Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and a prosperous 2020 from the IAD! 

As a new year starts we continue to provide a range of resources and workshops for Postgraduate Researchers.  Take a look at some of the things we are offering this year:

• Writing Workshops: We offer a range of writing workshops including Getting Started with your writing, Grammar, Writing for Publication, Is my Writing Academic Enough? and Writing Abstracts.
• Online Statistics: We run an online Introductory Statistics for Life Scientists Course
• PGR Mid-Semester Welcome Event: This event is for students who have missed a University Welcome event this academic year or have arrived recently.
• 3 Minute Thesis: The  annual 3 Minute Thesis Competition will take place on the 25th June 2020.  Training is available to anyone interested in taking part in this competition, this will take place on the 19th February 2020.
• Prepare for Doctoral Success: this online course starts on the 10th February and will help you settle in to your doctoral studies by sharing essential information, tips and advice, and giving you an opportunity to interact with other students at the same stage.
• Just Write: This is a quiet time and space to focus exclusively on your writing for a morning or afternoon.
• Our brochure has more information on the workshop and support available to PGR’s – http://edin.ac/30SbDgQ 
• Follow us on twitter @iad4phd to keep up to date with the latest workshops and events

For more information on all of the above please see here

Workshop: Dialogue: Public Engagement Beyond Public Lectures!

Dialogue: Public Engagement Beyond Public Lectures! Workshop 12th and 13th December 2019

All researchers are expected to do public engagement – to interact with stakeholder groups and/or wider ‘publics’ in order to increase the impact of their research. Public engagement takes different forms in different disciplines, but in all cases it is most effective when researchers talk with people rather than lecturing at them, when we are open to hearing what other groups have to say.

This workshop gives practical guidance on how to go about such ‘collaborative conversations’ in a way that is relevant to your research. It builds on the principles of ‘dialogue’, which has proved a powerful approach to communication in public engagement and many other areas. Come to this course and you will:

• Learn to recognise and address where your publics are coming from;
• Build your skills in facilitating dialogue so that everyone is heard and contributes;
• Think strategically about how to design dialogic public engagement activities;
• Start developing the skills to reflect and improve upon your engagement and other communication practices long after the course has ended.

Our training approach combines theory and practice. We will take you through a series of focused exercises, interspersed with short presentations and time for reflection, so that you experience a range of approaches and techniques you can then use in your future work.

Whether you are planning to engage with government bodies, business, product or service users or citizens, this course can help make you more effective. You will leave with a toolbox of skills and techniques that you can use (and refine) in a range of different settings, including – but not only – public engagement with research.

By the end of this workshop you will be able to:

1.Recognise and address where your publics are coming from;

2.Build your skills in facilitating dialogue so that everyone is heard and contributes;

3.Think strategically about how to design dialogic public engagement activities;

4.Continue developing the skills to reflect and improve upon your engagement and other communication practices long after the course has ended.

For booking and more information click here

Three Minute Thesis Competition Information Session 21/11/19

Are you thinking of entering the 3 Minute Thesis competition and want to find out more?

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an international competition celebrating the exciting research conducted by PhD students. Developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, the competition requires contestants to condense their research into a three minute, one-slide presentation for a non-specialist audience.

This information session will give you the opportunity to find out more about the competition and how you can take part, and will cover:

• What is the 3 Minute Thesis Competition
• Who is eligible to take part
• Why should you take part
• The rules and judging criteria
• Competition structure
• Training available
• Q&A

There will also be an opportunity to hear from previous winners and finalists

Find out more here

A Beginners Guide to Imaging Online Course

Beginners Guide to Imaging for Scientists – Monday 14th October – 16th December 2019

About the course

This is a 10-week course starting on Monday 14th October,  delivered entirely online within Learn.

It will give students a basic understanding of the history of Imaging, imaging modalities (MRI, CT, Ultrasound, Light Microscopy, PET and SPECT) as well as outlining how images are processed and manipulated.

A brief guide on how images are processed and the analysis of the data will also be given, to assist with the most common types of image analysis that might be needed for Masters or PhD research projects.

Target audience

This online course is for University of Edinburgh registered postgraduate students only.

It is aimed mainly at students undertaking projects (at either Masters or PhD level) in the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine (particularly those involving in-vivo imaging), but it may be of more general interest to scientists, engineers and physicists – and we welcome participants from any discipline, although the examples used will tend to reflect the course tutors background in medical imaging and veterinary medicine. The principles taught, however, are universal!

This self-paced, online course, is an excellent introduction to all imaging modalities for those embarking on their first research project and is open to all University of Edinburgh postgraduate students.

