In order to assess this claim, it is important to first bear in mind that classification as a “crank” theory actually requires a reasonably high level of technical development.  For example, in the linked article on trisection of an angle, it actually takes quite a bit of skill and work even to come up with a plausible-sounding false theory of how to do it.  There are almost certainly millions of adolescents in geometry classes around the world who would think that you can trisect an angle using straightedge and compass, and are willing to give it a go.  You would probably find thousands who think they have figured out how to do it.  The reason we don't class these kids as “cranks” is not because they are any smarter than the “cranks”, but just because they lack the time and technical skill to put forward a plausible-looking method, backed up by technical argumentation.  Even if they did, you wouldn’t tend to call an adolescent a “crank”, since the expectation of knowledge is lower.

Secondly, one should consider the likely preconditions for spending a large amount of time trying to prove something that professionals in the discipline assert to be false.  This will generally occur only if: (1) the person is of the view that these authority figures are fallible, and there is some reasonable prospect of success; or (2) the person gets direct enjoyment from the challenge, regardless of its impossibility.  Therefore, a “crank” is more likely to emerge among people who are either sceptical of institutional and professional authorities, or among people who get direct enjoyment from playing with technical problems.  Having then found a “solution” that appears plausible to them, what are they supposed to do?  Keep it to themselves?

Thus, assuming that your hypothesis is true (i.e., that most “cranks” are indeed older men), I would posit that the most likely explanations are probably a combination of the following factors:

There are far more men than women in technical professions that give them the requisite skill to develop a “crank” argument (ergo more men than women);
There is strong evidence that men score lower than women on the personality trait of “agreeableness”, and they are also much more interested in things in the people–things dichotomy.  There is some psychological evidence that men are more sceptical/resistant to institutional authority.  They are therefore much more likely to satisfy the preconditions for gaining utility from working on a problem that is asserted to be impossible by professional authorities (ergo more men than women);
In order to develop a theory in sufficient technical detail to be considered a “crank”, one needs a substantial amount of technical training, e.g., in engineering, mathematics, physics, etc., and there are more men and older people with this technical training (ergo more men and more older people);
In order to develop a theory in sufficient technical detail to be considered a “crank”, one needs a substantial amount of time, such as would be available in retirement (ergo more older people);
Even under equivalent circumstances, an older person is more likely to be classified as a “crank” than a younger person, due to the fact that certain younger people (particularly children, adolescents, and young adults) are not expected to have a high level of technical knowledge, and are generally excused for making assertions that are belied by expert knowledge (ergo more older people);
The context for discussion of “cranks” often tends to be technical disciplines like mathematics, engineering, physics, etc., which are heavily dominated by men.  There are many other fields of interest dominated by women, where silly ideas are ubiquitous, but these tend not to be raised as examples of “cranks” in these kinds of technical discussions.  For example, for every male “crank” in the field of mathematics, there are probably a hundred woman who believe in crystal healing or tarot cards, or some other scientifically baseless idea in a field that is more popular with women (ergo more men than women);

Incidentally, these are exactly the same reasons why the vast majority of correct technical methods in the fields of mathematics, engineering, physics, etc., are developed by men, with a reasonable representation of older men – for every few “cranks” that put forward asserted proofs of false theories, we get an innovator who breaks new ground with a correct theory that extends existing knowledge.  In any case, these are just hypotheses, but they seem pretty plausible to me, and I am not aware of any literature that attempts to study this problem.  Personally, I find it unlikely that a gender imbalance is due to women “having too much sense”.  Both sexes can lay claim to a great many people with very little good sense, and in my observation, various women spend absurdly large amounts of time on activities that are no less ill-advised than trying to prove/disprove difficult/impossible technical theories.


How to go about finding a Thesis advisor for Master degree

The list of professors can't be that long to just see their general research interests. This is just something you'll have to do. I've looked through all the profs at various schools with large departments and it probably took a max of 30 minutes.

But just reading about them isn't enough. If you can get your list down to 2-4 potential advisors then you can (A) ask for a meeting with each or (B) try to take a course with some of them.

If you have a general idea of what you want to study, it should be relatively easy to find a few that you are interested in. The harder part is convincing them to take you on :)


There's always room to publish any paper, even a computer-generated one that doesn't make sense. You just need to target the "appropriate" publication/venue.

Being more serious now, I have rarely seen any rejected work that "just died". For good or bad, the paper or parts of it were always later reused / resubmitted and eventually accepted.

I am not saying that's a good thing, because some papers/ideas/research topics are really terrible and absurd, but too many researchers are usually too stubborn / invested to accept it. Many of them, in fact, have made a career out of this (like republishing the same absurd/non-working idea for decades) and everyone seems to be okay with it.

These days there's really room for everything: publishing is a huge business. Again, it all depends on your standards.


How to show a student the work done in the lab is the lab's (or is it?)

I think that you are not referring to the right reason why your former students cannot simply go on and publish the small projects they did under your supervision in lower-tier journals (or any other journal for what matters).

It's not that the work done in the lab belongs to the PI and the lab as a group, it's that you and possibly other people in your group contributed to these projects, at least by providing scientific guidance and supervision (I think the answer to your question is to explain them that bit).

As such, your former students cannot claim that the work is solely theirs by not mentioning you as co-authors and, as a corollary, cannot publish without your explicit consent.


Go for undergrad or graduate degree in CS?

Actually, the CS undergraduate degree isn't just about programming. True that our students learn programming first so that they can build some interesting things in later courses, but there is a lot more to it. Perhaps you have this skill, certainly you have some of it with your background. But algorithms, and data structures are important as is computability theory and information theory.

You already have an undergrad degree and a masters. If you are in the US, an additional undergraduate degree would probably waste a lot of your time. But you might need to fill in a few things.

I suggest that you go visit someplace that has good graduate programs and talk with a faculty member or admissions councilor to see where you might fit in and what things you might want to do before you start formally. Some places will have flexible programs in which you can pick up the missed requirements formally.

Every place will have different requirements for a Masters. In some you will probably be a pretty close fit already. In others, not so much. But only a specific institution can tell you for sure how you stand and give you an estimate of your probable success. Visit in person so that you can get a feel for the place and they can ask you meaningful questions about background and intentions.


It depends heavily on the company. I know some companies that see publishing employees as a benefit and possibility for advertisement. Other companies are afraid that a competitor might steal the work. Thus, they often require that a patent is submitted beforehand and/or supervisors are required to check the paper for secret information. In general most companies do not think that publication is a great benefit and often do not support it, e.g., travel expenses.


What do you do if you have developments on your paper during the long peer review process?

Wait until the first revision to introduce this changes and let the editor know that you did not exclusively modify your original manuscript based on the reviewers comments?

Yes, that's the most common thing to do.

Of course, if the paper is rejected, then you can incorporate the changes before submitting somewhere else.

If the new developments are dramatic, then you may instead decide to leave the original paper alone, and write a separate paper with the new work.


I found that a method I was hoping to publish is already known. What would be a proper way to retract emails sent to professors asking for help?

Don't worry, we do that all the time (figuring out something has been done/shown before). It actually shows that you do your work.
Maybe give a link to the other solution/work as well in case they are interested (though this is coming from a very different field).


Is it ethical / legal for a PhD student to advertise that he is awarding PhD degrees to other students that pay him 200 USD/month?

This sounds like a straight up pyramid scheme. It may or may not be "legal" in your country but it's not a legitimate company. Run away from this.


How can I tell if software solutions to my labs are posted online?

You can't tell if solutions to your problem sets are posted online. The internet is HUGE and some things are hidden behind paywalls or other login forms.

But what you can do is:

design your own exercises and modify them enough each year to make it harder to re-use solutions.
quiz students about their solutions to (easily) find out if they did it themselves or at least understand the code.
wish your students good luck with their exams, where they will not have internet access.


Should peer review of conference proceedings be listed in a CV with journal peer reviewing, or should it be separate?

Maybe you can go with a broader heading so you can group them all together - something like "Manuscript Reviewing" will cover a myriad of publication categories, like conference proceedings, journals, edited volumes, etc. EDIT: Would also add that in doing so, the reader would then automatically know that those are all peer-reviewed venues.


Are there examples of highly cited papers that very poorly written?

I think Heidegger's Being and Time might fit this criteria. Though the philosopher's work was important to the field, he was criticized for the use of convoluted, imprecise language that managed to confuse other philosophers (Bertrand Russell being one such critic). In fact, the philosopher Paul Edwards published a collection of articles under the title Heidegger's Confusions in order to

  rescue [Heidegger’s] valuable ideas from the logical confusions in which they are embedded and from the willfully obscure and perverse language in which they are frequently expressed.

