Kaeli's Advice:

Writing the poster:

1. I generally start off my posters by using a template found at this website: https://brand.osu.edu/presentations/ They are easy to use and this way you don't have to worry about making it the right size.
2. Before writing your poster, think of the topics you want to cover. Some good ones are: introduction to neutrinos, ANITA/ARA, your specific project, results, next steps. 
3. Gather some plots and diagrams that would be good. Try to have at least one that you created that shows your results somehow! I usually have 2-3 pictures per panel.
4. After you arrange the plots and diagrams, write information around them. 
5. Last steps: format title sections, caption pictures, read everything out loud to find any typos, and ask someone else to proofread it!

Presenting a poster:

1. For things like the Denman, I always ask the judge what their background is. That gives me an idea of how specific I need to be with the background information. For example, this year one of my judges was a high energy particle physicist, so I knew he would be interested in the particle side of things, so I catered my presentation in that way.
2. Don't mention things you don't know well! Don't say things like "neutrino events in the ice are rare" unless you can give them a number to go with that. 
3. Practice your presentation out loud, especially the first part. Having a strong opener helps to get the listener on your side.
4. Many times the judge will interrupt you and ask questions. Follow their lead here; they might want to spend more time on one section, so be patient and don't just barrell through until you're sure they understand.
5. You will be graded on the following categories: why you're doing the research, how you're doing the research, what the next steps are, logical flow, preparedness/professionalism, and verbal skills.
6. Make sure you also know the limitations of your project. It is much better if you point out the things that are not "done" yet, rather than them. 
7. Finally, have fun! Don't focus too much on the judging aspect, just think about it as an opportunity to share your work with other scientists. This year I tried to just be excited and not worried, and it's the year that I did the best!

Oindree:

Concept used in Brian Dailey and Sam Stafford's analysis:

S_up = Maximum signal that can fluctuate down to expected background with 10% probability

So, we can say with 90% confidence that S_up is the largest the signal can be 

This is used to set a limit on, for example, the Kotera model for predicted neutrino flux 

This is a checklist we should all complete when giving talks.

Note that the source .tex code is in the .tar.gz file.

Below is some advice. The most important point is that you must file a eTravel request online at etravel.osu.edu.

General Advice

• Overestimate all of your expenditures. The university gets really upset if your expenditures come back larger than your travel request budget, but don't care if you spend less. So always overestimate. You can usually accomplish this easiest by over estimating your taxi/parking needs, hotel wifi needs, etc. My travel requests are usually $200-$300 higher than my actual expenditures.
• Never travel without filing an eTravel request, even if you don't intend to spend money. The university gets very upset if you travel without filing and getting the eRequest approved before you leave. This is also important from a protections standpoint. If you are injured during travel, or get stranded for some reason (especially internationally), the university travel insurance and extraction policy will kick in, but only if you have filed a eTravel request first.
• Start your eTravel request at least 1 week in advance. You will work with our administrator Eric Robbins to file your travel request, and the admins are instructed to try and have paperwork moving 1 week or more before your travel starts.
• Budget roughly $1000 minimum for any domestic air trip, and roughly $2000 for any international air trip. A 4-day conference like APS April meeting typically comes out around $1500; a big 10-day international conference like ICRC is usually more like $2500-$3000.
• Save all receipts (itemized) except for food. You need itemized receipts for anything you buy that you want to be reinbursed for, except food.
• If you want to take vacation during travel, or want to drive to a location instead of fly, you must do a comparison form. ASC wants to make sure money is spent wisely, so you need to file a comparison form, found here: https://u.osu.edu/hafs2017/files/2016/12/Travel-Comparison-Worksheet-106z30q.pdf