Time commitment

You should allocate about 4-8 hours per week to study this course.

Find out more here

Prepare for Doctoral Success

Prepare for Doctoral Success is a 4-week, interactive online course for all doctoral researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

Starting a doctorate is a very exciting time, but it can also be difficult to know where to start.

We hope this online course will help you settle in to your doctoral studies by sharing essential information, tips and advice, and giving you an opportunity to interact with other students at the same stage.

Course structure, dates & time commitment

Course dates: this course will run for four weeks from Monday 7th October 2019

Time commitment: we estimate you should expect to spend about 1-2 hours per week reading the materials and engaging with the tasks and online forums. It will be run as an asynchronous course, which means you can look at the tasks and post in the forums at a time that suits you.

Structure:

• Week 1: Getting to know you – this is to introduce you to the course and other participants.
• Week 2: Starting out – the essential information and expectations.
• Week 3: The first year – milestones, planning and skills development.
• Week 4: Working with your supervisor – hints and tips, expectations and supervisor styles.

Find out more, and book a place here 

Welcome Along/Back!

A warm welcome to new students to the University of Edinburgh and a welcome back to returning students! This academic year has another packed programme of events and workshops here at the Institute for Academic Development.  We will use this blog to provide useful hints and tips as well as keep you up to date with events throughout the year.

You can find out about transferable skills, professional and personal development training and support for postgraduate researchers from the IAD in our new brochure for 2019/2020

See our new brochure here: https://edin.ac/2MmF9Hg

You can find our monthly newsletter here: http://edin.ac/2cQtq3G

For details of Prepare for Doctoral Success Online Resource click here: http://edin.ac/2cica25

See our website for more information: https://edin.ac/2wrNqRm

Follow us on twitter: @iad4phd

Three Minute Thesis Competition Final 2019 – Winners Announced

The University of Edinburgh 3 Minute Thesis Competition final took place on 27th June 2019. Nine finalists from Three Colleges competed to deliver the best research presentation in 3 minutes with 1 slide.

University competition winner: The winner of the University of Edinburgh 3 Minute Thesis 2019 competition was Frankie Greenwood from the School of Health in Social Science with her presentation ‘How can I know you when there are no words’ Frankie will now go on to represent the University in the UK and Universitas 21 competitions.

Runner Up: the runner up was Tim Wilkinson from the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, with his presentation ‘Big Data for a Big Problem: using real-world data to understand dementia’

‘People’s Choice’: Fiona McQuaid from the School of Biological Sciences won the people’s choice prize with her presentation ‘Malaria: A sticky problem’

Congratulations to all the finalists.

Find out more about the competition here – http://edin.ac/2AwzQNq

 

Three Minute Thesis Competition Final 2019

The University of Edinburgh Three Minute Thesis Competition Final will take place on Thursday 27th June 2019. The nine finalists in this year’s competition are:

Tim Wilkinson	College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Kathryn Jackson-Jones	College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Berengere Digard	College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Sarah Donoghue	College of Science and Engineering
Gabriele Pisetta	College of Science and Engineering
Fiona McQuaid	College of Science and Engineering
Frankie Greenwood	College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Niamh MacSweeney	College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Rosa Santibañez	College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Find out more about the competition, including how to get tickets for the final, here

PGR Mid Semester Welcome Event

PGR Mid Semester Welcome Event – Wednesday 22nd May 2019

Postgraduate research students arriving after Welcome Week still have the opportunity to attend University welcome events.

These welcome sessions are aimed at any new postgraduate research student who was not able to attend the September or January Welcome Week.

You will be provided with information on:

• how to manage your Research
• the support that is available to you at the University
• Information from the Institute for Academic Development, Library Services and the Students Association
• current PhD students’ experiences

Find out more here

Places available: Upcoming IAD PhD Workshops

We have places available on the following upcoming workshops:

Facilitation Skills For Public Engagement 10/5/19

Do you need facilitation skills to do your job? Probably: good facilitation skills are critical to team working, collaborating with other teams and organisations, planning and holding meetings, and small group teaching. If you’d like to improve the communication and inter-personal skills needed to facilitate well, this workshop may be for you! More information here

Effective Writing: Grammar 13/5/19

This workshop will identify common errors in sentence construction and punctuation in academic writing and allow participants to understand how a knowledge of grammar can help writers communicate more effectively. More information here

Proof Reading 22/5/19

This workshop looks at the many stages of copy-editing and proof-reading that must be done before the thesis is submitted or the academic paper published. More information here

A full list of workshops can be found here