IAP 2018 Activities by Category - Research Skills

Dr. Ken Smith, Applications Scientist at Renishaw

Jan/19

Fri

08:30AM-05:00PM

13-5002

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

The Center for Materials Science and Engineering's Analysis Shared Experimental Facility has a new Raman Microscope available to researchers. Come learn about the many ways Raman can be used.

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Tim McClure, 13-4149, 8-6470, mtim@mit.edu

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: Solidworks and LABview experience not necessary

Let’s commission and build new instrumentation with older X-ray equipment!

CMSE X-ray Facility has X-ray generators, sources, optics, goniometers, chillers, and detectors that could be potentially utilized for a variety of analytical purposes. We will spend IAP 2018 salvaging and re-designing older components into a useful instrumentation using Solidworks and LabView.

Three projects for new equipment are (1) a hard radiation diffractometer for atomic pair distribution function analysis (atomic PDF) of disordered or amorphous materials (2) a lab based X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectrometer (XANES) for local coordination and valence state of 3d transition metal complexes (3) a Bonse-Hart ultra small angle X-ray scattering (uSAXS) instrument for particle sizing from 100 nanometers - 10 microns.

This workshop gives people with a diverse variety of skill sets the availability to tinker and design an X-ray instrument that would be beneficial to the research effort at MIT!

Contact: Charles Settens, 13-4009A, 845 430-2584, SETTENS@MIT.EDU

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Design and Build

Jan/11

Thu

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Jan/12

Fri

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Jan/18

Thu

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Jan/19

Fri

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Jan/25

Thu

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Jan/26

Fri

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Feb/01

Thu

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

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Design and Build

Feb/02

Fri

10:00AM-02:00PM

13-4041

Inventory / Discussion / Planning / Solidworks / Labview / Troubleshooting

Donald Galler, Research Engineer

	Jan/29	Mon	09:00AM-05:00PM	4-141, 1 hour break for lunch
	Jan/30	Tue	09:00AM-05:00PM	4-141, 1 hour break for lunch
	Jan/31	Wed	09:00AM-05:00PM	4-141, 1 hour break for lunch

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/10
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None

This class is an introduction to the basic operation of a scanning electron microscope. The basic operating principles will be covered. Attendees will be trained on the use of the microscope.

The microscope is a JEOL 6610 LV (purchased in 2012) scanning electron microscope (SEM) with several advanced features:

• low pressure operation for examining non-conductive samples
• computer controlled positioning stage
• energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) system for elemental analysis
• deformation stage for mechanical testing of samples while in the SEM

This is a training class but anyone interested in these modern research tools is welcome to attend.

Attendees are encouraged to bring samples for exploration and will operate the microscope as part of the class.

 

Enrollment limited: Advance sign up required (contact leader by email). 8 people per session.  First come, first serve basis.

Sponsor(s): Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Donald Galler, 4-131BA, 617-253-4554, dgaller@mit.edu

Jan/11

Thu

03:00PM-04:00PM

2-105

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Come learn about all aspects of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at MIT, including how to participate, what type of research is available, and more. 

Sponsor(s): Office of Undergrad. Advising/Academic Programming
Contact: J Alex Hoyt, 7-104, 617 324-6700, JAHOYT@MIT.EDU

Anna Boutin-Cooper

Jan/25

Thu

02:30PM-04:30PM

5-232

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784597

Back by popular demand! 

Curious about what an artist’s book is exactly? Wondering what makes it different than the other books at the Libraries? Whether you’ve heard about them before or not, this session will go over current discussions on what exactly makes an artist’s book and will include an interactive, hands-on experience with some of the dynamic art objects in MIT Libraries’ own collections. Local book artist and MIT alumna Sarah Hulsey will be our special guest for the session, and will speak about her own work featured in the Rotch Library Collections.

​We'll be in room 5-232. Event image credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784597

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Anna Boutin-Cooper, Boutin@mit.edu

Katie Zimmerman

Jan/22

Mon

10:00AM-11:30AM

3-370

Enrollment: Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3782012

When you publish in scholarly journals, you’re usually required to give up some rights in your work. In this workshop, librarians will show you what to look for in author contracts and ways to hold onto rights to share and reuse your work. We’ll also practice negotiating a publishing contract. This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series cosponsored with the Technology Licensing Office. Food will be served. 

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3782012

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Technology Licensing Office
Contact: Katie Zimmerman, kbzimmer@mit.edu

Ista Zahn, Statistical Trainer

Jan/23

Tue

10:00AM-12:30PM

4-231, Bring a laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: a basic familiarity with R

This hands-on, intermediate course will guide you through a variety of programming functions in the open-source statistical software program, R.

It is intended for those already comfortable with using R for data analysis who wish to move on to writing their own functions. To the extent possible this workshop uses real-world examples. Concepts will be introduced as they are needed for a realistic analysis task. In the course of working through a realistic project we will lean about interacting with web services, regular expressions, iteration, functions, control flow and more.

Prerequisite: basic familiarity with R, such as acquired from an introductory R workshop.

Bring your own laptop. Bring your own laptop and install R (https://www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/) before the workshop.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760107

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

 

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Anne Graham

Jan/17

Wed

10:00AM-11:30AM

3-370

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784697

Come and hear Jack Turner, Associate Director of the MIT Technology Licensing Office and IP Officer Theresa Latham, discuss the ins and outs of obtaining patents. This popular session covers a bit of patent history and a lot about current practices, processes, and issues surrounding obtaining a patent; the focus is on the process used at MIT for ideas/inventions developed by the MIT community. A portion of the session is devoted to questions and answers. If you think you will ever invent something, you need to be here. This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series cosponsored with the Technology Licensing Office. Food will be served.

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784697

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Technology Licensing Office
Contact: Anne Graham, grahama@mit.edu

Howard Silver

Jan/11

Thu

01:00PM-02:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

A couple hours with the Libraries' protocols and methods resources can save you a couple of weeks in the lab. Need to know how to do Optogenetic manipulation of neural activity in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans? Improve your efficiency by learning strategies for finding published research protocols and methods. This session is a hands-on practicum that introduces attendees to resources that support bioscience bench research.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3765548

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Howard Silver, hsilver@mit.edu

Georgiana McReynolds

Jan/24

Wed

01:00PM-02:30PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants

his session will help you turn ideas into products. Join this interactive time of learning and fun where you can explore what the Libraries have to offer and what's useful on the Web. Find information about companies, market research, marketing, industries, and more. Learn time saving search tips and how to navigate the complex world of business information.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3766042

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Georgiana McReynolds, E53-168G, 617 253-9349, GMAC@MIT.EDU

Howard Silver, MIT Libraries

Jan/18

Thu

12:00PM-01:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants

This session will introduce engineers and scientists to business information resources that will help you understand the commercial potential for your ideas, how to find partners, and sources for financial support. We will use realistic examples and hands-on exercises with key resources to demonstrate how to match your ideas and discoveries with the opportunities and realities of the marketplace.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3765558

If your interests are focused on bioscience, consider our related session on Biotech business information.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Howard Silver, 14S-134, 617 253-9319, HSILVER@MIT.EDU

Libby Shaw, Research Specialist

Jan/19

Fri

02:00PM-05:00PM

13-2137

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/15
Prereq: none

CMSE's Shared Experimental Facilities include several useful tools for looking at the structure and chemical composition of solid surfaces, with a sampling depth of a few atomic layers.  This afternoon seminar is a general introduction to two of these techniques:  Auger Electron Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).  We will summarize how each technique works, its strengths and limitations, and some of the research questions these methods help to answer.  See also Introduction to Surface Analysis:  Part 2 (Friday, January 26).

