Upcoming Travel

Spring Break 2012 woooohooo! I'm going to Cabo!!!!

Not really. But I do have some cool trips lined up.

Institute for Science and Engineering Education Professional Development Program

For most of Spring Break, I'll be over on Maui participating in a workshop aimed at helping people become better teachers of math and science. This four day program run by faculty and staff from the University of Hawaii and UC Santa Cruz targets mostly graduate students and young faculty who are interested in refining the craft of teaching science and engineering to secondary and undergraduate students.

I'm really looking forward to meeting and learning with some colleagues who value STEM education enough to take most of their Spring Break and spend it on the other side of a classroom.

2012 SBP

Shortly after I get back from Maui (about 10 hours, actually), I'll be headed out the door again to attend a conference at the University of Maryland. The 2012 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction brings together researchers from sociology, anthropology, computer science, and engineering (among others) to present and discuss the latest work on modeling of human systems.

I'm hoping to get some insight as to where my work into modeling ethnic conflict with game theory fits into the larger scope of behavioral modeling.

Bon Voyage,

Clay

Wait, Colorado?

_DSC8545.jpg, originally uploaded by kcmckell.

Originally published Monday, February 22, 2010.

I could have sworn that URL thingy up in the top of my browser says “hawaii.edu”, right?

Well, it’s true. I am a bona fide graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. That does not mean, however, that I spend all my time there. Case in point: This semester, I am living in Boulder, Colorado doing research under the auspices of “Visiting Researcher” and/or “Campus Guest.”

There are several reasons why a graduate student may want to spend some time away from his or her home institution. If the research is “portable” enough, a change of scenery may increase productivity if one goes somewhere with fewer distractions such as friends, family, and other non-academic commitments.

There are potential long term benefits as well. Working in different locations will only broaden the pool of colleagues that you know. While making new friends is always exciting, one never quite knows where future collaborations will come from, so knowing more---and different---people is a plus. Further, in this world of social networking on steroids (now there’s a Google hit just waiting to happen), we can maintain contacts like never before.

Lastly (and this plays into my love of travel), if one is lucky enough to land a job at an institution that grants sabbaticals---almost unheard of in industry---your opportunities for extended travel reduce to once every seven or ten years. Thus, why not get it in when you can?

Stay warm,

Clay