With regard to more recent (and research-oriented) writing: talk of the poor grammatical quality of academic journals has been around a while. Take a look at this quote from the Chronicle article "Bad Writing and Bad Thinking"

  Many people—publishers of scholarly work, editors at higher-education publications, agents looking for academic authors capable of writing trade books—who think about the general quality of scholarly prose would admit that we're in a sorry state, and most would say there isn't much to do about it.

So, although an example other than Heidegger's writing doesn't come to mind, it doesn't seem you'll have to look very far.


How do I politely ask a teacher to write a reference letter as soon as possible?

Just go and talk to him.Tell him about how much you need the placement and how valuable his recommendation-letter would be to you (don't try to butter him/her).Be frank and kindly request him/her but be brief and direct. Don't worry teachers don't mind it,They want to help you as well.


Will a paper be retracted if a flaw in released software code invalidates its central idea?

If the main idea in the paper has been invalidated by the correction in the code, you would do well to try to retract the paper yourself. This is just a point of professional ethics. It also protects you in a way from future claims if people don't examine everything thoroughly.

The journal may not be able to actually retract the paper, but might be able to post a note (printed or online) that the paper has a flaw (noted by the author, hopefully).

But others, relying on the original thesis of the paper might be misled in their own work. You really don't want that to happen.

Honesty in science is assumed. Make it so.

You might also be able to publish a better paper, based on the corrected code. Work toward that end.


Etiquette when talking to a researcher whose work you do not think highly of

Be polite. There's nothing to be gained by being a jerk. It's funny in the movies, but do people really say things like that in real life?
Be diplomatic. State initially that you do not fully understand the approach or the motivation, and then after some discussion state that you do not fully agree with the approach taken.
Be succinct. Point out clearly what you see as being the problem with the paper.
Be constructive. Indicate places where you think the paper/research could be improved, with concrete suggestions of how you would make the improvements.

Alternatively,

Avoid the topic. Talk about the football scores instead. What about those Bears?


I left off a detail in the results section of a manuscript that's been accepted. How do I remedy this?

I can't speak to the specifics of the correction you need to make, but in general, I would think that you make the change as you revise it for the final version, and note the change in the cover letter to the editor.  If it is something significant enough that it could affect the decision to accept, the editor might send it back to reviewers to confirm.


Should I retake a course for an easy A or focus on research?

PhD students are judged on their research publications, not their coursework.  It is good strategy to minimize the time you spend on courses.

we have no transfer credit policy

If there is no policy, ask for one.
I would recommend taking a low effort course over a high effort course; not to reduce effort expended, but to direct that effort to research.  If a course helps you with your research, then take it.
I would not recommend lowering your coursework efforts to the point that you fail; in that case you will need to repeat the effort, which is not efficient.


Best sites and practices to disseminate research papers

The website where professional mathematicians share their preprints on in the arXiv.

Regarding your concerns:

Plagiarism is mostly a non-issue. Given the number of articles on the arXiv already, if someone were to pick one to copy, it is unlikely that it is one of yours. Even so, this would not cause any meaningful damage to you.
Many mathematicians actually read the arXiv digest in their particular area, and could notice your article there if relevant for them. Researchgate on the other hand has a somewhat questionable reputation.
You should definitely keep the arXiv version up to date, and fix any mistakes you find there. Many people will indeed read the arXiv version over the one on the publishers website, for a variety of reasons – including not having access to the latter, so you should count that as a plus, not a minus.


justify the interview development, and validation or testing methods

Yes, a reviewer can always ask evidence to justify your sayings to escape from the blames such as if any mistakes found later after the publication. So it is up to the author whether he/she incorporates those evidences/ justifications in the manuscript or as supplements or by giving clarifications to the reviewer.


I (independently) solved a fellow student's research problem. I want to publish it. What should I do?

There is a larger issue at hand that you seem to be missing.

Yes, I do believe that you can publish your own work, and probably independently if neither your advisor nor your colleague helped. And I understand that there are some field-dependent conventions in mathematics that would be best to discuss with your advisor.

That being said, I believe that, being a senior and more experienced student, you should not have allowed the situation to have reached this point. That is to say you should not have scooped your colleague in the first place. You offered your help to collaborate with your colleague and ended up quite literally stealing his project and are now thinking about publishing it because he was not able to work as fast or as efficiently as you (because he is inexperienced, as you said). This is something that should have been discussed with your advisor at a much earlier stage.

You should understand that this will probably not be the last time that you can benefit from collaboration, and you don't want to be known as the person who steals other people's projects. Healthy collaboration is an intrinsic part of academia (and society, in general). You are expected to be trusted to review other people's papers without scooping them, and in the future you will likely advise inexperienced students in their own projects, many of which have been suggested by you, and that you could solve with much less effort. More importantly, you will be partly responsible their success.

Speaking from your advisor's standpoint, I would consider your action harmful to the group's health. While I generally applaud collaboration between students, in my group, projects and milestones are set with the understanding that students can benefit from them, and that they can help them progress in their more ambitious goals (i.e., a dissertation). This is particularly important for inexperienced students. Should there be a major change of directions (such as a student unable to make progress and someone else benefiting from it), I would like it to be run through me (or other senior member of the lab) first so that it can be arranged for nobody to be in a losing situation. In your case, your colleague is in a losing situation, his name going in the paper or not.

The moment you noticed a solution to the problem, you should have informed your colleague (and possibly your advisor) and both of you should have worked on it, together.


While ResearchGate provides some rough hints on their support pages (see @GoodDeeds's comment), the details of how the RG score is computed are not publicly disclosed.
Relevant article from the London School of Economic's Impact Blog: The ResearchGate Score: a good example of a bad metric

One of the most apparent issues of the RG Score is that it is in-transparent. ResearchGate does present its users with a breakdown of the individual parts of the score, i.e., publications, questions, answers, followers (also shown as a pie-chart), and to what extent these parts contribute to your score. Unfortunately, that is not enough information to reproduce one’s own score. For that you would need to know the exact measures being used as well as the algorithm used for calculating the score. These elements are, however, unknown.
ResearchGate thus creates a sort of black-box evaluation machine that keeps researchers guessing, which actions are taken into account when their reputation is measured. This is exemplified by the many questions in ResearchGate’s own question and answering system pertaining to the exact calculation of the RG Score. There is a prevalent view in the bibliometrics community that transparency and openness are important features of any metric. One of the principles of the Leiden Manifesto states for example: “Keep data collection and analytical processes open, transparent and simple”, and it continues: “Recent commercial entrants should be held to the same standards; no one should accept a black-box evaluation machine.” Transparency is the only way measures can be put into context and the only way biases – which are inherent in all socially created metrics – can be uncovered.


How to choose a good grading curve for yes/no exams?

For this situation, I provide three answer options:

Yes.
No.
I don't know.

The grading rubric is:

Correct answer: +1
Incorrect answer: 0
I don't know: +0.5

That way, if the student really doesn't know, they are guaranteed the expectation of a random guess and you get feedback on holes in student knowledge, which can be used to take remedial action. If your aim is more effective student learning, this can be a good strategy.
I've tried to avoid negative marks for a couple of reasons:

Imagine two candidates who achieve the same final score in a negatively marked exam. One candidate answers only part of the paper, losing a few marks for wrong answers. The other answers almost all of the paper, getting far more correct but also getting several wrong and having marks deducted. Which one knows more?
The second problem is that the use of negative marking extends the theoretical range of marks for the exam. For example, if one mark is awarded for every correct answer and one deducted for each wrong answer, the theoretical range of the exam is - 100 to +100 per cent.

—
From the comments moved to chat: someone asked about a slightly different value for the “I don’t know” option. This is my response:
I tend not to use Yes/No questions, but multiple choice for some assessment. In those cases, I make the "I don't know" option worth 1/(N-1) where N is the number of other options. That way, if there are 3 other options, a random guess would expect to get 1/3 but the I don't know option gains 1/2 --- the expected value if the student can knock out one of the three options..


HiWi payment in Germany for student with international bachelor's

Usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

What the institute says is completely wrong: there is no such law.

The salary of Wissenschaftliche Hilfskräfte (HiWi, student doing scientific work) varies by state and by university, and it is not regulated by law. As explained in Chapters 3.3 and 6 of this document (unfortunately, information about this is only available in German), these student employees are in most cases not even included in the worker unions, and tariff negotiations do not apply to them (the only exception being Berlin). This means that these salaries are almost exclusively decided by the employers.