Advice for Doing your Cost Esimates

1. Transportation
   1. If you are flying: either enter the value of the flight (if you have already bought it) or a generous over-estimate of the cost. Don't forget to include baggage fees. You have to buy air tickets through Concur these days, and the eRequest must be filed to pay for the ticket, so estimating this accurately really isn't a big deal anymore. A domestic flight out of CMH typically runs between $300-$500. An international flight is probably $1000.
   2. If you are driving: estimate both the cost of the rental car and the cost of gas for the rental car. Upload the rental car receipt, and maps of where you are going with mileage list (google maps will do this). Estimate gas at a rate of $3/gal (this is generous). You must rent your car from either Enterprise or National according to the university rental car contract, and should probably book it through Concur to be safe: https://osutravel.osu.edu/discounts/rental-car-discounts/
   3. If you are taking a train/bus/etc: treat this like you would treat flying.
   4. Taxis: you are reimbursed for getting to and from the airport in both Columbus and your destination city. Estimate $30 in taxis for each trip to the airport (so $120 total).
   5. Parking/Metro: If you are going to need parking, make sure to estimate it. In an expensive city, this might be upwards of $10/hour.
2. Meals
   1. Food reimburstment is done per-diem. This means you receive a fixed stipend for food for every meal you have to eat while travelling. The amount varies on where you travel; more expensive cities (NYC) will have higher per-diem rates than cheaper cities (Palestine TX). You can use the per-diem estimator to figure out what meals you are reimburst for. It's your job to stick to the per diem budget, otherwise extra food comes from your pocket. They will not require you to turn in individual receipts for food because of the per-diem policy. The per-diem budget is usually very generous, and for the pre-travel request, you should assume you need all of it. When you file the actual expenditure reports, you should probably only request as much per-diem as you need to actually cover the cost of your food (don't make money off the trip in other words). John Beacom gave some good advice which I attached.
3. Hotels
   1. If you have made a hotel reservation, file for the estimate on your reservation plus ~10% for taxes, and maybe an extra $15/night for Wifi. If you haven't made a reservation, make some approriate estimate. In a big city (Chicago, NYC) you probably can't get a room near the conference for <$160 per night. In a cheaper city, ~$100 is probably a good estimate. Always check to see if the conference/meeting has arranged a discounted hotel block.
4. Registration
   1. Most major conferences have registration fees. These typically vary from $50 up to $300 if you're staff/postdoc/facutly. Make sure to include this in your estimate, and attach your regsitration receipt. If you're registering onsight, make sure to keep this receipt.
5. Other
   1. If you are doing any international travel, you likely need a VISA. If Amy agrees to reimburse this, you can file it here.

When you Get Back

When you get back, you should email all of your receipts (except food) to Eric Robbins so he can start your reimbursement procedure. The sooner you start this, the sooner you get your money back. It typically takes about 6 weeks, though it can happen in as few as 2.

For Young Travelers

Travel at OSU is done on a reinburstment model. This means you will pay for the entire trip out of pocket, and be reimbursed after you get back. This reimbursement process typically take about 6 weeks. This means two things.

1. You will likely have the cost of the trip on your credit card bill for at least one monthly cycle. If you do not have the liquid cash to pay for this, you would be charged interest on this! That's crazy. Instead, you should request a travel advance. The university will write you a check before you leave for the cost of most of your trip. This way you are not out the cost of the trip while your reimbursement paperwork is being processed. Tell Eric, and he can do this for you. You should request a travel advance two weeks before you leave. You can also buy the biggest part of the trip (usually airfare) through OSU's online reservation portal Concur on the travel homepage: https://osutravel.osu.edu/
2. If you have a low credit limit, you should think carefully about how to reserve hotel rooms and buy flights. Hotels almost always require you to put down a credit card to hold the room, and they typically charge it for the cost of the room + tax + ~$50 dollars in damages. That charge probably exceeds your credit limit if your limit is <$1k. If you're in this boat, you should definitely request the travel advance.

If You're Travelling Internationally

• You must buy supplemental health insurance. This is required by OSU travel as described in this link: https://oia.osu.edu/preparing-to-depart/health-insurance.html
• If you are travelling to a country that requires a Visa, start this process no later than 6 weeks in advance. Visas take time to get, and are mad expensive you have to rush them (>$200). So don't, start this process ahead of time. The state department has this list: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/americans-traveling-abroad.html . Some destinations that require visas might surprise you (Australia, Brazil, China, parts of the Europe), so don't assume you don't need one.
• I attached an email with more information.

In order to go to Antartica, you first have to Physically Qualify (or "PQ"). Here is some advice from my PQ experience that should hopefully make this process smoother for you.

