Research Platform Services Blog
Month
By Paul Mignone
In the last days of 2014, we held a meeting with medical professionals from MDHS and hospitals Melbourne-wide, with the objective being to discuss how 3D printing can be used to assist in their research and/or practice. Not surprisingly, awareness and training in 3D printing and design technologies ranked as the most important issues that medical researchers and practitioners needed addressed in the short-to-medium term.
To address these issues, will be hosting a 3D Printing for Medical Applications Seminar (#3DMed). The seminar aims to bring researchers and practitioners together to discuss:
Details for the event are as follows:
Where: Carlton Connect (Lab-14) Events Space, 700 Swanston Street (Corner of Grattan Street), Carlton, Victoria, 3053
When: Tuesday, 14 April, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Speakers: A schedule of speakers and topics can be viewed directly below.
Our very own Fiona Tweedie and Damien Irving featured on RRR radio this week, chatting to the Byte Into IT about ResBaz and our efforts in teaching and building communities around digital research tools.
Bill Mills reflects on the Software Carpentry instructor training event we hosted in the lead up to the Research Bazaar conference.
Who are you, why did you come & most importantly what NEXT GEN DIGI RES SKILLZ do you all want for 2016!?
NB: if you are interested in hosting a #ResBaz event at your University in 2016, please sign up here: ResBaz.edu.au
The conversation will be Tweeted from the @ResBaz Twitter account which will act as a public announcement (PA) system throughout the event (please have the Twitter app on your phone monitoring the #ResBaz hashtag throughout the event)!
On with the data about you!
Just short of 500 researchers filled in the application form to attend ResBaz and here is what you told us. NB: This data will be made open for researchers reuse via a creative commons license (once anonymised). Please join the ResBaz steering committee if you would like to help design next year’s application survey.
Who is here? Well by the numbers…
- 54% are female
- The average age is 33 years young.
- 97% of you are fluent in English, 10% of you are fluent in Mandarin and/or Cantonese.
- 38% of you are in the first or second year of your PhD;
- 20% of you are doing a post-doctoral fellowship;
- 6% of you are early career researchers looking for your first research grant;
- 2% of you are researcher currently funded by research grants (and are *really* busy with very little time to upskill!)
…
But which Universities are you all from? Over 40 Universities are represented at the Research Bazaar - the demand was overwhelming and unfortunately more than half had to be turned away :-(
Don’t forget the two people here from Perth!!! I ❤ Perth ;-)
What does your research explore…?! Check out the #MyResearch tag on twitter and re-tweet your research description.
Top 150 commons words used by you in describing your research (alphabetically, excluding grammatical words):
Academic disciplines breakdown at the Research Bazaar:
So how many of you plan on hanging out with your fellow shared subject researchers?! The answer, (based on your answers): not many of you?! Why, because the majority of you “believe in research which is cross-disciplinary”:
Furthermore, you also identified the need to work with people outside your discipline learning new next generation digital research skills:
So we have a dichotomy in the research community! On one hand, you need to work with fellow discipline specific researchers to learn the specific methods of your discipline; while on the other hand, you need to work with researchers outside your discipline to better understand the skills for exploring new digital research skills.
[The research bazaar empowers us to leave our ivory towers and work hand in hand with researchers across-campus!]
And so #ResBaz was born: an effort to bring researchers out of their discipline’s cathedrals and into a common bazaar!
The Research Bazaar is two events in one. The first half of the day is about working with the tools for your disciplines. The second half of the day (and evening!) will be spent building relationships with fellow (cross-disciplinary) next generation digital researchers. Welcome to the Bazaar!
What are the next generation digital research skills you and your fellow researchers want to learn? More importantly, what are the skill trends in your subject area so we can get you working together as a community to share skills, i.e. when you run into a problem you can share a coffee and get help from a fellow researcher on campus?
Voilà! Below is a breakdown of all the next-gen-digi-res-skills trends in your discipline (ask yourself: would my research be easier if I had other researchers suing the same skills, which I could consult with on how a tool or data problem can be solved?). Hint: collaborative communites make life easier!