The only available "official document" are the Richtlinien der TdL über die Arbeitsbedingungen der Hilfskräfte (Guidelines of the Tariff Association of German States about the working conditions of the assistants), which are just guidelines, not a law. These guidelines only provide a maximum salary (not a minimum), and distinguish between three groups of students. The highest salary group is for students with a Master's degree. The second-highest salary group is for students who, among other options, have a

  Bachelor-Abschluss

i.e., a Bachelor's degree. There is no clause that says that currently studying another Bachelor's degree disqualifies you from being in this group.

This said, getting your foreign Bachelor's degree recognized might take some effort, but I would at least ask them what law they are talking about.


I'd recommend looking at the job market and seeing what jobs sound appealing to you. Next go to Coursera, Youtube, etc. and see if you like the subject by watching a few online classes. If you think you can adequately self learn the subject then that is the best option. Employers might look at the PhD -> MS like you are a professional student that lacks direction (plus it's a boatload of money). You want your resume to say, I have a PhD in physics which means I'm smart and I self taught myself all this stuff you require for this job because I am self motivated. It shows independence; if you need to learn something new on the job, they know you can do it, because you have done it before. Don't waste time getting an MS.

There are two exceptions to this, and it may apply here. (1) If in your new field of study you can't adequately learn the vast majority of the material without the infrastructure provided by University lab facilities containing tons of expensive equipment, then it would be reasonable to pursue the masters. (2) An MBA program that is all about networking, pretty much requires face to face interactions, although an MBA is usually thought to be best pursued after having some industry work experience.

The answer to your question, however, is yes, you can definitely get into the Masters programs. For most private schools masters programs are cash cows that fund the university. They let in all students they think are good enough to succeed in their program. The bigger question is whether it's a good idea for you to make this career move.


How long outside academia without publishing is too long?

You should be getting advice about such things from your advisor and/or other experienced colleagues within your academic field. It’s hard for anyone here to make predictions about whether you can get a postdoc based on so little information.

In general though, I would say 10 months isn’t such a long time, so if you were in a good position to get a postdoc 10 months ago then it shouldn’t be very different now, assuming you are on good terms with your advisor and other people who can write you letters. And who knows, the skills you developed in your software engineering job might even come in handy in academic research. Good luck!


Switching to host university during master’s after research internship project?

It's impossible to answer definitely without (a) knowing the exact way that you will be studying in Japan for 3 months and (b) the thoughts that the people you will study with both have now and will have at the end of your 3 months.

With that being said, I want to suggest two reasons to not get your hopes up.

you state that you will be at the University of Tokyo. This university has the highest prestige ranking in Japan so there are many Japanese people that want to study there or go there to continue graduate school. This means that they have a harder time playing fast and loose and admissions are competitive (some Japanese universities have rather non-competitive graduate admissions).
many funding sources that would bring you for three months have an expectation that you go back to your own institution after that. Some may have terms that prohibit staying (if the idea was to stick around immediately) or terms that prevent receiving further funding to study in Japan (most everything here is run by MEXT so the same people would know).


How is student feedback dealt with for poorly teaching faculty?

There are several mechanisms we have that in theroy should deal with this sort of thing:

All academics must have their teaching observed by another member of staff at least once a year, but ideally once a module. All academics must observe someone else teaching once a year. When this happens a form must be filled in that says what the observed could improve and what the observer learnt that they will implement in their own teaching.

We have a pretty good staff-student committee where concerns by students can and are raised. We also have student representatives on our departmental teaching committee (see this answer).

How effective these are is varied. Student surveys make up a big part of who a department is ranked in national rankings, which determines how many students we can recruit. Management in the UK can exert quite a lot of pressure on offenders because there is no such thing as tenure in the UK (although all workers are protected from sacking to a greater extent than in the US).

But this can be ineffective if: A staff member is important to the department/university for another reason (e.g. very high research income), or the staff member is just so over worked and stressed, that they give up the will to do well irrespective of the consequences - this is increasingly common as enrollments fall and management tries to force more work out of fewer people with less resources. If a staff member were protected by the fact you are leaving soon anyway (it takes up to a year to get rid of someone), I'd say there is not much to be done.


Prestige of publishing in special vs regular journal issue

I have not been a journal editor.  But I have dealt with many journal editors, and in my experience the kind of thing they are most concerned about is maintaining and elevating their journal's standards at all times.  So I have to imagine that when they put together a special issue, they take pains to ensure that this does not result in any measurable lowering of their journal's standards.

In my branch of mathematics, special issues are not that common but not unheard of either.  I have never noticed any difference in the quality of the papers published in these special issues.  Also in my experience people may not even list on their CV that the publication has appeared in a "special issue".

I have on the other hand been on many hiring committees, and I have not heard a thing about this.  Again though in my field this sort of publication is relatively uncommon and it may even escape our notice.  I suppose that if a candidate had ten publications and they were all in "special issues" that might be curious.

All in all, in my neck of the woods there is nothing to worry about here.


Conference/Journal publication author's name (surname)?

There is no requirement to use your full, legal name when publishing a paper. Many people who get married continue to use the same name they used before marriage, even if they change their surname to match their partner's, to ensure all their publications can be found easily. It actually would be quite unusual for authors to use their full name when publishing. English "middle names" are usually omitted or shortened to just an initial.


Is there such a thing as a permanent academic assistantship position?

Yes, this absolutely exists in my field. Such people are typically called "Research Scientists" or "Research Associates." At my last university, a PhD was only a requirement for Research Scientist III. The level of independence depended on your own experience, and I suppose your PI's desires. That is, I would expect each one to have their own pieces of a project, and be on a few papers a year.

I have not heard of one having teaching responsibilities (even just grading) without holding a PhD, since those are often used for grad student funding. I do know of a few people who had lecturer responsibilities without holding a faculty position technically.


How did conferences "work" before the e-mail era?

Conferences were organized pretty much as they are now, only slower and with lots more paper.

Conferences would advertise by physically mailing paper fliers to potential authors (primarily past attendees) and perhaps some department chairs.  Postage was a significant portion of the conference budget.  Professional society publications (like Communications of the ACM and SIGACT News) would include several pages of calls for papers with upcoming deadlines.  These calls for papers were typically prepared and sent to publishers/printers about a year in advance of the conference.
Authors would send multiple physical paper copies of each submission by post (or FedEx, or whatever) to the physical address of the program committee chair.  Typically, the author would send one copy for each member of the program committee.  Papers usually had to be received, not merely postmarked, by the submission deadline.  (Hence the probably-not-apocryphal stories of grad students flying to the PC chair's city with a box of last-minute submissions from their home department.)
Submission deadlines were typically about six months before the actual conference date, just as they are now.
The PC chair (or more likely, their secretary and/or students) would collate the received submissions into boxes/binders, which would be physically mailed to each program committee member.  Thus, each PC member would receive a copy of each submitted paper.  Shipping costs were a non-trivial portion of the conference budget.  (Having never been on a committee organized this way, I don't know how review assignments were done.  I assume the now ubiquitous practice of sub-reviewing was very rare.)
A couple of months later, the entire program committee would fly to a central physical location with their submission boxes/binders, to decide which submissions to accept.  Conference budgets sometimes included travel costs for the program committee, but not always.
The PC chair (or more likely, their secretary and/or students) would send a physical letter to each submitting author informing them of the committee's decision about their paper.  Often this was the only feedback from the program committee.  Authors who wanted more information about why a paper was rejected often had to contact one of the committee members directly.
About three months before the conference, authors of accepted papers would physically mail camera-ready copies of their papers to the publisher, after following formatting instructions received by physical mail.  The publisher would duplicate (using an actual camera!) and bind these papers into books, along with front and back matter prepared by the PC chair and also physically mailed to the publisher.
The publisher would ship physical books containing all the camera-ready papers, which would be distributed to the conference attendees.  (Again, shipping costs were a non-trivial portion of the conference budget.)  Faculty attending the conferences would often buy extra books to distribute to their students who could not attend.  Other copies of the same book would be physically mailed to hundreds of university libraries and other subscribers.


Letter of recommendation for relative who has done relevant work for me

I strongly advise you against writing it.

In this answer by ff524 you can read a few reasons on why your letter may be considered strongly biased. But let me add one more point, a cultural one (you never know the background of the selection committee members).

Even though you can be objective and honest in assessing your nephew's skills, and even though your letter would be just an additional one, you have to think that in some countries (e.g. Italy and Spain, but I'm sure these are not the only ones) the academic world has faced for a long time accusations of nepotism and corruption. Therefore, by many people who have grown up in such kind of culture, your letter would be probably considered as yet another case of potential nepotism.

I might be overly pessimistic, but do you really want to risk this?

Let me add a remark in view of HEITZ's comment below: When applying for a position, follow the instructions. That is, if the call requires, say, 3 letters of recommendation, your nephew should send 3 letters, not 2, not 4. Why? Because anything that is not compliant with the instructions will likely annoy a selection committee who has to assess many applicants, because they will have to decide how to handle unwanted special cases.