General Advice

1. Read everything they send you. Seriously though. There's a lot, and it's not terribly well organized. But read it.
2. Start immediately. Schedule your medical appointments (physical and dental) within a week or two of receiving your PQ packet.
3. Keep a copy of everything. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) coordinates the receipt of all documents, and they are famous for losing things. Keep a copy of all forms and keep the receipts with tracking numbers of all paper packages you send them. Keep copies of the transmission confirmation on all faxes.
4. It is easiet to mail the first round of paperwork as one packet. So put your physical exam and your dental exam in one folder, and send it to UTMB, with tracking. After that, you can usually just fax forms.
5. If UTMB asks for follow up info, go ahead and write back with clarifying questions. They are pretty communicative if you make an effort to engage with them. Basically, don't be afraid to email with them.

Physical Exam Advice

1. Drink lots of water before doing the lab tests. They will take ~10 vials of blood, so you will want to be well hydrated.
2. Allow for about an hour and a half to finish everything, meaning physical exam and the blood draws.
3. Make sure your doctor prints your EKG in landscape.
4. Do not let your doctor skip any parts of the exam. They will try (especially if you're young, and they don't usually do that test on a person under 50, e.g. rectal exam, etc.); insist that they don't skip it. UTMB will send you back if they skip it.
5. Schedule your appointment on a Mon-Wed or a Friday. They will give you a TB skin test, and the TB test has to be read between 48-72 hours after being given.
6. If you are working for ARA, or plan to do work at pole, ask your doctor to write you a perscription for medication to treat altitude sickness. The South Pole is at ~9000 ft elevation, and you are not given time to acclimate (you fly from McMurdo at sea level to South Pole at altitude in one go). Your doctor will likely give you acetazolamide (name brand Diamox), but it's of course their call.

Dental Exam

1. Get your dental office to print out your bitewing x-rays and your panoramic x-ray on glossy, high quality photo paper (they should be able to do this no problem). UTMB is picky about getting these in paper form.
2. Have your dentist fix any problems (cavities, etc.) before filling out your dental form. That way, the cavity is reported on the form as "treated" instead of "present." Otherwise, UTMB will make you go back and get proof treatment was completed.

Congratulations, you've been selected to deploy to Antartica in support of ARA or ANITA. This mostly covers my experience in preparing to go to the South Pole for ARA.