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Libby Shaw, 13-4149, 617 253-5045, elshaw@mit.edu

Libby Shaw, Research Specialist

Jan/26

Fri

02:00PM-05:00PM

13-2137

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/23
Prereq: none

CMSE's Shared Experimental Facilities include several useful tools for looking at the structure and chemical composition of solid surfaces, with a sampling depth of a few atomic layers.  This afternoon seminar introduces a class of techniques which use a tiny mechanical probe to characterize the topography and material properties of surfaces.  With a primary focus on Atomic Force Microscopy, we will summarize the basic mechanism of operation, strengths and limitations of this class of techniques, and some of the research questions SPMs help to answer.  See also Introduction to Surface Analysis:  Part 1 (Friday, January 19).

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Libby Shaw, 13-4149, 617-253-5045, elshaw@mit.edu

Karen Golmer, Innovator in Residence, Deshpande Center

Jan/24

Wed

02:30PM-04:00PM

3-370

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/24

Since 2002, the Deshpande Center has helped spur the creation of 32 spinout companies. These firms, which have raised over $600 million in capital, are developing and delivering ground-breaking products and services that not only change people’s lives today but have the long-term potential to transform key markets including energy and lighting, health care, medical research, and information technology.

 Karen Golmer (Innovator in Residence) will be here to tell you what the Deshpande Center can offer you, and to help you learn more about other resources that exist on the MIT campus. Karen will also tell us how one goes about commercializing university research. 

 If you're an MIT researcher, you  need to be here to know what options are available to you.   

This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series co-sponsored with the MIT Libraries. 

To register for this event please contact Katrina Khalil via email: kmkhalil@mit.edu

 

Sponsor(s): Technology Licensing Office, Libraries
Contact: Katrina Khalil, NE18-501, 617 253-6966, kmkhalil@mit.edu

GECD

Jan/18

Thu

01:30PM-03:30PM

10-250

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Most research posters at conferences or in university hallways seem to defy common sense: from two steps away, passersby can’t read anything -- assuming they even get past the overcrowded layout. Posters are not magnified one-page papers. Based on Dr. Doumont's book Trees, Maps, and Theorems, about "effective communication for rational minds," this lecture discusses how to create more visual posters that get attention, facilitate navigation, and convey messages through strict selection, careful phrasing, and effective layout.

Dr. Doumont holds an engineering degree from the Louvain School of Engineering and a PhD in applied physics from Stanford. He specializes in professional speaking, writing, and graphing, and incorporates a unique engineering perspective.  More at www.principiae.be.

Sponsor(s): Global Education and Career Development
Contact: GECD, gecd-iap@mit.edu

Phoebe Ayers, EECS & IDSS Librarian, Ece Turnator

Jan/09

Tue

03:00PM-04:30PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants

Are you creating or managing research data? This hands-on workshop will provide an overview of data management topics, including file organization and naming, data security and backups, tools for collaborating with others in the lab, and data publishing, storage and sharing. We'll also cover journal publisher requirements and writing the data management plans that are required by most funders, as well as data management issues related to closing out projects and moving between institutions. Geared towards those in postdoc or research scientist roles, but all are welcome.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3758044

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Phoebe Ayers, 10-500, 617 253-4442, PSAYERS@MIT.EDU

Courtney Crummett

Jan/31

Wed

04:00PM-05:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 25 participants

Do you struggle with organizing your research data?  Wonder if there’s a better way to arrange and name your data files to optimize your work? This workshop will teach you practical techniques for organizing your data files. Topics will include: file and folder organizational structures and file naming. Will include hands-on exercises to apply the concepts to your particular data project.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3769326

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Courtney Crummett, crummett@mit.edu

Christine Malinowski, Amy Nurnberger

Jan/17

Wed

04:00PM-05:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants

Not sure how to publish and share your data? Unclear on the best formats and descriptive information for optimal data reuse? This workshop will review options for both storage and backups during your research project as well as long-term storage and strategies for sharing data with other researchers. Topics will include: active data storage, data publication and citation, persistent identifiers, versioning, data formats and metadata for reuse, repositories, cost models and management strategies.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3770422

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Christine Malinowski, cmalin@mit.edu

Christine Malinowski, Research Data Librarian

Jan/11

Thu

02:00PM-03:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 25 participants

​EndNote is a software package designed to help you organize citations and create bibliographies. In this workshop we'll cover how to search for citations in databases (such as PubMed and Web of Science) and library catalogs (such as Barton), import and organize them in EndNote, and build your bibliographies and inline citations in Word.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760673

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Christine Malinowski, E53-100, 617 324-6394, CMALIN@MIT.EDU

David Rolnick

Enrollment: Advance sign-up preferred
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

This series of workshops offers practical advice on communication skills for researchers. Each session will include time for participants to practice the skills and receive feedback from peers and panelists. 

Use this form to indicate interest in the four workshops - we will send room information for later sessions once rooms are confirmed - https://goo.gl/forms/3N2A1FCmwmzXuyKB3

Week  1

Delivering an Elevator Pitch  

Week 2

Writing a broad-impact abstract

Week 3 

Designing a scientific figure

Thursday, January 25

1:30-3:00pm

4-159

Panelists:

Felice Frankel, Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Research Scientist and science photographer. See examples of Felice’s work at: https://www.felicefrankel.com

Participants are encouraged to bring a photograph / chart / other figure, ideally of their own work, for feedback.  It doesn't have to be perfect! 

Week 4

How to give a TEDx talk

Thursday, Feb 1, 2:30-4 pm

MIT room 4-163

Giving a TEDx talk is a good way to gain visibility and communicate beautiful ideas to the lay public. In this discussion / workshop, we will explore how to design and deliver TED-style talks.

Participants should be prepared to attempt a TED-style intro - about 3 minutes, without slides, introducing a general audience to a favorite topic.

Sponsored by Communicating Science @ MIT and the PKG Public Service Center.

