Assignment for May 15th

21 abril 2020, 15:59 • Marta Fajardo

Dear “CTran" students,
As per our doodle, in the week of Week 18-22 May, we will hold our workshop-style  Soft Skills Package, where you will learn about what it takes to make a good scientist and technologist, beyond making great science.
We will begin by tackling the first rule of academia: effective communication of your results (also known as "publish or perish!”).
To prepare for this course, here is your assignment. It is due on May 15th, at 5 PM.

• Research a topic of your choice, within topics encountered during your Lab Rotations (for APPLAUSE PhD students), or from a topic that you might think is relevant for your PhD
  
• Write up a letter/review article of up to 4 pages maximum (excluding references) on that topic using LaTeX or MS Word. Please use the template:,https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/preparation-of-papers-for-ieee-sponsored-conferences-and-symposia/zfnqfzzzxghk
• Prepare a 15 min presentation on that topic using PowerPoint or Keynote;
• Send me the letter/review article and the presentation file (both in pdf) before or on May 15th, at 5 PM
• Be ready to make the presentation on Monday 18th, 9 AM. You can use your own laptop or send me a link with the file to download.

We will meet in person or via zoom, depending on the evolution of the pandemic, at 9 AM on Monday. We will work together during the mornings of that week, and you will have some assignments to do on your own. Following the last presentation on Friday, you get your grade.

Here are some materials that will be helpful for this one week course:

• The 10 Simple Rules, (in particular the rules on Publications and Oral Presentations). This should be the basis for the preparation of the assignment, you can find them at http://www.sfu.ca/biology/courses/bisc830/TenSimpleRulesCollection.pdf
• For insights on paper writing: see for instance https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/adma.200400767, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/088278v5.full.pdf
• You can check out the course material “Writing in Sciences” of Coursera going through the lessons,https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUk4uy2jPpXVGXqVhgs352q6jOdI608Qg,3. Study the Guide to Scientific Writing: http://www.aacc.org/publications/clin_chem/ccgsw/Pages/default.aspx#,4. 
• Read "On being a Scientist": http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12192,5. 
•  "A PhD is not enough"
• Research online for material on creating and delivering presentations and writing technical/scientific papers/reports

We look forward to seeing you in May!
Marta