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Julia Belyakova edited this page Sep 13, 2021 · 37 revisions

Short descriptions and SOPs for the roles from the contact page.
It is probably enough to limit "Who did this job before" to 3-5 entries.

  • The roles are to be rotated at the beginning of the academic year. The current contact manager is responsible for scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting. If they are not available (e.g. graduated), then the job goes to: the people page maintainer, then social media manager, then happy hour manager, then PL seminar manager.

Note. Sensitive info related to accounts, calendars, and mailing lists is stored in a separate repository.

  • As of Summer 2021, the repo can be accessed by Leif Andersen, Michael Ballantyne, Julia Belyakova, Artem Pelenitsyn, Jan Vitek, Andrew Wagner, Ming-Ho Yee. As a rule of thumb, the repo should be available to at least the webmaster, contact managers, social media manager, PL-seminar manager, PL-junior manager, and reading group manager.

  • There is an underused PRL YouTube channel. It's been mostly used for unlisted videos.

Navigation:

PRL activities

PL Seminar and Internal Talks

  • PL seminar: often invited talks
  • Internal talks: not polished talks by lab members in front of lab members

Who did this job before:

  • Amal Ahmed / Artem Pelenitsyn (2020­–2021 a.y.)
  • ??? / Aviral Goel
  • ??? / Daniel Patternson
  • Name (years)

PL Seminar, Junior

Beginning of the semester:

  • Ask the previous manager for access to GitHub and mailing list
  • Create a when2meet (or its analog) and send it to prl-students mailing list and Slack
  • Pick a date and time for the first meeting
  • Create a new wiki page for the current semester
  • Run the first meeting:
    • brainstorm topics and record them in the wiki
    • depending on the attendees' preferences, pick the means of communication: we used to send announcements to pl-jr mailing list, but if everyone is on Slack, that can work, too

Regular operation:

  • Weekly meetings
  • Send a reminder before the meeting
  • After the meeting, write a quick summary (and possible list of attendees) to the wiki

Formats we've tried in the past:

  • Reading aloud research papers at the meeting (attendees take turns): pause to discuss questions and tough material
  • Reading research papers in advance, with somebody presenting at the meeting
  • Watching lectures/talks during the meeting, pausing for discussion
  • Working through textbooks (either in advance and discussing, or reading aloud at the meeting)

Who did this job before:

  • Andrew Wagner (Fall 2020–?)
  • Julia Belyakova, Artem Pelenitsyn (Spring–Summer 2020)
  • Hyeyoung Shin

Reading Group

Since the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the reading group has been running virtually, biweekly on Zoom. It wasn't limited to PRL members but most often attended by PRL. Every meeting, we would discuss a paper or watch a presentation. On multiple occasions, we managed to invite one or several authors for the discussion.

  • It helps to have a discussion lead/lightweight presentation of the paper. Watching a video is an alternative to presenting.

  • Attendees are encouraged to read/skim papers. It's not necessary for everyone to know the paper, but if it's only the presenter who read the paper, the discussion usually doesn't go well.

  • It usually takes 1–1.5 hours for one meeting. Some papers may take two meetings to go through.

Regular operation:

  • Mailing list: [email protected]: ask the previous reading group manager for access.
    Go to the google groups page to add members (users with a Google account can also request access on the webpage, in which case you need to approve them).

  • Maintain a document with the plan, e.g. in Google Sheets; remind people to propose papers/talks and vote on items they are interested in by adding their initials to the doc.
    Note. An alternative we have tried is to use poll.ly to pick the next paper, but it might be harder to find presenters.

  • After the meeting (the same day or several days after), announce what we are reading next.
    Note. It is helpful to include the link to the paper, date and time of the next meeting, and the meeting link if it's virtual.

  • Remind of the next meeting a week or several days prior to the meeting; optionally, also remind several hours before the meeting.

At the beginning of the semester:

  • Create a when2meet to find the best time for regular meetings.
    Note 1. It's helpful to keep specific dates because otherwise, time zones do not work. Remind people to ignore the dates and consider only days of the week.
    Note 2. When2meet does not have a "maybe" option, but one way to model that is to use zebra coloring: setting adjacent 15 min as available-unavailable-available-unavailable.

