University of Cambridge/University of Toronto/National University of Singapore Full Scholarship PhD Admission Experience - Shenbo

<一线采访>005th period

Prestigious school mixed application/doctoral admission slam

Compared with master's applications, there are significant differences in the number of admissions, the focus of admissions and the difficulty of application. For the outstanding doctoral students who are admitted to prestigious universities, there are also differences in their personal strengths and highlights. The "Frontline Interviews" column aims to provide inspiration and help to readers by exchanging and presenting the development paths and experiences of different scholars.

。 We will also work with this teacher to provide guidance on degree application materials. For details, please refer to the "Teaching Cooperation" below.

Due to the consideration of personal privacy, some of the information in this interview has been blurred. Students who are interested in cooperating with the teachers of this issue can communicate with the assistant at the end of the article about the specific cooperation details.

Scholars are shared in this issue

Our PhD Researcher

Top 20 Universities in the United States/Architecture Full Award Newcomer Doctorate

——Only one full-award Ph.D. has been admitted in the same research field!

Global QS Top 20 / Master of Architecture

Domestic 985/Bachelor of Architecture

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1

Ph.D. Admissions:

Finally Offered:

• At the same time, there are a lot of high-quality master's programs, and its doctoral programs are also;
• ；
• ；
• 。

During the magnetic set, the institutions that received positive responses from professors also included:

MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard GSD - Harvard University, UC Berkeley - University of California, Berkeley, EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, UPenn - University of Pennsylvania, UMich - University of Michigan.

2

Main research directions:

1. Performance-driven building design, with a focus on building design processes, methodologies, and performance optimization tools, aims to provide design decision makers with an informative perspective on building performance;
2. Built Environment Sensor Fusion, focusing on the development of mobile, wearable, and occupant-centric sensing devices, pursuing an exploration of the built environment from the perspective of occupants;
3. Agency-based building design optimization model, which focuses on learning the interaction between occupants and the built environment, and improves the performance, sustainability and safety of buildings through agent-based modeling simulation;
4. AI-assisted building design, with a focus on the use of advanced machine learning tools to help efficient performance-driven building design;
5. The development of high-performance building facades focuses on the ability of facades to regulate the indoor environment, renewable energy, and interaction with occupants and their surroundings.

3

Comprehensive Academic Experience:

He has published SCI journals in the field of architectural design and engineering, published a number of invention patents and software copyrights, worked in the world's top built environment laboratories, worked in a number of related research projects and academic conferences, and won a number of academic and design awards/honors at home and abroad.

• Participate in the research projects of the world's top overseas laboratories
• He has participated in a number of research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
• He has won a number of national and institutional academic awards for his outstanding academic performance
• Student member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

4

Teaching cooperation content:

For more information about the service, please click on the link "Overseas PhD/Research Master's Degree Application Service Category - Essay Guidance - Application Path":

1. Degree application guidance (including doctoral/master's application materials and process guidance)
2. Other guidance (such as technical consultation, etc., welcome to put forward needs and exchange cooperation intentions)

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The understanding of "doctor" is not only a degree, but also represents a state of long-term thinking, precipitation and accumulation of "practice......

TechArt Editor:

"Why did you decide to pursue a PhD, what factors influenced you to continue your academic studies, and did you have any experiences or ideas that had a big impact on you?"

Scholars shared in this issue:

"During my undergraduate studies, I gradually realized that I was more interested in architectural performance, building technology and computational design than in traditional architectural design. So, around the beginning of my third year of undergrad, I began to try to participate in various architectural research projects on and off campus, write papers based on these projects, and publish them. In the process, I gradually found that even in the setting of a "school of architecture", scholars who focus on "design", "theory", "history", "technology", and "environment" are more inclined to move around in their own small research circles, and it is even more difficult to integrate these contents into actual construction projects. Around this time, I began to think about how to bring in perspectives from various fields to promote the development of architecture. Therefore, around the end of my undergraduate degree, I intend to take an interdisciplinary path in the future, with a particular focus on how the performance of buildings drives architectural design. "

Keywords network map of Scopus papers of architectural graphics professors. Minimum level of co-occurrence of five. Source: Excerpted from the study by López-Chao V, Amado Lorenzo (2020).

"After deciding on your intention to pursue a PhD, how did you decide on your research direction, and did you make any efforts or attempts? Or are there any special considerations for choosing the current research direction?"

"When I got to graduate school, I was more clear about my future research interests and prospects. I was involved in a laboratory in the department in the field of built environment, and I can say that they have world-class research capabilities, and I have learned a lot from working with these outstanding scholars. But, more importantly, they gave me a world-leading research perspective. At this time, I realized that, in the final analysis, the object of architecture is people—how to improve the well-being and satisfaction of occupants is a very important issue, but it has not been deeply discussed in the framework of architectural design research. So I'm starting to focus on how architecture can be advanced when we focus on the user, which requires a broad intake of knowledge from areas such as architectural engineering, cognition, behavior, and neuroscience, and bridging the gap with tools such as performance simulation, computer geometry, and machine learning.

I think it's important that when you're trying to change your direction, don't forget where you're from. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to abandon architecture because of the decline in the construction industry, after all, I have accumulated knowledge in this field for 7 years, which may be of great help to my own future development, and even create a unique cross-cutting field. So, when I talk to my classmates who have a background in architecture and want to switch to research, I often talk to them about the new perspectives that architecture can bring. I think it's a good strategy to recognize the strengths of your own abilities, characteristics, and background, and to translate them into research directions. "

Building design research utilizing Agent-Based Modeling and Artificial Intelligence. Source: Excerpted from the study by Hwang et al. (2020).

