Is that really how research in CS works? Certainly we hear about grad students doing lots of the work in laboratory sciences like biology, but in more analytic subjects like mathematics or theoretical physics its not true at all. Grad students making significant contributions is extremely rare; basically all of the real research is done by tenured professors.
Can those of you who did postgrad CS tell us how much of the research is actually done by grad students vs professors?
In my experience it's often (but definitely not always) the case that for new post-grad students the idea or general research direction often comes from the professor (especially if the research is funded by a grant proposal). Most of the heavy lifting is then done by the grad student with guidance and feedback from the professor. As the student matures they start to operate more independently.
In my experience (new professor), 90-95% of the work is done by grad students.
A good prof in my mind acts a mentor, providing frequent feedback on the research and contributes to writing of the paper. The feedback is often invaluable, but still just a small part in the overall amount of work compared to what the student puts in.
> Grad students making significant contributions is extremely rare; basically all of the real research is done by tenured professors.
...but most of these first authors (the people formally credited with doing the real work) are graduate students, so how does that fit in with your theory?
Well i think it just depends on how 'significant' you need the phd to be. As an example of what I mean, consider the first issue of this years Annals of mathematics [1] and note that there is not a single grad student on any of the papers, first author or otherwise.
Depends a bit on the professor. Young ones are more involved than older ones for a variety of reasons. In either case, the bulk of the work is done by grad students. Professors are more like managers that provide direction, feedback, etc.
Can those of you who did postgrad CS tell us how much of the research is actually done by grad students vs professors?