Travel grant for summer conference between PhD and first job?

Here is a travel grant administered by the Association for Women in Mathematics: https://sites.google.com/site/awmmath/programs/travel-grants/mathematics-travel-grants

Here's one by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics: http://www.siam.org/prizes/sponsored/postdoctravel.php (this requires affiliation with a US university; while your current graduate school and/or future postdoc employer might be unwilling to provide funding they are likely to be more flexible with `affiliation')

I've also heard rumors that a postdoc employer starting in August/September might be willing to support travel in the summer before the appointment starts, but this might just be wishful thinking on my part (but it can't hurt to ask?)


Is doing a Habilitation a financially viable decision?

You have to distinguish things here:

A Habilitation is a qualification level (not quite like an academic
degree but you can think that it is sort of a grand PhD with additional teaching). This does not mean
that you have to be employed but in most cases you will be because
otherwise it is going to be a bit difficult to finance your life for the time it takes (normally 4-8 years)
A Habilitation used to be the formal qualification level to become
Associate Professor and Full Professor. The position of an Assistant
Professor (German "Universitätsassistent") was usually the time when you worked on obtaining the
Habilitation. Today most job advertisements do not ask for a
Habiliation anymore. Instead it states something like "Habilitation
or equivalent qualification". This allows hiring of international professors.
In daily university life a Habilitation might still be of
significant advantage. You (sadly) still hear phrases like "This guys does not even have a Habilitation - what does he even want". Also nobody will questions your ability to supervise students if you have the Habilitation (you can also without but it definitly still helps)
In non-academic jobs as in industry you will certainly not need a
Habilitation. It might rather be a disadvantage as you will be seen
as overqualified.


Was it a mistake to act more interested in a potential advisor's work than I actually am

There is something missing here: If you talked to him for a while. I suppose part of this talk should address your research/interests and what you are going to do as a PhD student. Does that mean you acted as if you were interested just for the sake of acceptance? Was it an involving discussion or a one-sided one (the professor talks most of the time)?

If you spoke about your interests and he seemed interested. Then most likely he has something for you within your interests. Even if he is working on other projects.

  If I did get into this University, how likely would I be to have to
  work on this project? Either by getting a different advisor or by
  working with this professor on something else. Obviously this depends
  on the situation, but maybe there's some general advice that applies?

You always have the option of opt-out of the subject and changing the advisor. This happens regularly specially for first year PhD students.

  How do I go forward? I don't want to pretend to be interested in
  something I'm not, but I definitely don't want to ruin my chances.

This depends upon what stage are you in. If you still did not apply to the school, try to be honest and write your research statement exactly as you wish. Try to line the professor research with your interests. IF you did apply, then there is nothing you should do except waiting for the decision.


Would it be professional to ask my host to cover my dining and commuting expenses?

I've only been a visitor in the European context, but I believe these costs would be reasonable to bring up. (First check whether there are funds at your institution that could help cover the difference. Ask your advisor and perhaps a department administrator for ideas.) Below is a possible script and some potential ways to save money.

  I'm getting a lot out of these weekly meetings, and I appreciate your making this possible by funding my train tickets, but I have been surprised by several aspects of the cost of travel that I did not initially expect. Finding food during the trip, and getting to the train station in an efficient way are actually adding up. Unfortunately, my institution does not have funds that will cover this. Is there any way your research funds could cover this as well? Or can we rearrange our meetings to cut costs?

Travel:

Now that you have communicated a lot in person, could you switch to an online meeting every other week? If there are regulations that say he can only cover train fare, at least you would cut your other expenses in half. Or he may be able to pay for a taxi and food with the savings from the train fares.
If your schedule remains regular, could you find other regular commuters to split the cost of a taxi and/or to reimburse for being a passenger in their car? Your institution may have a bulletin board, or there may be ride sharing services in your area that help with this.
Is there a regular taxi driver who may be able to coordinate with you? If you're able to regularly ride with someone at the beginning or end of their shift, for instance, they might appreciate that consistency and offer a discount.

Food:

You could ask if there is any way to buy or order food while you are at the institute; it may be cheaper than on the train, and he may decide to pay for your food when you visit.
My department does reimburse for food eaten away from home as part of travel, but I might personally find this harder to bring up.
You may also be able to get several sandwiches or pre-made meals for the trip, or get cheaper food at the train station itself.

Time:

You're probably exhausted after each one of these trips, and that feeling can add up. This might be another reason to change the schedule, perhaps spending a few days there at once, but not visiting as often. (Does the institute have guest housing, and/or is there a hostel nearby?)
Taking public transport to cut costs could work occasionally, but your time on transportation alone is going to be 7.5 hours, not to mention time waiting and transferring. It is reasonable to feel like that is not sustainable.


Advice and tools for hosting an online journal club

There's an online Astronomy Journal Club hosted on Wordpress.

Here's my main advice: make the process as frictionless as possible. Grad students tend to have very busy lives, and journal clubs will inevitably have high dropout rates unless they have some motivation (even through guilt) to stay in and to continue participating. Keep them updated through some service that they'll constantly check even if they aren't doing science (emails end up annoying people, but Facebook, Reddit, and Google Plus might work).

It's also probably easier to convince people to set an online journal club when the journal club is about some specialized subject that only a small number of people at any particular university know about (and if they have a strong urge to talk about the subject with people from other universities).

Finally, if there's an academic conference for grad students (for my area, for example, it would be AbGradCon), discuss it with people there! Journal clubs are an excellent way to keep in touch with grad students at other universities.


In-text reference (APA style) for website

From Penn State University Libraries

  APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of
  publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations,
  include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14).
  For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers,
  use a paragraph number.

So in your case you could cite (Author name, Year, Paragraph Number).

Here is some more information when you do not have page numbers from Prudue University OWL

  Sources Without Page Numbers

  When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to
  include information that will help readers find the passage being
  cited. When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the
  abbreviation "para." followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001,
  para. 5). If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes
  headings, provide the appropriate heading and specify the paragraph
  under that heading. Note that in some electronic sources, like Web
  pages, people can use the Find function in their browser to locate any
  passages you cite.


This question is rather difficult to answer without more information, and I believe one needs to have more details to actually judge things. I will do my best to address several of your concerns:

You are right that "a faster implementation of an algorithm" is not something very remarkable by itself. There are two possible interpretations:

Your algorithm does the same thing as the previous algorithm, but you have either changed the insides of the algorithm or performed a better analysis and you have got a better time bound on the algorithm. In this case, I believe it should be okay to publish in an undergraduate journal.
The algorithm is still the same, but you have discovered a flaw in some implementation of the algorithm and corrected this flaw, so the running time actually corresponds to what the original time complexity bound promises. This is more literally "a faster implementation of an algorithm", and by itself is not a large contribution.

The usual methodology in Computer Science for measuring complexity of algorithms is either worst-case complexity, average-case complexity or amortized complexity. You seem to suggest that you have some novel kind of methodology. If that methodology is more useful for some practical problem which you set out to solve, I believe this might be definitely something to include in the publication.

It is difficult for me to estimate the amount of novel work that you actually have, but you seem to suggest that it was a requirement to submit to an undergraduate journal. Therefore, it makes sense to me that you should write up your work regardless and try to submit it.

It is not the end of the world if a grant fails, but you should try and fulfill the requirements regardless. If you do submit, it may happen that your work does not get accepted, but if you fail to submit, this becomes a certainty.


Is Robotics and Automation Letters Open Access or Traditional Journal?

"Only" means that you don't have the ability to choose traditional vs Open Access until after acceptance.


Is it appropriate for a professor to require students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being taught?

No. It’s not appropriate and this is an obvious, blatant abuse of authority. I have a word in mind to describe this professor, but unfortunately am not free to disclose it as I am under an NDA. (It starts with an “i” and ends with a “t”).

Edit: to those asking “why not?”: teaching the class is the professor’s job. He is literally (in the literal sense of “literally”) required to teach the lecture and to allow any registered student who isn’t being disruptive to attend it, without setting any preconditions. And of course this swearing of students to legally binding secrecy is even more absurd than other types of conditions, considering the students are there to acquire knowledge they’ll need to use later in their studies and career. The whole “I’ll teach you but you have to promise not to tell anyone about it” thing reads like something straight out of Catch-22.


Page numbers are going to go away because (i) stuff isn't actually printed any more, and (ii) page numbers are inconvenient in the publishing process because one needs to know how many pages the articles before the current one have before giving the current one page numbers. So the short answer is: You'll need to learn to cope with it.