Leveraging Reinforcement Learning, Agent-Based Modeling, and Sensor Fusion. Source: By author

"Which regions and institutions did you choose as your scope of interest, why did you choose this way, and why did you choose the U.S. among the multiple offers?"

"Actually, I don't have a clear bias towards the region of the PhD school, but I mainly look at the fit between the doctoral supervisor and my research interests. Therefore, during my PhD selection stage, I searched for the research direction of each doctoral supervisor in the School of Architecture and the School of Architecture and Engineering of all well-known universities, and found one with which I could cooperate. At the same time, we will also work backwards to find researchers who want to collaborate based on the research publications in their related fields (provided that they have a good understanding of the research field they want to do). Ph.D. applications are much more competitive than graduate applications because most schools only admit very few PhD students each year, for example, the school I ended up going to only admits one. Therefore, when choosing your own school application scope (or supervisor scope), you should pay special attention to the compatibility between your background and research interests and your doctoral supervisor - so that your doctoral supervisor really feels that you can effectively cooperate and produce results in the next 3-5 years.

There were a number of reasons why I chose to go to a school, and I did make a lot of trade-offs. First of all, Cambridge is probably the most "prestigious" of the universities I have been offered, but its funding is highly uncertain, compared to the more comprehensive financial support provided by the universities where I went without losing the title, so that I did not have to worry about financial problems during the research process. Secondly, the university I went to has a lot of cross-cutting research resources, and even achieved the world's first place in some of the research fields that I may use, which will be an important help for my research. In the end, the supervisor I went to at the school had the highest match with my research interests, which meant that the supervisor was able to provide more help based on his or her own research experience. "

Relevant faculty and programs of the University of Cambridge, the University of Toronto, and the National University of Singapore (in addition to the doctoral application, students in the undergraduate and master's application stage can also learn about the supervisors and other cooperative resources of the intended universities in advance)

"Can you share your preparation timeline, at what point in time, what materials were completed, and whether you encountered any problems during the application (such as specific materials, or mentality control when taking care of schoolwork at the same time), and how to solve them?"

"I think my timeline for preparing for the PhD may have been going back to participating in various research projects as an undergraduate, but the final intensive preparation time may start from June 2023 to January 2024.

1️⃣:

Conduct a research project and write a paper for submission to a journal, participate in a research summer camp, and participate in academic conferences.

2️⃣:

Writing of research proposals, selection of target universities and supervisors, and designation of application proposals.

3️⃣:

Send a set of emails to doctoral supervisors with potential for cooperation and conduct some interviews.

4️⃣:

Prepare all your online application materials, submit your application to each school, and attend some interviews at the same time.

5️⃣:

During the free period, the school is reviewing materials, participating in some formal interviews after application, and getting an earlier batch of offers.

6️⃣:

Get all the results of your application and make your choice of school.

Mentally, I think I've been relatively stable until I wait for the results, completing some scientific research projects step by step and improving my background. One of the more anxious times was in mid-to-late March, when I received a few rejection letters from several schools, which made me think that the PhD program might be much more competitive than I thought. However, in the end, I got my wish and went to one of the colleges I wanted to go to. So I don't think you need to be overly anxious during the application process, just do your best to obey God's destiny. "

"Based on your application experience, including interviews with many professors during this period, what skills and abilities do you think professors are looking for in PhD applicants?"

"I think professors value PhD applicants the most important thing about their own research match. Can the direction you do fit with the doctoral supervisor? Can you fill the research gap of the doctoral supervisor in a certain aspect? Can you intersect with the doctoral supervisor's research and generate many new research directions? In fact, when you reach the PhD stage, you are more of an independent researcher, and the doctoral supervisor may only be able to help you within a certain range. Often, you need to know your field of study better than anyone else, and many times you are asked to teach your mentor.

In addition, there are various research experiences and research skills, I think you should accumulate some projects in this area as soon as possible, especially participate in projects related to your research interests, because this is also one of the important factors for the doctoral supervisor to judge the compatibility with you. I think it may be more convincing to let your doctoral supervisor see how you have discovered your research interests through participating in these research projects than if you talk about your research interests.

As for the necessity of the thesis publication materials, it is necessary to judge the comprehensive materials of different applicants, the difficulty of applying to the target institution, and the long-term academic development of the individual, etc., and there are certain differences between individual cases. It is better to have a published paper, especially if you are applying for a PhD from a prestigious university with a scholarship. However, if the preparation time is very tight and there is no time to prepare the materials for publication in a short time, you do not need to be particularly nervous, and you can also show your research ability as much as possible based on the existing materials to improve your competitiveness. Of course, it is still recommended to plan in advance and reserve a certain amount of time for yourself to prepare, which is also more conducive to the application result. "

"Do you have any plans or expectations for your PhD or academic path? You can also talk about your short-term and long-term plans for your PhD. "

In the short term, the biggest expectation is that PhDs do something they want to do. It may be that more emphasis will be placed on the innovation and quality of the research than on the quantity of the research. I have a clear framework for the research I want to conduct for my PhD, which can be divided into different research modules, and the combination is basically the final result of my PhD.

In terms of long-term planning, I still want to work in high-level universities around the world for a while and accumulate some research and teaching experience. Therefore, for a long time to come, I will have the need to cooperate with outstanding researchers from all over the world, and I also welcome readers who are interested in my research direction to have the opportunity to communicate and progress together.