#research bazaar

It is time for us to grow our ResFamily again! Do you love science and research? Are you the one all your friends/colleagues come to for their typesetting solutions? Can you explain technology eloquently and kindly to the grumpiest professor? If you answered YES to any/all of the above, then Research Platform Services invites you to apply for one of our many Junior Research Community Co-ordinator positions available! 

The successful applicant will grow their respective communities through regular workshops and meetups. Maintaining an online presence is also an essential part of the job. You would also be expected and supported in organising events within your communities, as well as Research Platforms-wide events such as the famous Research Bazaar conference. You can find out more about the Research Bazaar community in the first pages of our new publication: The Digital Research Skills Cookbook.

 Please see the below links for a detailed position description for each role, including how to apply. Get in quick, applications close COB 12th April, 2018.

We’re hiring for: 

MATLAB 

R Studio 

 Python 

GIS 

3D Slicer 

by Dejan Jotanovic

On Wednesday October 12th I joined Belinda Weaver, Amanda Miotto & Stephanie Bradbury at the annual eResearch conference (hosted in Melbourne) to discuss successes and challenges of our - now global - Research Bazaar conference. 

Underway with our #resbaz BoF #eResAu16 @heyDejan kicking off pic.twitter.com/5x5CNMCWVE

— Belinda Weaver (@cloudaus) October 12, 2016

I opened with “ResBaz: The Origins” a timeline of how ResBaz came to be what it is today and teasing out some of the key themes and anthems our community has picked up. In 2014 we were faced with a problem: too many digital research tools, not enough support. ResBaz was our answer: create communities around these tools so researchers could be empowered in digital literacy. Melbourne quickly saw ResBaz develop into a community, campaign and finally a free three day intensive conference. ResBaz also became a space where researchers could battle messy datasets as well as isolation and loneliness. We’ve previously written about how community can combat loneliness in research. You can read summaries of ResBaz 2015 and ResBaz 2016 through the links provided - and for a complete understanding of how ResBaz was founded, read this article from the Research Whisperer. 

ResBaz a community of support empowering researchers in digital tools. @heyDejan @unimelb #eResAu16 pic.twitter.com/CusFqhIenG

— Jennifer Warburton (@TzenniferW) October 12, 2016

Moving forward I looked at the complexities of shifting to a global ResBaz, hitting home that no one can “own” a community. ResBaz 2016 saw sites in Melbourne, Auckland, Perth, Dunedin, Brisbane, Sydney, Guayaquil, Vancouver, Oklahoma & Wellington. ResBaz 2017 will see more pop up! What binds these sites (apart from a handy hashtag, #ResBaz) are three core values: Community, Diversity & Open Access. ResBaz can therefore vary in size, scale, teaching material, and so on. 

Diversity, open access and community. Key values for ResBaz. Social aspect is critical. @heyDejan @ResBaz #eResAu16 pic.twitter.com/iA7ommkMab

— Jennifer Warburton (@TzenniferW) October 12, 2016

To conclude my section, I announced the changes we’d be making for ResBaz Melbourne 2017. Rather than an intensive three days of teaching/learning a digital tool, we’re putting the ‘Bazaar’ back into ResBaz. We’ll be offering a number of ‘ResPitches’ in a variety of digital tools and services. Attendees, grouped through digital tool preferences, will move around the Bazaar and listen to the stories of these tools: how can they be used to do research better, faster, smarter? They’ll also have the opportunity to sign-up to  training workshops/meet-ups for each tool scheduled for the weeks following the conference. 

Why the change? We figured that in terms of pedagogy learning a complex digital tool works best when it’s staggered over time. Learning is a process, and at Melbourne we have the resources to provide a community of dedicated support year round. We wanted to shift ResBaz from being a “one-stop-shop” to an “induction” - a kickstarter - for the year to come. ResBaz 2017 will be a chance to explore, learn about and engage with the community. 

REGISTRATIONS FOR MELBOURNE 2017 ARE NOW OPEN. 

Belinda Weaver then took the floor to discuss ResBaz Brisbane “by the numbers”. The statistics really spoke to the success of the Brisbane’s team’s ability to organise, motivate and create enthusiasm in their communities. Belinda also showed off Brisbane’s digital poster display (to which I was made very jealous of), and their ‘feedback tree’ (a simple idea of adding comments to post-its and sticking them onto a sticker tree). 

