It's now Dr. GadgetMan

Yes, that's right, you heard me. I successfully defended my PhD today with just minor changes. Finally, after 5 long, hard, blood and sweat years, I've been able to arrive at this milestone in my life. Thanks to everyone my family and my committee for being there and supporting me. And especially thanks God for providing me the strength to do the PhD, God is so awesome. Also, my wife who has always supported me in everything I do, thanks honey!

Finishing the final preparations for my PhD defense

I'm right now finishing up my preparations and rehearsal of my talk for my PhD defense tomorrow at 10 am. I hope everything goes well. Please pray for me in your prayers tonight and tomorrow, and once I know the result of my defense I will let you all know on this blog, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Plaxo, MSN, Google Talk and all my other social networks.

Heading back to Toronto today

Yes, that's right. I'm just doing the last stuff for packing back to Toronto and then preparing for my PhD defense on Monday! I'm so ecstatic, so please pray for me to have a safe trip back to Toronto, and a successful defense for Monday!

PhD defense in 1 week!

It's 1 week left and counting until I go back to Toronto to do my PhD defense! Boy does time fly fast. I'm busy now doing the preparation for my defense. I've been waiting for this moment for 5 years and finally I'm at the final stage. Please pray for me that it will be a successful defense, I've gone through a lot the past 5 years (you can probably read from my blog). Thanks to my loving parents for supporting me in this journey and also my especially loving wife who has supported me in my PhD ever since we first met when I started my PhD, and continues to support me in our move to Beijing and my work at Nokia Research Center. She has been the rock upon which I have been able to lay upon through all the challenges and tribulations.

Even though my dad is not here with me (as he passed away in March), I know that he is proud of me as I'm following in his footsteps of getting a PhD. Dad, watch over me and provide me the strength in my defense.

I'll let you know the outcome of my PhD defense on November 3.

My paper published in New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia and preparing for PhD defense

First of all, apologies for not writing to my blog for a while, I've been extremely busy finishing off the thesis, doing work for Nokia Research Center Beijing, and travelling. I just came back from a business trip last week to Helsinki, Finland talking about my research for Nokia about Web 2.0 and social networks.

Anyways, I have great news to say that my paper on Automatic detection of cohesive subgroups within social hypertext: A heuristic approach has been published in the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, a top-tiered journal for hypertext. I'm so ecstatic!

I'm currently busy now preparing for my PhD defense which happens in about 2 weeks. I can't believe that I'm almost towards the end of the PhD after about 5 roller-coaster years. It is just a great feeling to know that all these 5 years were all worth it, for my career. Then, everyone of you call me Dr. GadgetMan!

PhD thesis has been sent!

My PhD thesis has finally been done and sent,whew! All those late nights for the past couple of weeks. Now, I just have to prepare for my defense which is on November 3. Meanwhile, it's Chinese national holiday for this week so I've been postponing this and my wife and I's one year wedding anniversary until I finished sending the thesis. I can now take a break and relax for the rest of this week!

To all those in China, have a happy, safe, and relaxing holidays! Guo xing jie kuai le (yes, I'm practicing my Mandarin, it's been actually much better since 2 months ago!)

Social networking researcher danah boyd joining Microsoft Research

Just read this from the SOCNET mailing list which was sent by Barry Wellman. danah boyd (yes the lower case spelling is intentional), who is known for studies on Friendster and MySpace, and studying the youth in using these social networking services and acting as advisor to many companies and in politics, is going to join Microsoft Research in Boston in January 2009. danah wrote up about this on her own blog, Zephoria.

I think this is great for her and for Microsoft. She mentions how she will be directing her own research and how MSR is a great fit for her after she met with the MSR folks. Congratulations danah and keep us posted with your research.

And yes, I understand about the dissertation because I'm also in the same boat with finishing up the changes so I'll be ready for the defense.

PhD final defense scheduled!

Finally, the PhD is near its end after 5 years. I just scheduled my PhD final defense for November 3. It feels great that I'm going to graduate soon and start a full time job. I have accepted a full time job in Nokia Research in Beijing, China which should be exciting and challenging. I'll be moving with my wife to Beijing. Maybe I'll be able to see the Olympics while I'm there.

Just need to finish minor changes and flow in the dissertation.

As I reminisce on my PhD years, what I've learned is that a PhD prepares you for life, it's not about the degree, it's about the experience and skillset that you gain. You go to conferences, you practice your talks, you meet other people, you socialize with other researchers, you work on interesting projects, you improve your writing skills by writing papers, and you cooperate with other students and faculty. It is such an enriching experience. It isn't without its ups and downs, but its the ups and downs that make it all worthwhile.