Radu Jianu (jr) is the current SciVis Coordinator, but if you're looking at this page, it's probably you :-)
TopLiz Marai (gem) is the most recent former SciVis Guru.
TopThe goals of the SciVis meetings as laid out by David Laidlaw are to foster group spirit, help show connections between different projects, and to provide research feedback in a low-key environment.
TopAll of the SciVis files are kept in '/map/gfx0/common/scivis/'
TopThe SciVis meetings are every Tuesday from 12-1 pm unless specifically cancelled.
TopThe SciVis meetings are currently scheduled to meet in CIT 345. CIT 345 is the conference room on the 3rd floor in the northeast corner (Waterman & Brook side) of the CIT building at Brown.
TopSpeakers should strive to make their talks no longer than 30 minutes. This length leaves time for discussion during and after the talk.
TopWe suggest buying large quantities of drinks and chips (enough for multiple meetings) and keeping them in your office. This strategy keeps you from having to bring in heavy bags every week.
If you choose to keep condiments in the kitchen fridges, check them once a week before going to the store. Other people in the department use them (without asking or feeling remorse) so they can go faster than expected. Since it doesn't need refrigeration before using, you could keep an extra "set" in your office for when we're out.
TopAs far as the actual food goes, feel free to mix it up and add your own touch to the lunch. Below is what we usually get. We find it easy to remember everything at the store when we're consistent with the selection (although it does make it a bit dull for the eaters). We usually get a caffeinated and decaffeinated drink and ALWAYS Polar seltzer water (dhl's request).
Dijon mustard -- French's or Grey Poupon
Mayonnaise -- Hellman's is good
1 lb. of turkey breast -- Boar's Head "Ovengold" or "Black Forest"
1 lb. of ham -- Boar's Head "Honey Maple" or "Black Forest"
1 lb. of white cheese -- Boar's Head "Lacey Swiss" or "Mild Provolone"
1 lb. of yellow cheese -- Boar's Head "Double Glouchester" chedder cheese
1-13 oz. bag of Dorito's chips
1-12.25 oz. bag of Ruffles chips
Cookies -- They seem to calm the natives.
Sometimes external speakers come to give a talk, or there's a special occasion, and you'll want to do something different for lunch, like Kabob and Curry. Talk to David before doing this because it is a bit more expensive then the usual deli buffet. If you do opt for this, Dawn Reed can help with the purchase order.
TopYou should get cups, forks, knifes, plates, napkins from the kitchen.
TopGive your receipts to Dawn Reed sometime on Tuesday. Generally, she waits until she has two weeks of receipts before she submits the reimbursement request. If this is a problem, talk to David Laidlaw.
You should receive a check in your campus mail about 7-10 business days after turning in your 2nd week of receipts.
TopDawn Reed is your lifeline. She helps with scheduling rooms, and reimbursing you for food purchases. Always appreciate her!
You can also talk to David Laidlaw if you are having any problems that you or Dawn cannot solve.
Also, please feel free to contact the former SciVis Coordinator.
TopThe weekly SciVis email announcing the meeting, including the speaker, topic, talk abstract, and speaker schedule, goes out to the scivis mailing list.
You are the mailing list administrator. Go <a href="http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/admin/scivis">here</a> to manage the list. The previous SciVis coordinator should give you the admin password. When passing on the torch to the next coordinator, let Dorinda know who the new Scivis listserv administrator will be.
Various people will email you throughout the year, or ask you in person, to add (or subtract) people to/from the list. Make sure that the person making the request gives you the full email address. Hunting down addresses for non-CS people can be time consuming.
TopThe weekly SciVis meeting announcement states the date, time, and location of the meeting; the speaker's name, title and abstract for the talk; next week's speaker, including talk title; and the upcoming speaker schedule (for about the next 3 months).
Mail-templates are in /map/gfx0/common/scivis/ (see mailzeverybody.txt for the announcement template).
TopYour primary email duty is to send out the weekly announcement for the
SciVis meeting (see above). You also need to send emails to the
current speaker AND next week's speaker to get titles and short
abstracts for their talks, if possible, to put into the announcement
email (see above). We usually
ask for the titles and abstracts on Sunday evening or Monday morning
and send out the SciVis announcement Monday afternoon (see mail_this_week_speaker.txt and mail_next_week_speaker.txt).
