2018 NSF Site Visit: Information for Participants

General info:

The annual NSF Site Visit will take place at Michigan State University on Thursday, December 6 and Friday, December 7. NSF invites external reviewers to evaluate our progress and give us feedback, and to determine that our performance satisfies the requirements for continued funding.

***CLICK HERE for the agenda and schedule for the site visit***

SITE VISITORS:

List of poster presentations

Full list of BEACONites participating in the site visit

We are asking people to participate in one or more of three distinct ways: 1) Oral presentations, 2) Poster presentations, and 3) Student/postdoc lunch with site visitors. All of these activities will take place on December 4. ALL participants are welcome to attend all of the oral presentations. December 7 is primarily for BEACON’s co-PIs and management team; most of you will not be required to attend that day.

Oral presentations:

If you have been asked to give an oral presentation, you will be representing a broad perspective on your thrust group, or area of education, diversity, or knowledge transfer. Please plan to stick very strictly to the time constraints. We are required to reserve 30% of every presentation time slot for questions and discussion with the site visitors. If you have a 20 minute time slot, for example, your spot on the agenda will specify “14 + 6”: that’s 14 minutes for your talk, and 6 minutes for questions. Danielle Whittaker will be ensuring that we stick to the schedule, and she will not hesitate to cut you off if necessary. So please plan accordingly! Oral presentations will take place throughout the day on December 6 (see agenda for details).

Please submit your talk to Danielle via email, DropBox link, or hand-delivered USB drive no later than the afternoon of Friday, November 30. All talks will be run off of one computer. Powerpoint is preferred.

Poster presentations:

The poster session will be 3:00-4:30 pm in the Planetarium (across the street from BPS) on December 6.

Project poster content:
In addition to describing your project (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, as appropriate), please also be sure to highlight BEACON’s value added to your project. In other words, how did your involvement with BEACON make this project possible? If you are re-using a poster from a different conference, please be prepared to discuss BEACON’s value added even if it’s not explicit in your poster.

Poster format:
The poster boards are 4′ x 4′. If possible, please use a landscape orientation, 36″ high by 48″ wide.

Poster printing:
BEACON will pay for posters to be printed. If you are a student, postdoc, or faculty member at MSU, please follow the instructions below for printing your poster at the Main Library. If you are at one of BEACON’s partner institutions, please send your poster to Connie James (jamesc@msu.edu) and she will arrange for printing.

 

FOR MSU STUDENTS & POSTDOCS:

If you are affiliated with Engineering, you may use the Division of Engineering Computer Services (DECS) printing services. If you are NOT affiliated with Engineering, please follow the instructions below for the library printer.

Hollander MakeCentral
Michigan State University Main Library
366 W. Circle Drive

To print your poster: Go to the desk for poster printing instructions. The account to charge is RC062075, subaccount 1SV54.

Using our plotters MSU students, staff and faculty can print full color posters up to 36” wide on one side by any length on the other side. Costs vary by the amount of fill on the poster (full shading versus line drawing) with full color posters costing $6.00 per linear foot. There are two types of paper available to print a poster on, a regular bond for $6.00 per linear foot, and a premium semi-gloss paper for $8.40 per linear foot. There are also carrier tubes available to protect a poster during transport for $2.36. More information on plotting and other Hollander MakeCentral services is available at http://www.lib.msu.edu/howto/copycenter/.

The Hollander MakeCentral Staff asks that if your class decides to print a poster after 12:00am, please make sure that their poster has been sent and is ready in the Plotter Print queue before 12:30am. The Hollander MakeCentral stops accepting posters in the Plotter print queue at 12:30am.

FOR NON-MSU STUDENTS & POSTDOCS:

You may email your poster in PDF or PPT format to Connie James (jamesc@msu.edu) and she will get it printed for you. To get your poster printed at MSU, please send it to Connie by Friday, 11/30 at noon. The absolute latest we can accept a poster is Monday, 12/3, 9:00 am EST.

 

Student/postdoc lunch:

If you have been asked to participate in the student/postdoc lunch with the site visitors, you will be attending the lunch at noon in BPS 2245. Typically, we have about 7 site visitors, and we invite ~20 students & postdocs to participate in the lunch. This is an informal gathering, but the site visitors love talking with students about their experiences in BEACON, so be prepared to be chatty!

List of people who have RSVP’d for lunch

This page will be updated with additional resources and information as they become available. If you have any questions that aren’t covered here, please contact Danielle Whittaker at djwhitta@msu.edu.

Travel:

You must book your flight through Conlin Travel – instructions have already been emailed to you. Connie James (jamesc@msu.edu) is handling the hotel rooms, which will all be at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center on campus. If you have any questions or have not yet made your arrangements, please contact us ASAP!

 

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