Changes in Higher Education

As a PhD student who already has a Master’s degree, it’s safe to say that I’ve been in school for a long time. One of the things in higher education that I started to dislike over the years are the ways professors assess students in the classroom. As a graduate student, more specifically, a PhD student, a lot of my time should be spent on research. However, when classes are structured the same way as they were in my undergraduate days, memorization is the primary form of assessment, then the point of why I need to take classes as a graduate student seem missed.

Preparing for the Summer

As the semester comes to an end, preparing for my lab’s Data Science for the Public Good Program begins. I’ve started a GitHub group to dump the various components we will be using during the summer. Aaron Schroeder and I will be the main trainers for the students this summer. It’s our job to teach the students the basic tools needed to be functional in the lab. We put our initial syllabus in the workshop repository.

Open Access

“Open” has played in important role in my life the last few years. It all began when I was an attendee at a Software-Carpentry workshop back in 2013. Before then, I only knew about Open Access and Open Source, but wasn’t active in any Open community. This week is Open Data Week at Virginia Tech, and it begins with an “Open Research/Open Data Forum [on] Transparency, Sharing, and Reproducibility in Scholarship”, which I was honored to be apart of.

Tech & Innovation in Higher Ed

How faculty (higher education) are using and/or reacting to social media, MOOCs, and/or other “disruptive” technologies. One of my favorite talks is the one given by Greg Wilson at Scipy 2014 about the lessons learned from Software-Carpentry. Software-Carpentry aims to teach the Best Practices for Scientific Computing. Scientific computing is a skill lacking in education, especially in higher education where research is being performed. What is lacking in scientific computing education is the lack of courses for the researcher, rather than the computer scientist.

Scientific Programming

Software-Carpentry played an integral part of who I am today. I am always trying to learn and follow best practices in the context of scientific programming, which I think is a neglected area in research. The fundamental problem is the incentive structure in academia, where productivity is measured by the number of papers published. The downside of tis pressure is that quality of analytics and code will suffer to get the results for the paper.

My Story

How did I get to where I am today. This is my story. Early I’ve always been surrounded by computers. My parents both studied Computer Science, and my dad holds a Master’s in Computer Science and works as a software developer. Growing up, all my computers were company hand-me-downs, but it allowed me to be lucky enough to always have a computer in the house. I liked to tinker, not as a programmer, or hacker, but more of a user.

Research Ethics

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) oversees and directs Public Health Service (PHS) research integrity activities on behalf of the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the exception of the regulatory research integrity activities of the Food and Drug Administration. There is a location on the ORI website on " Misconduct Case Summaries". There are currently 7 cases for 2016: Case Summary: Cullinane, Andrew R. Case Summary: D’Souza, Karen M.

Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students

Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students by Stephen C. Stearns tl;dr: Always Prepare for the Worst Nobody cares about you You Must Know Why Your Work is Important Psychological Problems are the Biggest Barrier Avoid Taking Lectures - They’re Usually Inefficient Write a Proposal and Get It Criticized Manage Your Advisors Types of Theses Start Publishing Early Don’t Look Down on a Master’s Thesis Publish Regularly, But Not Too Much This is a writeup that’s always worth a read every now and then.

Impostor Syndrome: Am I Qualified?

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome) is a concept describing high-achieving individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Wikipedia I really shouldn’t feel impostor syndrome. There are many things I can list that point to my accomplishments, yet, I still fall victim to impostor syndrome. It’s a phenomenon that is constantly talked about and written about.

Mission Statements

Mission statements and reflections on higher education institutions (plus one high school) that I’ve attended. Reflection It’s not surprising that the institutions that have a more specific academic focus, will have a more specific mission statement. The Mailman school of public health’s mission is devoted in improving public health, and Stuyvesant High school, is focused on science, mathematics, and technology. For the other Colleges and Universities, the missions are much more general, and the ones located in New York City, mention the city, whereas Virginia Tech mentions the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.