In similar situations, I've used the following formats to indicate how many pages an article has:

  W. Bangerth: "Stuff more scientists ought to talk about", Journal of Important Research, article 12687 (24 pages), 2019.

or

  W. Bangerth: "Stuff more scientists ought to talk about", Journal of Important Research, vol. 24, pp. 12687/1-24, 2019.


Are PhD students allowed to collaborate with other faculty without their advisors being involved

The answer to both the title and the second paragraph of the question is the commonest answer to questions about PhD studies: "Discuss it with your advisor.". The advisor knows about relationships between your department and other institutions, and may know more than you do about the history of collaborations with them. There is a serious issue of whether you can make fast enough progress on your dissertation research if also pursuing other research. The advisor is supposed to give advice about how to proceed with your research career.

The answer to the first paragraph of the question body, about not even telling one's advisors, is that it is just not going to work. As soon as you co-author anything with the other institution, the collaboration is public. Even if your advisor does not come across it, someone will mention it to them. At the best it will be something like "I see your student user2987 is doing interesting work with Professor X."

Maybe the advisor would have liked the collaboration if it had been discussed in advance. If they find out about it indirectly, they will know you have gone behind their back. That is likely to damage your relationship with your advisor.


Etiquette for publicizing postdoc position

You are unlikely to offend a reasonable person by revealing you got a job.  So I would say there is not an etiquette beyond avoiding excessive boasting.  Don't talk about how you are better than the people who did not get the job.  Don't talk about how your job is better than other people's jobs.  You probably knew that.
This is not etiquette, but:  If you get a job "early" it is in your interest to keep it secret for a while.  A lot of people think that "I have a new job starting in September" is the same as "I am leaving tomorrow."  They will quit contacting you and quit collaborating with you because they are confused.  You will constantly have to answer questions about why you are still around.


How to do a literature review on practical research (thesis)?

In general, the literature review means discussing the ways that other people have tried to solve similar problems in the past, and then giving some comparison/contrast between what has been done previously and what you are about to. i.e. put your work in context of existing work.  You might see it worded something like this:

"Historically, two main strategies have been used by companies to reduce testing time and cost.  Strategy 1 was first described in Article #1 and consists of using trained monkeys to do the testing.  Strategy 2 is discussed in several articles including article #2 and article #3 and involves just assuming everything works fine and going out to lunch early without doing any actual testing.  Strategy 1 works well, but does not scale to large projects due to a shortage of properly trained monkeys, as described in book #4.  Strategy 2 scales very well, but can often miss subtle errors, as mentioned by author #5.  In this thesis, we will present a new strategy, which is more scalable than strategy 1, but does not suffer from the quality problems of strategy 2."

Depending on the length of your thesis, you might go into a lot of detail here.  E.g. for a Ph. D. disseration you might have a couple of pages on strategy #1, a couple of pages on strategy #2, etc.  But for a short article a sentence or two is usually enough.


How to write formally about skipping one year of highschool on CV

High school attendance is not mentioned on an academic CV.


How to convert from one grading scheme to another?

There is no clear answer for conversion between grading schemes in different countries. Sure, you could numerically try to convert using ratios and proportions as you are currently tying to do but they don't really mean anything because of the following two salient reasons:

Grade Inflation and Deflation: Grades mean differently in different institutions across different disciplines and in different courses. For instance, certain highly ranked universities in the USA are very well known for grade inflation. A 3.5 overall GPA is what almost everyone gets. On the other hand, certain other highly ranked universities suffer from grade inflation where getting a 3.0 GPA in certain courses and in certain majors is very different. Hence, merely using some base metric to convert between grading schemes of different countries is not a very good idea.
Differential grading within the same country: Not every country has a standardized grading system. For instance, India has at least 5 different grading schemes that I am aware of including but not limited to absolute CGPA's on a 4.0 scale, a percentage system on 100 and a relative CGPA system on a 10.0 scale.

tl;dr

Don't convert between different grading schemes unless it is explicitly mentioned what minimum grades you need for your own country. Just apply and hope for the best.


Unsolicited request for a scientific collaboration

Be specific and brief, with a clear action item.

bad:

My name is X and I'm interested in Y, and I'm hoping you'd be interested in working with me.

slightly better:

My name is X, and I'm interested in Y. I read your recent papers on Foo1, foo2, and foo3, and I was wondering whether you thought Theorem eleventy-seven in your paper on foo2 could apply to the problem of Y''.

much better:

My name is X, and I'm interested in Y. I read your recent papers on Foo1, foo2, and foo3. I had an idea about how to apply theorem eleventy-seven in your foo2 paper to Y'', by inserting the well known lemma Bar1, and Bar2. I was wondering if you were aware of approaches that have tried this? I looked at refs 1–157 and didn't see anything relevant.
I'd love to chat more about this if you're interested.

Again, your mileage may vary. There are cultural variations, personal variations and so on. But I’ve had success with emails of this kind.


Is there an open-source license that enforces citations?

Before thinking of the citation of the software, think of the related situation for scientific articles. Have you have read an article with a comment "If you use the results of our research, it is mandatory to cite this paper"? Probably not, it is because it is the practice of working scientists to cite relevant material (Comment here: I do not claim that the citation process is always well used, fair, or whatever in this direction. In general, this is the way scientists are supposed to work).

Because of the relatively recent status of software as an academic artifact (in comparison to books and articles), the situation is not as good as it could be.

Several initiatives have been made to think of this issue, to propose solutions that are considered fair, and to encourage a citation practice that is as good for software or data as it is for articles.

Smith et al "Software citation principles" PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86 collects the recommendation of the FORCE 11 working group on software citation. For developers and users.
"Encouraging citation of software – introducing CITATION files" is a blog post by Robin Wilson as part of the Software Sustainability Institute. It recommends to include a "CITATION" file with the relevant data to cite the software.
The Journal of Open Source Software is a journal whose purpose is to publish concise articles about a software. The papers have a DOI and can be cited, which enables you to include your software in the "traditional" publishing and citation practice of scientists.

There are probably other initiatives that I don't think of right now. There seems to be consensus anyway to stick to a well known license recognized by the Open Source Initiative (OSI): https://opensource.org/licenses

To conclude, the context of your software also matters. If one of your aims is that your software is re-used by others, either standalone or in combination with other tools, this influences the choice of the license. Looking furhter, if you want your software to be distributed in larger packages or in Linux distributions, a well established license is critical.


Do I need to ask a permission to acknowledge a respected mathematician in my paper?

I don't think it's necessary to ask permission for something like this - there's really nothing he could do to stop you from acknowledging him if he did take issue with it, so the permission isn't even his to give to begin with.

That said, you're acknowledging him because you respect and appreciate his comments, and want to formally recognize the working relationship you have with him. It couldn't hurt to send him an email thanking him for his contribution, and mention that you will be acknowledging him in the paper. If he really has a problem with it, he'll have the opportunity to ask you to do otherwise at that time.


Yes, a group of authors (Đurić, Delibašić, Radišić, or Đuirić, Delilbašić and Radisic, as they signed themselves in the paper) trying to debunk the Metalurgia International journal provided outrageous pictures in their paper entitled: Evaluation of Transformative Hermeneutic Heuristics for Processing Random Data.

The, up to that point "respected", journal published the paper without any comments about the photos.


Does a lecturer have the right to prevent students from making their notes public?

You don't say where in the world all this is taking place.  As usual, both the country and (in some cases) the specific university matter, as the laws vary and (probably more significantly) the academic culture varies.

  A lecturer does not make slides or lecture notes available (e.g. on the course website) in an effort to force students to show up at lectures.

An instructor does not have to make slides or lecture notes available full stop.  Academic culture seems to be changing in the direction of lecturers giving slide presentations, and since you are showing your slides exactly as they are, not making them available to students seems a bit more conspicuous than not giving out your lecture notes.  But many instructors still do not use any special materials and feel that it is up to the student to get the content from the lectures.

It is a common sentiment among instructors to do business in a way that does not make it too easy or appealing for a student to skip class.

  Some of us students feel this is a terrible policy: many students learn the material just fine without attending each and every lecture, so it is not a necessary policy, and it also seems unethical to force us all to show up, because what if we just happened to have something more important to deal with on some given day?

