Remote research collaboration in the era of pandemic

I had heard stories from people who fought and lived during world war. Those people experienced a life filled with deaths, sadness, uncertainty, hardships during wartime. The pandemic due to COVID-19 also created scenarios that matched the world crisis at the time of world war. I had never expected that I would experience such a miserable dark period during my life on this planet . Life of millions of people around the globe has been altered, thousands were killed by the invisible virus, and mankind was put to straining test. In the morning of 21 February 2020, I woke up to hear the news that the Italian government has imposed a lockdown and no one should step outside of their homes except for very urgent situations. From that day my daily normal life was radically changed. Long queues at supermarkets, heavy breathing under masks, physical distancing started to become a new normal. Thanks to that we are living in an age of the internet which gave us a lifeline to at least keep our activities ticking.

My university classes went fully online. Eventually, I also took the exam online. This whole new scenario prompted me to think about the possibility of completing my thesis research remotely. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to collaborate with the research scientists from SimulaMet in Norway. It was somewhat strange but a unique experience for me as everything was done virtually via the internet without having to meet in person. However, this research period was fruitful especially as I got to learn from feedbacks given by shrewd minds. I would like to share some points that I noted during this learning time.

• First of all, start writing immediately and keep on writing, no matter whatever section it is. This will help keep you in the right mindset and within your time frame to finish your work.
• Integrate some type of grammar checking software when you start writing. This will assist in keeping our writings in the grammatically correct form and cuts off lots of hassle at the end.
• If you have to implement your thesis by coding, start coding right from the beginning. It will give you ample time to run different types of experiments and adopt any changes you would like.
• If you have access to a cluster for running your source code, you can take different experimental setups and run them simultaneously.
• When you discuss your results and contributions from the research work, try to "SELL" as much as you can. Some people may not have the necessary expression power but at least try to mention all the things that you yielded through the experiments and your analysis based on the empirical results.
• If you have the opportunity to participate in an event where you can present or apply a section of your research work "JUST DO IT". Apart from learning from different individuals from the event, it will give you the necessary exposure to refine your work and your thought process too.
• Sometimes your experimental results may not turn out as you have wanted. In this case, first, check your experimental setup, review your code if the implementation is correct, and then try to explain what might be the causes for the results you are getting.
• Another important thing is to relax and take a break from the work. Release your frustrations and tensions. Yoga helped me a lot. Just take a deep breath and say "OMHhhhh...."

Given the new normal that our world is facing, the transition to remote work or research activities can be sometimes frustrating. Hence, building patience is the key to overcome anxiety and frustrations. Also, remember to keep your communication tab on so that you will not feel left alone. I believe that being so used to understand each other even with telework, telepathy would easily prevail between people when they start meeting in person. 😉

As I am learning to express myself by writing, your feedback would help me a lot to become a better writer.