Skip to Main Content

Researcher's Toolkit 2023: Program Schedule

One-day workshop for graduate students in engineering and the physical sciences.

Program Sessions

Date: Thursday, January 12, 2023
Location: 701 Clark Hall

10:00 a.m.   Scientific Information You Cannot Find with Google by Leah McEwen, Hyunjung Lee and Henrik Spoon

Google and Google Scholar are convenient ways to search for information. But is the information Google surfaces relevant, trustworthy and complete? In this talk you will learn about several broad and specialized academic databases with high relevance to your research. Among them are Scopus, Web of Science, Engineering Village, Scifinder-n, and Springer Materials.

recording and slides (part 1, part 2, part 3)

10:45 a.m.   Break with Snacks

11:00 a.m.   Organize Your Data by Wendy Kozlowski and Leah McEwen

Good data organization is the foundation of a research project. You may find yourself juggling many different types of data, file formats and analysis platforms as well as new requirements for research data availability emerging at Cornell and from research funders. The Cornell Data Services is a campus-wide consultant service to help you wrangle your research data needs throughout the research cycle. This session will highlight best practices from Cornell Data Services for managing files and data storage, working with data in spreadsheets and optimizing “data packages” to fulfill research data sharing requirements and maximize your research impact.

recording and slides

11:30 a.m.   Record Keeping by Wendy Kozlowski, Leah McEwen and Jill Powell

Good research is reproducible and replicable, and well documented experiments and background literature will facilitate new research. Documentation provides crucial context for your research methods, results and analysis and you probably won’t remember the specific details a week or month ago unless you write it down. This introductory session will review available tools and how to get started to document your research, including electronic lab notebooks, online project management and collaboration platforms and reference managers.

recording and slides (part 1part 2)

12:15 p.m.   Lunch with Demos

1:00 p.m.     Digital Privacy and Surveillance by Eliza Bettinger

Much of scholarly life happens online, mediated by digital tools for research, networking, and publication that allow our interests, behavior, and social connections to leave an indelible record. Privacy, security, and self-defense against harassment or surveillance are growing concerns for some researchers, and for science more generally. This workshop will offer an overview of privacy and anti-surveillance concerns for researchers, strategies to respond, and relevant services offered by Cornell University Library that are available for follow-up.

1:45 p.m.     Tools and Strategies for Your Future Career Decisions by Susi Varvayanis

In this session, Susi Varvayanis from the Graduate School's Careers Beyond Academia will engage and empower you to think about and take action on various career possibilities to rule in and rule out options for your next step after Cornell. Use your time wisely while you are here so you can advance quickly in your academic goals while preparing to stand out as a candidate in your desired employment sector based on informed choices. It's never too early to plan and connect with professionals!

recording    slides

2:30 p.m.     End