  • Share the when2meet link in the reading group mailing list, student Slack, as well as prl-all in case more people are interested.
    Note. It is useful to set an explicit deadline for filling the when2meet and send a reminder a couple of days before the deadline.

Who did this job before:

  • Julia Belyakova (Summer 2020–Summer 2021)

ZED-talks

ZED-talks are extremely informal student research talks. ZED does not really stand for anything, but could mean "zero preparation, zero slides, zero expectations, zero judgment," except that all of those are guidelines and don't have to be followed.

The purpose of a ZED-talk is for a student to practice communicating their research, organize their thoughts, realize weak points and/or new approaches, share knowledge, and get help on research.

The difference between an internal talk and a ZED-talk: There is some overlap, but ZED-talks are even more informal and expectations should be even lower. ZED-talks are typically impromptu, and faculty may or may not be present. Any student should be able to give a ZED-talk without prior notice, no matter what state their research is in. A ZED-talk may be a good place to flesh out an early research idea before presenting it as an internal talk.

Regular operation:

  • Depending on the seminar schedule, it may be possible to use the room/slot on days where no PRL Seminar is scheduled.
  • Otherwise, it may be necessary to schedule a separate weekly slot.
  • The main responsibility of the organizer is to solicit talks from students.
  • Ideally, each week a different student gives a talk. After every student has given a talk, enough time should have passed so that a new round of talks is feasible.

Who did this job before:

  • Ming-Ho Yee (2018-2019)

Applications for Internship, PhD, Postdoc

???

Website

Webmaster

  • making sure everything works
  • reviewing pull requests
  • attending to GitHub issues

Who did this job before:

  • Leif Andersen (2018-2019, 2020-(Until someone else wants to take over))
  • Michael Ballantyne (2019–⁠2020)
  • Ben Greenman (2017-2018)⁠
  • Name (years)

Blog Editor

  • solicit blog posts from lab members
  • review blog drafts and provide feedback

Who did this job before:

  • Cameron Moy (2019–Summer ⁠2021)
  • Ben Greenman
  • Gabriel Scherer
  • Name (years)

Publication Page Maintainer

  • check PRL members’ publications from time to time and update them accordingly

Usually, people maintain publications on their personal websites. Thus, one way to do the job is to go over PRL members on the people page and check their websites.

To get started with editing the publications page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Who did this job before:

  • Katherine Hough (Fall 2020–⁠Summer 2021)
  • Artem Pelenitsyn (Fall 2018–⁠Summer 2020)
  • Name (years)

Teaching & Software Pages Maintainer

  • software: needs updates very rarely
  • teaching: update it once a semester (check faculty’s web pages and NEU system to get info about classes)

To get started with editing the pages, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Who did this job before:

  • Michael Ballantyne (Fall 2020–Summer ⁠2021)
  • Julia Belyakova (Fall 2019–Summer ⁠2020)
  • Ben Greenman (?–2017)

People Page Maintainer

(1) Keep the people page and new members page up-to-date.

  • Add new students and faculty, as well as post-docs and visiting faculty (students visiting as interns are not added to the page).
  • Move graduating students and former members to "alumni and former members".

(2) When new people join the lab, ping them about adding the info to the people page if they don't contact you first.

Note. The hardest part of the job is to make people send you info :)

To get started with editing the people page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Adding new people:

You can ask for the following information:

  • short bio (see http://prl.ccs.neu.edu/people.html for examples)
  • advisor (for students) or title (for faculty/post-docs)
  • contacts (email and optionally website)
  • 180x180px photo or picture with .jpg or .png extension.

Regular operation:

  • At the beginning of the semester, ping new lab members and request the info. If they don't send you the info, remind from time to time.
  • When somebody graduates or leaves, move them to former members.
  • Once a semester or a year, remind everyone that they can send you updated bios and/or pictures.

Who did this job before:

  • Julia Belyakova (Fall 2018–Summer ⁠2021)

Social

PRL Social Virtually

We have run two kinds of virtual events: Virtual Tea Time, and Virtual PRL Party.

