Ph.D. Thesis and Defense
- 2 minsI defended my Ph.D. thesis on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024. I am now a Ph.D. or a Doctor of Philosophy. At the time of writing, some days have passed and I am still processing the mark in my life. I am not a different person since Tuesday, but I am different from the Ricardo who started this Ph.D. My doctorship began in 2017, around 7 years ago, but my academic life is much longer and it is finally coming to an end.
My work was always on Affective Computing and Artificial Intelligence. If you are interested you can take a look at my thesis (now in its final form):
I tend to share my presentations, although, with a lack of context, they may be hard to follow. Regardless, here is my thesis defense presentation:
It is hard to know what to say next when writing these posts. What do you, dear reader, want to see? (Leave a comment below.) Do you want to read about my struggles or about my work? Does the author interest you more than the work? Or is the work what matters most? (Personally, I tend to prefer the work over the author.)
All of this is to say that I really enjoyed the work I developed, but it was not possible without all those around me who helped me through it all (and I am not an easy person to deal with). Thank you all! Deeply and dearly from the bottom of my heart!
To close this blog post out (the same way I closed my thesis, fitting…), here is a humbling excerpt from one of my favorite books, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien:
“Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!” said Bilbo.
“Of course!” said Gandalf. “And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”
“Thank goodness!” said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tabacco-jar.
Ricardo Rodrigues
Boyfriend and Friend to great people, Game Developer, Ph.D. student, AI Researcher