PhD TransIT PhD symposium

Organiser: Peter Eklund

Lecturers: Peter Eklund and others

Date(s) of the course:
TBA October 2015 – 2‐day symposium.
The symposium will be run as a two‐day event off the ITU‐site.

Course description:
This advanced interdisciplinary PhD workshop will involve ‘socialising’ the notion of interdisciplinarity among ITU PhD students in four ways.

1.   First in preparation, participants will be asked to prepare a presentation of their PhD research. Each speaker is given 15 minutes, a 10 minute oral presentation and 5 minutes for audience questions. On the first day these presentations will consume most of our time. Presenters are asked to give a clear expose of the method, the experimental platform and the research significance.

2.   The audience is requested, after the first day to reflect on the methods from other disciplines that they have heard and to think of ways that orthogonal methods could be applied to their own research.

To give two concrete examples:
a.   Example 1: a student working on Global Development Tools in PIT lab might think about  extending their research to encompass a survey of existing global software development platform  use, what would be the conceptual model for such a survey and how would the survey instrument be developed, tested and deployed using social scientific methods?
b.   Example 2: a student working on the Alien Energy project in TIP might reflex on how conceptual design or design science methodologies might – if followed – have resulted in different organizational and social outcomes for geothermal ’renewable’ or ‘wave’ energy technologies.

3.   Network building is an important part of academic life and PhD training. A social evening with activities organized by the ITU PhD students themselves further socializes research perspectives via networking activity among themselves.

4.   After morning coffee on Day 2, 3 research ‘themes’ will be revealed. These are ‘Energy Futures’, ‘IT in Museums and Galleries’ and one other suggested by the students themselves on day 1. Student will be exposed to a discussion on each of the themes. They then self-select a theme and work as a team to develop a program of work, based on their own expertise, that could for example form the basis for a research proposal to the DFF or the EU proposal. At the end of the team activity, and within 1 month of the symposium, a research grant is prepared and submitted.

Program:

Day 1
0900‐1100 Travel to off‐site venue, Symposium Orientation presented on the bus to venue
1100‐1230 Check in and lunch
1230‐1500 Presentations by Participants
1500‐1530 Afternoon Tea and Coffee
1530‐1830 Presentations by Participants

Day 1 Evening
1900‐2200 Student defined activities, networking and dinner

Day 2
0900‐1030 Reflections by 4‐5 of the presenters – volunteers – on ‘connections’ between their own
research and those from orthogonal disciplines
1030‐1100 Morning Tea and Coffee
1100‐1330 Theme‐based teamwork continues over working lunch
1330‐1500 Presentations from each theme spokesperson
1500‐1530 Afternoon Tea and Coffee
1530‐1600 Summary, conclusions, wrap‐up and close
1600‐1800 Return travel to ITU

Prerequisites:
None.

Exam:
Students will prepare and hold an oral presentation via meeting after the symposium with Professor
Peter Eklund.

Credits:
2 ECTS (on receipt of a acceptable research proposal within 1 month of the symposium).

Amount of hours the student is expected to use on the course:
Participation: 16 hours Preparation: 10 hours Proposal: 30 hours Total: 56 hours
 
Participants:
Max number of participants: 20 (the timetable will be amended if more students subscribe to the
symposium)