9 May 2021 -

Find a talk - What if we can find all the talks in the world?

OK.. maybe not in the whole world, but like in your local community, for example.

There are just so many great opportunities to learn about new topics in our local community. I was first inspired by the Studium Generale back when I was at Wageningen University. Pushing myself outside my comfort zone is not the easiest thing to do but so far has been very rewarding. The problem is it wasn’t that easy to come across those activities. I need to be really proactive… What if there is a tool that can help us discover these new stuffs out of our bubble/echo chamber? … I sent this message out to the community email listserve in 2019 to get some feedback:

“We’ve tons of great seminars on campus. And this is one of the reasons I enjoy being at UCD. I was wondering if anyone know where I can find a comprehensive list of seminars [topics, speakers, course number, etc..] offered by different departments on campus in each quarter. (Extra points if the seminars offer free food lol) Picture of seminar refreshments (adding a picture to make this email a bit more appealing)”

Has anyone been (…secretly) compiling such information? – I asked.

I got a lot of positive responses, but with little to no resources available. We know what we wanted but seems like we did not have the right tool to implemented our ideas. Grateful to have had conversations with a lot of inspiring people in the past few years (thanks Anna, Max, Esther, Robb and others who have shared their feedback with me). Finally, with Dante, my colleague in Horticulture and Agronomy grad group at UC Davis, we started to get this project going.

We also decided to tap into more ‘experts’; there is a computer senior design class on campus, so we pitched our idea to the student team. Also, the grad student community welcomed our idea with enthusiasm! We got funding support from Grad Student Association to move this project further in Spring 2021. That’s when I handed the baton to Dante. Though we are still waiting for the project to come to reality, I’m super excited and looking forward to what this will evolve into. In the meantime, if this is something you might be interested in or have any resources to share, please reach out!

Below is the draft proposal we pitched back in December 2020 to the senior design class (slightly modified for public audience; you can find a copy of this else where, too):

CLICK HERE to read the proposal (December 2020)

- Want to attend a seminar outside of your major, but struggle to find information?
- Receive too many emails reminding you about the same event?
- Wish there was a comprehensive database like UC Davis schedule builder, but for all seminars, talks, and presentations?
- ...Perhaps, you are also wondering if the seminars offer free food and snacks?

UC Davis is home to a wide range of expertise. Each quarter, departments and graduate groups host hundreds of seminars across campus on specific topic areas. The term ‘seminars’ in this document focuses mainly on seminar classes offered as part of the curriculum, but also covers occasional seminars open to the public audience. By design, graduate groups aim to facilitate a broad and multidisciplinary knowledge base. Students are expected to take seminar classes to both learn new perspectives and fulfil their degree requirements. The current practices often rely on seminar coordinators/instructors to announce seminar schedules and updates through listservs or departmental websites. The recent deployment of Sitefarm web interface provides an excellent overview of all events through a calendar tool.

However, the current format poses a unique course scheduling challenge: there is no beaten-path for students to select seminars from, the seminar content is highly diverse, and many talks are offered on a non-regular basis. Each local calendar remains unsynced and the UC Davis main calendar still does not cover all events from individual colleges or departments across campus; for example, Computer Science or Plant Sciences. The class search tool, while providing advanced search options, does not support the display of seminar details. As a result, the seminar classes are often listed with only the course number and title. For example, searching for “seminar” in the course title field resulted in 197 CRNs in Winter 2021 (here we provided a link to several visuals to support our arguments).

There is a gap between the need for information about subjects/schedule of seminars (both past and present) and what the current scheduling system is able to provide. Moreover, this approach presents a barrier for seminar organizers to robustly share and update seminar information with the target audience in a timely manner, ending up in overwhelming emails. A recent questionnaire we sent out confirms that students are in need of a comprehensive user-friendly seminar database that encompasses interdisciplinary topics across the campus.

Description
We propose the construction of a database which may serve as a centralised record of both current and past seminars offered by all departments and graduate groups. This database would include seminar topics, instructors, speakers, course numbers, quarter(s) when it is offered and, if applicable, has been offered in the past, and any other relevant information. Entries to the database may be made by instructors, or ideally with the help of an algorithm that can automatically create entries based on seminar advertisements (email, PDF poster) that are previously mailed to listservs.

Such a database would be a resource to all students, both graduate and undergraduate. Perhaps, it can also serve as a stopgap to students who are suffering from a lack of inter-cohort connectedness in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Once the in-person instruction resumes, this database could also provide additional information, like seminar locations, or whether food and drinks are provided. While significant progress has been made in the past few years (see First Year Seminar Schedule), we are still far away from the open source comprehensive tool that is accessible to all students. The proposed deliverables should encompass the following key objectives:

Seminar audiences can easily search for information of past and current seminars offered by all departments and graduate groups, Seminar instructors can easily share and update seminar information to diverse groups as well as the target audience group. The database should rely as much as possible on automation and require minimal manual maintenance after the class. While the database can help retain and showcase the wealth of knowledge and expertise within the UC Davis community, it should provide appropriate security measures to prevent content that may violate the principles of community. The database should make use of existing infrastructure where possible and focus on fulfilling the missing features that the current format does not offer.

Deliverable
A web-based app, with database front-end for the use of seminar instructors (add seminar) and potential audience (search for seminar).
Tentative milestones that can be revised following the meeting with the student team:

Milestone 1
A survey of all current approaches available at UC Davis or other institutes.
- What are current practices to publish seminar information? - What are key areas seminar audiences typically look for that we should include in the database?

Milestone 2
Development of a web-based app.
- Seminar audience - Queryable interface that users can look up information using the following, but not limited to: talk title, keywords, location, time offering, topic area, department, college, graduate group, registration details (CRN for classes, and whether participants need to register beforehand).
- Seminar instructor - Easy-to-navigate form for instructors to add new seminars to the database. Imagine that the instructor may have a few courses that offer different talks each week at different times and locations - How can we make this process as easy as possible?

Milestone 3
Automated algorithms to extract information from seminar advertisement materials
- To facilitate the use of existing promotional materials, we propose the development of automated algorithms to extract information from emails, pdf Poster, photos or other materials to generate the seminar entry in the database. This will make the database more accessible to both seminar instructors and audiences. This should address security measures to monitor content of the seminar promotional materials.

Milestone 4
Incorporation of User feedback
- If time allows, we hope the database prototype can be rolled out perhaps at the end of Winter quarter 2021 to accommodate classes in Spring 2021. This should allow the team to gather feedback needed to improve the database.

Milestone 5, optional
A mobile application
- If time allows, the mobile based application may be developed to accompany this database. This will help reach a broader audience who may not readily have access to a laptop or a personal computer.

Milestone 6
Integration to the current UC Davis environment
- We will help connect the student team with the existing developers on campus. While this project is currently developed as an open source database, we hope this can integrate into the UC Davis online environment and provide all UC Davis and community members a platform to connect.
- In the next step, this could expand to accommodate other types of events across campus in conjunction to the current UC Davis-wide calendar.

category: thoughts
tag: science gradschool thoughtsinprogress

Paul Kasemsap

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Find a talk - What if we can find all the talks in the world?

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