Unethical is very strong.  Again, your location probably strongly informs the academic culture, but e.g. I don't know of any American university where the instructor who claims that students should, in general, come to class would not be supported by the administration.  At my big state university, there is a blanket attendance policy, to the extent that there is a statement from the administration that students are expected to attend class.  This gives support for individual instructors to create their own specific attendance policies.  In my undergraduate classes I have often had mandatory attendance policies, to the point of factoring attendance into course grades and also to the point of (rarely, but it has happened) withdrawing students from my course for very poor attendance.  On the other hand, I was a postdoc in Montreal, and at Concordia University in particular it was expected that instructors would give students the option of a "100% final": that is, the entire course grade would be the final exam.  When I taught a course there, two students exercised this option: one got an A, the other an F.  If you don't know, ask the question "Can the instructor require attendance?" to an administrator or academic advisor.  You should get a clear answer.  If it's yes, then you have no leg to stand on about this policy.  (Yes, that does not stop it from being unethical, but if you really feel that way: don't attend that academic institution.)

  As a response, some of us have decided to write extensive notes together and put them up on a filesharing website, and we've notified other students of this using the course websites' discussion forum. The lecturer has now messaged one of us (the one who made the post on the forum) and told him to stop doing this.

If the instructor wants or requires you to come to class, then look at from his perspective: he is not going to be pleased if he sees students brazenly making arrangements to avoid coming to class.  You are rubbing your lack of respect for his wishes in his face.  This is a bad idea.

  What should our response be? Does the lecturer have any say in this? Are we in the wrong?

Well, first I want to say that you haven't actually given a good reason for not wanting to come to class.  You say "what if we just happened to have something more important to deal with on some given day" but...do you?  If most students attend, say, 90% of the lectures, I'm not sure why you need a filesharing program: you can just copy your friend's notes for the few lectures that you missed.  On the contrary, a filesharing program looks like a systematic plan for the students to avoid the lectures: again, you may have the right to do so, and you may have good reasons for doing so, but...do you actually or are you just being difficult about it?  I have taught at the university level for almost 20 years, and in my experience: there is a high correlation between coming to class and student success.  Even if you win a battle not to attend class, the victory seems rather pyrrhic to me.

However, if you feel strongly that it is in your best interest not to attend most or all of the lectures and your right to do so is supported on the institutional level, then: check to see whether there is any institutional policy against students sharing lecture notes.  I would highly expect there not to be such a policy.  Assuming that's the case: yes, you can share lecture notes.  I advise that you contrive to do it more quietly.  Giving your instructor even plausible deniability that you are not sharing your lecture notes should go a long way towards defusing the situation.


What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?

This is often called a "recitation section".


Starting over six years again after Ph.D.

First of all, you don't need a job at most colleges, you just need one of them. So don't let a bunch of closed doors bother you. Many others are still open.

You can definitely still do postdocs. Some schools have strict rules, many others do not, treating it as a generic at-will employment job with whatever name the prof wants to give the role. I knew someone who came back to a postdoc after over a decade in industry (they left again in a few months for another industry job though). I know others who have stayed in the role for way too many years. There are also similar jobs with other names like research scientist that you can get in academic labs. It's kind of wide open if you are willing/able to relocate. Pick some big schools and monitor their job opening list.

You can also take classes at many (perhaps all?) major public universities via some variant of an open university system, requiring little more than permission of the instructor (and some cash). There will likely be a limit in the number of classes you can take this way but it can get you started. Ace a few classes and you will have a much easier time moving to the next step.

Lack of ABET certification is not a huge deal, by the way. It's a lot of paperwork and many universities don't bother with it. It's more important that the school is regionally accredited. Then we can trust (at least somewhat more) that you were actually taught what your transcript says you were taught.


How do Graduate Admissions Committees view an applicant from Industry?

There are several considerations that may make it difficult for you.  Here are a few based on gut instinct:

1) You are an 'outsider' - the traditional route of undergraduate to graduate school often entails nurturing relationships with other academics at your home institution and abroad.  Those relationships help grease the wheels when it comes to letters of support.  But, this can be overcome. Perhaps you already maintain relationships with academic circles.  Failing that, strong letters from higher-ups at a place like RMS are probably just as noteworthy.

2) From the PI's perspective, taking a graduate student is a long-term investment. You would occupy a spot that could be offered to someone else, so in addition to promising productivity, PI's generally prefer the person have the goal of continuing on and pursuing an academic life.  Since you've been in industry, there is always the fear that at some point, you'll simply abdicate and return to industry.

I think you can spin your industry experience 'narrative' to your advantage.  First, you can stress that your time in industry did not meet your needs for academic development.  In other words, only academics provides the platform to realize your highly technical goals.  Second, people in industry usually have a very strong work ethic and know how to get things done; something that is often lacking in new graduate students.  You might consider documenting just how productive you have been.


Use the keyword 'Internet' or 'internet' in our publications?

People don't agree on this please see this wikipedia article on the capitalization of the word "internet".


How can I mention a personal tragedy in a statement for PhD?

Yes, you should absolutely mention it. If you do not, the program will not have the necessary context to evaluate your application fairly -- which is bad for them and worse for you.

You should also mention that the program already agreed to consider your application without the GRE -- as you say, it's anyone's guess whether they will remember this concession if you don't remind them. In fact, I worry that a well-meaning secretary might trash your application in any case (as it appears incomplete), so it might be worth indicating this in a more visible place or even calling to confirm that your application was passed to the committee.

Now, for how to mention it: concisely. 1-2 sentences is all you need. "I performed poorly during this brief period because my brother died" is all they need to know -- you don't need to dress that statement up too much or say much more than that.

If you go to town making this statement too long, it will sound like an excuse. So, be very clear, direct, and above all concise.
The one thing that might be worth adding is a reason to be confident that you will not continue to have grief-related problems as a PhD student (i.e., give some evidence that things are improving).

I do not recommend putting this in the last paragraph as you suggest. The last paragraph should send them off on a high note ("declare victory" and look to the future). Instead, put this into the relevant body paragraph.

Sorry to hear about your brother.


Whether to report someone receiving extraordinary levels of help for PhD

Getting help is in and of itself not a problem. Proof reading is perfectly fine. Discussing research with others is very much a part of doing research, so having a sparring partner is a good thing. Even finding and reading papers is not a problem if person B is just interested in the research and the discussions. So a lot of the things you mentioned are not necessarily problems.

If B wrote large portions of the text and A fails to clearly mention that, then that is a problem. But you will need proof before you can take action.


Is it normal for a Professor to make unsolicited contact with potential Masters students via LinkedIn?

The Linkedin channel is unusual, but not suspicious per se. Does your friend have common connections with that professor? If that is the case, she might have popped up in the "people you may know" list that he gets. Or he did a keyword search. The one relevant thing with Linkedin is that he saw a — presumably flattering — picture of her.

  He's told her that if she gets a good score on the GRE he will be able to admit her.

On that point again, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's a wording issue and what was really meant was that with a good GRE score, admission in the local program is likely.

  He has also made promises of grants.

This is rather standard for grad students to have their tuition and stipend covered by a grant.

  keeping in touch via Skype

This, this. I have a hard time finding sound reasons for a professor to invest time and effort into communicating with a potential grad student, who did not even apply, by videoconferencing. This being said, Skype offers free international calls so it might be just for this reason.

So, there are sketchy aspects to that story, but nothing decisive. If the position is really of interest to her then maybe she should try investigating further. For example contacting the local graduate program admin and ask about the admission process, ask the alleged funding body for grant criteria, etc. in order to have multiple channels of communications. If she sees mismatches in the prof's story and theirs, that could give an additional warning.


How can I convince the university to apply security upgrades to the online learning system?

How can you convince the higher authorities that security holes are a risk? Read up on the vulnerabilities and send them a list of concrete examples. No "an attacker could gain access to the database", but "someone could hack in and change all the passwords, and on the internet you can find a script to do this [link]". Your word may not carry much weight, so try to get the tech guys to sign it too.

Another option is to find a security expert at the CS department. They should be able to put a stronger, more authoritative word.

Of course, do not attack the server yourself, even if you don't change anything. That is more likely to upset people and backfire. But you could suggest the tech support to do it themselves as proof.


ECTS credits for US teaching credentials

depending what country in EU ( Usually it is few differences in hours ) 60 points ( credits by US systems ) is equivalent to 25-30 hours per credit ( point )
It would be helpful if you can clarify what is 12 graduate hours.

The rough equivalent of 5 ECTS credits is 2.5 American credits,
Therefore we advise to transfer credits along this 2:1 ratio.
Students from universities with an American credits system should verify their school's credit-granting process.
Transfer of credits is at the discretion of the home institution.

This is something that is usually mentioned across internet.
However according to this source `A standard full-time study load is usually 30 credit hours per year. Typically, in order to graduate with a degree, universities expect students to complete:

120-130 credit hours for a Bachelor’s degree

so 1.67 ECTS = 1.00 US College Credit Hours

`


Should I write a non-academic white paper?