The next generational digital research skills which biomedical researchers want are:
The next generational digital research skills which physical science researchers want are:
The next generational digital research skills which engineering and architecture researchers want are:
The next generational digital research skills which arts and social science researchers want are:
Was the above summary not enough for you? Do you hunger for more data analysis? Join the #ResBaz steering committee to help make this survey even better next year: ResBaz.edu.au
THE DIGITAL RESEARCH CHASM:
“While data is at the core of the problem researchers are facing, the solution to working with that data to reveal solutions is through the tools and techniques which researchers apply; this survey of five-hundred researchers (early career) has shown that there is a growing “digital chasm” of research tools which reach far into the abyss and require the light of skills-training to assure researchers are supported in using next generation digital research skills…”
The real summary of this data is the need for more of it; however, as we all know researchers have very little time to be able to fill out surveys time and time again: the need for a shared event dedicated to training and to collecting survey data is needed.
RECOMMENDATION: Join the Research Bazaar today and help not only survey researchers far and wide so we can keep pace with the rate of change in tools/data, but also commit to helping train researchers in new tools/data for their research. Together we can support researchers in a way we never thought possible: through researching researchers, we can help save them time, money and assure they get to more reproducible solutions faster! Rising tides float all boats…
The Research Bazaar conference will be based at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre (SMAC) and the adjacent Plaza Lawn (you won’t be able to miss the large Bedouin tent!). Classes that are too large for the SMAC classrooms will be held in Old Metallurgy and Old Arts (see the timetable for room details), and campers will have access to the Frank Tate Building for toilets and showers.
Our mapping guru (Steve Bennett) has used CartoDB to whip up this great map of the conference venues, and below is an illustration of how the Plaza Lawn will be setup.
By Damien Irving.
Given the global success of Software Carpentry (10,000+ learners and counting), it’s easy to forget that the first two-day workshops were held only three short years ago. Excited by the potential of the project in those early days, Josh Madin (Macquarie University) and myself (University of Melbourne) pooled our funds and got Greg Wilson (Co-Founder and Executive Director of Software Carpentry) out to Australia to run the first ever workshops outside of Europe and North America. Since those initial Sydney and Melbourne workshops in February 2013, an additional 15 have been held around Australia and New Zealand and there are a dozen or so active local instructors.
We’re here at @swcarpentry instructor training at @unimelb getting ready for #ResBaz! pic.twitter.com/jsH8Uj0EAl
— Research Bazaar (@ResBaz)
February 11, 2015
While 17 workshops and 12 instructors is fairly good progress, here at Research Bazaar HQ we’ve been blown away by the popularity of Software Carpentry and are determined to see it take off in this part of the world. As such, we just hosted the first live (i.e. in person as opposed to online) Software Carpentry instructor training event in Australia, as a curtain raiser to our inaugural Research Bazaar conference (a HUGE thanks to Bill Mills for coming down to Melbourne to teach the workshop). Fifty trainees from all corners of Australia and New Zealand attended, and by the end of the training there was already a number of workshops in the pipeline for 2015:
Introducing the newest bunch of @swcarpentry trainers! See you at #ResBazes in your cities! @ResBaz pic.twitter.com/dpoLwKSUD5
— Research Platforms (@ResPlat)
February 13, 2015
The main communication channel for the community going forward will be the new Aus/NZ mailing list (aus-nz@lists.software-carpentry.org). If you’d like to help out, organise a workshop for your organisation/institution or simply keep up-to-date with the latest happenings in Australia and New Zealand, please sign up and post to that list. It’s an exciting time for Software Carpentry in Aus/NZ, so thank you to everyone for your efforts in helping to improve computational literacy in the region!
The journey throughout ResBaz will lead you many steps closer to many things: finding the best research tool, deciphering your research question, stumbling upon potential collaborations. While all this forward momentum is positioned to be wonderful for research advancements and growth in both academia and industry, let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture.
I urge you, therefore, to take a step back and ask yourselves this:
Why are you doing your research?
What has brought you here?
How will your research benefit the world we live in today?
You navigating the wiley windy roads of research
Upon registering for ResBaz on Monday morning you will receive a strip of coloured fabric corresponding to the stream you’ve enrolled in. 6 streams. 6 colours. I urge you to wear your colours and wear them proudly. Use them as an arm-band, head-band, make-shift scarf, belt. In the words of songstress Cyndi Lauper, “Your true colours are beautiful / like a rainbow”.
