“A strong PhD community benefits everyone”

The Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) has a vibrant community of PhD students. At the moment, some 65 candidates are in different phases of their PhD journey.

On February 12, 2026, the PhD Day gathered PhD students, senior researchers and supervisors from DSV. A few PhD students from other universities were also invited, along with some of DSV’s brilliant master’s students who are interested in pursuing a PhD. The event is organised annually by the PhD council at DSV.

“We have a very diverse set of research directions at DSV. Many PhD students work closely with their supervisors, but are not collaborating or sharing experiences with others in the department. Therefore, we originally came up with the PhD Day as an occasion for connecting with other PhD students, exchanging experiences, and getting peer-feedback on your work,” explains Korbinian Randl, PhD student and vice president of the PhD council at DSV.

2-minute pitches followed by longer poster sessions are the main activities of the PhD Day. This year, participants were also treated to a hands-on, interactive keynote session by Åsa Burman. She is an associate professor in practical philosophy at Stockholm University, and author of the book “Finish on time”.

“It takes more time to multitask”, Åsa Burman emphasized during her talk.

She provided the participants with a practical toolbox and a lot of food for thought. The overarching theme was the difference between being efficient and effective. Are you just ticking off a lot of boxes – or are you doing things that actually move you towards your goal?

One of Burman’s pieces of advice was to create a physical binder for the dissertation, with blank pages as placeholders.

“In academia, we’re used to abstract thinking. It is important to have something tangible too. A physical prototype”, Åsa Burman said.

Zara Karazian, PhD student and treasurer of the PhD council at DSV, found the keynote most useful.

“Åsa reminded us of the difference between being efficient versus being effective. As a PhD student, it’s easy to end up doing many things at once – being efficient. But the talk highlighted how important it is to focus on the most important tasks and do them with higher quality – being effective,” says Zara Karazian.

Burman’s advice is to divide the day into two parts. “Task A time” is or the most important work, and “Task B time” is for smaller or less critical tasks. She suggested to define the scope of the thesis early, both in terms of the thesis title and even the expected number of pages. That helps reduce uncertainty and makes the work feel more manageable.

“Another strong takeaway for me was the idea of writing a few pages every day, rather than waiting for long, uninterrupted writing periods. Åsa also encouraged planning tasks not only based on deadlines and importance, but also based on how much energy they require and how motivating they feel. I think this is especially relevant during intense writing periods,” says Karazian.

To illustrate the negatives of multitasking, Åsa Burman led the participants through exercises with pen and paper.

“A tip I will definitely try is using a simple clock to time focused monotasking sessions, followed by short breaks. I want to make this a daily habit, at least once per day. Overall, the keynote felt helpful for PhD students at any stage, but especially for me as a fourth-year PhD student. I can directly apply these strategies when writing the “kappa” of my dissertation,” says Zara Karazian.

The PhD Day ended with an after-event in Foo Bar, the student union pub at DSV.

“When we recapped the day, everybody agreed that it was a success – even better than last year. We had lengthy time slots for the poster sessions, still we had to break up discussions afterwards to be able to stay on schedule! We were able to attract more faculty this year, and setting the event in spring enabled us to also connect with the new PhD students who started in the beginning of February,” says Korbinian Randl.

For him, the main takeaway from the day was the networking. And Randl would recommend others to organise department-wide networking events, since they bring people from different research areas together.

“It’s nice to see that there is always some overlap – even though we have a very diverse pool of topics at DSV. As a PhD student myself, I met colleagues that I didn't know well before. They were familiar with some of the concepts I use – and they were genuinely interested in my work,” says Korbinian Randl.

Sayeh Sobhani, PhD student and president of the PhD council at DSV, agrees that events like PhD Day are important.

“A strong PhD community benefits everyone. Doctoral studies can sometimes feel isolating, especially in specialized research areas. The PhD council helps build a sense of belonging, promotes collaboration, and ensures that students have a structured channel for raising concerns and contributing ideas,” she says.

“Events like PhD Day are an example of how community-building, academic exchange, and representation come together. By creating platforms for visibility and dialogue, we strengthen not only the PhD experience but also the research culture at DSV as a whole,” says Sayeh Sobhani.

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Text: Åse Karlén