 

Sponsor(s): Communicating Science @ MIT, Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center
Contact: Alison Hynd, W20-549, hynd@mit.edu

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Delivering an Elevator Pitch

Jan/11

Thu

02:30PM-04:00PM

4-163

Panelists:

• Eugene Wan, The Engine
• Reinaldo Normand, Legatum Center
• Anique Olivier-Mason, Brandeis Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Practice your pitch and receive real-time feedback from the audience and panelists. 

David Rolnick

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Writing a Broad-Impact Abstract

Jan/18

Thu

02:30PM-04:00PM

5-233

Panelists:

Diana Chien, Instructor/Manager, MIT Biological Engineering Communication LabBrian Plosky, Deputy Editor, Molecular Cell

Panelists will present on the essentials of writing a good broad-impact abstract, then all participants will have a chance to practice abstract writing and receive feedback from peers and panelists.

David Rolnick

Courtney Crummett, Biosciences Librarian, MIT Libraries

Jan/18

Thu

04:00PM-05:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) family of databases are filled with information for molecular level bioscience research. Class attendees will learn about the organization and interconnectedness of NCBI databases while focusing on several NCBI specific databases. The session is a hands-on practicum and an excellent starting point for people who are new to or curious about bioinformatics research tools. 

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3758522

 

Sponsor(s): Biology, Libraries
Contact: Courtney Crummett, 14S-134, 617 324-8290, CRUMMETT@MIT.EDU

Anna Boutin-Cooper

Jan/22

Mon

02:00PM-03:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784230

Looking to liven up your presentations, papers, and class work with images? Join Librarian for the SA+P, Anna Boutin-Cooper, on Monday, January 22nd in the DIRC to learn more about the image resources available to you. We will explore MIT’s own image collection, in addition to Artstor and some free, online image resources. We will also briefly explore image permissions.

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784230

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Anna Boutin-Cooper, boutin@mit.edu

Alena McNamara, Ece Turnator, Anna Boutin-Cooper, Sofia Leung

Jan/18

Thu

02:00PM-04:00PM

2-139

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784597

MIT students have been involved with activism for decades. While the most well-recorded protests are those of the 1960s and 1970s against the Vietnam War, MIT students have stood up for what they believe in throughout the Institute's history. In addition, students of color, LGBTQ students, Black students, and international students have all had to establish their claims to equal space in the Institute. The Institute Archives and Special Collections preserves documentation of the history of the Institute, including many activist efforts by students, faculty and staff. Join us to learn about the struggle for equity and inclusion inside and outside of MIT.

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784575

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Alena McNamara, amcnamar@mit.edu

Anne Graham, Jennie Murack, Madeline Wrable

Jan/19

Fri

01:00PM-03:30PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 20 participants
Prereq: A basic knowledge of GIS using either ArcMap or QGIS

Expand your experience with GIS software and learn how to manage map projections, create and edit GIS files, and use tools like Clip, Buffer, and Spatial Join. We will use both QGIS and ArcGIS.

Prerequisite: Previous experience with GIS software is required, such as taking the Intro to GIS workshop.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3757709

 

Sponsor(s): Geographic Information Systems Lab, Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Jason Baletsa, Counsel

Jan/11

Thu

10:00AM-11:30AM

E53 Room 301

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/09

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule was intended to strike a balance between protecting the privacy of individually identifiable health information and preserving the legitimate use and disclosure of this information for important social goals.  Too often, however, researchers believe that HIPAA creates far too many obstacles for the use of protected health information in the academic and research context. 

Colin Zick, Partner and Chair of Foley Hoag LLP's Healthcare Practice and Chair of the Privacy and Data Security Practice will provide a primer on HIPAA and discuss how protected health information can be used in a research and academic context.  There will also be a Question and Answer Session.

Contact: S. Jason Baletsa, E53-387, 617 253-4466, JBALETSA@MIT.EDU

Mirena Bagur, MBA

Jan/31

Wed

11:30AM-01:30PM

E25-117

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/25
Limited to 50 participants

While publishing in OA journals may be a familiar topic, many researchers are not aware of the benefits of publishing in OA books. This session will focus on discovering the inner workings of OA books where publishing time can be as low as 8-10 months.  Unlike articles which are not thematically connected to the rest of the journal, the books include chapters from various authors and are connected into a comprehensive coverage of a theme, including various authors. 

In this session, we will discuss the advantages of publishing in OA books – from fast and responsive publishing process to the number of downloads and citations of your work, as well as immediate international exposure. We will talk about how working on a book chapter provides a good opportunity to exchange ideas of your research with complementary authors.  And we will bring an author who has already published in such a book to discuss with you the quality assurance you need as well as post-publishing benefits, such as book usage reports.  LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.

Sponsor(s): Health Sciences
Contact: Mirena Bagur, 617-835-5019, mirena.bagur@gmail.com

Lucy Lubashev

Jan/17

Wed

06:00PM-07:30PM

1-135, Bring your laptop.

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Have you seen mentions of patents and inventions and tried to read a patent, only to find it unreadable gobbledygook? Are you an inventor and want to know how to proofread a patent application on your invention? Do you need to look through patents for technology valuation? Are you just curious about patent and other IP-related questions and current events? Then come to this class, and you'll learn how to read patents, depending on what your reason for reading them is (No, don't start with the Abstract!), and you'll have a chance to ask your questions to a patent attorney with more than 15 years of experience. Note: this class will not involve reviewing inventions to analyze whether they are ready for patenting.

Sponsor(s): Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Student Information Processing Board
Contact: Lucy Lubashev, lyudmila@mit.edu

Steven Strang

	Jan/08	Mon	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/09	Tue	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/10	Wed	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/11	Thu	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/12	Fri	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/16	Tue	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/17	Wed	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/18	Thu	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/19	Fri	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/22	Mon	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/23	Tue	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/24	Wed	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/25	Thu	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/26	Fri	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/29	Mon	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233
	Jan/30	Tue	10:00AM-04:00PM	E18-233

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/08
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session
Prereq: none

 The professional communication experts at the WCC@MIT (the Writing and Communication Center) will continue to offer free consultations and advice about writing course papers, theses and dissertations; oral presentations (e.g., conference talks); slide design; poster presentations, English as Second Language, and about any writing issue, including but not limited to writing strategically, creating effective arguments, finding a topic, generating ideas, turning data into a story, understanding a particular genre, overcoming writer's block, improving grammar, crafting effective sentences and paragraphs, organizing ideas, using evidence, and analyzing audiences. We can help with all of the following: all types of technical writing; grant proposals; theses and dissertations in all departments; job, graduate and med school application essays and personal statments; research and teaching statements; resumes and CVs; conference talks; articles for publication; book proposals and chapters; papers for any course; and creative writing. We also offer help on pronunciation and oral communication. The WCC is open throughout IAP. You must be registered with our online scheduler. Go to https://mit.mywconline.com to register and to schedule appointments. Open to MIT undergraduate students, graduate students, post-docs, faculty, staff, spouses and partners, visiting scientists and scholars.The WCC@MIT is now located in building E18-233 at 50 Ames Street.