1. First, you wil be notified that you are either a primary or back-up for deployment to the ice.
   • Your experiment's contact person will send you an email request for basic info below. This will all be enterd into a Support Information Package (SIP) which will generate a document for you to Physicall Qualtify (PQ).
     • Name exactly as it is listed in your passport.
     • Address where things can be sent to you,
     • Best email address for getting important information,
     • Phone number - work and mobile if possible,
     • Institution name,
     • Your airport of departure if you do deploy,
     • Nationality on your passport,
     • Expiration date of passport,
     • Your birthdate
   • For me, this happened on March 23 2017, with my deployment scheduled for January 2018 (the earliest people in my "grouping" to go to pole started heading to pole in early November though).
2. Then, you must complete the PQ process.
   • See my other elog here (http://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/Advice/21) for advice on doing that.
   • My PQ packet arrived on May 17 2017. I sumbited my completed medical PQ on July 31, and my completed dental on August 17 (my dental was complete later because they made me report a filled cavity; I mailed the "first round" of dental stuff in one packet with the my initial medical PQ stuff on July 31).
   • We went back and forth about a few things, and I sumbited final information on October 3, and got my PQ on October 5.
3. While PQ paperwork is being processed, you shoud fill out travel paperwork, which will be in a packet labeled "Antarctica Deployment Packet for Grantee and Technical Events".
   • You do not have to wait for your PQ to submit travel paperwork. They will make you agree to appropriate use of technology in Antarctica, will collect information about your travel, your passport, and your clothing sizes. On the "Trip Details" page....
     1. If you are going to Pole, the travel proceeds like this. You start in your home city (Columbus for me). Then on to Christchurch New Zealand (CHC), then to McMurdo, then on to South Pole. You will have two nights of layover (minimum) in CHC, and one night of layover (minimum) at McMurdo. If your final destination is McMurdo (ANITA) obviously you stop there. You should plan on arriving in Christ Church (CHC) two days in advance of your CHC -> McMurdo flihgt. It takes between 2 and 3 days of commerical travel to fly to CHC (the flight is 15 hours from Columbus and you lose a day crossing the international date line). The advice Jim Haugen gave me is to budget five days of travel before your first pole on-ice date. So, my first on-ice date at pole was Jan 4, so I would need to be in McMurdo on Jan 3, Christ Church by Jan 2, and therefore requested to leave Columbus on Dec 30.
     2. For the return to the states, you should just reverse the procedure above.
     3. If you want to take personal travel on the front end of your deployment, then you should list that on the form and make a note.
     4. If you want to take personal travel on the back end of your deployment, then you should fill out the form as if you were taking no personal travel. The return ticket from Antarctica is actually booked a few days before you are scheduled to leave the pole. They buy a fancy provisional ticket with a flexible date. So you should not worry about telling them about personal travel at this phase.
4. Buy supplies.
   • Oindree and others have already written down some great advice (here: http://radiorm.physics.ohio-state.edu/elog/Advice/13 ) concerning what to pack.
   • The Antarctic program will provide you with the following: a parka, a light outer coat, overalls, boots, hat, scarf, gloves, goggles. You are responsible for four critical items. All of which you can obtain at Cabelas / Bass Pro Shop / REI or online.
     1. Thick socks and sock liners (I bought these sock liners and  these socks, both from Cabelas)
     2. Light-weight baselayers. Yes, they really are called "baselayers" (you can go into a store or google this term and people will know what you mean). My recommendation is Merino Wool. (I bought these tops and these bottoms).  The cost roughly as much as polyester which you could buy at Cabelas (eg, these ), but the Merino wool is better in my opinion. Some people find wool scratchy, but I tolerate it well, so there's that to consider.
     3. Mid-weight baselayers. (I bought these tops and these bottoms).
     4. Sunglasses. Buy a nice pair (I bought a ~$100 pair of sports sunglasses from Native at Cabelas) and a cheap backup pair (~$15 from Foster Grant at Walmart). They need to be polarized and 100% UV light blocking, so make sure to check carefully for that. A shocking number of expensive (>$100) sunglasses (both sport types like Oakley and Native and fashion types like Ray Ban and Vera Wang) are not polarized. They need to have plastic frames (metal frames get cold from the air and can hurt you).
5. About a month ahead of your travel date, you will receive a phone call from the ASC travel office to confirm your travel dates. About week after that, you will be issued your tickets. My tickets came Dec 5 2017.

Here are a bunch of my thoughts on prepping for Antarctica. This mostly pertains to my experience travelling to the South Pole in support of the 2017-2018 ARA commissioning and calibration activities. I was  at the South Pole for about a month, and accumulated about of week of time in MCM due to flight delays.

Attire and Clothing Distribution Center (CDC)

• When you go for clothing distribution, don’t take your long johns with you, but do take your thick wool socks. Try on your ECW boots with your thick wool socks on so you know they fit right.
• Trade the wind pants for Carhartts. Just ask. The people at the CDC are really nice, and they won’t give you as much trouble as it looks like they will. They really just want to help.
• Lots of people will tell you to trade the Bunny boots for Baffin’s (or another type of boot). Whether that’s a good idea depends on you and your work. The bunny boots are super warm—we did lots of outside work, and people with Baffin’s were always complaining of cold feet, while Bunny Boot folks never did. The Baffin’s are lighter, taller, and buckle up (no strings). I’m also told they are more “natural” for walking—the Bunny’s really suck for walking long distances.
• Get the fit of your clothing right while you’re at the CDC. It’s embarrassing sometimes to sit there and have to go back and forth repeatedly to get something to fit right (especially if you’re a bigger person). But your life depends on this stuff. Just keep at it, they really do have stuff for people of every size there.
• Bring a pair of good, waterproof hiking boots. I made the mistake of only having my ECW boots and tennis shoes (along with shower shoes and slippers). The thing is, if you want to go on a 5-10 minute walk somewhere—and you have to do that a lot at Pole and McMurdo—tennis shoes are too light and ECW boots are too heavy.
• Bring a good medium weight sweater/jacket, or keep the little red they give you. It’s really nice to have medium weight outer wear while you’re there.
• Bring a spare pair of backup eyeware. My primary eyeware is contact. I brought two pairs of backup glasses. This was a good idea. I scratched my “primary” backup glasses my first week at pole, and was glad to have a “backup” backup pair of glasses.

