New Student Orientation

The CSGSA has participated in the new PhD Student orientation for several years now. Chiefly, the President and Vice-President have made short presentations about what CSGSA is and how it can help the new students. Subsequently, the CSGSA helps run a student panel in which new and old students can chat about the department, professors, classes, the in's and out's of graduate life at UNM, and generally how to make the most of one's time here.

The schedule is typically something like this

12:00-1:00 Lunch and General Info Session
12-12:15 Welcome and Introductions
12:15-12:30 Course Requirements Info
12:30-12:45 "How to pass the comps"
12:45-1:00 CSGSA
1:00-2:00ish Faculty Research Talks
Each talk should be about 5-10 minutes with some time for Q and A
- Theory
- Computational Biology
- Biologically Inspired Computation
- Systems
- Automated Reasoning
- etc.
2:00-2:30 Coffee Break, Informal Visits with Faculty and Students
2:30-4:00 Grad Student Panel (Stephanie will come by at some point to give a 10 minute talk on her research)

- Student Intro - name, research area, year, advisor
- Research
- How to do research (see also http://www.cs.unm.edu/~saia/#advice)
- How to find an advisor
- How to read technical papers
- Good books on grad school ("Getting what you came for" by Ron Peters, "How to Write Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day" by Joan Bolker)
- Program Logistics
- Plan for PhD: how long 'til comps, how long to look for topic, how long to write dissertation (e.g. 5 to 6 year plan, 2-1-2)
- What sort of classes should I take starting out? breadth versus depth.
- Getting a Master's degree along the way: Pros and Cons, how to do this
- UNM and Local Area Info
- Albuquerque info (see also www.cs.unm.edu/~saia/alb.html)
- Getting to UNM without a parking ticket (walking, biking and busing alternatives)
- the CS network, email lists and general netiquette
- Outside resources (CSEL, UNM Library, etc.)
- Fellowship Information? (www.cs.unm.edu/~saia/fellowships.html)
- General Question and Answer

 
    last updated 11.13.09