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Writing and Communication Center
Contact: Steven Strang, E18-233 B, 617 253-4459, SMSTRANG@MIT.EDU

Alex Hoyt, Sara Nelson

Jan/17

Wed

03:00PM-04:00PM

4-149

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

The MIT Amgen Scholars Program invites undergraduates to participate in faculty-mentored summer research at MIT in the science and biotechnology areas.

Students admitted to this program (known as Amgen Scholars) will have opportunities to conduct research, analyze data, present research results, network with other undergraduates with similar research interests, and develop working relationships with MIT faculty mentors and other research staff.

Sponsor(s): Office of Undergrad. Advising/Academic Programming
Contact: J Alex Hoyt, 7-104, 617 324-6700, JAHOYT@MIT.EDU

Patrick Boisvert, Technical Associate

Jan/24

Wed

02:00PM-03:00PM

13-2137

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: None

The lecture will provide an introduction to the basic principles of Scanning Electron Microscopy with an approach to EDX, EBSD, and BSE.

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Patrick Boisvert, 13-1018, 617-253-3317, pboisver@mit.edu

Madeline Wrable, Jennie Murack

	Jan/10	Wed	01:00PM-04:00PM	14N-132
	Jan/18	Thu	01:00PM-04:00PM	14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session

Learn the basics of visualizing geographic information and creating your own maps in a Geographic Information System (GIS). We will introduce open source and proprietary mapping and GIS software options and let attendees choose to work through exercises using ESRI ArcGIS (proprietary) and/or Quantum GIS (QGIS) (open source). Learn how to read and interpret maps and data and use basic cartography principles to create maps that can be used in reports and presentations.

For January 10th, register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3757699

For January 18th, register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3757702 

Note, this is the same workshop offered twice. Only register for one workshop.

Sponsor(s): Geographic Information Systems Lab, Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

NaLette M Brodnax

Jan/24

Wed

01:00PM-03:30PM

3-270, Bring your laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: bring your laptop with Anaconda distribution of Python 3.6

This workshop introduces the basic elements of Python that are commonly used for data cleaning, analysis, visualization, and other applications. Participants will also learn how to set up a “development environment” for Python on their personal computer. This workshop is intended for social scientists who are new to programming. No experience is required.

Bring your own laptop and install the Anaconda distribution of Python 3.6 (www.continuum.io/downloads) prior to the workshop. If you are having trouble installing this version of Python, please contact data science services at help@iq.harvard.edu.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760187

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Ista Zahn, Statistical Trainer

	Jan/19	Fri	10:00AM-12:30PM	2-105, Bring a laptop
	Jan/22	Mon	01:00PM-03:30PM	4-237, Bring a laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session

Get an introduction to R, the open-source system for statistical computation and graphics. With hands-on exercises, learn how to import and manage datasets, create R objects, install and load R packages, conduct basic statistical analyses, and create common graphical displays. This workshop is appropriate for those with little or no prior experience with R.

You must bring a laptop. Install R (https://www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/) before the workshop.

This workshop will be offered at two times. Register for one time.

Register here for 1/19/18: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760040

Register here for 1/22/18: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760097

 

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Ista Zahn

Jan/25

Thu

10:00AM-12:30PM

4-231, Bring a laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: Familiar with saving/importing data, data types, data frames

This introduction to the popular ggplot2 R graphics package will show you how to create a wide variety of graphical displays in R. Topics covered included aesthetic mapping and scales, faceting, and themes. This is an intermediate level workshop appropriate for those already familiar with R.

Prerequisites: Participants should be familiar with importing and saving data, data types (e.g., numeric, factor, character), and manipulating data.frames in R.

Bring your own laptop and install R (https://www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/) before the workshop.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760118

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Hiroumi Tani, Visiting Shcolar

Feb/01

Thu

10:00AM-12:00PM

E17-517, Bring your laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/26
Limited to 20 participants
Prereq: General background in chemistry, laptop required

Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG) is an automatic mechanism generation software developed by the Green Research Group at MIT (http://rmg.mit.edu/). The software can be used to generate chemical kinetic mechanisms for a wide range of chemical species by using inbuilt reaction networks and libraries. In the Green Group, RMG is extensively used to develop chemical kinetic mechanisms for combustion and chemical process applications.

Please send an e-mail to hiroumi@mit.edu for the sign-up by 26th Jan.

In this course, you will learn about

      -  How RMG works

      -  How to access RMG on Pharos

      -  Generation of methane-oxy combustion mechanism using RMG

      -  Generation of methane-air combustion mechanism (or any other mechanism of interest)

      -  Scripts in RMG (creating libraries, merging mechanisms, simple batch reactor run etc.)

      -  Cool tools on rmg.mit.edu

      -  Visualizing the mechanism

      -  Model comparison

      -  Molecule search, kinetics search and others …

      -  How to cite RMG

Next Steps (optional, 30 min)

      -  Github basics (how to update RMG, troubleshooting etc.)

      -  How to install RMG on your computer

 

Sponsor(s): Green Research Group - ChemE
Contact: Hiroumi Tani, E18-509, 857 320-5085, HIROUMI@MIT.EDU

Madeline Wrable

Jan/30

Tue

10:00AM-12:00PM

GIS lab, 7-238

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

Come learn about satellite remote sensing, and an overview of the many ways to process satellite imagery. There will be demos in ENVI and ArcGIS software, both of which are available in the GIS Lab.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3783325

 

Sponsor(s): Geographic Information Systems Lab, Libraries
Contact: Madeline Wrable, mwrable@mit.edu

Shiahn Chen, Research Specialist

Jan/24

Wed

03:00PM-04:00PM

13-2137

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: None

This lecture will cover the basic principles of ion source, optics and ion-material interaction in a focused ion beam machine with an emphasis on the differences from, and similarities to, the electron-beam instrument. In addition, the lecture will describe the configuration of the FEI Helios 600 Nanolab Dual Beam workstation in the CMSE Electron Microscopy Facility, and conclude with application examples of the material characterization and nanofabrication uses of the dual-beam workstation.

Sponsor(s): Center for Materials Science and Engineering
Contact: Shiahn Chen, 13-1027, 253-4622, schen3j@mit.edu

Jennie Murack, Madeline Wrable

Jan/23

Tue

01:00PM-03:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 20 participants
Prereq: a basic knowledge of ArcMap or QGIS

Are there clusters in your data? Are similar values grouped together? How are several pieces of data related? This workshop will introduce you to the spatial statistics techniques of point patterns analysis and spatial autocorrelation in both ArcMap and Geoda.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3757823

Prerequisites: A basic knowledge of ArcMap or QGIS, including how to load data and a familiarity with the interface.

