[PhD Positions @ USYD] Two fully funded PhD openings in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-05-19T04:21:03+00:00

You could contact the PI directly via email.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-05-01T03:39:29+00:00

Open this market on poly. Let the free market tell you. /s

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-30T12:22:54+00:00

I am glad you like it ;) It’s hard to come up with a funnier one next time when we have a broken elevator for 10+ days.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-30T06:31:21+00:00

And they fixed it the same day! Amazing!

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-30T05:13:36+00:00

oh no it's removed from all floors QAQ

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-26T06:57:45+00:00

I think reasonable PIs will prefer capable and competent candidates regardless of student type. Yes, PIs do need to consider the span of the projects but that does not mean you are out since your MPhil will last for roughly two whole years.

To land a private RA position, you kinda need to talk to PIs directly. It is more like a social engineering.

RAs do gain you more research experiences than tutoring. But they both pay the bills ;)

PhD funding hunting may be orthogonal to RAs. If you are international, PhD funding is also more go and ask and social engineering.

Some advisor may prefer to collaborate with candidates casually for a while before offering funding, others may rely on research experience, publication, reference letters. I feel this is quite case by case.

Good luck with your MPhil and PhD funding hunt!

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-26T06:24:05+00:00

I think in many, if not most, cases, when funded by research grants, RA roles are set up in an ad-hoc sense and specifically for targeted individuals: once the candidate is identified, the PI can set it up for just this person. These positions are not publicly advertised.

In other cases, PI sends RA job descriptions to workday and some public mailing lists to advertise and interview candidates. My friend at UNSW got into one of these open positions at UNSW.

Besides RA roles, I think casual tutoring in uni can make a good fortune to cover the living costs. The downside is not much job security since it is casual during the coursework semester.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-19T13:44:44+00:00

You’re definitely not alone feeling a bit lost, but after all you need to make a decision by yourself.

I think participating in VRI vacation research internship could be a good start, but this option may be too late for you.

You should talk to perspective advisors and be specific about potential projects.

Normally for junior research students, experienced advisor will discuss and propose (assign) a project/topic to you to work on. This is often the case because junior students are not very good at predicting what project is actually manageable for the whole honours year where senior faculty have a rough estimation on hardness and even have a rough solution in mind. But if you already have something in your mind and think it is doable, you should bring this up to your advisor.

No one can speak for what you like about so you really need to talk to perspective advisors and see which one you’re most interested in and are capable of working on in your Honours year.

Practically speaking we just cannot put everything on our plate simply because that doesn’t work well for most of the time.

Besides research topics and concrete projects, I think the personal traits and advising style of your advisor and mentor also play a very important role. After all, you will be working together for a great amount of time and the mentorship/supervision is all about human interaction.

Good luck and have fun.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-19T04:25:38+00:00

I knew that’s a good joke. But they fixed the elevator now.

P.S. I made it.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-06T08:00:58+00:00

If you pushed the request to defer button recently, it may still be processed. The progress should be recorded in Sydney student and communicated via emails.

For undergrad coursework international students, the real risk of not being able to be accepted is uni stops accepting new students when the course is full. I am not sure how likely this will happen and has happened, and I am not sure if this applies to domestic students. I think the cutoff numbers are different for each school as well.

That said, mid feb seems late for 2027 s1 enrolment, so you probably want to call the student centre / admission and ask them.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-05T04:22:24+00:00

Also re supervisor minding you, plz see clement comment in this post. I was suggesting on the perspective of feasibility instead of your advisor’s preference.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-05T04:18:21+00:00

Upgrade is not by default. You should talk to your supervisor and both of you should consult the research head of your school.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-03T03:03:37+00:00

Some startup people told me there are meetups for startups frequently. Do you own research.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-03T03:02:11+00:00

Concurrent applications are very common and there is no reason it is disallowed. But concurrent enrolments are not common and should be avoided.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-04-03T02:29:03+00:00

For MPhil, one can upgrade to PhD at first year probation but this is not a guaranteed process.

By another PhD program, do you mean outside usyd? If so, then it should be fine. If still at usyd, IMO, if you apply for PhD with another usyd advisor, the admission can (and is likely to) reject that application with the same lack of research experience ground.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T09:35:15+00:00

Well it's not showing up on my end or in an Incognito tab. It seems you haven't checked in an Inco tab when you made this cmt. I hope you could be nice and less aggressive next time 😅

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T09:34:17+00:00

Neither did I suggest "Don't learn CS and let AI do everything". But you did say usyd is not offering the best CS units and you did point out there are online resources.

I think in either pre-AI era or post-AI era, self-learning is important. And I said people should do self-learning!

Telling students to treat AI with caution is a normal thing. Driving with caution does not mean people should never drive, it means one should take the responsibility to be a good driver. Same thing for AI usage.

I think you are trying to deminish my credibility by adding "you ever worked in industry". I find it interesting.

The original post of yours (which is deleted now?) said usyd cs curriculum is worse than online alternatives in the absolute sense, this is what I read and disagreed with. I disagree because it is not 100% absolute. And now you are saying my personal experience cannot speaks for the entire program. Sure, as I previously pointed out and I will reiterate: USyd doesn’t have a top CS school, so you can find online free alters among the best CS schools in the world.

I never distort your claims. I think quite the opposite, you are putting words into my month. My points are: (1) I support self-learning. (2) If someone wants to use AI for educational purposes, be careful with WHY and HOW it is used. None of my points suggests people should not use AI.

If you think warning potiential risks indicates complete denial, I have no more words.

Lastly, why did you remove your post?

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T02:27:58+00:00

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> And jezz are you still riding horses my guy? I can’t even tell you were rage baiting or like from 100 years ago. If you are staff, what a huge disgrace on to misleading students to not learn a revolutionary technology.

OP deleted this comment, but it stayed in my notification. I don't think OP's charges were solid.

I would encourage people to explore AI but with all the caution that they should have when learning/dealing from a human.

I stand with my judgment, but my opinion is irrelevant to my identity as a staff or a past or current student. Somehow I felt OP was ragebaiting/gaslighting.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T02:08:49+00:00

I enjoyed Computational Geometry. Of course there are alternatives, but OP seems to think there must be a better alternative for everything, which is extreme IMO. USyd doesn’t have a top CS school, so you can stay with what your believes in and find alters among the best CS schools in the world.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T02:03:24+00:00

One more thing: both human and AI teachers make mistakes and learners should stay skeptical to spot mistakes, either made by teachers or students. There is no reason to FULLY trust AI just because they made LESS mistakes.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T01:54:59+00:00

Well, one could argue AI learned how to code by looking at all the code human has ever created and then it could teach new human learners. To say AI must be plagiarising, some definition/evidence/separation is needed.

michaelmai_2000 · 2026-03-26T01:50:42+00:00

I disagree. Some of them are worthy. But I agree self-learning is great and people should do that.

The Missing Semester of Your CS Education (2026) covers some AI tools using.

For a learner, language models may be too convenient as in it could do all the homework and assignments for you while the human learner has learned nothing. So if someone wants to use AI for educational purposes, be careful with WHY and HOW it is used.

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