Packing

• Most people have four bags: (1) backpack, (2) suitcase/big personal duffle, (3) orange bag from CDC, (4) orange bag from CDC. My advice:
  • For CHC->MCM
    • The backpack as a carry on
    • One orange bag as boomerang bag
    • Other orange bag for excess ECW
    • Suitcase stays as suitcase
  • For MCM -> NPX and NPX -> MCM
    • The backpack as carry on
    • One orange bag as carry on
    • Other orange bag for excess ECW
    • Suitcase stays as suitcase
  • For MCM -> CHC
    • The backpack as carry on
    • One orange bag as carry on (stuff backpack inside this if they get fussy about having only one carry on)
    • Other orange bag for ECW
    • Suitcase stays suitcase
• For your trip from CHC to MCM, pack a boomerang bag with (at least) two changes of clothes. Some people will tell you to not pack a boomerang. I disagree. I’d say you should carry a backpack (with your laptop and stuff in it) and then also one of the orange bags with your change of clothes and stuff.
• Once they take your bag dragged bag, you might not see it for a week. We got stuck at NPX waiting for a flight, and I was without my checked luggage for 6 days.
• For your trip from NPX to MCM, pack a really heavy carry on. I packed three days change of clothes, but then got stuck in NPX (without my bag!) for six days. I was very thankful I had my heavy carry on, even though it was a pain.
• Bring a good, sealing water bottle. You can also buy one when you arrive in Antarctica.
• Always always always pack your tennis shoes in your carry on. You do not want to be stranded in MCM for days and days with only bunny boots as footwear.

Logistics

• Do laundry in CHC. You’ll have been travelling for two days, and then you have two days to sit and wait in CHC. Don’t go to pole with four days of dirty laundry in tow. Do laundry in CHC.
• You will be given an opportunity to store bags of personal belonging at the CDC on the day of your clothing issue. So, if you want to camp in a tent around NZ when you get back from the ice, you can store that at the CDC.
• In MCM, do bag drag in two trips. Don’t try to haul all your luggage to 140 (the transport building) in one go, you’ll be miserable.
• They will squawk a lot about “one bag carry-on limits” in the paperwork and on the screens. Ignore them, >50% of folks bring two carry-ons, and no one will bat an eye.
• Before you leave for transport or for bag drag, check the computer monitors outside the galley in Building 155. Check this monitor (or the TV in your room) frequently for updates. You can also check the McMurdo intranet.
• They will make a big deal about the computer screening. Pay attention and do what they ask—it’s good for your computer. That said, if your computer fails the screening, they don’t check when you want to connect to the internet, so it doesn’t really matter.
• The military flights are really loud, and they will give you ear plugs to help. Some people have some success with ear plugs + noise cancelling headphones. In any case, you should bring something to read (like a kindle or book) because talking is totally out of the option, and music might be also. Some people watch a movie with subtitles on, but that’s personal taste I think.

Living and Working at Pole

• The NPX and MCM don't really have wifi. So if you have a mac, you really want to make sure not to forget your ethernet -> USB/thunderbolt adapter.
• You’ll be working at the ICL a lot, which is about a 2km walk (part of the return trip is uphill) from the South Pole Station. So be prepared to do some walking, as you’ll probably walk this twice a day (because you usually walk back to station for lunch). If you don’t want to walk that much, you might consider bringing lunch with you to the ICL everyday.
• The ICL has an outhouse and not a bathroom. No running water either. So pack water and be prepared.
• MCM sells tissues, but there aren’t many lying around. Pole as lots of tissues lying around everywhere.
• Pole has hand warmers available everywhere in great quantities—don’t buy or pack them. MCM has them in the “outdoor supply” closet in 155.
• Antarctica, and pole specifically, is really really dry. Assume you’ll go through ~1 chap stick once every week or two.
• The pole store (Pole Mart) is really well outfitted with basic necessities. You can buy cold meds, pain relievers, q-tips, eye glass repair kits, etc. I was surprised how much I could buy there. Don’t count on them having your favorite moisturizer or soap though—they only stock one kind of deodorizer per gender, for example.
• I highly recommend taking the Diamox they will offer you. At worst, it doesn’t help. Some people get the dry mouth side effect really bad, if so, talk to the physicians.
• Expect to wear your ECW every time you go outside. MCM is ~25-30F, and pole is hardly ever warmer than -15 or -10 F. The windchills frequently push down to -40F or -50F, even in condition 3. Folks that had been to MCM and were first time at pole didn’t realize that to go outside for any extended period of time, you really do have to be dressed fully (wool socks, carharts, balaclava, goggles, big red).
• Working at pole is really tough (considerably harder than in MCM). You are at >10,200 ft elevation, and you have no time whatsoever to acclimatize. The atmosphere is just thinner—there is just less oxygen, and you have to deal with it. Expect climbing stairs, lifting heavy boxes, etc. to wind you faster and to be more tired even after you’ve caught your breath. When you walk outside you’re wearing all your ECW, remember that you’re essentially mountain climbing with a 30 lb extra weight at 10,000ft elevation. It’s just harder. Take your first two or three days easy—that’s going to be frustrating. Invariably your flight will have been delayed and you will be behind schedule. But you will regret hurting yourself otherwise.

