
The hidden story behind the suicide of ECE PhD Candidate Huixiang Chen - loganadams_
https://medium.com/@huixiangvoice/the-hidden-story-behind-the-suicide-phd-candidate-huixiang-chen-236cd39f79d3
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musicale
This sounds like a terrible story with no winners.

If it is true, it seems like a terrible case of student abuse, as well as
fraud and corruption in the ISCA review process (ISCA presumably still being
the ostensible top computer architecture conference), and another highly
damning indictment of graduate education and universities ignoring the mental
health and safety of their students.

I am also feeling less enthusiastic about the relentless drive to publish at
top conferences or (sometimes literally) perish. Conference papers are often
rushed to completion and full of mistakes or questionable results, and it's
also hard to review them adequately given time constraints and minimal
compensation or incentive for high-quality reviews. I think CS and EE may need
to de-emphasize conferences and try to improve journals.

It is well-known that the review process (and not just for ISCA) is simply
broken and seems to be no better than random, but I had no idea that
corruption played a part in it.

~~~
Athas
> I think CS and EE may need to de-emphasize conferences and try to improve
> journals.

I agree. Both because it may lead to a more reasonable working pace (we have
the Internet for low-latency dissemination anyway), but also because the
relentless long-distance travel is not environmentally sustainable.

~~~
wsxcde
Journal reviews can be stacked with friends just as easily. In fact, most top
CS/EE journals ask authors to recommend reviewers. (In theory, the editors
will make sure the recommendations are conflict-free and sensible, but given
their workloads, I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of them took the
authors' suggestions at face value.)

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D_u20ac35_ming
I'm happy to read Huixiang's text, in that they are clear in explaining his
PIs transgressions. I'm in a similar situation where my PI is threatening to
kick me out of the lab or fail me after 5 years in the program after bringing
him data better than all of his last 5 students combined. So I definitely know
where the ECE candidate is coming from.

But the PhD candidate needed to step away from his data/project and instead
familiarize himself with his options. Or befriend someone who could. This is
really where hyper specialization breaks down, in that you get the "free
rider" problem of people abusing the process (e.g. congressman) to parasite
and bastardize others work. Now the PhD student has to become a master in a
second subject (the law) to preserve the huge investment in the first subject
(science). Needless to say, this ends badly a lot of the time.

It's worth pointing out that as a foreigner, he was even more isolated than an
American student. Because I myself have received stellar advice from graduate
student Union professionals from a university in a state far away. This
student likely has several barriers, cultural and others, keeping him from
effeciently defending his rights. Think about this the next time you hear
about academia's obsession with foreign students

~~~
sjg007
Some Universities have an international student academic dean for grad
students. There will also be a Dean of graduate students too. You might ask
them for help. Each department is also supposed to have a chair of graduate
student advising as well, so if that isn't your PI you might ask them. There
is no shame in asking for help.

~~~
4u9u5t
Things are not that simple, I learned it the hard way:

Professors are given too much power of treating PhD students in their labs.
They can cut your financial support, kick you out of PhD program (after 4,5,6
years) with some good reasons 'unproductive performance'. Deans usually don't
want to get deep involved into such issues. From their perspectives, other
professors are their coworkers, and will be seen for a long time. While PhD
students just come and go, for people with less integrity, PhD students don't
matter that much. As long as the professor doesn't cross the borderline, they
are totally fine.

Life for a international PhD student is even worse. They forsake their home
country life, families and friends to pursue this academic research path. They
cannot easily just quit and find a job in U.S. due to the visa issue. (OPT
time has a strict timing requirement for application, for most PhD students,
once getting their master degree, they will lose the eligibility of OPT
application)

 _Big tips_ for international PhD students, don't get your master degree just
because you gain enough credits. Save it when you need an exit plan.

After 3-4 years, the sunk cost and difficult visa status can make the
international students get stuck there.

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mmhc
As a fellow PhD candidate, I can confirm that this sort of thing happens
pretty regularly. Basically his advisor wouldn't take the risk of making the
claim so he made his student do it, then put the onus on the student of
"clarifying" this claim. If the claim works, they share credit. If it does not
work, the blame is solely on the student for making a bad claim. If this is a
seminal work, then it puts the student in a terrible situation if they want to
pursue this line of work.

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yenwel
I've found myself in similar situation involved with evil forces within
academia (which the corrupt system creates). Just get out of institutional/
bureaucratic academia and research. It will either make (you equally evil) or
break you.

