phd experience
a brief summary of my life as a gradstudent
first-year: 2016
By the end of 2015 I was about to get my Transportation Engineering professional title when I started to see myself working in academia in the near future. As I wanted to make some kind of contribution to my home town’s public transport system, I decided to enrol the PhD program in the Department of Transportation Engineering and Logistics, at PUC, Chile, under the supervision of Juan Carlos Muñoz and Sebastián Raveau.
During 2016 I worked defining my dissertation research, which ended up focused on the causes and effects of public transport reliability. In August, I also had the chance to participate in the “Modeling and Simulation of Transportation Networks” MIT short course, as well as to attend the TransitData16 conference in Boston.
- Some initial ideas in a white-board
- My advisors Seba and Juanca not understanding what my thesis was about
- A copy of my candidacy exam/report. I got my engineer professional title because of it
- Roaming around Quincy Market, Boston with Jesper, Saeid, and Risky after the MIT shortcourse we were part of
- Having fun with Juanca, Sebastián, and Jaime in Boston Openstreets
- Sharing some drinks with Ignacio, Felipe, and Nicolas during the Chilean conference right before starting my gradstudies
second-year: 2017
By the very beginning of 2017, I submitted my candidacy document to evaluation, which I successfully defended on May 29th, one week after presenting in an international conference for the first time: TransitData17, in Santiago. In June, together with Ricardo Sánchez (MIT), Cristián Navas (MIT) and Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken (PUC) applied the CoAXs platform to Santiago de Chile and presented our results in the MOBILIZE summit. One month later, we conducted a satisfaction survey in the surroundings of four different metro stations, which was part of my dissertation and ended up being the first published article of it.
One month later I started my external research stay in TU Delft, under the supervision of Oded Cats. Besides, the time I was there coincided with the creation of the Smart PT Lab, which I am still a member of. During this year, I also participated in two additional conferences, EWGT in Budapest, Hungary, and hEART in Haifa, Israel and also dictated a Demand Modelling short course in Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México.
- First international conference presentation: Transitdata2017
- CoAXs Chile team: Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken, Tomás Cox, Cristián Navas, and Ricardo Sánchez
- Mobilize CoAXs exhibition
- Maife and Felipe uploading survey responses to the platform
- Niklas asking a passenger to evaluate their last public transport trip
- Mental collapse when my cactus fell over my desk
- Seba and Juanca receiving my 'Best Teaching Assistant' award
- Just arrived from Chile to the Delft train station
- Seba, Felipe, Francisco and me in Budapest
- Presenting during EWGT17, second conference
- Having fun with Seba during a coffee break
- Hand gestures during hEART conference, Haifa, Israel
- Charing a session for the first time!
- TU Delft desk setup
third-year: 2018
In January I participated in two conferences: TRB, in Washington D.C., U.S.A., and INSTR, in Sydney, Australia. Four months later I ended my external research stay in TU Delft and came back to Chile, to start the second half of my dissertation. I participated in three additional conferences: IATBR, Santa Barbara, U.S.A., CASPT/TransitData in Brisbane, Australia and PANAM in Medellín, Colombia.
By the end of this year, I was awarded the Lee Schipper’s Memorial Scholarship, which I received at the World Bank Headquarters, where I had the chance to present my dissertation
- Poster session during my first TRB, January 2018
- Ignacio's bad joke reaction during the BRT General Assembly
- Sharing a beer with Ignacio in Sydney's harbour during INSTR18
- Carolina, Seba, and me roaming aroung Kinderdijk
- Bikeride across the tulip fields with Nicolás
- Last selfie in Delft right before coming back to Chile
- Juanca figuring out how to solve some misterious issue
- Pretending to be working in Sebastián's office
- Presenting my work at IATBR18, in Santa Barbara, U.S.
- Presenting my work at CASPT18, in Brisbane, Australia
- Last presentation of 2018: PANAM conference in Medellín, Colombia
fourth-year: 2019
In addition to the presentation at the World Bank, I also presented in TRB the same week. I participated in two additional conferences this year: TransitData, in Paris, France, and in the Chilean Conference of Transport Engineering, in Santiago, Chile. In October, we conducted the second (and last) survey of my dissertation. With this milestone, I was able to start finishing my dissertation document.
Finally, during the beginning of the COVID outbreak in Chile, I successfully defended my PhD on the 23rd of April 2020.
- Presentation at the BRT General Assembly 2019
- Walking around Fortaleza with Juanca, during Mobilize 2019
- Transitdata attendees during the conference in Paris
- Presentation at Transitdata19
- Taking the Paris Metro with Jesper after the conference
- Presentation 1/2 at the Chilean Transportation Engineering Conference
- Presentation 2/2 at the Chilean Transportation Engineering Conference
- 'I would erase my thesis for a fairer Chile'; 25 October 2019
- Desk setup at PUC Chile - final stage
- Transportation Engineering and Logistics Department, PUC Chile
- After three hours of online defence: Dr. Jaime Soza-Parra
final thoughts
During my defense, Sebastián asked me what had changed in me after four years of this PhD journey. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I gave my answer, which I believe becomes truer with each passing year. When I decided to pursue a PhD, I thought I had more answers than questions, perhaps due to my arrogance, I believed I already knew what I would discover. However, today I feel quite the opposite, as I find myself with more questions than answers. Paradoxically, this uncertainty gives me energy. To me, science means finding beauty in ignorance.
I want to thank Sebastián and Juan Carlos from the bottom of my heart for raising me up both figuratively and literally (see below). Without their continuous support and commitment, I wouldn't have come this far.