Virtual Tea Time

Virtual Tea Time meets for 30 minutes every week. We meet on a Zoom call and chat for ~30 minutes.

At the beginning of the semester:

  • Create a when2meet to find the best time to meet.

    Note: It's probably best to coordinate with recurring event organizers (e.g. PL Seminar, PL Jr, Reading Group) and use a single, shared when2meet.

  • Choose a time and announce it over email.

    It's best to choose the time after the other recurring events have been scheduled. Sometimes there is no single time that works for everyone. Your options are to choose the time that works for the most people, or alternate between two schedules.

Regular operation:

  • Send out a reminder, on prl-all and the student Slack, ~5 minutes before the event starts.

    If the schedule alternates, add a reminder of the different meeting time for the following week.

Virtual PRL Party

Virtual PRL Party is a ~1 hour event on gather.town. Gather.town is nice because you can move your avatar around the virtual space and join/leave conversation groups. On Zoom, you have to put everyone in the same room, or assign people to breakout rooms.

We run it approximately once a semester (e.g. beginning of Fall, end of Fall, end of Spring). Running the PRL Party every month resulted in lower attendance, because people were busy.

Regular operation:

  • Contact the last virtual event organizer to gain access to the gather.town instance.

  • Create a when2meet 2-3 weeks ahead of time, to choose a time for the PRL Party.

    Choose a two-week window and use specific dates.

  • Share the when2meet on prl-all and the student Slack.

    In the email, ask about other scheduling conflicts or events that you should be aware of (e.g. exams, grading deadlines, etc.) Set an explicit deadline for filling the when2meet, and send a reminder a few days before the deadline.

  • Choose a date for the PRL Party, and announce it.

    Send reminders for the PRL Party: 1 week before, 1 day before, 5 minutes before.

Who did this job before:

  • Ming-Ho Yee (2020-2021)
  • Name (years)

Twitter

The lab Twitter account is @neu_prl.

At the beginning of the year:

  • Update the followed accounts (unfollow people who have left the PRL, follow new members)
  • Update the lists (e.g. current members, former members) See if any new accounts need to be added to the appropriate list (e.g. conference account)
  • The account follows:
    • current PRL members
    • relevant Northeastern University accounts
    • relevant CS/PL/PL-adjacent organization/conference accounts
    • software project accounts with PRL involvement

Regular operation:

  • Tweet any relevant PRL news and announcements (e.g. accepted papers, upcoming seminars, new blog posts)
  • Retweet anything relevant or important (could be PRL-specific or relevant to the wider PL/PL-adjacent/CS community)
  • Tweet anything "fun" that happened in the lab
    • e.g. tea time, plants, artwork
    • This is to advertise the social atmosphere/culture of the PRL

Who did this job before:

  • Ming-Ho Yee (2016-2020)
  • Name (years)

Happy Hour

  • weekly/biweekly meetings in pubs after work (sometimes not only PRL would join)
  • mailing list TODO

Who did this job before:

  • Aaron Weiss (2019-2020)
  • Max New (??-2019)
  • Name (years)

Coffee Czar

Responsibilities:

  • ensuring that there's a steady supply of coffee beans;
  • fundraising for coffee-related purchases (general guideline: when beginning your tenure as czar, gather names of people who will use the coffee machine, and every few months ask them for money for beans/cleaning supplies);
  • maintenance of the coffee machine (people generally help out with this).

Who did this job before:

  • Ben Greenman (2019-2021)
  • Alexi Turcotte (2018-2019)
  • Name (years)

Might need a Deputy Coffee Czar for helping out.

