Gaining the Knowledge Worth 250 USD/Hour
Nadir Hossain
I completed my graduation in Computer Science & Engineering from Khulna University Bangladesh. I was interested to continue my postgraduate study in the same area related to my undergraduate study in a well ranked foreign University. So I started e-mail correspondence with the professors of foreign Universities. Since I was looking for a funded position, therefore I was not getting vary much positive response from the professors. One day, I received an e-mail reply from a lecturer of Multimedia University (MMU), Malaysia. He was interested to supervise me for M.Eng.Sc (by research) degree but his proposed area of research was optical amplifier, which was a completely new area for me. The Lecturer of MMU was very much interactive during his e-mail communication with me and he explained me nicely that the proposed area of research is very much prospective. Since the tuition fees for the M.Eng.Sc (by research) degree at MMU was very low and the lecturer was committed to find a fund for the proposed research project as well as proposed area of research was prospective, therefore I decided to enroll at MMU as a postgraduate student.
I arrived in Malaysia on the 25th July 2005 and reported to MMU. The faculty called me to sit for an interview on the 16th August 2005. The interview board asked me whether I am interested to change the proposed research topics since my previous academic background and proposed research area was different. But I was confident about my decision because my proposed supervisor motivated me early that I will be able to complete the proposed research project successfully and he will provide me full support. The interview board permitted me to register for the M.Eng.Sc (by research) program at MMU and I finished the official registration procedure on the 17th August 2005.
At the first meeting at MMU, my supervisor provided me some books and one of his recent research papers. I was trying to read his research paper but it was very difficult for me to understand. Most of the term in the research paper seems new. Therefore I stopped reading the research paper of my supervisor and started to read the basic books. At the same time I was trying to familiar with the device and equipments in the laboratories. After four months of study I found that I was able to understand the concepts related to my research area written in different research journals / papers. I collected the recent research papers related to my area and studied it. With the help of my supervisor I selected the modeling of Double pass hybrid Erbium doped fiber amplifier and distributed Raman amplifier (DP EDFA/DRA) as my research topics. After finishing the literature review on my research topics I faced the proposal defense and the board approved my research topic to continue research for M.Eng.Sc (by research) degree.
I started to face the main difficulties after my proposal defense. I was trying to model DP EDFA based on the existing single pass (SP) EDFA model. Initially I was doing the computer modeling of SP EDFA mathematical model. My supervisor provides me an existing thesis paper on SP EDFA from another University of Malaysia. The thesis paper described the computer modeling of SP EDFA and the results of the model. I was following the thesis as main guideline for the computer modeling of SP EDFA mathematical model. I found that the results obtained from the computer program in the thesis and results described in the thesis are not same. So I was little bit confused. I was trying to contact with the author of the thesis to get his help about the computer program mentioned in his thesis but he was out of Malaysia for his PhD study and I failed to trace him. Suddenly I found that the author of the thesis mentioned in his thesis that he did not write the computer program by himself. He took the computer program from a famous professor of another popular University in Malaysia. Luckily that professor was PhD supervisor of my supervisor. So I was hopeful that my problem related to the computer modeling of SP EDFA will be solved soon. I was able to contact with the professor with the help of my supervisor. But the professor informed us that he don’t know about the computer program in the thesis. I became little bit hopeless because I was following the thesis as main guideline according to the suggestions of my supervisor and the thesis became useless to me. At the same time I was also trying to solve the problem according to my own thinking but I was not getting success.
Since I already faced the proposal defense and my research topic was fixed, therefore I was bound to continue my research in the same direction. If I wanted to change the research direction then I had to start from the beginning. Therefore I was committed to solve the problem regarding the computer modeling of SP EDFA mathematical model. As a result, I started to find the alternative solution for the computer modeling of SP EDFA mathematical model. I read different new literature and communicated with the local experts in Malaysia. Everybody helped me according to their best. Though I was not getting direct help but I was inspired by their valuable suggestions. I was trying to solve the problem according to the suggestions of the experts, my supervisors as well as my own thinking but failed. Suddenly I found that a professor from one of the top ranked University of the world did the MATLAB SIMULINK program on SP EDFA mathematical model. I read the research paper of the professor and I found that he did exactly what I was looking for. I wrote an e-mail to the professor regarding my problem. The professor replied me and given me some generalized idea. Though his idea was known to me and that was not solution of my problem but I became too much hopeful after receiving his e-mail. Because I knew that the professor knows the solution of my problem and obviously I will get a guideline from him. In my second e-mail I wrote him the exact problem related to my work and I was waiting for his reply. After sending the second e-mail to the professor, the most expected things for me was the e-mail reply of that professor. Each hour I was checking the inbox of my e-mail account for his reply. Finally I got his reply and the reply was following (senders e-mail address is removed because I am not interested to disclose the name of the professor and name of the University):
After receiving the above e-mail reply from the professor I was totally hopeless and in a dark situation. I decided to find out the reasons of failing to solve the problem, list them and report it to my supervisor as well as to change the research direction. One of the problems related to my modeling work was to collect the intrinsic Erbium doped fiber (EDF) parameters. At the beginning of the modeling I collected the parameters from several published research papers but I failed to collect all the intrinsic parameters from a single source. In this case application engineers of a fiber manufacturer company (Fibercore Limited, UK) helped me by providing all the intrinsic EDF parameters. One day I was numerically calculating the results using the intrinsic fiber parameters by hand. Suddenly one idea came in my mind and I started to try again. This time I was successful. Finally I finished the successful modeling of hybrid DP EDFA / DRA and I finished the work completion seminar of my M.Eng.Sc (by research) degree on the 16th August 2007.
We published five journals and four conference papers on our modeling work. I presented one of my published papers in an international conference (M2USIC’06) at PJ Hilton, Malaysia on the 16th Nov, 2006. During my presentation a lecturer was present from that top ranked university as an author. He asked me questions during my presentation. After few days I received an email from the lecturer of that university regarding my work again and I sent him feedback according to my knowledge best.
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