Sponsor(s): Geographic Information Systems Lab, Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Yong Zhang

Jan/22

Mon

02:00PM-03:00PM

13-2137 von Hippel

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

The lecture provides an introduction to the fundamental principles of transmission electron microscopy. Topics covered include the illumination system, electron lenses and their aberrations, image formation and resolution. A variety of imaging and analysis techniques and their roles specific to inorganic materials, such as crystallography, diffraction patterns and high resolution imaging are to be present with practical demonstration.  This presentation will also introduce TEM sample preparation techniques for a wide range of materials, including metals, semiconductors, powders and thin films. 

 

Contact: Yong Zhang, 13-1034, 617 253-5092, YZHANG05@MIT.EDU

NaLette M Brodnax

Jan/29

Mon

01:00PM-03:30PM

4-231, bring your laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 60 participants
Prereq: some familiarity with Python

An application programming interface (API) is a tool that allows computers to communicate and share information. For social scientists, APIs can be useful for accessing data or services from firms, organizations, or government agencies. This workshop will introduce the use of APIs to obtain data from sources such as Survey Monkey, Twitter, or Data.gov.

This workshop is intended for social scientists who are new to working with APIs, but have some familiarity with Python or have attended the Introduction to Python workshop.

Bring your own laptop and install the Anaconda distribution of Python 3.6 (www.continuum.io/downloads) prior to the workshop. If you are having trouble installing this version of Python, please contact data science services at help@iq.harvard.edu.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760210

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

NaLette M Brodnax

Jan/26

Fri

01:00PM-03:30PM

3-270, Bring your laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: some familiarity with Python

Web scraping is a method of extracting and restructuring information from web pages. This workshop will introduce basic techniques for web scraping using the popular Python libraries BeautifulSoup and Requests. Participants will practice accessing websites, parsing information, and storing data in a CSV file.

This workshop is intended for social scientists who are new to web scraping, but have some familiarity with Python or have attended the Introduction to Python workshop.

Bring your own laptop and install the Anaconda distribution of Python 3.6 (www.continuum.io/downloads) prior to the workshop. If you are having trouble installing this version of Python, please contact data science services at help@iq.harvard.edu.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760192

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Christine Malinowski, Research Data Librarian

Jan/23

Tue

03:00PM-04:00PM

4-231, Bring your laptop with your LaTeX setup

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: a working knowledge of LaTeX

Are you using LaTeX to create your documents? Are you looking for more guidance on integrating Zotero or Mendeley into your workflow? Do you keep running into issues with your citations or your .bib files? If you have a working knowledge of LaTeX and are looking to optimize how you manage citations and integrate your favorite citation management tools like Zotero, Mendeley or JabRef, this is the workshop for you!

Note, this is not an introduction to LaTeX or BibTeX – a working knowledge of LaTeX is assumed. Bring your laptop with your LaTeX setup to follow along. 

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3770622

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Christine Malinowski, E53-100, 617 324-6394, CMALIN@MIT.EDU

Patrick Boisvert, Research Specialist

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/05
Limited to 40 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None

MPMS3 Applications Seminar on the sensitivity of a SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) magnetometer that provides the choice of three possible measurement modes: DC Scan Mode (standard), VSM Mode, and AC Susceptibility Mode.

January 9 & 10. von Hippel Room, 13-2137

R.S.V.P. Patrick Boisvert, pboisver@mit.edu

 

Tuesday, January 9. Introductory Training

Base Theory Discussion. Hardware. Field Control. Temperature Control. Intro to MultiVu. Software Control. Sample Mounting Techniques 

 

Wednesday, January 10. Advanced Training

Base Theory Discussion. Hardware. Field Control. Temperature Control. Intro to DC SQUID. Theory of Operation. Modes of Operation (DC vs. VSM vs. AC)

Contact: Patrick Boisvert, 13-1018, 617 253-3317, PBOISVER@MIT.EDU

---

Introductory Training

Jan/09

Tue

09:30AM-03:30PM

13-2137

9:30 AM  Refreshments

10:00 AM  Base Theory Discussion (Incl. MultiVu Software Control)

11:15 AM  Break

11:30 AM  Sample Mounting Techniques

12:00 PM  Lunch / Break

1:30 PM  Measurement Demo/Discussion: Remanent Field in Superconducting Magnets

2:15 PM  Break

2:30 PM  Measurement Demo/Discussion: Moment vs. Field Measurements

3:30 PM  End for the Day

---

Advanced Training

Jan/10

Wed

09:30AM-01:45PM

13-2137

9:30 AM  Refreshments

10:00 AM  Base Theory Discussion (Incl. DC SQUID Theory of Operation)

11:15 AM  Break

11:30 AM  Measurement Modes (DC/VSM/AC)

12:30 PM  Lunch / Break

1:15 PM  End for the Day

Ece Turnator

Feb/02

Fri

04:30PM-06:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 30 participants

This workshop will introduce Carto as a tool for creating customized online maps and performing basic data analysis. We will learn how to find and add a historic basemap to Carto, import present-day geographic data, and analyze the data using a few of the new Carto Builder tools. We will provide sample data, but feel free to bring your own if you have it. 

Bring your laptop or use a lab computer.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3758064

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Geographic Information Systems Lab
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

GECD

Jan/16

Tue

01:30PM-03:30PM

10-250

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Strong oral presentation skills are a key to success for engineers, scientists, and other professionals, yet many speakers are at a loss to tackle the task. Systematic as they otherwise can be in their work, they go at it intuitively, sometimes haphazardly, with much good will but seldom good results. Based on Dr. Doumont’s book Trees, maps, and theorems, about “effective communication for rational minds” this lecture proposes a systematic way to prepare and deliver presentations.  Among others, it covers structure, slides, and delivery, as well as stage fright.  Dr. Doumont holds an engineering degree from the Louvain School of Engineering and a PhD in applied physics from Stanford. He specializes in professional speaking, writing, and graphing, and incorporates a unique engineering perspective.  More at www.principiae.be.

This workshop is open to MIT Community.

 

Sponsor(s): Global Education and Career Development
Contact: GECD, gecd-iap@mit.edu

Jennie Murack

Jan/17

Wed

11:00AM-12:00PM

4-231, Bring a laptop if you want to follow along

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/25
Limited to 60 participants

Using citation management software to create and maintain a collection of references or PDFs is common and important in today’s academic world. These tools will help you to save citations from your favorite databases and websites, store related PDFs or attachments, and quickly build a bibliography for your papers and publications. We’ll review Zotero and Mendeley and show how to use them together to help your manage your PDF’s and citations.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3757944

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Stacey Snyder, Christine Malinowski

Jan/10

Wed

03:00PM-04:00PM

WebEx

Enrollment: https://mit.webex.com/mit/k2/j.php?MTID=t027680f7e5bb8cf9286feef25e5c763a

Using citation management software to create and maintain a collection of references or PDFs is common and important in today’s academic world. These tools will help you to save citations from your favorite databases and websites, store related PDFs or attachments, and quickly build a bibliography for your papers and publications. We’ll review Zotero and Mendeley and show how to use them together to help your manage your PDFs and citations.