A potential yellow team (admittedly very androcentric)
The fun doesn’t stop there. By day 3 I urge all ResBaz attendees to untie their colours, grab a marker and write + finish the following sentence:
“I hope my research helps the world by….”
Once completed we’ll tie these research flags all around and throughout the bedouin tent.
Simple. Together, we’ll take a step back and reflect on what we, as researchers, are here to do. And this all fits in neatly with our broader goal: to create a community of researchers within a shared space. When asked what research principle you believed most underpinned ResBaz, the largest response was, “we believe in cross-disciplinary research networking”. By stripping off your colours you’ll no longer be tied to your tools, your data, your disciplines. Instead you’ll be united by a principle strongly rooted in the belief that research is a societal good.
Display your flag proudly.
But why do all of this so overtly? Because we want to make noise. We want you tweeting, taking photos, conducting interviews. Sharing your notes, feelings, ideas, experiences.
We want loud research. Being a researcher means much more than thinking of a hypothesis, crunching numbers and publishing papers. It’s about sharing your knowledge and aiding the public understanding of research.
Sometimes you need to take a few steps back before you make the running leap forward. ResBaz - your research flags - are thus all steps towards becoming next generation digitally skilled researchers.
Melbourne is known for having a fantastic public transportation network, but unfortunately it doesn’t have a train that runs to and from the airport like in Sydney and Brisbane. Luckily, there are a few other options to get you to Melbourne’s CBD and Melbourne Uni:
1. SkyBus
SkyBus provides an economical and direct service to Southern Cross Station in the CBD. SkyBus operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week every 10–15 minutes throughout the day and every 30–60 minutes overnight. To catch the tram to Melbourne Uni, please see 4.
Cost: $18 one-way, $30 return (Tickets are available at the Airport arrivals curb or online)
2. Starbus
Starbus is a door-to-door shuttle bus that operates between 5am and 7pm every day. Unlike SkyBus, Starbus will drop you off directly at University College or your hotel, but you will have to drop off other passengers along the way. A cheap and convenient option if you don’t mind the extra travelling time.
Cost: $20 one-way, $34 return (must book tickets in advance)
3. Taxi
Taxis are available at the ground floor level of Melbourne Airport outside all three terminals. Only catch a taxi from the available taxi ranks.
Cost: Approx. $50-60 to University College
4. Melbourne’s Public Transport
Melbourne is known as “Tram City” for a reason, and there is an abundance of public transportation in and around the city. You will need to pick up a myki card at Southern Cross Station (near the SkyBus terminal) if you would like to use the city’s train and tram network. Click HERE for information about the Visitor Value Pack.
DIRECTIONS FROM SOUTHERN CROSS STATION:
To get to University College, take the 86 tram (towards Bundoora RMIT) or 96 tram (towards East Brunswick) from the corner of Spencer St. and Bourke St. (just outside the SkyBus terminal). Get off at Stop 5-Elizabeth St/Bourke St (approximately 5 minutes). Then walk across the street to Stop 3-Bourke Street Mall/Elizabeth St. Get on the 19 tram (towards North Coburg). Get off at Stop 13-Gatehouse St/Royal Pde (approximately 10 minutes). Walk along College Crescent to University College (on left).
To get to Sidney Myer Asia Centre, take the 86 tram (towards Bundoora RMIT) or 96 tram (towards East Brunswick) from the corner of Spencer St. and Bourke St. (just outside the SkyBus terminal). Get off at Stop 6-Swanston St/Bourke St (approximately 6 minutes). Then walk across the street to Stop 10-Bourke Street Mall/Swanston St (Melbourne City). Catch ANY tram up Swanston St. towards Melbourne Uni. Get off at Stop 1-Melbourne University/Swanston St (approximately 10 minutes). The Sidney Myer Asia Centre is directly adjacent to the tram stop.
The Journey Planner can help you plan your trips around the city.
Cost: On weekdays, $3.76 for a two-hour fare or $7.52 for a daily fare. On weekdays, $6 daily cap. NOTE: post-grads not eligible for concession fares. See HERE for all fares.