Compared to an academic publication, the main problems with publishing a white paper are the following:

There is no dissemination channel. White papers are usually issued by experts, institutions or companies which already have a reputation and the means to reach an audience. Unless you already have a reputation in the field, it might be difficult to make your white paper reach its audience. If experts don't know about it, it won't have any impact and it won't be evaluated.
There is no peer review process before publication. So unless a few experts pick it up after publication and evaluate the content, publishing a white paper does not prove your skills to any non-expert (or to any expert who didn't read it). In other words, I can write something on my blog and call it a "white paper", it doesn't mean it has any value to anyone.

  Is this white paper worthy?

If you have a solution to these two problems, i.e. if there is a reasonable chance to make your paper known, discussed and evaluated, then it could be a valuable advantage when applying for a PhD.

  Could writing a non-academic white paper offset a less than desirable GPA due to classes in my minor? I have also heard that 5 years of experience in Industry could be enough to get into a Master's Program, which I almost have.

It's impossible to say because PhD applications depend on so many things. In general an industry experience tends to make academic grades less relevant.

  Also, would it be possible to get a grant with the proposal?

That's something to discuss with a potential PhD supervisor.

  I also have a question about white paper verification. Is it necessary to have a working prototype to publish the white paper?

A white paper is whatever you decide it is, there's no requirement. However you probably want to make it as convincing as possible, it's up to you to evaluate the value of a prototype in this perspective.

  I have also done research on attacks that can be done on the security mechanism for the white paper I am building on top of, and I suspect these attacks could be applicable to my alternate application, but would occur in a different context. Should I write about that as well? Or should I leave that for a separate paper?

That's way too specific to be answered here. You'd have to discuss this with an expert, typically a potential PhD supervisor.


For what reasons might a full professor lose tenure?

The details are likely institution (and or state) specific.

From the University of New Mexico Faculty Handbook one sees that the options there are:

"Adequate Cause", including academic incompetence, neglect of duty, serious violation of policy, serious crime, loss of license (medical), or other serious deficiency.
Financial emergency - that is, the university runs out of money to pay them.
Termination of the program/department.
Health reasons (permanent disability with no reasonable accommodation possible).


I am in systems Phd program, but I want to do theoretical research

Of course you should give it a shot!  People switch fields all the time.  One of my most successful PhD students (in algorithms) started in my department as a systems PhD student.

Your first step should be to talk to faculty who do ML theory in your department, and ask them how to get involved, given your current background.  They might suggest classes to take for remediation; they might suggest specific papers to read/problems to work on that exploit your systems background; they might suggest first getting a master's degree (if you don't have one already) and then reapplying broadly to PhD programs.  If you are very very lucky, they may be willing to take you on as a student and offer you funding while you transition.

But one word of warning.  As I'm sure you already  know, competition for PhD admission in machine learning is incredibly fierce.  AI has always been the default subfield for smart CS students who want to go to grad school but really know what they want to do, but the popularity of machine learning has exploded over the last five years.  Last year, half of the almost 1000 applications for my CS department's PhD program listed AI/ML as their primary research area, and two-thirds listed AI/ML as a possible research area, even though only a small minority of our faculty work in that area.  (Of those roughly 500 applicants, we offered admission to about 50, and about 20 accepted our offer.)  This competition may make it harder for you to pursue a PhD in ML at your current institution.  That doesn't mean that moving to ML is impossible, but it may be difficult, and you may need to pursue multiple avenues to make it happen.

Best of luck!


How to address the ability to work with culturally diverse populations and on interdisciplinary teams in an academic job application?

Broadly, this can be addressed in (1) and (3) by specifically (re)writing portions of your resume and cover letter to highlight interdisciplinary work you've done and multicultural teams you've been a part of, and in (2) by asking your references to mention it in their conversations/letters.

More specifically:

While it's pretty obvious that most cover letters you send out will be at least somewhat specific to the each position, it may be less apparently that your resume can be the same. In this case, you'll want to modify your resume to highlight cross-disciplinary and multicultural work you've done at previous institutions. List bullet points that specifically call out researchers from other fields. Mention the nationalities of the colleagues with whom you've had a public collaboration. For both of these, it will look waaay better if you also list papers you've written or grants that were funded as a result of the collaboration; it will show that you can not only collaborate, but you can collaborate effectively.

For your references, you should mention that this position is something that the institution is asking to have called out, and request that they do so in their letters and conversations. This is as simple as it sounds; just speak to them and make sure they're aware of it. Hopefully they won't forget and all will be well.

Good luck!


Is it a good idea to join SIGGRAPH without a degree?

Students get a special rate when they join ACM and/or its SIGs (special interest groups). You get the Communications as part ACM membership. You can also join any of several special interest groups such as SIGGRAPH. There is some cost for that even for students. But you get their publications, either electronically (cheap) or in printed form (less cheap). There are, I think, special prices for conference attendance at the annual conference for members.
The special deals don't apply to non-students, of course. Most academics in CS are likely to be ACM members and those interested in graphics are likely SIGGRAPH members.
It probably isn't essential to do this, depending on how connected you want to be to that community over time. But the publications are interesting if you are interested in the topic, and the conference(s) are great for career building. SIGGraph is a huge event.
Some universities, however, have local "chapters" of ACM and they may have additional local activities for members.
ACM and SIG members can also subscribe to the ACM digital library which gives you access to just about everything ACM has published since some early date (and they are digitizing the old stuff). But a local university library can probably get you access to that as well, though they might require some affiliation with the university.


Applying to Law school in USA with an Econ BS degree from another country

There is a lot more we could know to help give a better answer, but from what you've said about your friend's situation, I think that the second option would probably be better. If your friend already has a bachelor's degree, that would mean she completed the equivalent to an undergraduate program in the U.S. and can apply for a law school program.

Since you mentioned her English skills needing to be improved, it would be advisable for her to go to a community college as either a transient student or for an English language course. You mentioned that she has residency in the U.S. but "residency" is different from "citizenship." If she is a Green Card holder and English is not her first language, she might have to take the TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language). Universities vary on TOEFL rules for Green Card holders, explained in this link here.

Despite not having a name brand recognition, if the university your friend attended and received her BS from is truly one of the top schools in that country, that should not be much of a problem. Smaller universities may not have the same impact when mentioned like Yale or Virginia Tech, but it won't diminish its rankings or its graduates. What will effect your friend's admission chances however is her GPA (or more likely GPA equivalent). Obtaining a degree is no small feat, and is rewarding in itself. However, a law school like UCLA will most likely weed out applicants with lower GPAs.

Going to a school counselor is the best thing that your friend can do. A counselor will know more about the ins and outs of the admissions process at UCLA or USC and might have experience in counseling students from similar situations and backgrounds. Again, of the choices you presented, the second one is the best option. She already has a baccalaureate and taking non-credit courses at a community college can not only improve her English skills, but acclimate her to how college classes in the U.S. are structured.


How to explain to department's president that my time spent as an undergraduate assistant/intern was goalless?

I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

It could, and this depends on many factors (including the character of this professor, his relationship with your supervisor, your character and how you explain things etc...), I don't think anyone can predict whether or not it actually will.

I recommend first considering what you hope to achieve in discussing this with the head of the department (aka president/professor). I can imagine a couple of possibilities:

You feel the need to unload and feel some sympathy.
You care about the system and hope this can be avoided for future students.

If it is mainly the first, I strongly suggest talking to a friend over a beer instead. You'll avoid the risk, and also won't essentially waste your professor's time (which would probably negatively affect his impression of you).

If your motivation is the second, I think this is quite a noble and selfless thing to do, showing high integrity, but it does put yourself at quite a bit of risk with essentially no gain (it helps future students, but if I understand correctly, not you). If this is your goal, I urge you to first consider whether you think this professor would actually care about the advice of an undergrad (I have known professors who would appreciate it, but also some who would simply consider the student to be complaining, in which case relations with that professor would indeed worsen). If you think he will, then I suggest the following:
Before speaking to your professor, make sure you can present the situation clearly, as objectively as possible and concisely (the longer you speak, the more it sounds like a rant and you lose interest - also professors tend to be very busy, and thus have low attention spans for issues that don't seem important). Be very clear straight off the bat that you understand and agree that what has already happened has happened and nothing can/will be done for you, and your intent is solely to raise awareness of the issue so that it can be avoided in the future. Possibly put this intent in writing when contacting the professor for the meeting (again, as short as possible).

In the end, taking action here will involve risk, regardless of your intentions. You will have to weigh how much you care about the issue, and what chances you think you have.


