PhD students
...
discussions
- Discussions in the small groups with the advisors were very much appreciated
- There could be more time for discussions in these groups
- There could be multiple group discussions with different advisors
- One suggestion was to have a mingle –type of problem solving (meet up shortly with each advisor and discuss your problems)
- Coffee breaks were a good opportunity for this, but we would need to know the expertise of the advisors to ask the right person?
- Updates from the students could be posted beforehand on intranet
- Updates could include “programs i’ve used and programs i’d like to learn” -type of listing
- This could be helpful in forming the groups and also we would know who to talk to
- It would be nice to get a little overview of the advisors too
- Or there could be a list of keywords (such as “bwa”, “miRNA”, “cancer”, “whole genome sequencing”…), which everyone can suggest and sign up for discussion about these topics
- We could use slack or some other forum to post questions and also keep in touch with the people who will finish the program after the next meeting
- Summary presentations were good
- It was useful to make some concrete plans
- Advise from the 2015 group for the 2016 group:
- Prepare well with questions, updates etc material so that you get the best out of the meeting
- Use the scilifelab bioinformatics drop-in
- Use your advisors!
Advisor/PI discussions
Main feeling: good!
One-to-one meeting: very useful, not so much work from our side. 1/month is good rhythm. It’s good if the student prepares something (a few slides) and send before the meeting: summary, questions.
Can be good to have like a “1 day workshop", where the student works closely to the bioinfo advisor. He/she works by himself/herself but can ask questions directly. Especially when programming.
Most of us have student at the same location as advisor. Mihaela (LiU) has Skype sessions with her student (UU): sometimes difficult to explain things with Skype/email. Meeting in person is essential at least a few times/year.
PI: sometimes attends the meeting (or part of it) - 1 or 2 /year, or 1/semester. Can be good if he/she’s there when discuss the results, or when a “limit” is reached. He/she has the overall idea of the project.
Grand meeting: good to see the other projects, which stages they are. Group session very good. Maybe 45 minutes/student too short sometimes. Maybe another format for the 5 minutes presentation.
Maybe better advertisement? But already too many applications...