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OSGVS21 Participant Tips

This page contains information about the OSG Virtual School 2021 that is mainly targeted at invited participants.

Format

As shown on the schedule page, there are several different kinds of events during the School:

  • Lectures and demonstrations: Every day during the first week. The ones starting at 10 a.m. CDT are for invited participants only, and the ones starting at 2:30 p.m. CDT are for invited participants and registered guests from the public. Participants should attend at least one offering of each lecture (including demos, if any).

  • Mentor one-on-one (1-1) meetings and mentor group meetings: Meet with your mentor individually to set and track progress on goals, or with small groups to discuss common interests.

  • Extra topics: On Monday and Tuesday of the second week, there will be extra, optional lessons on more specialized topics. All participants are welcome to join, but use your time wisely. Not sure what topics to attend? Work with your mentor to decide.

  • Showcase: On Wednesday, August 11, there will be talks from three researchers who use HTC. They will talk about their science, their computing, and how the process of learning about and using High Throughput Computing transformed their work. This event is optional, but many people have enjoyed it before. There will be time at the end to talk to the presenters.

  • Lightning talks and wrap-up: On the last day, participants are invited to give very short talks about their work and what was accomplished during the School. Then there will be a brief wrap-up talk.

  • Staff available times: Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CDT, when there are no whole-group activities planned, staff will be available on Slack and by email to help with exercises, questions, your own projects, whatever! If your schedule allows, these are good times to work on School activities.

Mentor

Each participant is assigned a mentor from the instructional staff. Your mentor is your primary point of contact during the School and beyond, but you will work with others, too. They will help set goals, monitor progress, find resources/solutions, etc. When in doubt, contact your mentor
(or Tim or Lauren or any staff member).

Communication Tools

The School will use a few technologies to communicate with participants.

  • Zoom: lectures, Showcase, lightning talks and wrap-up; probably individual and small group meetings, too.
  • Slack: All the time! Use the #general channel or one of the topic channel; also, DMs with staff and each other are fine.
  • Website: Slides, exercises, lectures (eventually), schedule, etc.

Feedback

Tell us what we could do better! At any time, to any staff member, for any reason. We are here for you.

We plan to send out one evaluation survey at the end of each week. They will not be too long, so please take the few minutes to complete each survey.