Student Led Project Proposals
As part of the program, you will have the chance to form small collaborative groups that will compete for funding to pursue an independent magnetism research project. In this way, students with similar research interests but different research capabilities will be able to work together after the school to perform more impactful work than they might alone. Each group should be comprised of roughly 3-6 students, with two groups selected for MagSoc funding of up to $5,000 USD each. This funding is primarily intended to support travel and consumables, but other ideas will be considered. While participation in this competition is not mandatory, I certainly encourage you to take advantage of this unique opportunity.
- Group formation: Attached is a spreadsheet with contact information and poster title for each of your fellow students. I encourage you to identify students with whom you share common research interests, and to contact them ahead of the school to discuss potential projects. However, if nothing works ahead of time, that's okay - there will be some time for you to get to know one another and form groups early in the school week. Please note that if everyone chooses to participate (which would be great!) the staff may need to work with you to consolidate into larger groups.
- Discussion: Your group should take advantage of free time during the week to discuss your project and prepare research and financial plans (what you want to do, where you'd like to travel, what you'll need to buy, and how much it will cost). I also encourage you to discuss your ideas with the lecturers at the school, and to seek their expert advice.
- Presentation: Each group will present their research and financial plans at the Project Presentations session at 4 p.m. on Friday. Plan for a 5 minute presentation consisting of no more than 3 slides. You must clearly specify your objective, research plan, and budget plan. In particular, you should consider the following:
- Why the proposed project is crucial for your Ph.D. studies.
- How the proposed project is complementary to your Ph.D. studies.
- When and where the research will be conducted. Please contact the potential host in advance to obtain their tentative agreement.
- How much will be planned to be spent for travel, consumables and any other associated costs (please specify). Here, please specify who travels from which country to which country with the estimated cost individually.
- Selection: A committee of experts will evaluate the presentations and select 2 to be funded ($5,000 USD each). The results will be announced at the subsequent Poster and Project Award Ceremony which starts at 5 p.m.
- Project execution: If your project is selected for funding, you are expected to execute the research according to your proposal. Please obtain a permission from the EdCom chair in advance if you need to make any significant changes. Please note that the EdCom cannot allocate any increase in the budget.
- Duty: If your project is selected for funding, you will be required to submit financial and research reports to the EdCom chair by April 1, 2020. In addition, MagSoc requests that one or more of your group present a poster describing the work at the 2020 Intermag Conference in Montreal, Canada.
If you have questions, Dr. Brian Kirby and other organization committee certainly will be available to discuss the project competition during the week of the school.