At every stage of your life, it is a good idea to identify one or more mentors, who are people you trust and look up to and who are willing to help you. They may or may not be in the same department or even university. Ideally, this role should be filled by your advisor, but having other mentors as well can only help. (It is not uncommon that the relationship with the advisor be bumpy, bouncing from respect and passion to.. let's say less positive feelings..)

There are now countless online technical fora (forums?) and mailing lists for discussing every aspects of your research, your life as a graduate student and researcher.

CRA-W holds the Graduate Cohort, an event for female PhD student. The AI community holds many mentoring events during the main conferences (AAAI, IJCAI, CP, etc.). These are invaluable opportunities for rapid growth. Below are some pointers that I find particularly useful:

1. Check the web-page of the course Basic Research Skills by Marie desJardins.


2. How to write a thesis at: IJCAI 04, IJCAR 04, and CP 03 by Toby Walsh.


3. Ethical constraints by Toby Walsh.


4. My Advice by Eleni Stroulia, checked on August 8, 2011


5. Research Tips by Silvia Miksch, checked on August 8, 2011