The abbreviation "P.I." stands for "Principal Investigator" and is routinely used in the United States to denote a "head of the laboratory" or "research group leader" (wikipedia), and serves to refer to active researchers with potential funding for PhD students or post-doctoral researchers.
It is used by various organisms more formally, as the two examples below show.
The United States' National Science Foundation
Quoting the section D.1.g. of their Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) from January 2017 (which is the latest version to this date):

g. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT DIRECTOR (PI/PD) means the individual(s) designated by the proposer, and approved by NSF, who will be responsible for the scientific or technical direction of the project. NSF does not infer any distinction in scientific stature among multiple PIs, whether referred to as PI or co-PI. If more than one, the first one listed will serve as the contact PI, with whom all communications between NSF program officials and the project relating to the scientific, technical, and budgetary aspects of the project should take place. The PI and any identified co-PIs, however, will be jointly responsible for submission of the requisite project reports. The term "Principal Investigator" generally is used in research projects, while the term "Project Director" generally is used in centers, large facilities, and other projects. For purposes of this Guide, PI/co-PI is interchangeable with PD/co-PD.

The United States' National Institutes of Health
Indeed, the N.I.H. uses the same term for a similar notion.
Quoting their glossary,

Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)
The individual(s) designated by the applicant organization to have the appropriate level of authority and responsibility to direct the project or program to be supported by the award. The applicant organization may designate multiple individuals as program directors/principal investigators (PD/PIs) who share the authority and responsibility for leading and directing the project, intellectually and logistically. When multiple PD/PIs are named, each is responsible and accountable to the applicant organization, or as appropriate, to a collaborating organization for the proper conduct of the project or program including the submission of all required reports. The presence of more than one PD/PI on an application or award diminishes neither the responsibility nor the accountability of any individual PD/PI.


Must I reference resources for definitions I express with my own words?

If you recall a definition which may be unknown to your users, it is always a good idea to refer to a book/article from which the notion originates. Do this even (actually, especially) if you choose to rephrase the definition in your own words. Remember, references are important to navigate your readers and put your work in a context. Definitions are no exception.


Can game theory explain grade inflation?

One paper that looks relevant is "A Signaling Theory of Grade Inflation" by Chan, Hao, and Suen (2007). From their abstract, it seems like this is what you're looking for.

  When employers cannot tell whether a school truly has many good
  students or just gives easy grades, a school has incentives to inflate
  grades to help its mediocre students, despite concerns about
  preserving the value of good grades for its good students. We
  construct a signaling model where grades are inflated in equilibrium.
  The inability to commit to an honest grading policy reduces the
  efficiency of job assignment and hurts a school. Grade inflation by
  one school makes it easier for another school to do likewise, thus
  providing a channel to make grade exaggeration contagious.

Also check out "Comparative cheap talk" by Chakrabortya and Harbaugh (2005). From the introduction:

  Are such statements more credible than claims such as “they both look
  great” or “every student is excellent”? How much information can
  comparative statements convey? When does it make sense to withhold
  comparative information? And, are comparative statements still
  credible when the speaker is not impartial, e.g. when a professor has
  a favorite student, or a salesperson receives a larger commission on a
  particular product?

In particular, section 4.2 discusses "Recommendation games". They consider situations where an expert with private information can rank alternatives for a decision maker. Here is their description:

  In recommendation games we ﬁnd that the expert prefers ex ante to
  reveal a partial ranking rather than the complete ranking. For
  instance, if there are three students being recommended by a professor
  and the middle student is unlikely to receive a job based on the
  complete ranking, an alternative is to put the top two students in a
  group and not differentiate between them. As the number of issues
  increases, such groupings can be used more and more effectively to
  maximize the expert’s payoffs. The gains from partial rankings may
  explain why highly ranked schools often obscure the relative quality
  of their graduates, either by grade inﬂation as in Ivy League
  undergraduate programs, or by withholding grades from employers as in
  some elite M.B.A. programs

One of the conclusion they reach is that grade inﬂation "should be more severe when average student quality is increasing" so "grades should be more inﬂated in elite schools". Look into their section 4.2 for a detailed analysis.


In text listing style - how to use? Any downsides?

Yes it is a good/acceptable style. At least in the fields where I have looked the format is standard. in fact bullets or numbered lists should be used more sparingly and I think the following is a good guideline: use bullets/itemization when there is a lot of text going into each. 'Lot' in this case is a complete sentence or more. Use the format you mention when you need a word or partial sentence for each item.
there are several ways to do this you can use 'i)' or '(i)' or (1)' or '(a)' etc. The choice may differ depending on what else you have in your paper. If you have figures that contains several panes, for example, a, b, c, d, you may decide to use Roman or regular numerals for your lists. if you have several lists you should avoid repeating the same item descriptor and, for example, use Roman numerals for one and Arabic for another.
This depends on the context. you should place them where it is appropriate to read them. this means before each part of the construction. In your example you have divided everything into separate sentences but I think you should make a construct with semicolons instead: "There are three things of importance: (1) thing A; (2) thing B; and (3) Thing C."


Is it acceptable to write several small papers that contribute to a larger paper?

As you state it, you are probably going to be fine, however, you have a bit of risk. The first is that if the ArXiv papers aren't really "publications", then citing them doesn't really add much to your CV other than a bit of noise.

The second risk is that a publisher has to agree that your "combined" work is still sufficiently novel to want to actually publish it and that is up to them and not a question that can be answered here. If all the novelty is already "out there" you might have a problem. This is less of an issue in math, of course, which has a preprint culture currently.

An alternative strategy, that you can use or not, would be to write a good paper with the important results and then put the supplementary material somewhere that it could be found.

So, ask yourself whether the combined paper is more than the sum of its parts for your reputation. It might be, or not, depending on the results.


Cannot submit revision of preprint in bioRxiv (Current Version Status Closed)

I contacted the bioRxiv Team. They replied saying that "The system automatically closes submissions if they are inactive over the allotted period of time. We can have this reopened, but first we need confirmation that your paper has not yet been accepted or published in a journal."

I then asked them "How long is the duration of inactivity leading to closing a preprint for revision, since I couldn't find any specification in bioRxiv's website."

They replied that "The timeline for closing a submission that is in progress is two weeks."

Thing is that I couldn't find any mention in their website about closing to revision after a two-week period of inactivity since initial submission; actually, their FAQ says that "An article posted on bioRxiv can be revised at any time, until it is accepted for publication."


Review conference papers under supervisor name

In my experience practices around this vary considerably, between "this is completely normal" to "this is an unthinkable breach of ethics". I recommend talking to trusted colleagues (not your supervisor, whose opinion on the topic is fairly clear through their actions) about whether this is considered acceptable in your field or not. If it turns out that this is uncommon or considered unethical in your field, you may want to approach the supervisor directly and state that you are not comfortable with the arrangement that part of your duty is to review papers in their name. However, I would honestly only suggest doing this if you feel rather strongly about this issue and you have a working relationship where concerns can be raised without fear of fallout. Yes, every working relationship should be like that, but if observing this forum for many years has taught me one thing it is that not all supervisors actually act like that.

Some further considerations:

I wouldn't over-value the exposure one gets from reviewing papers. It's not 0, but realistically the benefit is small enough that it would not seem a worthy hill to die on in case the supervisor is not reasonable or does not see anything wrong in farming out their reviews (in my personal opinion).
Your exposure is one thing, but the more relevant question may be how happy the journal / conference is about how your supervisor handles this. Typically, one invites an individual to review because of their personal expertise on the topic. If your supervisor farms out review requests to other, more junior, researchers without actually checking the manuscript themselves, the journal / conference is not getting the expert review they signed up for.
In many fields it's fairly common to have junior researchers review papers assigned to their supervisors as a training experience. However, part of this is also that the supervisor also reviews the manuscript and validates/corrects the review of the junior. Since you are a newcomer to your field this may be a valuable exercise for you as well (although you already hold a PhD) - but of course it's only of value as a training instrument if your supervisor actually sits down with you afterwards and discusses the review with you (and ensures that the review outcome is consistent with their own expert opinion).


Why does the Chicago referencing guide use colons for page numbers in some cases, and commas in others?

The difference in the format helps differentiate articles from books.

Each citation format (Chicago, MLA, IEEE, APA, etc.) have their own way of differentiating articles and journals. This is just the way it is done in the Chicago style.


Proving a student took a test, if there is no signature

May depend on nation or university, but they cannot if both miss. In the case of only one missing there is no need to prove, unless the course has multiple people with a same name, and the both would have forgotten. It is a policy that it would be too much of a pain to find eye witnesses and make hand writing analysis in such a case.


Applying for MS in USA after completing 3 years degree in India

I suggest you to inquire such information at one or, better, more international academic credential evaluation companies, such as WES (be careful, as I've had some negative experience with them in terms of accuracy of evaluation). Nevertheless, you can check the WES' international-to-US academic credential equivalency tool.