Register here: https://mit.webex.com/mit/k2/j.php?MTID=t027680f7e5bb8cf9286feef25e5c763a

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Stacey Snyder, 10-500, 617 324-6024, SSNYDER@MIT.EDU

Phoebe Ayers, Helen Bailey

Jan/24

Wed

03:00PM-04:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

Do you write software in the course of your research? Have you been required by funders or publishers to share your code, or do you want to make it accessible to others to use? Documenting, sharing and archiving your research software can make your research more transparent and reproducible, and can help you get credit for your work. This workshop will go over reasons to share your software, and will cover some best practices and considerations that will help you document your software and make it citable. We'll also go over options for archiving and publishing research software, including software papers and managing software with associated data sets, and some best practices for citing and documenting all of the software that you use.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3774937

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Phoebe Ayers, psayers@mit.edu

Carmen Varela, Research Scientist

Enrollment: Send resume to carmenv@mit.edu
Sign-up by 12/22
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: Background on memory and/or systems neuroscience preferred

Motivation:  Research in science is driven by frameworks and hypotheses that determine the design and interpretation of experiments and how the field evolves.  A critical discussion of these hypotheses can:  raise awareness of the current state of the field, gain familiarity with terminology and concepts, sharpen critical thinking skills, and develop intuition to design effective experiments to tackle key open questions.

Objectives: One goal is to achieve an intuitive understanding of the current state of two major sub-areas in memory research:  how are memories encoded and how are they processed at the cell population and systems level? Another goal is to experiment with a complementary way of discussing the literature, in which we will focus on a critical discussion of the big picture and context for current research, instead of the traditional journal clubs, which primarily target single-papers to discuss methods and design.

Structure: We will discuss two sets (4-6 each) of relevant papers that review contrasting hypotheses that are the basis for active areas of research in the field of memory.

Pre-Requisites: Background on memory and/or systems neuroscience preferred

Session Leaders and Organizers: Carmen Varela, Lindsey Williams, Felix Sosa

Contact: Carmen Varela, 46-5233, carmenv@mit.edu

---

	Jan/12	Fri	05:30PM-07:30PM	46-6199
	Jan/17	Wed	05:30PM-07:30PM	46-6199
	Jan/19	Fri	05:30PM-07:30PM	46-6199
	Jan/24	Wed	05:30PM-07:30PM	46-6199
	Jan/26	Fri	05:30PM-07:30PM	46-6199

Week 1. Social hour + discussion.  How does your background shape the way you think about science? How do different frameworks shape neuroscience research?

Week 2.  How is memory encoded? Spatial and cognitive maps, memory ensembles, grandmother cells.

Week 3. How is memory processed?  systems consolidation, complementary learning systems.

Carmen Varela - Research Scientist, Lindsey Williams - Research Assistant

Katie Zimmerman

Jan/22

Mon

12:30PM-02:00PM

3-370

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3782039

Take advantage of your rights! Bring your CV or list of publications to this drop-in clinic where we’ll help you determine how to make your already-published papers open and accessible. We’ll show you how to: check author rights and determine what is allowed by journals you’ve published in, upload your papers to open repositories, and make an open profile so your work is discoverable. Drop in anytime during the session to work one-on-one with copyright librarians and experts in open research. This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series cosponsored with the Technology Licensing Office. Food will be served.

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3782039

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Technology Licensing Office
Contact: Katie Zimmerman, kbzimmer@mit.edu

Anne Graham

Feb/01

Thu

03:00PM-05:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

PATSTAT contains bibliographical and legal status patent data from leading industrialized and developing countries. This is extracted from the European Patent Office’s databases and is either provided as raw data or can be consulted online. Learn how to access and use this data purchased by the MIT Libraries.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3808229

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Anne Graham, grahama@mit.edu

Klavs F Jensen, Professor Chemical Engineering

Enrollment: Send CV, candidate interview
Sign-up by 01/01
Limited to 3 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

The Pharmacy on Demand initiative seeks to create mobile, reconfigurable platforms capable of synthesizing multiple active pharmaceutical ingredients. Following on from past iterations, the group is now working towards the design build and implementation of this platform for one selected API and gaining regulatory approval of the synthesis and platform. To accomplish this, the system and synthesis needs to be characterized to ensure a complete understanding of the different process parameters, residence time distributions (RTD) etc.

 UROPs will be involved with the characterization of different system components, i.e. reactors, liquid/liquid separators, pumps etc. Accurate RTD measurements will be acquired for each of the components and integrated into a basic software model that can predict RTD of the entire system; an essential criterion if the project goal of regulatory approval is to be realized. Students will also get some exposure to organic flow synthesis, the creation and use of FTIR models as a process monitoring tool and some basic HPLC exposure.

Prerequisites (if any): The major requirements are motivation and an eye for detail. Knowledge of (or interest in) the Pharmaceutical industry, basic organic chemistry, reactor characterization/RTD models and some experience with LabVIEW/Matlab.

Contact: Luke Rogers, 66-5.07, 857 559-3226, LROGERS@MIT.EDU

Ravikishore Kommajosyula, Research Assistant, Baglietto CFDlab, Corbin Foucart, Research Assistant, MSEAS lab

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/16
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: Open to all interested students

The interdisciplinary nature of computational research brings in members from a variety of backgrounds in math, science, and engineering. Practical knowledge of computer science is a major enabler in our everyday research, improving our efficiency. In this course, we present some tools, techniques, and unwritten guidelines in computational science. The following topics will be covered, with customized content to fit a computational research audience, using examples from scientific codes to illustrate different concepts.

1) Writing good code: Whether prototyping an algorithm or implementing production quality code, there are certain numerical and computer science considerations to produce fault tolerant code, improve code quality, and save time in the process.

2) Debugging and maintaining: A survey of the best tools and practices that can be used with little effort to debug and maintain code, and ensure high reliability using the power of modern integrated development environments.

3) Collaborating and sharing: Version control systems such as GIT allow for tracking changes to code and integrate easily into most development environments, thus providing powerful collaboration capabilities.

4) Improving code efficiency: Performance on modern processors can be achieved by leveraging different levels of parallelism. This topic is introduced from a computer architecture perspective, and guidelines for efficient code are drawn from it.