Food

• In MCM, some of the hot food is available 24/7, namely pizza and waffles. You can also always make a deli sandwich, get cereal, chips, and ice-cream along with juices.
• In NPX, hot food is only available during meal times, but definitely use the left-over fridge and microwave if you need food during an off-time. Also, in the bar area in the galley, there is usually chips (like goldfish, pretzels, and lays) in addition to a breadbox and peanut-butter jelly supplies.

Last Words

• Especially at pole, just sit down and say hi and start talking. Pole is extremely communal. People will think it’s weird if you don’t say hi in the hallway. People generally welcome a new conversation or new friend, so don’t be shy in this regard.
• Lots of people around you might be on their 10^th trip to pole. They are fountains of wisdom. Much of the lifesaving advice I got (like packing tennis shoes in my carry on) I only got because I had chatted with more experienced travelers. So don't be shy. It's everyone's first time to Antarctica at some point, and the "veterans" are usually thrilled to be talking to a new person.

Yay, it's April Meeting time! This is the biggest conference for the high-energy physics community in the US.

Resources and Lingo

• A high level summary of the meeting can be found here: https://www.aps.org/meetings/april/upload/AP18Program.pdf
• You can download an app from the app store to make a schedule, etc.: https://www.aps.org/meetings/mobileapp.cfm
• Plenaries
  • The "plenaries" happen in the morning
  • they are usually in the big conference hall, and are meant for everyone
• Scientific Sessions
  • The scientific sessions happen in the later morning and throughout the afternoon.
  • You pick and choose what session you attend, or even what talks you attend within a session.
  • It's completely normal to change rooms after each session concludes, and you are even welcome to jump between sessions to catch specific talks.

Sessions of Interest

• What sessions should I attend?
  • If you're totally clueless as to what would be interesting for our science, I'd recommend anything pertaining to "neutrinos", "cosmic rays", or "dark matter".
  • Some I'd recommend in particular:
    • Saturday 3:30: High energy particle astrophysics: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/D07
    • Monday 10:40: Detection and origin of high energy astrophysical neutrinos: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/R17
    • Monday 1:30: Neutrinos, Gamma rays, and cosmic rays oh my!: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/S17
    • Monday 3:30 (our session!): Ultra-high energy neutrinos: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/U17
• Go to activities and socials in the evening or during lunch. Some ones of note:
  • For everyone:
    • Sunday 6:30-7:30PM: Improving the climate for LGBT physicists roundtable: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/N21.1
    • Sunday 6:30-7PM: National Society for Black and Hispanic Physicicst (NSBP, NSHP) Reception: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/N20
    • Sunday 7-8:30PM: Education and Diversity Reception: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/N22
  • For the undergrads specficially:
    • Saturday 12-1:30, round table with grad students: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/B20
    • Sunday: 10-2: career workshop and preparing for work outside the academy: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/G20, http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/J20
• Go to talks which are more than typical "science" talks. For example:
  • Monday: History of Women Pioneers in Astronomy: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/U07
  • Monday: Physicsts and Human Rights: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/R07
• You might avoid some of the more "eclectic" sessions:
  • Tuesday: "New Directions in Gravitation I and II " : http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/X13  , http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/Y13

