Society of Young Network Scientists: NetSci 2019 Pre-Conference Event

Society of Young Network Scientists

Network Science is a diverse field of study that engages students from virtually every disciplinary field. While a few research centers are dedicated to network science, many young scientists often discover the field through deep inquiry in their own discipline. These researchers are often based within a department where they may be the only network scientist in their graduate cohort, or even in their entire graduate department.

That’s where the Society of Young Network Scientists (SYNS) comes in! The mission of SYNS can be expressed in many ways, but broadly, SYNS exists to support young and early-career network scientists as they pursue research, promote their work, and shape this evolving field. SYNS does this by: Building a community of network scientists who celebrate diversity of identities and disciplines as integral to the scientific enterprise; Providing learning, professional development, and funding opportunities to promote access, collaboration, and inclusion; and facilitating outreach and awareness efforts to promote Network Science in research, education, and decision-making.

Society of Young Network Scientists: NetSci 2019 Pre-Conference Event

Sunday, May 26, 2019 ‍

Generator Makerspace, Burlington, Vermont

1:30pm - 2:00pm: Introductions & Coffee
This part of the event is optional and is meant to give incoming students some wiggle-room in case the city is difficult to navigate, flights are late, or if they are attending the #OpenNetSci Hackathon event prior that gets out at 1:00pm.

‍
2:00pm - 4:00pm: “I’d like to learn from...”
Modeled after the famous "Six Degrees of Separation" experiment by Stanley Milgram, this event starts with a short, 15-minute lecture by a member of the SYNS community who has been nominated to share their unique perspective on a given topic (e.g., analysis technique, statistical package, prominent theory, etc.). Their lecture will be followed by whoever they had nominated, who will give a short lecture of their own. This process continues until six different people from all over the world have given talks about a wide variety of topics. This event is designed to create both a wide network of knowledge and to bring SYNS members closer together in our network.

• Speakers: Jean-Gabriel Young, Allison Morgan, Marie Ouellet, Tina Law, Ann Sizemore, Phil Chodrow

‍

4:00pm - 6:00pm: Paper Unwind

At Paper Unwinds, we invite 3-4 researchers to “unwind” a recent paper of theirs. Each researcher gives a 20-minute talk about a recent paper they wrote that tells the “real story” behind how this paper came together. How did the idea come to be? How did the collaboration work? What were the struggles in doing the research and writing the paper? Was there a statistical method that proved to be really useful? How did you know that the paper had enough to be considered finished? How many venues was this work submitted to? In essence, we ask them to tell us what really happened before this paper was published—the story behind the story. Network Science students often need help crafting better expectations about how publishing interdisciplinary research actually works, and this event caters directly to that.

• Speakers: Austin Benson, Peter Dodds, Puck Rombach, Hyejin Youn

6:00pm - 9:00pm: Dinner, Drinks, Hangout

Concluding a day of learning, we will get our first taste of the city with new friends. There are several interesting breweries and restaurants right next to Generator Makerspace (Zero Gravity, Queen City Brewery, etc.).

Student Organizers 

Brennan Klein, Northeastern University, @jkbren
Dina Mistry, Institute for Disease Modeling, @dinacmistry
Carolina Mattsson, Northeastern University, @CarolinaMttssn
Sarah Shugars, Northeastern University, @Shugars

Apply below!

We welcome PhD students, junior postdocs, and young researchers from any department to join us at this year’s SYNS event. We only have enough room to host 60 participants at this event, and if there are too many applicants, we will select those who registered first.

Note: Deadline for applications for the Travel Award is April 26, 2019, but awards will be made on a rolling basis.

‍

‍

Expectations

We invite you to join us with an open mind to learn from and teach your future peers various concepts, coding skills, and tools. Please see our Code of Conduct if you have any questions.

‍