.
You should send email to last week's speaker and ask them to deposit their slides in the Scivis repository (see mail_last_week_speaker.txt).
You also need to send out reminder emails to next week's and next-next week's speakers (see mail_next_next_week_speaker.txt). These emails state that the speaker is required to meet with the rhetoric coach or provide dhl with an explanation as to why the meeting didn't take place. Using the rhetoric coach is NOT optional for dhl's students, staff, or postdocs.
Other files, 'mail_*speaker_other.txt' are for speakers who are NOT dhl's students. This text suggests that the speaker use the rhetoric coach instead of requiring them to.
TopThe current meeting room (CIT 345) is scheduled through reception (Genie and Stephen) and should be scheduled for every Tuesday from 12-1pm in perpetuity. However, at the beginning of each semester (and the summer), we generally double-check to make sure that the meeting is still on the room calendar.
Sometimes you need to make adjustments and switch rooms. For instance, if a speaker needs to switch rooms due to computer requirements at the last minute, send an email to 'reception@cs' requesting the change, then email the scivis list to announce the change (if the SciVis email has already gone out).
TopThe SciVis schedule for the rest of 2004 (plus January 2005) is in 'sciVis_schedule_2004.txt'.
TopI generally start scheduling by identifying Brown holidays and potential visualization and graphics conference dates and then blocking them out. I then schedule the Scivis 60-sec Events, and reserve slots for the Orientation of new grad students event (beginning of September) and the Recruiting event (beginning of March). The last two events are usually not on a Tuesday.
I then schedule all of David's students, staff, and postdocs (people he regularly meets with) at regular intervals so that they do not speak more than twice a year. That basically means they speak once a semester; in the summer we try to get external speakers. I also try to "randomize" the schedule a bit so that the same people don't always follow each other, and we don't have two art-inspired visualization talks or two computational-anatomy talks one right after the other. The list of people who are required to give talks is at the end of sciVis_schedule_2006.txt
I then email other regular attendees of the meetings, and people David identifies, asking them if they would like to speak sometime during the year (and to please identify potential dates). The list of people who are most likely to give talks is also at the end of sciVis_schedule_2006.txt. I try to mail them individually -- most people will not respond to group-email solicitations. See sciVis_speaker_solicit.txt.
When the schedule is complete, I send it to all scheduled speakers and ask them to identify any problems or conflicts with their assigned dates.
Ideally, you'd create a schedule for the entirety of 2007 in early January 2007. This makes it much easier to look at the long range SciVis plans and to let people know (and you in turn) what might come up later in the year. You can then make changes and know how it will affect future meetings. This way, it's done and all you need to do is manage edits (and pass along a already done schedule to the next poor soul to have this job). Unfortunately, sometimes we run out of speakers and then I end up doing this each semester -- that's a new schedule every three months (people like to see about 2 months into the future to make sure whether they have to plan for a talk).
TopYou are responsible for managing the SciVis speaker schedule. If someone comes to you with a scheduling problem, try to accommodate them, if possible. This may involve emailing several other speakers to see if people can switch dates. Also, feel free to hand the problem back to the person and have them contact potential speakers with whom to switch.
Also, when one of David's students comes to you with a scheduling problem, make sure to check with David before rescheduling because sometimes he has reasons for certain people speaking at certain times during the year (or he knows his own schedule and would like to hear someone in particular).
Always cc: dhl on emails to keep him
informed of what's going on. If it's important, go to his office,
bring it up during your weekly meeting, and/or make sure to ask for a
response in the email.
You preside over the SciVis meetings. This is the most fun part of the job. I enjoy getting up once a week and asking people about what they've been up to, if they have any announcements, making fun announcements like accepted papers/posters/images, etc., and announcing upcoming conference deadlines. I find that the annoucement portion of the meeting helps keep the meetings light.