Tea Tsar

Responsibilities:

  • The water pitcher and hot water dispenser need to be cleaned regularly
    • Cleaning should be at least once per month, maybe even as frequently as once per week, depending on usage and cleanliness
      • The drainage tray might need to be cleaned more frequently (once per week)
    • The pitcher can just be watched with dish detergent and water
    • To clean the hot water dispenser:
      • Dissolve some citric acid (or lemon juice) into the tank and run a few cycles at the highest temperature
      • Unplug and wipe down the exterior
      • Wash the tank and drainage tray with dish detergent and water
      • Run a few cycles with drinking water to rinse out the citric acid (or lemon juice)
  • People will usually bring their own tea, but some people will donate tea to the lab
    • If the community tea supply is low, you might want to solicit donations

Who did this job before:

  • Ming-Ho (2017-2019)
  • Name (years)

Tea Time

Tea Time (or Tea(m)Time or PLTea) is a short (15-30min) break to enjoy tea/snacks and chat with labmates.

  • At the beginning of the semester, choose 1-2 times to meet, using a new when2-meet or the lab-wide when2meet
  • ~5 minutes before Tea Time, the Tea Tsar (or Deputy Tea Tsar) should start preparing (i.e. brewing a large pot of tea, bringing snacks out) so that everything is ready when Tea Time starts
  • When Tea Time starts, announce it on the #tea-time channel on Slack
  • Gently remind people when Tea Time is over, and make sure someone is responsible for cleanup if people choose to stay longer

Who did this job before:

  • Ming-Ho (2020-2021)
  • Name (years)

Contact Managers

Students and GitHub org + Onboarding

Responsibilities:

  • Adding new members to mailing lists:

  • Pointing new members to the new members page.

  • Adding new members to nuprl GitHub organization.

  • Inviting students and postdocs to the lab Slack and inviting everyone to the lab Matrix.

  • Forwarding info about new members to the people manager.

  • Updating contact page at the beginning of the academic year, after the beginning-of-the-year lab meeting; also updating this very wiki page to record who has taken the roles.

  • Updating GitHub org access rights (see the top of this wiki page for info about the repo with sensitive data).

  • Scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting for the next year at the end of the current academic year.

Getting started:

Ask previous contact manager for access to mailing lists and GitHub org.

Requesting contact information:

Ask new members for:

  1. email they would like to use for mailing lists;
  2. [students and postdocs only] email they would like to use for Slack;
  3. GitHub handle for adding to the org.

Editing website:

To get started with editing the contact page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Note. The source file is in a racket DSL. Class parameters such as "col-xs-6 col-md-3" are from the Bootstrap framework.

  • Numbers denote how many horizontal slots out of 12 are taken by the element. E.g. if we need a row of 4 elements, every element within the row should use value 3; for 2 elements in a row, use value 6.
  • col-xs specifies the size for small screens; col-md specifies the size for medium screens and larger. Thus, "col-xs-6 col-md-3" will occupy half of the screen on a small screen but only a quarter on larger ones.

Scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting: (old approach)

  • Some time close to the end of the summer, create a when2meet and share with the mailing lists. It is useful to set an explicit deadline.
  • Ask faculty to volunteer for running the meeting (this can be done in the same email you use to share the when2meet).
  • To pick the dates for when2meet, check NEU calendar: start some days before the beginning of the semester and give ~2 weeks span for scheduling.
  • If the meeting is to be held in person, book a room with the College.
  • It may help to create and share an agenda doc prior to the meeting. Sharing this wiki page will also be useful for incoming members.

NOTE. It might be good to reconsider the approach to this meeting, e.g. make it student-run with the faculty only doing introductions. Consider talking to other students about this.

Who did this job before:

  • Julia Belyakova (Fall 2019–Summer ⁠2021)
  • Name (years)

Staff

Adding new members to the [email protected] mailing list.

Who did this job before:

  • Jan Vitek (?–present)

Instructions on editing PRL pages

We use the people page as an example.

Getting started:

  • Fork the website (or you can work with the main repo directly if preferred).
  • Install racket and build the website following these instructions.

Making a change:

  • Edit people.rkt and run make people.html to make sure the edit is working.
  • Commit and create a pull request (make sure to commit images in img if needed).
  • If the pull request builds successfully, you can merge it right away or wait for a couple of days in case other people notice any discrepancies.

Note. The source file is in a racket DSL, but it should be straightforward to copy-paste and edit similar blobs of code. Just keep an eye on matching brackets and the end of the section you are editing.

Clone this wiki locally