Please register at: signup.mit.edu/cce_course

Sponsor(s): Computation for Design and Optimization, Center for Computational Engineering
Contact: Ricardo Baptista, RSB@MIT.EDU

---

	Jan/16	Tue	01:00PM-03:00PM	3-370
	Jan/18	Thu	01:00PM-03:00PM	3-370
	Jan/23	Tue	01:00PM-03:00PM	3-370
	Jan/25	Thu	01:00PM-03:00PM	3-370

Ravikishore Kommajosyula - Research Assistant, Baglietto CFDlab, Corbin Foucart - Research Assistant, MSEAS lab

Anne Graham

Jan/26

Fri

10:00AM-11:30AM

3-370

Enrollment: Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784751

Patents are unique documents that provide detailed information about inventions. This session will introduce you to the types of information you can find in patents, and where and how to search for them. This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series cosponsored with the Technology Licensing Office. Food will be served.

Sign up here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784751

Sponsor(s): Libraries, Technology Licensing Office
Contact: Anne Graham, grahama@mit.edu

Christine Malinowski, Amy Nurnberger

Jan/08

Mon

03:00PM-04:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

Do you have data? (Who doesn't?!?) Learn about the five basic things you can do now to manage your data for future happiness. These tools and techniques support practical data management and you can start using them immediately. Work with your personal data or research data, but start working now to ensure a future you who is secure in the existence, understandability, and reusability of your data!

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760733

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Christine Malinowski, cmalin@mit.edu

Ista Zahn

Jan/24

Wed

10:00AM-12:30PM

4-163, Bring a laptop

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Prereq: basic familiarity with R

This hands-on, intermediate R course will demonstrate a variety of statistical procedures using the open-source statistical software program, R.  Topics covered include multiple regression, multilevel models, and multiple imputation. We expect that users enrolled in this course are already familiar with the statistical processes that we cover and are interested in learning how to run these procedures in R.

Prerequisite: Basic familiarity with R, such acquired through an introductory R workshop.

Bring your own laptop and install R (https://www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/) before the workshop.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3760112

Offered in conjuction with Data Science Services at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science.

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Jennie Murack, 7-238, 617 258-6680, MURACK@MIT.EDU

Dorota Jarecka, Research Scientist

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/05
Limited to 40 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: basic scripting experience, basic shell

Reproducibility is the ability to get the same research results having the full computational environment, including the code and raw data, used to produce the results. Unfortunately, providing the computational environment is not required during the publication process and many scientific findings are very hard or impossible to reproduce.  Sharing the computational environment is not a standard procedure also because it requires tools and skills that are not part of the standard scientific curriculum.

These workshops introduce two basic components needed to conduct reproducible computational science, version control systems and reusable computational environments.

The first workshop will cover creating and using reusable computational environments.  We will introduce the concept of containers and use Docker and Singularity as examples. Singularity/Docker not only offers the ability to efficiently and ubiquitously deploy environments on linux systems but also gives future researchers access to the exact environment used in the publication.

The second workshop will cover Git that is a free and open source version control system widely used for software development, and a Web-based Git repository Hosting System - GitHub. We will also talk about git-annex and Datalad that solve the problem of sharing and synchronizing collections of large data files.

Please sign-up at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reproducible-research-in-computational-science-tickets-41433469623

Sponsor(s): Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Contact: Jillian Auerbach, 46-2005Q, 617 253-0482, JILLIANA@MIT.EDU

---

	Jan/10	Wed	05:00PM-07:30PM	46-3310, Bring your laptop
	Jan/24	Wed	05:00PM-07:30PM	46-3310, Bring your laptop

lecture and hands-on exercises, we will send an email with software requirements

Dorota Jarecka - Research Scientist, Jakub Kaczmarzyk - Technical Associate, Mario Belledonne - Research Assistant

Mico Tatalovic, KSJ fellow

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/12
Limited to 20 participants
Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions
Prereq: None

A series of short lectures given by a group of elite science journalists about current issue and challenges facing scientific research in the press. The lecturers are Knight Science Journalism fellows at MIT.

Talks to include:

-What not to do when talking to journalists: common mistakes professionals make when communicating with lay people and the media, Teresa Carr, a senior content editor for Consumer Reports and an award-winning investigative reporter, focusing on consumer and public health

- Turn that page: Constructing narrative in short and long-form writing, by Ehsan Masood, editor of Research Fortnight, a London-based science policy magazine, and the author of several books, including The Great Invention: The Story of GDP and the Making and Unmaking of the Modern World

-Making online science news viral: how to strike a balance between popularity and hype, by Mico Tatalovic, environment and life sciences news editor at New Scientist

-Data journalism and visualizations: the state of the art and craft, by Joshua Hatch, assistant editor for data and interactives at The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, where he oversees a team of database reporters and designers

Sponsor(s): Science, Technology, and Society
Contact: Mico Tatalovic, E19-623, 617 452-3513, MICO@MIT.EDU

---

How to talk to and write for media

Jan/16

Tue

04:00PM-06:00PM

E19-623 seminar room

Talk 1: What not to do when talking to journalists: common mistakes professionals make when communicating to lay audiences, by Teresa Carr, senior content editor for Consumer Reports and award-winning investigative reporter

Talk 2: Constructing compelling narrative in short and long-form science writing, by Ehsan Masood, editor of Research Fortnight, a London-based science policy magazine, and the author of several books

Teresa Carr - KSJ fellow, Ehsan Masood - KSJ fellow

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Making online science stories effective

Jan/17

Wed

04:00PM-06:00PM

E19-623 seminar room

Talk 1: Making online science news go viral: how to strike a balance between popularity and hype, by Mico Tatalovic, news editor at New Scientist and chairman of the Association of British Science Writers

Talk 2: Data journalism and visualizations: the state of the art, by Joshua Hatch, assistant editor for data and interactives at The Chronicle of Higher Education, and president of the Online News Association

Mico Tatalovic - KSJ fellow, Joshua Hatch - KSJ fellow

Viqar Hussain, MTA/ Technology Licensing Associate Officer, Andrew Moomey, Technology Licensing Associate, Janine Gilkes, Technology Licensing Associate

Jan/26

Fri

11:45AM-12:45PM

3-370

Enrollment: Unlimited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/26

Are you a researcher? Do you utilize and share biologics, chemical compounds, and/or devices?

Come join Viqar, Andrew, and Janine to learn how to:

• Optimize industrial/academic collaborations
• Protect your potential IP/inventions when sharing materials
• Do’s and don’ts of Material Transfer Agreements
• How to most efficiently interact with the Technology Licensing Office

Lunch will be served at the beginning of the session. Viqar, Andrew, and Janine will be happy to answer any specific questions following the presentation.

This session is part of the Intellectual Property Lunch and Learn Series co-sponsored with the MIT Libraries. 

