Procedures/2012 general

CURENT GRADS:

Always have at hand your timeline, based on the official documents you get (in orientation). The milestones should include: courses, the deadline you have for turning in your title; on the far right end, projected graduation date +projected time of turning in your thesis/diss. Smaller milestones should be in the middle. It is easiest if you arrange your timeline semester by semester:

Fall 12 Spring 12 Summer 12 Fall 13 Spring 13 etc. |-------------------------------|---------------------|------------------------|-----------------|---------------------| 800c title due: 805.2 coursework done thesis thesis 805.1 (add date) 8xxe TA+RA draft: defense 801c RA: 20hrs/wk TA: 322 RA: 10hrs/wk

Note: Our program is light on coursework because we have such a mix of backgrounds and since we can't cover everything in an interdisciplinary world. The idea is that this allows room for taking a course (esp. for PhDs) that you need to take but which we don't offer. Some are at SFU, some CAN be at UBC (but takes really advanced planning), some can be SIAT directed studies. Note: For 805 (colloquium), you need to take two semesters (thus.1 and .2). It is basically a class you have to attend w/out homework (for the most part). The Fall version apparently includes sections on how to navigate grad studies. The rest of the course comprises guest speakers who are invited to give you a sense of how wide and deep SIAT-like research goes. Note: It is helpful to indicate which courses are core (c), and which are electives (e).

Maryam & Amber, let's meet after your orientation meeting. You'll be joined by Mehdi and Eylul.

FALL SCHEDULE: T+Th I'll be on campus Tuesdays and Thursdays afternoons in the Fall. I'll reorganize my CONNECT calendar to reflect this, and block off those times so you can schedule grad mtgs.

We'll have a few everyone-attends lab meetings so you can practice talking about your research question and direction. Or, for example, for Terry, Tyler & Mark to go over issues with annotated bibliographies, for everyone to discuss upcoming conferences & exhibits, etc.

Weekly lab meetings are for those who have RAs. For the Fall, I have partial RAs: Mark, Terry, Amber, Jeremy (Tyler)(Eylul)

We may host an undergrad capstone project as well, but you'll know who newcomers are before they get access.

secure space for patients Note: we have patient records, so you can use the grad room (only) for meeting with undergrads (for your TA work), BUT the door to the other rooms need to be locked. We don't have an inch of room for storing undergrad student projects.

your storage space Each of you should have a desk + a 2-drawer file cabinet on wheels under your desk. Some of you have an assigned file cabinet drawer w/key. Some of you have an assigned shelf in the 2-door cabinets (not locked). We should have enough room for everyone to have a file cabinet drawer and a shelf.

THE TOP DRAWER of the FILE CABINET NEAREST THE DOOR TO VR1+VR2: Everything we get should be filed here: info for new computers, software licenses, etc.

For everything that is not your personal research: assume that you will not be at SFU forever, and that others will need to find info at a moment's notice. Thus, be sure to put paper info + material info in file folders that you label, date & put in the top drawer of the file cabinet. For data files: be sure you back up what you do on our removable hard drive (in viz.lab).

Be sure you using naming conventions that others won't have to make guesses about, and add dates -- do not assume that the date the file was created or modified will help anyone. It won't. Example for paperwork: file folder in top drawer of file cabinet should be titled: Adobe CS6 licenses 2012 (Note: Desiree keeps some of this info, like AppleCare info, but we keep the rest.) Example for data files: image files: FOLDER on hard drive should be titled: Focus_Group_pics_Aug_2012. If you took the photos and want a photo credit, be sure to put your initials in the title of the folder. Focus_Group_pics_JM_Aug_2012.

For all VR work, the data stays on the computers in VR1 and VR2, and are automatically backed up to our servers. However, the same info applies: assume you will not be at SFU forever, and that others will need to find your files. Make sure they are in an appropriate place (i.e., all texture maps live in one place), and be sure to include info by -------------------- commenting it out. (If you don't know what that means, it probably won't apply to you.)