Here's @cloudaus talking #ResBaz Brisbane, "it's about helping people find their feet in a strange and new community" #eResAu16 pic.twitter.com/nvvPFX9POy

— Dejan (@heyDejan) October 12, 2016

Next up Amanda Miotto spoke of the importance of “keeping it social”. At the end of the day, ResBaz was about community - joining likeminded people together across very particular needs (such as digital literacy). Belinda said it well when she commented that ResBaz was “about helping people find their feet in a strange and new community". Tweet Amanda if you’d like some tips on how to socially engage your audience. 

Need some tips for doing a #ResBaz? @AmandaMiottoGU has you covered! Knowledge Bazaar sounds so great #eResAu16 pic.twitter.com/KdfLAtJedy

— Dejan (@heyDejan) October 12, 2016

And last - but certainly not least - Stephanie Bradbury explored the (much needed) logistics of running a ResBaz event. Institutional support, an enthusiastic volunteer base, sponsorship, an attractive proposal and an ever-flowing Twitter stream were all listed as key points of organisational success! 

Institutional support is the biggest influence for #ResBaz being a success or failure, says @stephbradbury #eResAu16 pic.twitter.com/DcTKmtHGON

— Dejan (@heyDejan) October 12, 2016

By Isabell Kiral-Kornek

ResBaz has been over for a month now so it’s time to look back and get nostalgic. New skills were learned, collaborations kickstarted, and friendships made.

A big part of ResBaz was training attendees in digital tools to help them be more productive with their research. The stream I hosted was the Matlab stream.

If you’re interested to see or recap what we’ve learned during the course, head over here. You can find teaching material and all the files you need. But did you know you could draw a little heart in Matlab?

message = ['I ', char(9825), ' Matlab'] #resbaz

— Greg Bass (@gregtbass)

February 15, 2015

This of course wouldn’t have been possible without my two co-instructors Scott (@Scott_Kolbe) and Bill (@billdoesphysics), who didn’t just do an amazing job teaching, but were also helping attendees during and after the workshops. 

Another big thank you goes to two very engaged helpers in the room, Kerry (@kerry_halupka) and Greg (@gregtbass). You managed to make everyone feel like they belonged!

What are the next generation digital research skills you and your fellow researchers want to learn?  More importantly, what are the skill trends in your subject area so we can get you working together as a community to share skills, i.e. when you run into a problem you can share a coffee and get help from a fellow researcher on campus?

Voilà!  Below is a breakdown of all the next-gen-digi-res-skills trends in your discipline (ask yourself: would my research be easier if I had other researchers suing the same skills, which I could consult with on how a tool or data problem can be solved?).  Hint: collaborative communites make life easier!

The next generational digital research skills which biomedical researchers want are:

The next generational digital research skills which physical science researchers want are:

The next generational digital research skills which engineering and architecture researchers want are:

The next generational digital research skills which arts and social science researchers want are:

Was the above summary not enough for you?  Do you hunger for more data analysis?  Join the #ResBaz steering committee to help make this survey even better next year:   ResBaz.edu.au

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH CHASM:

"While data is at the core of the problem researchers are facing, the solution to working with that data to reveal solutions is through the tools and techniques which researchers apply; this survey of five-hundred researchers (early career) has shown that there is a growing “digital chasm” of research tools which reach far into the abyss and require the light of skills-training to assure researchers are supported in using next generation digital research skills…”

The real summary of this data is the need for more of it; however, as we all know researchers have very little time to be able to fill out surveys time and time again: the need for a shared event dedicated to training and to collecting survey data is needed.

RECOMMENDATION: Join the Research Bazaar today and help not only survey researchers far and wide so we can keep pace with the rate of change in tools/data, but also commit to helping train researchers in new tools/data for their research.  Together we can support researchers in a way we never thought possible: through researching researchers, we can help save them time, money and assure they get to more reproducible solutions faster! Rising tides float all boats…

Who are you, why did you come & most importantly what NEXT GEN DIGI RES SKILLZ do you all want for 2016!?

NB: if you are interested in hosting a #ResBaz event at your University in 2016, please sign up here: ResBaz.edu.au

The conversation will be Tweeted from the @ResBaz Twitter account which will act as a public announcement (PA) system throughout the event (please have the Twitter app on your phone monitoring the #ResBaz hashtag throughout the event)!

On with the data about you!

Just short of 500 researchers filled in the application form to attend ResBaz and here is what you told us.  NB: This data will be made open for researchers reuse via a creative commons license (once anonymised).  Please join the ResBaz steering committee if you would like to help design next year’s application survey.

Who is here?  Well by the numbers…

- 54% are female - The average age is 33 years young. - 97% of you are fluent in English, 10% of you are fluent in Mandarin and/or Cantonese. - 38% of you are in the first or second year of your PhD; - 20% of you are doing a post-doctoral fellowship; - 6% of you are early career researchers looking for your first research grant; - 2% of you are researcher currently funded by research grants (and are *really* busy with very little time to upskill!) ...

But which Universities are you all from?  Over 40 Universities are represented at the Research Bazaar - the demand was overwhelming and unfortunately more than half had to be turned away :-(

Don’t forget the two people here from Perth!!! I ❤ Perth ;-)

What does your research explore…?!  Check out the #MyResearch tag on twitter and re-tweet your research description.

Top 150 commons words used by you in describing your research (alphabetically, excluding grammatical words):

Academic disciplines breakdown at the Research Bazaar:

So how many of you plan on hanging out with your fellow shared subject researchers?!  The answer, (based on your answers): not many of you?!  Why, because the majority of you “believe in research which is cross-disciplinary”:

Furthermore, you also identified the need to work with people outside your discipline learning new next generation digital research skills:

So we have a dichotomy in the research community! On one hand, you need to work with fellow discipline specific researchers to learn the specific methods of your discipline; while on the other hand, you need to work with researchers outside your discipline to better understand the skills for exploring new digital research skills.  

[The research bazaar empowers us to leave our ivory towers and work hand in hand with researchers across-campus!]

And so #ResBaz was born: an effort to bring researchers out of their discipline’s cathedrals and into a common bazaar!

At a typical academic conference keynote presenters will talk about their research. While that's all well and good, what you don't get to hear so much about is their story. How did they get to where they are today? Why are they so passionate about what they do? We've picked three of the most interesting people we know in academia and have asked them to present a "keystory" instead. Here's a little about each of them:

Monday 

Dr Jee Hyun Kim @About_Memory

Head, Developmental Psychobiology, The Florey, The University of Melbourne “Thriving under pressure: Harvest diversity"

Jee is a self-proclaimed queen of nerds whose PhD completion in Psychology at the University of New South Wales was slowed down by her dedication to saving Azeroth 2005-2008. Following a postdoctoral training at Michigan University, she moved to Melbourne to become the youngest laboratory head at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Her work focuses on the neuroscience of good and bad memories underlying anxiety and addiction in childhood and adolescence using rodent models.

She has received various awards and major grants including the University Medal in Psychology and the Australian Psychological Society early career research award. Since returning to Australia in 2011, she has won grants totalling 3 million dollars as the Chief Investigator A including Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, ARC Discovery Project Grant, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grants, and NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. In 2014 she received the Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award.

She strongly believes in the importance of treating mental disorders early in life, a topic she shared at TEDxMelbourne. She features regularly on radio and television to discuss memory and forgetting, and lists Beyonce, Kerrigan, and Ronda Rousey as her inspirations. She believes recruiting a diverse group of people in her laboratory as key in her success in the most difficult period of transitioning from early to mid-career scientist.

Tuesday

Angus Hervey @angushervey 

Co-Founder of Future Crunch, Manager of Random Hacks of Kindness

"What happens when you finish your PhD? Lessons from the frontline (from someone that almost didn't make it)"

Angus is a science communicator, with a background in environmental economics and international political economy. Using a combination of evolutionary psychology, history and political economy and he analyses science and technology trends and what they mean for business and society.

After an early career in Cape Town as a successful entrepreneur and lecturer, he moved to London where he managed Global Policy, a leading international publication whose advisory board included Nobel Prize winners such as Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen and legendary innovators such as Muhammad Yunus and George Soros. This was an introduction to politics and economics at the highest level, and gave him an insider’s view on issues such as financial regulation, environmental management and international development.

In 2012, following the completion of his PhD as the Ralph Miliband Scholar at the London School of Economics, he moved to Melbourne. Frustrated by the lack of intelligent discussion around future trends in Australia, he co-founded Future Crunch, a forum for critical debate on the transition from the industrial to the digital era. He is also the Australian manager of Random Hacks of Kindness, a global initiative started in 2009 by Google, IBM, Microsoft, NASA and Yahoo which connects technologists with social changemakers.

Today more than ever, he combines a global perspective with the belief that change comes from small groups of people motivated by fairness, optimism and a belief in the transformative power of science and technology.

Wednesday

Alberto Pepe  @AlbertoPepe 

Co-founder of Authorea, data consultant, Research Associate at Harvard University. "On leaving academia, without ever saying goodbye" Loosely based on, https://www.authorea.com/users/3/articles/5287/_show_article