Dear colleagues,
Thanks for your interest in the seminars!
We have currently more than 60 people in the mailing list, from
several labs/departments in IST and outside IST, and with a wide
range of research interests, which is quite encouraging.
Let's now discuss more practical issues. Here is my idea about how
the seminars should work:
1) We start by choosing a day of the week
2) We decide the periodicity of the seminars
3) We make a list of volunteered presenters and assign a tentative
date for each
4) Each presenter decides what to present
5) An announcement will be sent to the mailing list one week ahead,
with the title of the talk and a small abstract.
Eventually, some of the sessions may be interleaved with invited
talks. For example, there is a confirmed talk at March 2nd (Tuesday)
by Noah Smith, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University (the topic
is still to be announced).
As for 1), I'd like to propose Tuesdays at 13:00. Please let me know
if you have any constraints that make this a bad choice.
Meetings will last one hour, with at least 15 minutes for
discussion. The place will be a room at IST (to be arranged). As
stated in the previous message, free food will be provided.
As for 2), and since enough presenters seem to be ensured (see next
point), every other week seems adequate (i.e. each 14 days). Let me
know your thoughts.
Regarding 3): As said before, the talks are supposed to be very
informal. By default, everyone in this mailing list is a volunteered
presenter, unless he/she explicitly states otherwise. :-)
We should plan at least a couple of months ahead, so there is time
for late-minute changes and rearrangements. We're planning to start
the seminars right after the holiday, which would make Noah's
invited talk at March 2nd the first session. After that, we need
volunteers for:
March 16th
March 30th
April 6th
April 20th
...
If one of the above dates suits you, please let me know ASAP. I put
forth a poll at http://www.doodle.com/wdka46a7f2u9snqf where you can
specify your preferences (or you can just send me that information
by e-mail). A tentative schedule will be made by next week.
Regarding 4), this is completely up to the presenter. He/she can
speak about his/her own research, describe some challenging problem,
survey a particular line of research, practice a conference talk,
etc etc.
That is all for now. Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated!
Cheers,
André
PS: If any of you is willing to help me with the organization,
please let me know. The goal is that with the routine the seminar
becomes nearly self-organized.
