[Grad2020] [Turnbull Zemi] REMINDER: Zemi today at 15:15

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Hi all,

The following is the email I intended to send last week.  For some
reason the mailing list wasn't working and I found it in the queue.

The first section describes the "elevator pitch format" we used last
week.  A more nicely formatted and somewhat improved version of the
second section on resources (some additional information and links) is
at https://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/Teach/Zemi/resources.html.

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I'm back from my long business trip, and energized to get back to
research again.  Today I want to talk about some research tools most
of you will find useful, and introduce the resources available in our
lab.  Also, as usual I want to go around and have everyone introduce
their research topics, in about 1 minute each.  Starting next week you
will be practicing presentation based on existing research related to
your own themes.  The format will be the same as "official" master
presentations: 12 minutes + discussion.  I will expect you to offer
comments, more about that later.

1.  Topic presentation ("elevator pitch" format)

    a.  Stand at whiteboard but no slides.
    b.  Self-introduction: name, student id, primary supervisor (me),
        AG (this is usually optional in presentations), program and
        year.
    c.  Something interesting about your relation to your theme (where
        you grew up, where you went to school, past employment,
        internship, or hobby, life history event, news event).
    d.  Research theme in title format (one line unless absolutely
        necessary).
    e.  Something about methodology, how you will do the research.

    Parts b and d are "formal": these are practice for "official"
    presentations, and should be concise and informative.  Parts c and
    e can be humorous if you like, and should help to connect
    everything together.

2.  Research tools

    a.  Online fee-based resources via TULIPS (University pays fees)
    b.  About free online resources (Google Scholar, data, journal
        impact factors, etc)
    c.  Free "research": "< PhD" theses, commercial sources, etc -- be
        careful
    d.  University budgets for travel to presentations and other
        resources (books, software, data)
    e.  Record-keeping for software and documents: "git means never
        deleting your data and saying 'oh, crap'!"  About backups.
    f.  Free software for programming: Python, R, and others
    g.  Non-free software at university: Mathematica, software packages
    h.  Document preparation: avoid wordprocessors and other
        proprietary systems if you can, prefer plain-text systems:
        LaTeX and markdown for text, Jupyter or Mathematica notebooks
        for mixed text and analysis (including programming and
        statistics as well as mathematics), gnuplot and graphviz for
        line graphics.
    i.  Lab library, projector, video camera: free for use in room,
        require permission (which is *not* automatic) for use outside
        of the room.  If you take them to your own desk, they must
        remain visible on the desk when you're not using them.
    j.  Personal resources: If you leave them on the desk, they're
        available to other students for use in room unless clearly
        marked as personal to you.

I will "eventually" (maybe not today, and some are already available :-)
put more detailed materials online in the usual place, but I at least
wanted this outline available in advance.

Steve
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-- 
Associate Professor              Division of Policy and Planning Science
http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/     Faculty of Systems and Information
Email: turnbull at sk.tsukuba.ac.jp                   University of Tsukuba
Tel: 029-853-5175                 Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN