How I decided I want to do research.

Back in December 2015, I was busy with my final year project towards the completion of my engineering degree. I had another semester left to complete my project. Therefore all the force was directed towards that and I have absolutely forgotten to think about what I was going to do next. I knew most of my friends had started to look for jobs or had decided to follow post-graduate studies. I, on the other hand, was busy developing my own prototype for an “A Tennis Ball Machine with Automated Player Tracking using Computer Vision” — an integrated system for Tennis practising with the capability to randomise projectiles with a sense of the player’s current position on the pitch. The proposed method was aimed to advance the current state-of-the-art in Tennis ball machines which were solely capable of launching random projectiles without any intuition of the player’s position. I thought that I was doing groundbreaking research at the time but I was so far from the truth.

During the last semester of the course, I was starting to realise that I have so much to learn and that by going into a professional career, I would not have the chance to deal into more advanced concepts. Therefore I have decided research is the way to go. To come to this realisation it took nearly two months after the graduation during which I have already applied for many jobs but to have no response regarding a job. A wise man once said to me that applying and securing a job is another fulltime job. Which, however, I had failed in.

As an international student, it is a bit competitive to be accepted to an Australian research degree program, on top of that to secure a scholarship. Australian education system is one with the highest of the standards. Once decided, I have started sending emails to renowned researchers and scholars from 26 various Australian universities. It is the standard way to start with a research degree, you have to decide and make contact with prospective supervisor(s). I have selected researchers in the fields of electronics, robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. The interest in these research fields was developed during my bachelor studies thanks to my previous teachers who have taught them in fascinating ways.

After the initial contact, I have received several replies along with several research interests. One of…

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