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1500 questions
108
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10 answers
PhD Student : Publish Paper with Wife?
I am a PhD student, working on Applied Math while my wife is a software engineer. I plan on going to academia after PhD and will start to job hunt soon.
A few weeks ago, I thought of an idea that hadn't been done before. I wrote a crude C++ code to…
user34734
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107
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21 answers
How to prevent students from using modified calculators to cheat on exams?
Recently my faculty (mathematics and statistics) and I have been dealing with widespread cheating due to calculators that have been modified so as to have more functionality than is permitted.
At my university we have a standardized calculator that…
sldkjflskdj
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107
votes
6 answers
Is it ok to upload joke papers to arXiv?
I have recently stumbled upon this paper on arXiv:
Stopping GAN Violence: Generative Unadversarial Networks (mirror), which is a parody/joke paper.
Is it ok to upload joke papers to arXiv?
Franck Dernoncourt
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107
votes
14 answers
Is it ethical for a professor to get masters students to work on open source modules related to the professor's profit-making company?
My professor of Computer Science has a company (both based in Germany) that promotes an open-source software. Of course the software is free and open-source, but his company generates profits through support, training, etc. and they have a…
Jack Twain
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107
votes
14 answers
How to handle requests for a race-based exam structure?
A colleague of mine is a non-tenured teaching-track faculty
in a neighboring university.
We work together frequently through our joint outreach and REU projects.
He is currently teaching a summer course in mathematics (pre-calculus algebra) with a…
user39093
107
votes
13 answers
I have stack-exchanged through my undergrad math program. Am I likely to succeed in mathematics PhD programs?
I'm currently a third-year mathematics student at a top-20 private research university in the US (though mostly known for the humanities). We have a small undergraduate mathematics department, but we were offered the option to take many graduate…
Funny Morphism
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107
votes
9 answers
What to do if I have seen an exam before I have taken it?
Today I saw a photograph of an upcoming exam at my university. At first I thought it was last year's exam; so I took a closer look at it as I think it is okay to see last year's exams even if they aren’t officially published.
Anyway, later someone…
SomeUserPassingBy
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106
votes
11 answers
Has anyone, based on great performance, ever been awarded a higher degree than the one they enrolled for?
Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone, historically, has ever been awarded a degree that was a level higher than the one they were enrolled in and studying for, simply because their performance warranted a higher award? For example, somebody…
AK16
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106
votes
9 answers
How to respond to a company that wants specific details on implementation of my PhD research?
A company approached me for an interview to explain my work, which has been published as part of my PhD. As I understand from their email, they want to understand my work so that they can use it. However, nowhere in the email they mentioned that I…
L222
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106
votes
8 answers
What should I do if my advisor is forcing me to vote on a specific candidate in IEEE elections?
The IEEE holds yearly elections for senior positions in its societies. Every member of the IEEE has the right to vote in these elections, including me. My advisor, however, has candidates who, for one reason or the other, he supports and wants to…
GoldenLizard
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106
votes
4 answers
What is behind the "Indian Undergrad Research Experience"-spam?
Every now and then I receive an email claiming to be from some undergrad student in Math or Computer Science at an Indian university asking for a summer research experience in "my research group" (there is no such thing).
These emails all have a…
Arno
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106
votes
14 answers
What to do if most of my students have switched to a better lecturer's class?
I teach a certain course which is part of the obligatory undergraduate curriculum. I teach two groups out of four; the other two groups are taught by two other lecturers. In one group I have about 20-30 students. The other group also started with…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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105
votes
8 answers
Why are high pass rates for courses considered acceptable in the US?
(Sorry, I just couldn't resist the temptation to use this somewhat provoking title.)
This recent question motivated me to finally ask the following, somewhat dual, question which I've been wondering about for quite some time. My experience is mainly…
Jochen Glueck
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105
votes
11 answers
Why is it acceptable that publishers sell papers they didn’t pay for?
I am curious about the worldwide accepted ethics in publishing. I have never seen any other economic sector in which someone legally sold someone else's product for their own profit, apparently without paying for it in any way. I don’t intend to…
SnOwl
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104
votes
10 answers
Why do universities fund Ph.D. students in the sciences?
I was recently accepted into an applied math Ph.D. here in the U.S., and being the 1st in my family to graduate from university, I had a hard time explaining to them why my university will be spending close to 50k on me per year (stipend, tuition,…
Walter U.
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