۱۳۸۶ مهر ۱۵, یکشنبه

يك نمايش واقعي

جلسه دفاع از پايان نامه يك دانشجوي نسبتا خوب و علاقمند و پركاررادر يكي ازدانشگاه هاي متوسط رو به پايين پايتخت در نظر بگيريد.
استاد ممتحن مدعو يكي از اساتيد پيشكسوت دانشگاه شريف است.دانشجو نموداري را نشان مي دهد كه در آن چند داده آزمايشگاهي به اضافه پيش بيني چند مدل مختلف از جمله مدلي كه دانشجو و استاد راهنمايش آن را ساخته اند به نمايش گذاشته است. دا نشجو ادعا مي كند مدل وي بهتر از مدل ديگران داده ها را توضيح ميدهد.استاد مدعو مي پرسد"چگونه به اين نتيجه رسيديد؟ شكل كه چنين چيزي را نشان نمي دهد منحني شما هم مثل منحني ديگران از برخي از
error bar
ها عبور مي كند و از برخي ديگر نه!آيا
Chi-square
متناظر با منحني ها را با هم مقايسه كرده ايد كه چنين ادعايي مي كنيد؟"دانشجو با دلخوري واندكي گستاخي مي گويد خوب از شكل معلوم است كه نتايج من بهتر است.
استاد مدعوبا لحن پدرانه اي ادامه مي دهد"بدون معيار كه نمي توان ادعا كرد مدل ما بهتر است. فرض كن يكي از كساني كه ديگر مدل ها را پيشنهاد كرده اند در اين جلسه حاضر بود چگونه مي توانستي
او را قانع كني كه مدل شما بهتر از مال او
است."دانشجو شانه اي بالا مي اندازد كه به اين معني است كه سازندگان آن مدل ها در آمريكا و فرانسه و بلژيك زندگي مي كنند پس گمان نمي كنم هرگز آنها را ببينم. چرا بايد خود را براي قانع كردن كساني كه هرگز نخواهم ديد به زحمت بيندازم.استاد راهنماي دانشجو به كمكش مي شتابدو دوباره تاكيد مي كند كه از شكل پيداست كه مدل آنها بهترين است. مي گويد ما اينجا
chi-square
وازاين جورچيزها حساب نمي كنيم. اين جمله او ناگفته هاي زيادي به همراه دارد. با توجه به شناختي كه من از اين گونه افراد پيدا كرده ام اين دو جمله او را مي توان با جملات گفته نشده زير تكميل كرد:"ببين پيرمرد!ما به احترام موي سفيدت چيزي به تو نمي گوييم اما تو هم احترام خودت را نگه دار و زياد دور ور ندار.فكر نكن چون از صنعتي شريف آمده اي مي تواني براي ما تعيين تكليف كنيم كه چه بكنيم و چه نكنيم. به جهنم
كه از بهترين دانشجو هاي يكي از بهترين دانشگاه هاي آمريكا (آن هم در سالهاي اوجش) بودي. درست است كه از پست داك هاي دردانه بهترين دانشگاه انگليس بودي اما در اينجا "ما بچه اين محليم!" خودمان معيار هاي بهتربودن منحني را مشخص مي كنيم و هر جور كه دلمان بخواهد مقاله مي نويسيم.
ما اينجا اهل قرتي بازي و محاسبه
chi-square
نيستيم. اين قرتي بازي ها مال خارجي هاست."
وقتي مي گويد "مال خارجي هاست" دو منظور مي تواند داشته باشد:)1 خارجي ها جزو از ما بهتران هستند بنا براين لازم نيست ما با استاندارد هاي آنها كار كنيم. همين استانداردهاي پايين ما را بس! 2)خارجي ها يك مشت مرتد هستند و دون شان ماست كه روش هاي آنها را برگيريم و
chi-square
حساب كنيم.
.ما با نيروي ايمان مي فهميم كه منحني ما بهترين است

اين دو طرز فكر به ظاهر خيلي با هم مغايرند. صاحبان اين دو طرز فكر در دهه شصت در برابر هم صف آرايي كردند وضربات جبران نا پذيري بر پيكر نحيف جامعه دانشگاهي اين مرز و بوم وارد آوردند. اما از نظر من هر دو سر وته يك كرباسند و بيگانه از اصول حرفه اي و جهانشمول كار تحقيقي.
البته بالا بردن سطح كار پژوهش در چنين دانشگاهي هايي در توان يك منجوق نيست.در افتادن با چنين افرادي كسي چون آن پيشكسوت و يا رضا
مي خواهد. من اين داستان را نقل كردم تا با يك مثال مفاهيم گوناگوني را كه ذكر آن رفته بود تشريح كنم:
1)كار تحقيقي با استانداردهاي جهاني

2(لزوم انجام كار گل براي پرداختن وصيقل دادن يك ايده
و چيزهايي از اين دست. درضمن مي خواهم تاكيد كنم با اين كه سطح آموزش عمومي دكتري در ايران به طرز تاسف انگيزي پايين است در دانشگاه هاي برجسته كشور هستند اساتيدي كه خيلي چيزها دارند كه به دانشجو ها ياد دهند. ممكن است پيشكسوتان به فيزيك روز و مدل هاي جديد تسلط نداشته باشند اما اين اصول اوليه را مي توان
از آنها
آموخت.
در واقع اين وظيفه افرادي
جوانتر
با موقعيت من است كه مطالب جديدتر
را بياموزند و برآنها تسلط داشته باشند!

خوب است بدانيد كه در همايشي كه در پيش داريم يكي از همكاران كه در سرن
پايان نامه دكترايش را نوشته قرار است
معيارهاي برازش درست داده ها را
درس بدهد.