To register for this event please contact Katrina Khalil via email: kmkhalil@mit.edu

Sponsor(s): Technology Licensing Office, Libraries
Contact: Katrina Khalil, NE18-501, 617 253-6966, kmkhalil@mit.edu

Dr. Rozzeta DOLAH, Post Doctoral Fellow

Jan/25

Thu

01:30PM-04:30PM

14N-132, Bring a Windows laptop or use a lab computer

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/22
Limited to 21 participants
Prereq: None, Open to all MIT affiliates

Hosted by MIT-PDA Professional Development Committee

MINITAB is a powerful statistical software for process optimization and research enhancement. It provides Zero-Defects and optimum yield for product and process in science and engineering field. MINITAB is a simple, effective way to input statistical data, identify trends and patterns, problem’s troubleshooting, and extrapolate answers to the problem at hand. During this workshop, you will learn how to:

-Optimize process through response optimizer
-Assure process robustness
-Control variation and correlate process parameters

Prerequisite: none

Date and Time: Thursday, January 25, 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Location: 14N-132

Link for download and installation of MINITAB18 (FREE 30 days trial) will be provided after registration. Use a lab computer or bring your own laptop to the workshop. A window-based computer is required.

This workshop is FREE for MIT affiliates. Refreshments will be served. 

REGISTER HERE 

About Instructor:  Dr. Rozzeta Dolah is a post doctoral fellow at Prof. Karnik Lab, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. She has extensive experience in industry as a process engineer, where she uses MINITAB in various Black Belt Six Sigma projects, problem solving for defects, and variation elimination. As a MINITAB trainer, she builds quality into product design through the implementation of robust Taguchi Method (Robust Quality Engineering), Design of Experiments (DOE), and Lean Six Sigma.  

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Dr. Zhen CAO, NE46-608, (860)-771-3080, zhencao@mit.edu

Suzanne Lane, Director, Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication

Jan/25

Thu

01:00PM-03:00PM

E17-136

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/24
Limited to 30 participants

Whenever we do research—whether in the library, the lab, or the field, or just reading the assigned texts for a class—we hope to develop new ideas: to form and test hypotheses, develop new and better methods, produce richer evidence, and refine existing theories.  Our research is often collaborative, and always builds on work by previous researchers and writers.  But how do we develop new ideas from these sources?  How do we document where others’ ideas contribute to our thinking, and where our ideas build on theories and evidence that’s already published?  And why do the practices of incorporating and citing sources vary so much from one discipline or journal to another?  This workshop will help you learn how to write with sources—published, online, or live—in ways that will help both you and your readers understand how your ideas build on, and move beyond, those of your sources.

Space is limited to 30.

For more information, and to reserve a space, please contact the Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication program (WRAP)

 

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication
Contact: WRAP, E18-228a, 617-253-3039, wrap@mit.edu

Amy Carleton, Lecturer: Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication, Jane Kokernak, Lecturer: Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication

	Jan/31	Wed	10:00AM-01:00PM	4-231
	Feb/01	Thu	10:00AM-01:00PM	4-231

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 60 participants
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions

Embarking on any research-based writing project, like the undergraduate thesis or a technical report, can often seem daunting. How does one choose a suitable topic or focus? What is an approach for conducting and cataloguing a literature search? What are strategies for outlining and drafting your final document? What are the qualities of effective technical prose?

This IAP workshop will offer students a strategic and intense opportunity to prepare for their upcoming thesis or other large writing project by

 - conducting genre analysis of sample theses and reports,
 - formulating a viable research question,
 - generating a preliminary research bibliography,
 - examining the features of effective prose, and
 - designing a realistic timeline keyed to the chief writing tasks.

Day one will focus on the components of thesis and report writing, the research question, and background research with help from an MIT research Librarian.  On day two, we will isolate features of technical prose and their application to your writing, design a project timeline and get quick feedback, and address questions specific to your project.  Participants are asked to bring laptops and any project guidelines to the meetings. Note: while the emphasis is on undergraduate research in MechE, anyone is welcome to attend.

Attendance capped at 60.

To register, fill out the Google form here: http://bit.ly/2ijWgXK

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Mechanical Engineering, Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication
Contact: Amy Carleton, amymarie@mit.edu

Jan/30

Tue

03:30PM-04:30PM

6-104, Chipman Room

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Come enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and some cookies while speaking with current UROP supervisors and students about participating in undergraduate research at MIT.

Sponsor(s): Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program -UROP, Office of Undergrad. Advising/Academic Programming
Contact: J Alex Hoyt, 7-104, 617 324-6700, JAHOYT@MIT.EDU

Feb/01

Thu

11:00AM-12:00PM

5-134

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Come hear from current UROP students about their experiences conducting research at MIT.  UROP staff will also be available to answer questions.

Sponsor(s): Office of Undergrad. Advising/Academic Programming, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program -UROP
Contact: J Alex Hoyt, 7-104, 617 324-6700, JAHOYT@MIT.EDU

Daniel Sheehan, Joe Wright, Carmen Bazzano

Jan/11

Thu

09:00AM-12:00PM

4-231

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

This workshop has two components: (1) An introduction the resources and tools available at MIT to fly drones and process photographs into geospatial formats useful in a GIS along with some examples of how drone imagery has been used at MIT. (2) A primer on the rules and regulations of small UAS flight. We will cover requirements and protocols for flight planning and piloting, and introduce software tools for flight planning.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3784330

Sponsor(s): Geographic Information Systems Lab, Libraries, Lincoln Laboratory
Contact: Daniel Sheehan, dsheehan@mit.edu

Courtney Crummett, Howard Silver

Jan/30

Tue

01:00PM-02:00PM

14N-132

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required

MIT is full of research and collaboration opportunities. Learn how to discover those opportunities beyond your personal network using tools and resources that will give you a better picture of MIT and other complex organizations.

Register here: http://libcal.mit.edu/event/3773490

Sponsor(s): Libraries
Contact: Courtney Crummett, crummett@mit.edu

Andreas Karatsolis, Assoc. Director, Writing, Rhetoric, & Prof. Communication

	Jan/09	Tue	12:00PM-02:30PM	E17-136
	Jan/11	Thu	12:00PM-02:30PM	E17-136

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/09
Limited to 30 participants
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session

Following last year’s successful IAP offering, WRAP is extending the workshop on Writing Successful Proposals to two days (5 hours in total). At the heart of this workshop is a conceptual framework for proposal writing, centered around the baseline logic of the proposal as a genre, and the associated rhetorical moves within proposal sections. As an extension to this framework, participants will be presented with a model to effectively develop methodology sections, project timelines and budgets. In the second session of the workshop, participants will work on applying the baseline logic model into their own project ideas, and learn how to integrate visuals and generate discourse for the different sections. Finally, we will discuss how to create a persuasive line of argument through the use of themes that the potential sponsors will feel compelled to consider for funding.

The workshop is targeted towards advanced undergraduate students engaged in original research, graduate students and faculty or staff in the process of submitting proposals for funding.

Space is limited to 30 participants.

For more information, and to reserve a space in the workshop, email the Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication (WRAP). 

 

Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing, Writing, Rhetoric, and Professional Communication
Contact: WRAP, E18-228a, 617-253-3039, wrap@mit.edu