GSAIM Seminars

Mission Statement

It is my belief that the following two statements are generally accepted to be true:

1. Doing research for a Ph.D. requires that one dig deep into a subject and become "the expert" in a specific research area, and often this results in one becoming too narrowly focused upon graduation. Having a broad understanding of many topics will be extremely important as one moves forward in his/her career.

2. There are many examples (and I have seen many in my career) of a researcher having a major breakthrough in a problem as a result of having a discussion or listening to a presentation by someone in a different by related field. This cross-fertilization of ideas is essential to the development of new and creative ideas.

Therefore, in order to provide an opportunity for students and faculty to increase their breadth of knowledge and to provide a forum for cross-fertilization of ideas, I am proposing the following:

A bi-weekly (once every two weeks) "Seminar Series" that will have students and faculty from various departments at CAU giving a short (40-50 minute) presentation on a subject of general interest. The talk may be an introduction to their research or the problem they are working on, sharing some interesting results they have obtained, presenting some interesting problems or challenges for people to think about, a summar of a new paper or application that we should know about, a summary of the highlights of a conference that someone has just attended, or any other topic that might be of interest to everyone as a group.

Such programs are very common in the top research universities in the world. An important question to ask is the following:

What is required for this to be a successful program?

First and foremost, the measure of success will be the level of participation in the series by students as well as faculty. Participation on one level means coming to the presentations, and asking questions.  On another level, participation means that we have a large enough number of volunteers to give a talk that we do not have to cancel a meeting because we cannot find anyone to give a presentation.

One final comment:  Some of you may say "I am too busy and cannot afford the time."  But, we are talking about a commitment of only two hours per month, which amounts to four minutes a day (hence, the name, the 4-minute a day seminars series). I know that everyone is very busy, but if you cannot spare two hours per month, something is wrong.

We are looking for volunteers to give talks on your research, interesting results or projects, or anything of general interest to GSAIM and the wider CAU community.

 

Posted: April 10, 2012
Monson H. H ayes