What does it take to graduate? Typically, you should expect to do one project for your masters degree, or simply to start off within the group, then work on your Ph.D. topic. Your overall research work (courses, an MS, a Ph.D. and any other research you get involved in) should yield about 8-10 papers until your graduation, and at least 1-2 of those should be journal papers. These are not hard and fast rules, but they will help you monitor your progress toward a degree. You should expect to find your topic before the end of the second year of our joint work, then graduate within 2-3 years. If you already have masters degree this may take even less time. The speed of your graduation will ultimately depend on the quality of your work and the nature of your Ph.D topic (some topics require more work than others) but I will do my best to help you graduate within a reasonable time frame.