Making the Most of the Conference

• Taking Care of Yourself
  • No one can actually stay focused from 8AM-6PM listening to science talks. It is is expected that you'll skip a session here, or miss a talk there.
  • Break the monotony. Get coffee, walk a lap of the convention hall, talk to people at exhibition booths instead of going to science talks.
• Networking
  • It really means just meet new people. That's it. Here's the easiet, foolproof way to do it: "Hi, I'm Brian Clark from OSU. I really liked your talk. Can I ask you a quick question about xxxx..." and go from there.
  • It's very easy to meet new people at receptions. I found dinner buddies, for example, at the LGBT roundtable and the Education and Diversity reception. Then you can chat with them for the coming days, add them on linked in, etc.
  • Also, OSU will have a large contingent. If you're hanging out in this large OSU group (grabbing dinner or coffee or lunch), and see someone you've chatted with before who you know could use a buddy, invite them to join.
• Courtesy
  • Do not ask questions during a talk; wait till the end. The speaker has 10 minutes to speak with 2 minutes reserved at the end for questions. Wait till the end to ask questions.
  • Don't heckle a speaker, even if you disagree with them a lot or they insult your experiment/paper/idea. It's unprofessional and makes you look bad.
  • Try to actually listen to talks; minimize laptop use. You'll see lots of people with their laptops open, working during talks. This is normal, and there's nothing really wrong with it. But try, as best you can, to actually pay attention to the talks. If you're going to spend the whole session not listening to the speaker at all, then go grab a table in the convention hall lobby instead. You'll be more productive and the speaker will have a more engaged audience.
• Professional Behavior
  • Read and abide by the code of conduct: https://www.aps.org/meetings/policies/code-conduct.cfm. 
    • We should always strive to be collegial: no crude jokes, no behaviors that make the meeting unsafe or unwelcoming for anyone (based on nationality, disability, gender, sexuality, etc.).
    • Anything we do reflects badly on ourselves, the Connolly Group, OSU, Columbus, and the US (this is an international conference). And physicists have very long memories.
  • For those old enough to drink, drink responsibly.
    • There will be alcohol available at some receptions, and networking after the conference can often happen at bars.
    • We never have an excuse to be excessively intoxicated and do something which makes the meeting unsafe or unwelcoming for ourselves or others.
    • Remember, as a representative of OSU at this conference, we are still held to the OSU Code of Conduct even though the event is off campus.

Lessons Learned from a Year in ARA Hardware

• Test samples, then build batches.

  • If building a new board, always build one to completion to verify functionality before building the rest.

  • We lost lots of time to the ARAFERFv5 for this reason.

• Building in batches is easier than building to order.

  • Maybe this should have been obvious, but it is easier to build 10 of something in an assembly line than to build 10 to completion individually.

• Strain relief is essential.

  • We ran into problems on both the APWR and the ARAFE RF boards with not properly strain relief-ing these systems. They will be jostled, and worse, handled by overzealous grad students. Strain relief the heck out of everything. Sacrifice board space if you have to.

• Lead times suck.

  • We use lots of proprietary technology that can have long lead times (LARK filters, IsoRate cables/adapters, SBC and SSDs…). Plan ahead, and order in at least 25% excess. If you need 12, order 16 to allow for failures.

• You always need spares.

  • Things break, or don’t work how you’d like them to, and sometimes the only solution is outright replacement. Order spares in the quantity ~20%.

  • If you run out, assume you need a spare, and order immediately. Waiting until you actually, desperately need the spare is a recipe for high cost and unnecessary stress.

• It’s not done until it has been thermal tested.

  • Solder joints crack, transistors aren’t wired right, amps don’t behave quite like you expect. It all happened this year. We must thermal test and validate the results before assuming something is ready for pole.

•  “Quick start” manuals are essential.

  • It is not enough to tell people to “read the code”. If you write a new piece of software, put a “1-minute guide" to its compilation and use in the header.

• Redundant, deep experience is necessary. Parallelized skill is better than cascaded.

  • Having only one person with deep knowledge of how a system is put together leads to bottlenecking.

