Doctoral Education Network Afternoon

Date: 8 November 2021
Venue: Silja Symphony (View on Google Maps)
Contact in matters related to the OR network: Ahti Salo, firstname.lastname@aalto.fi
More information about the network: https://sal.aalto.fi/en/teaching/gradschool/

The Doctoral Education Network in Systems Analysis, Decision Making and Risk Management spans all the research groups in Finland with a focus on Operations Research (OR) and closely related disciplines. On 8 November 2021, the Doctoral Education Network organizes on the boat Silja Symphony the following programme, prepared by Ahti Salo and Gloria Jacobovitz, on skills that can be useful in research-based careers.

The participants are kindly requested to read the reading materials ahead of time, at least cursorily (please access the papers by clicking on the titles). Each session will begin with a short introduction and discussion, followed by 30-45 minutes of discussions in groups of approximately 4 participants. The groups are invited to select a rapporteur who reports the main insights of the group to all participants.

13.00-13.30      Introduction of the participants (à 3 min)

Please introduce yourself briefly by mentioning your home university, educational background, academic career stage, research topic(s), supervisor, possible future ambitions, expectations on this boat seminar.

13.30-14.30      Academic networking and scholarly collaboration platforms (SCPs)

Reading materials:

  1. E. Williams and M.A. Woodacre (2016) The possibilities and perils of academic social networking sites, Online Information Review 40(2) 282-294.
  2. N. Richards (2019) Networking strategies for academics who are bad at it, Inside HigherEd,
    6 December 2019.
  3. M. Narayanan (2013) Putting your best foot forward: Applying for a faculty position, IEEE Potentials 32(3) 22-25.

Focal questions:

  • How well are you aware of the different SCPs? Have you been using them?
  • Do you know the different modalities of open access publishing?
  • What are the ways in which you are presently networking?
  • What, if any, benefits would there be in building a deliberate networking strategy?
  • Do you think that your present networking activities are aligned with your long-term ambitions?

14.30-14.45 Coffee break

14.45-16.00 Responding to reviewers and being a good referee

Reading materials:

  1. M. Stiller-Reeve (2018) How to write a thorough peer review, Nature, 8 October 2018.
  2. M.A. Peck et al. (2009) The golden rule of reviewing, The American Naturalist 175(3), E155-E158.
  3. J. Wallace (2019) How to be good a peer reviewer, The Scholarly Kitchen, 17 September 2019.
  4. G.D. Gopen and J.A. Swan (1990) The science of scientific writing, American Scientist 78, 550-558.

Focal questions:

  • Have you served as a referee for journals?
  • Do you know the duties and responsibilities of the different kinds of editors?
  • What experiences have you had in receiving feedback on your manuscripts?
  • What do you think are the main challenges in responding to the reviewers?
  • How would you go about crafting a good ‘response-to-reviewers’?

16.00-16.15 Coffee break

16.15-17.45 Possibilities in building an entrepreneurial career

Reading materials:

  1. R. Adner and R. Kapoor (2016). Right tech, wrong time, Harvard Business Review, November 2016, 60-67.
  2. A. Cremades (2018). How venture capital works, Forbes, 2 August 2018.

Optional (but not required) reading includes the following paper (please note that this link may not work): H.H. Stevenson (2006). A perspective on entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School 9-384-131, 13 April 2006, 1-13.

Please also watch the following video on the selective attention test:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

Focal questions:

  • Is the prospect of becoming an entrepreneur attractive to you?
  • Could your research give rise to or be modified to create commercial value?
  • If so, how would you seek to protect and exploit intellectual property rights?
  • What would the market opportunity look like?
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of engaging with venture capital?
  • Do you think you could give an elevator pitch of your research?

17.45-18.00 Coffee break

18.00-19.00 This session has two alternatives:

Alternative 1: Session of the Seminar on Scientific Publishing
In this session, you are kindly requested to read carefully the manuscript  Herrala, Ekholm and Oliveira (2021) Solving decision problems with decision-dependent probabilities and information structures (available upon request from ahti.salo@aalto.fi) and to prepare a review report ahead of time following the instructions on https://sal.aalto.fi/en/teaching/gradschool/scientific/.
The paper will be discussed by those participants who have read the paper and written a report on it.

Alternative 2: Demonstration of DESDEO Software (Giovanni Misitano)

 

Contact

Ahti Salo
Professor of Systems Analysis, Director of the Network in Systems Analysis, Decision Making and Risk Management