A cross-institutional analysis of the effects of broadening trainee professional development on research productivity

PhD-trained scientists are essential contributors to the workforce in diverse employment sectors that include academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations. Hence, best practices for training the future biomedical workforce are of national concern. Complementing coursework and laboratory research training, many institutions now offer professional training that enables career exploration and develops a broad set of skills critical to various career paths. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded academic institutions to design innovative programming to enable this professional development through a mechanism known as Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST). Programming at the NIH BEST awardee institutions included career panels, skill-building workshops, job search workshops, site visits, and internships. Because doctoral training is lengthy and requires focused attention on dissertation research, an initial concern was that students participating in additional complementary training activities might exhibit an increased time to degree or diminished research productivity. Metrics were analyzed from 10 NIH BEST awardee institutions to address this concern, using time to degree and publication records as measures of efficiency and productivity. Comparing doctoral students who participated to those who did not, results revealed that across these diverse academic institutions, there were no differences in time to degree or manuscript output. Our findings support the policy that doctoral students should participate in career and professional development opportunities that are intended to prepare them for a variety of diverse and important careers in the workforce

Automated journeys - automated connections

Lars Erik Holmquist, a research leader at the Mobile Life Center at Stockholm University and the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, provides some insight into the use of Super Urban Intelligent Card (SUICA), an RFID-based smartcard, for sensing, networking, and data access. Holmquist highlights that the technology is presently used to increase convenience and reduce human contact. Apple's iPhone 3G and the accompanying Appstore with RFID based smartcards makes easier downloading and installing a mobile installation. Various games are constructed in collaboration with students to explore new forms of wireless applications, when handheld computers with Wi-Fi became available. Holmquist highlights that PushMusic with RFID-based smartcard has allowed the creation of an application in which music could be spread among users through automatic and manual recommendations

Subtle and Public Notification Cues for Mobile Devices

. Mobile information technology increasingly influences everyday life. When used in social contexts several problems regarding how mobile devices convey notifications arise. Auditory notification cues, such as those generally used by mobile phones, can be intrusive and attention demanding. Tactile cues, such as vibrations, are very private and subtle. However, since it is hard for other people nearby to perceive such cues, it can be awkward to understand the actions which a notification cue can give rise to, i.e., tactile cues are not public. We discuss the design space of notification cues for mobile devices and propose an exploration of the space which combines the two dimensions of subtlety and publicity. We conclude with a description of current and future work.

Dynamic Tangible User Interface Palettes

Abstract. Graphics editors often suffer from a large number of tool palettes that compete with valuable document space. To address this problem and to bring back physical affordances similar to a painter’s palette, we propose to augment a digital tabletop with spatially tracked handheld displays. These displays are dynamically updated depending on their spatial location. We introduce the concept of spatial Work Zones that take up distinct 3D regions above the table surface and serve as physical containers for digital content that is organized as stacks of horizontal layers. Spatial Work Zones are represented either by physical objects or on-screen on the tabletop. Associated layers can be explored fluently by entering a spatial Work Zone with a handheld display. This provides quick access and seamless changes between tools and parts of the document that are instantly functional, i.e., ready to be used by a digital pen. We discuss several use cases illustrating our techniques and setting them into context with previous systems. Early user feedback indicates that combining dynamic GUI functionality with the physicality of spatially tracked handheld displays is promising and can be generalized beyond graphics editing