۴ نظر:

Pinocchio گفت...

اشکالش اینجاست که یک فیزیکدان نوعی در اینجا سوادش از آمار اون چیزهایی که تو درس فیزیک تجربی و مکانیک آماری یاد گرفته. که تقریبا یعنی هیچی.

E Asadi گفت...

Monjoghe aziz,
1.raeese ye daneshgahe iran, pish nahad mikone be ye daneshgoye doctori ke vaghti bargashti iran , be ma bego ta barat daneshjoye doctori begirim!!. fekr mikonid on raeese daneshgah che tasavori az kare tahghighi dare!

2. aya ye adami ke taze doctora gerefte mitone hata bara daneshjoe arshad, ye proje tarif kone va onghadar mosalat bashe ke bedone andaze sakhtiye in proje cheghadar hast va aya in daneshgo mitone on ra dar ye zamane moshakhas anjam bede!. bara daneshjoe doctora pishkesh!.

منجوق گفت...

Dear Pinocchio,
what you are saying, as you yourself emphasized, is true about the "average" Iranian Physicist.
But this is not "our" problem.
The fact that the average standards are low in this country
does not mean we should compromise on our standards. Our facilities in this institute are comparable with those in the world class institutes. There is no reason we should not work as good as them!

I am going to be bold and I know that many will be offended but I do not care.
Most of previous post-docs (of course not all) in this institute under pretext that average standards in Iran are low have been happy with slightly higher standards than others (which was already much lower than
the world class standards).
If you talk to them, you will find
that they have big claims: "I am not
a one dimensional person. I cannot be insensitive towards what is going on around me and work like a dog just on a single narrow topic...."

My question is what have they done to increase the average standards?
Answer: nothing!
What can a post-doc or a graduate student can do for enhancing the level of work of a full or associate professor in some other university?
Answer: Nothing!
So, this "multi-dimesionality" is nothing but a fancy way of saying I am lazy and have no desire to
enhance my OWN standards!


Despite all critcism that people
(including myself) have about the
senior generation of scientists in Iran, I still have deep respect for them because they set up some valueable organizations such as
our own institute or "anjoman fizike Iran".

But the generation between them and us have not accomplished anything that might be of mention.
They could if they planned for it.
If they had a good strategy by now they could become the backbone of the physics community of Iran and could mark Iran on the map of the international physics community.
Unfortunately, they did not.
They wasted their time and energy
on lost causes, like being obsessed
with "average" of the community or
trying to establish a naive sort of democracy within the community while the community was not by any means prepared for it.


Now, it is "our" time. Let us not repeat their mistakes. For the time being, our problem
is not to educate the "average" physicist! We do not have the means for such a great undertaking!
If we try, like the generation before us we will certainly lose!

However, this does not mean we should not do any thing. We can certainly educate ourselves and each other. Fortunately, we have the means for that. For example, I am going to attend the lectures by the colleagues in the meeting I mentioned to increase my knowledge. For the time being, I do not care if the fellow in the average univeristy knows these things or not. Twenty years from now when I become an established professor and as a result I have more experience, authority and power, I will be able to influence a larger circle of physicists.
I believe this is the right strategy and, in the long run the only way through which our generation can enhance the research standards in Iran (slowly but constantly!)

منجوق گفت...

Dear Mr Asadi,
I completely agree with the main point that you want to make.
In Iran, they expect disproportionate responsibilities from young people specially if the young person is "quality": Tasks like being the head of an institute (with a lot of construction work going on) at the age of 33
or being a key member of "anjoman physics" at an age around 30.
Such a position is poison for a young person's precious time for research.
Moreover, as long as there is hard work to do they will flatter the
young person that you are wise and
our "star!!!!"... but when proportionate to his
position he demands authority they will tell him you are just a child so shut up!
However, I do not agree with you that handling a graduate student for someone who has just recently graduated is a disproportinate responsibility. Most people within my circle and I have taken such a responsibility and the results have been satisfactory. Perhaps, in Mathematics things are different but a physicist can do such a thing but of course he or she must
devote more time than a senior person to carry out the responsibility. I myself had several projects in head to give to my students. I consulted my
own former supervisors and they said that some of them were not a proper PhD project but some were and gave me other useful pieces of advice which I implemented.

I also have organized some meetings and I am in charge of our weekly journal club.
I do not think this sort of reponsibilities are disproportionate to my position.
They are not an obstacle before my research. On the contrary, they have helped me. In fact, I got the idea of my PRL paper in one of our journal clubs.
Besides, we should be realistic.
We are living in Iran. If I did not organize those meetings or if I do not get in charge of the weekly seminars, there is no one else to do so. So, we would not have such events and as you know,
an institute without regular weekly
seminar is dead and its researchers, no matter how energetic they start, will turn into fossil after a time. (
I mean really "weekly seminars" not "weekly seminars" that are held once in three months as the "weekly seminars" of most universities in Iran!!)


However I appreciate that such resposibilities that are good for
me are quite disproportionate for
a graduate student.
Unfortunately, in Iran they ask even graduate students to perform such
tasks. When my own husband was a graduate studen in Sharif, he had to handle three
MS students whose official advisors
were among those "multi-dimensional" physicists of the "middle" generation who were busy with big tasks like "establishing democracy" and considered supervising a student too
low a task!!
This was only one of the many disproportionate responsibilities that my husband carried out as a PhD student.
In any way, when we went to ICTP my husband worked day and night to compensate for the time that he had lost in Iran as a graduate student.

Yes, dear Mr Asadi, I am no stranger to such problems!
But I believe if we (by "we" I mean our generation of the scientists) have strong will and a wise strategy, we can slowly change things for better.