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Last semester, I took a course with my supervisor and he assigned me a project. This project is part of one of his student's theses. I did the project and passed the course.

Later, I was asked to upload my code for use in a paper. It turned out that the data the grad student had generated was not appropriate, and he needed to do other experiments. It later turned out there were other problems with the underlying model, and I redid a lot of that work as well.

The problem is that this other student is not really contributing at all.

  • Sometimes he does not come to work at all
  • On one occasion the professor assigned us to do something, and he immediately told me he had no idea how to do it
  • In one of our meetings with the professor, he talked 2 minutes with the prof with no slides; I talked for the other 58 with slides.

What should I do in this situation? I could not work like this, I have my own project and my thesis and stuff. I cannot dedicate my self for another student's thesis.

Question 1: how should I make this student understand this is his thesis and he should work more than me?

Question 2: How can I get off this project? I am taking another course with my supervisor, he again assigned me a term project with the same system and same grad student. I do not want to keep going like this. What should I tell to my supervisor Due to the problems we found, I think this current system is a bit of a dead end. But, I do not want to lose my connection with my supervisor; he is a good man.

cag51
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nikki
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    I cleaned up this question a lot; feel free to edit if I deleted anything important. You may want to take a course to improve your writing-in-English skills; you've had several posts now that required substantial clean up. Good luck! – cag51 Nov 25 '18 at 05:00

1 Answers1

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how should I make this student understand this is his thesis and he should work more than me?

You don't.

what strategy should I take?

You talk to the professor. Tell him clearly that there are two issues:

  1. Working with the other student is untenable, and
  2. Your have technical concerns about the project.

Try to agree on a strategy where either:

  • the other student is removed from the project completely, or else
  • you and he are working on two totally separate things, and the requirements for "your piece" are well-established and entirely within your control.

If you communicate this clearly (hopefully more clearly than your post here!) and the professor is still uncooperative, you should look for another supervisor.

cag51
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  • could you please elaborate part two? I did not get it. – nikki Nov 25 '18 at 02:25
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    Not sure what about my answer was unclear. You have no leverage over the student, so no point arguing with them. Instead, either get the professor to make the necessary changes, or find a new professor to work with. – cag51 Nov 25 '18 at 02:31
  • This part is not clear for me: "(2) your technical concerns about the project. Try to agree on a strategy where either the other student is kicked off completely, or else you are working on two totally separate things, and the requirements for "your piece" are well-established and entirely within your control." – nikki Nov 25 '18 at 02:41
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    OK, I tried to reformat, maybe it is clearer now? If not, maybe there is a language issue -- I speak a handful of European languages, can try to translate if you are more comfortable in Spanish/French/German/Italian/etc. – cag51 Nov 25 '18 at 04:28
  • could you please tell me what should I do with another project that he has just assigned me (for another course)? Did you mean also that project as well? I think you did not response that part of my question. – nikki Nov 25 '18 at 04:48
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    Did you read what I wrote? I said you should talk to the professor. About all the problems and all the projects. – cag51 Nov 25 '18 at 04:55
  • yes. I just want to make sure that I am not talking in a nasty way. I wanted to talk indirectly. – nikki Nov 25 '18 at 04:58
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – cag51 Nov 25 '18 at 05:00
  • I was wondering if you could edit the letter with me? I need to change some parts. – nikki Nov 28 '18 at 07:18