  • Good counterexample: TUFF construction had two people, Oindree and Jacob, that could both fully build and characterize a TUFF without consulting the other person. Jacob and Oindree were “clones” of one another, so when something broke/got stuck, both could fully debug without needing the other.

  • “Extra hands”, e.g., untrained students, are not the solution. The solution is to bring on a long-term second person who can become trained. Interim visitors (~1 week) are not helpful, nor is mass help (lots of students) who don’t have the time (several weeks of only lab work) to dedicate to becoming skilled.

• Special cases are bad.

  • When at all possible, eliminate special cases in how station elements are constructed.

  • Wire connectors, boards, etc for maximum “swappability”. The power box for A4 should work for A6 with no changes, etc.

• You will likely adjust your code to go from running the 100% to the 10%. Make sure you actually re-process the 10% with the 100% code and check to see that every value is duplicated correctly. This was a problem for both Jacob's and Brian's box opening.

Things to say, and not say, in a paper.

Check out this seminar series:

http://erdosinstitute.org/industry.html

Pay close attention to the wording of your stated level of support in the first sentence, and in the last paragraph.  Make sure it is as strong as you mean it to be.

Is the person you are writing for already working at the level of the position they are applying for?  If so, state that and give examples.

Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know. - Enrico Fermi

Keep your talk at a simple level, much simpler than you would think.  You should be embarrassed to say such simple concepts in front of a bunch of physics PhDs.

Have your talk rehearsed and never, ever go over the time that they tell you that you should speak.  That is a cardinal sin for a job talk.

When you introduce the topic, explain why *you* are excited about it.  They will appreciate hearing your take on it instead of the same boiler plate explanation they have seen a million times.

Keep the number of words per page low.  

When you show each figure, carefully explain each axis before talking about the plot.

Starting from a high level (birds-eye view), slowly zoom in on what you actually did and explain its impact on the physics.  If possible, show pictures of yourself doing the thing you did.

At the end show that you are forward looking and give your take on the future of the field and your role in it if you plan on continuing in the same field.

Don't use the word "guaranteed" to talk about neutrinos from GZK.  Although they are strongly expected to be there, nothing is guaranteeed in science and if they were guaranteed it wouldn't be interesting to discover them.  The cutoff in the CR spectrum could be due to the sources turning off at that energy.  Who knows Lorentz Invariance could be violated and make them all brem electrons before they reach us.

BC: By extension, don't refer to the GZK cutoff as proof of neutrinos needing to exist. It's purely circumstancial (at this point) that CRs are supressed right at the cliff of the proton+photon -> delta threshold.

Don't start a sentence with a number.

For numbers less than or equal to ten, spell out the word.

Put a space between a number and the unit?

A few basic principles for writing a proposal, many of which I got from Scott Gaudi in Astronomy:

1. Make sure that the first sentence of every paragraph summarizes the entire paragraph, and that 

2. All of the important points are covered in the first sentence of some paragraph.  That way a busy "skimmer" gets all of the important points.  Use italics to make the most important points jump off the page.

3. Say up front, right away what you want.  Don't take several pages to build up to it like you would in a paper.

4. Make the case that you (or your group, or collaboration) are uniquely qualified to carry out the proposed plan.

5. Make the case that the proposal is timely

6. Make the case that if they do not fund you to do this now, then the world will fall apart.

7. Identify the strongest weaknesses of your proposal and address them up front.  You can even turn a weakness around and make a major objective of your proposal to fix it.

8. Demonstrate that you are already doing what you are proposing to do.

9. Include a table showing what you will do each year, including what you will publish and when.

10. Leave no ambiguity in what you say you will do (even if in reality you might change it later).

R

Python

Various machine learning tools such as TensorFlow (this is on OSC)

Advice about physics from Marjorie:

• Always start with the physics!
• Triggering is where the physics is

Acknowledge federal funding.

Writing:

Check paragraph structure.  Make sure that the first sentence of each paragraph summarizes the entire paragraph, and every later sentence is there to support the first sentence.

Do not start a sentence with a variable.

Look up the difference between "which" and "that" and check their usage throughout.

Make sure every figure or table is referred to in the text.

Provide enough details that a later student can reproduce what you did, included function names, etc.  Use appendix if needed.

Avoid colloqial language, such as instead of "we got," write "we measured."