Remember to ask the group if they have any questions, concerns, or announcements, and make sure David doesn't have any (sometimes he'll send them to you in an email before the meeting...sometimes way before, so make sure to print them out or filter them into a SciVis folder when you get them). Also, I've also always meant to collect birthday info for our meeting attendees, but have never gotten around to it...this is something you could tackle :-)
It's also your responsibility to make sure that the meeting is running on time. Since people are getting food and wandering in around 12 noon, I usually start the meetings between 12:05-12:10p. During the school year, you should try to stop the meeting around 12:50p since other groups or classes may have the room at 1p. During the summer, we've been running up to 1 pm.
The other piece to this is to make sure that speakers know to try and make their talks about 30 minutes long (it's in the email you'll send out to the speakers...more on that later). You are in control of the meeting, so feel free to stand up and suggest that conversations continue "off-line" outside the meeting room if time's running out.
David used to check to make sure that all of his students, staff, and postdocs were attending the SciVis meetings. He hasn't done this in some time -- as far as i know, but you might want to check with David to see if he wants to start doing this again (you can also ask him who his "people" are).
TopThe SciVis 60-second Event occurs once every semester and at the end of the summer and is meant to allow SciVis attendees to summarize their work from the past few months, describe an interesting problem they're working on, or talk about a wacky idea they've been stewing over.
As always, David's "people" are required to do this, but anyone on the 'scivis' email list is welcome and encouraged to participate. I usually cc: the SciVis announcement to all phd-s -- few of them have a chance to see an elevator-pitch event, and that's a pity.
There are two other main variations of the SciVis 60-second Event: the Orientation/Recruiting Event, and the Post-Conference Event. For the first one, you shoudl request slides summarizing the research of each of David's phD students. Remind them to introduce themselves first (I'm Radu and I'm a first year phD student working with David Laidlaw on ...). For the Post-Conference Event, ask the people who attended the conference-in-question for two slides summarizing the two papers they liked best.
The past SciVis 60-second Experience slide shows are in the 'talks' directory, but I have specifically linked the 2004 one_minutes in the 'scivis' directory so you have a template to use as a template. The file named 'final_05.04.04.ppt' is the main Powerpoint slide show.
Sometimes you'll organize Poster Critique Events. The group occasionally submits posters to conferences. Two weeks before the poster-deadline, we give people a chance to put their posters up and get feedback from the SciVis group members. Ask them to print their posters in real-life size (A4-pages carefully taped together) and tape them on the meeting room walls before the seminar begins. Have a bunch of post-it notes from the Reception and red pens handy.
TopIt's your responsiblity to make sure that the meeting room is clean when the meeting is over. Also, you need to clean up the area where the food was served and carry the leftovers to the kitchen. At the end of the day on Tuesday, make sure that any leftover food has been eaten or disposed of.
TopAs the SciVis Coordinator, you maintain the files in the 'scivis' directory. These include the speaker schedule; this FAQ (for SciVis Coordinator), and the SciVis Meeting FAQ are at /pro/web/web/research/vis/resources/faqs -- maintaining them is also your duty. Remember to update the Speaker schedule in the SciVis Meeting FAQ every semester and summer.
You also could maintain a list of past speakers (including talk dates and titles) on VisWeb. This list could also include a link to the talk on the filesystem, but this should be kept internal to the group (NOT world-readable).
Ask Daniel Acevedo for help with publishing the FAQ files and the speaker list and links.
TopI used to have possession of the serial port/USB remote control for doing presentations. It got damaged in the flood and tstaff half-promised to repair it or replace it (as a favor to the group). You might want to get in touch with them. You should let people know you have it if and when you get it back. Not too many people do, but it comes up every so often (more people should use one IMHO).
PhD students no longer have free access to room 345. The previous SciVis coordinator should pass a 345 key to you -- you should lend it to SciVis group members if they want to practice their talk in 345 in the evening. They can also get a 345 key through reception@cs, but they need to reserve that in advance.
David may also ask you, from time to time, to help him coordinate and schedule visiting speakers. It's not too hard and once again your best friend will be Dawn Reed. She can help with food orders, hotel reservations, and scheduling meetings for the speaker (although for speakers that are fairly internal to the group, I have found doing the meeting scheduling myself is more efficient -- people respond to you faster when you're standing in their office door, which Dawn doesn't have time for).