dr. Eric Ledet to discuss the importance of cross disciplinary communication, entrepreneurship, the price you pay for poor communication, and how to keep track of your long-term goals.
Meghan and Micah continue their discussion with Jess and Sam about what happens after you receive the NSF GRFP. How much do things change from your proposal, how much freedom do you have, where does McDonald’s fit into the mix, and how to be balanced!?
It's fellowship app season! We're bringing in our good friends and NSF Fellows, Jess Funnell and Sam Stephen, to talk about what their application process looked like (a little unconventional for some).
In this episode, we continue our discussion with Rob Culibrk about navigating and thriving in your first year of grad school.
opening/closing music: Hot Coffee by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/qhwjph
We're back! Starting off the new season with some friendly advice with Rob Culibrk on how to prep for grad school applications.
In the last episode of this season, Dr. Deepak Vashishth, the Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at RPI, talks about his experience as an international graduate student.
Our last story time episode for this season! This time, Ahmad, Meghan, Micah, and Nate share some of their recently developed hobbies in grad school and talk about the importance of having hobbies in grad school, and how they can turn into obsessions.
Back to storytime, this time we see what it is like getting “rich”? Micah, Nate, and Meghan discuss how the transition from paying for school to getting paid for school was for each of them!
Is being co-advised a good idea? In this storytime episode, Nate shares his experience being co-advised and Meghan and Micah help him break down the pros and cons.
We're back with another story time episode! This time, Meghan, with some help from Nate and Micah, talks about her experience when her advisor moved universities last year. Tune in to hear about what that transition was like during a pandemic.
Getting a Ph.D. can be hard enough without balancing a relationship on top of it all. In this episode, Dr. Anna Smallwood discusses her experiences with relationships during her Ph.D. and offers advice that she learned the hard way.
Being an international student studying in a foreign country can be challenging and exhilarating at the same time. In this episode, our international students discuss what its like to study in the U.S., including hot takes on American cuisine, culture, and customs.
We welcome our three good friends, Tasnif Rahman, Haokang Zhang, and Bowen Wang to talk about their experiences as international students. In this episode, we discuss visa issues and how it affects grad school progress.
In today's episode, we feature our own Colleen Smith, who is our Dean of Graduate Student Experience. She talks through the current issues with grad students face when dealing with in an academic setting and resources we should use to make sure we advocate for ourselves.
In the second part of our Drinking With Doctors series, Dr. Kulwatno and Dr. Smallwood talk about what it was like getting ready to defend while balancing a job search.
In our first episode of our Drinking with Doctors series, we invited our own Dr. Anna Smallwood and our good friend Dr. Jonathan Kulwatno to talk about what it was like to graduate and apply for jobs during the pandemic.
It's really easy to look at the success of your peers and feel like you are falling behind, but every lab, every project, and every student is different. In this episode, we discuss how we track our own progress and making sure we hit our PhD milestones.
Doubting yourself and feeling like a fraud (aka imposter syndrome) is a problem many grad students struggle with. In this episode, we discuss our own experiences with imposter syndrome as well as a few ways that we combat it.
In the second part of our recruitment series, we will be talking about the essential questions you should be asking faculty and grad students during the weekend. We also point out some red flags to be on the look out for when trying to pick a school and lab.
In the first part of our two part series on graduate school recruitment, we will be discussing how to prepare for recruitment and interviews, including etiquette and how to sell yourself.
Meet the hosts of The PhDCast! We are all PhD students/alum from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and part of the CBIS Graduate and Post-Doctoral Association on campus.