Embedded Files
See our google calendar below for dates and information on Cognitive and Information Sciences events at UC Merced!
See our google calendar below for dates and information on Cognitive and Information Sciences events at UC Merced!
~NEW~ Visit our box repository to find resources compiled from our Professional Development Workshops; tutorials or information from various training institutes that our graduate students have attended; as well as anything else that may be useful to share with the CIS Grad Student Community.
Access using the link below and your UC Merced login and password.
Featured Event!
Featured Event!
Weekly Social/Networking Events
Weekly Social/Networking Events
Thursday Hangouts
Thursday Hangouts
Every Thursday around 5:30 pm the CIS Graduate students get together to enjoy some non-work related activities. The specific location and activity for each week is emailed on Thursday morning/afternoon. It is a welcoming space of informal interaction to get to know each other, get current in each other's lives and scientific projects, and build friendship, collegiality, and community.
Who: Primarily CIS Graduate Students
Day: Thursdays
Time: around 5:30pm Pacific
Location: Will be announced each week, but we will typically meet somewhere downtown!
Zoom link and game information are emailed to CIS graduate students each week.
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to host weekly Social/Networking events, coordinated by our Social & Community Officer, Samuel Carey. These events are intended to foster community and engagement among CIS graduate students and faculty and to provide space for the informal interactions that boost intellectual collaboration as well as general well-being.
CIS Lunch
CIS Lunch
We have a big room reserved every Tuesday during lunchtime for CIS Graduate students and staff to eat lunch together. If you hate eating alone, this is the event for you!
Who: CIS Graduate Students and Faculty
Day: Tuesdays
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm PST
Location: SSM 117
Please be courteous and wear your masks when not actively eating/drinking.
Fika
Fika
This is a weekly event for both CIS Graduate students and staff to get together on campus to enjoy some tea and pastries, or to take a stroll around campus if the weather permits. Our CIS Fika is inspired by the Swedish ritual of taking time to socialize and enjoy snacks and drinks with others everyday. Our event is weekly, but we hope it will inspire you to take a daily pause to reconnect with those around you.
Who: CIS graduate students, faculty, and staff
Day: Thursdays
Time: 2:00pm - 2:30pm PST
Location: SSM 217
We are allowed to have snacks and drinks in the room, but please be courteous and wear your masks when not actively eating/drinking.
Research Hours
Research Hours
Are you tired of working alone? Do you find yourself more productive when you work with peers? We will have a room reserved every week for designated work time, so bring your laptops, notes, or other work material and study with peers!
Who: CIS graduate students
Day: Wednesdays
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm PST
Location: SSM 117
Weekly Department Events
Weekly Department Events
CIS Brown Bag Graduate Speaker Series
CIS Brown Bag Graduate Speaker Series
Our program hosts two complementary speaker series. The first is our weekly CIS Brown Bag led each semester by two CIS graduate students. This casual event invites graduate students to give prepared talks (maybe as practice for an upcoming conference talk or IR defense), to hold informal discussions on a topic, article, or proposed experimental design, to share computational or experimental tools and techniques. In the past, our CIS grad student leaders have also invited a panel of alumni, industry, and faculty speakers to provide more information on succeeding in life after grad school.
This semester's hosts: Jas Kaur & Liza Oh
Who can attend: All CIS graduate students, faculty, and staff
Day: Mondays
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: COB 114 or Zoom - links sent to your @ucm email address for cogsci grad students and faculty
Mind, Technology, & Society Guest Speaker Series
Mind, Technology, & Society Guest Speaker Series
Our MTS talk series is hosted by a different volunteer faculty member each semester. This faculty member invites researchers and industry professionals from across the globe to present a variety of interdisciplinary work in Cognitive Science. See our UCMerced CogSci youtube channel for videos of past MTS talks!
This year's host: Dr. Kristina Backer
Who can attend: All who are interested!
Day: Mondays
Time: 3:00 - 5:45pm
Location: CLSSRM 110 or Zoom - links available via Catcourses (for cogsci grad students)
From the UCM CogSci Website: "Our interdisciplinary talk series, funded by a generous gift from Professors Robert Glushko and Pamela Samuelson, brings to UC Merced world class scholars and scientists with research interests related to cognitive science. The series aims to promote cognitive science, and talks are attended by students, faculty, and others in the community. There is no cost to attending the talks and they are open to the general public. "
Professional Development Events
Professional Development Events
2nd Professional Development Event, Spring 2022
2nd Professional Development Event, Spring 2022
Topic: Academia
Panelists: Hanna Gunn, Tyler Marghetis, and Rachel Ryskin
When: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Pacific | Monday, February 28th, 2022
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Our 2nd Professional Development even of the Spring 2022 semester will be an academic panel led by Drs. Hanna Gunn, Tyler Marghetis, and Rachel Ryskin during the February 28 Brownbag seminar. This will be an open Q&A and discussion of all things academia, students are encouraged to bring questions and faculty members are encouraged to chime in with their own experiences!
1st Professional Development Event, Spring 2022
1st Professional Development Event, Spring 2022
Topic: Plan the Semester
Host: Hanna Gunn
When: 2:00pm - 3:30pm Pacific | Friday, January 14th, 2022
Where: SSM 317!
In this workshop, Dr. Hanna Gunn will be guiding us through making efficient, personalized weekly planners.
3rd Professional Development Event, Fall 2021
3rd Professional Development Event, Fall 2021
Topic: Website Development
Host: Cody Moser & Mariel Gonzales
When: 11:00am - 4:00pm Pacific | Saturday, December 4th, 2022
Where: SSM 241!
This is a student-led website development workshop. Bring your laptop and work on your professional website with us!
1st & 2nd Professional Development Event, Fall 2021
1st & 2nd Professional Development Event, Fall 2021
Topic: Work/Life Balance & Time Management
Host: Hanna Gunn
When: 1:00pm - 2:00pm Pacific | Thursday, October 21st, 2021
& 3:00pm - 4:00pm Pacific | Wednesday, November 17th, 2021
Where: SSM 235 (1st event) and Zoom (2nd event)!
In this workshop, Dr. Hanna Gunn will discuss how to better balance leisure, rest, and work while being introduced to several time management techniques.
9th Professional Development Event
9th Professional Development Event
Topic: Industry(+) Job Market Panel B
Panelists: Corinne Townsend, Bryan Kerster, Janelle Szary
When: 11:00am - 12:00pm Pacific | Monday, April 19th, 2021
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our ninth professional development event and the final installment of the 2021 Job Market Panel series. This event will be a ~1 hour workshop discussing the industry (+) job market with three CIS alumni .
Alumni at this panel hold positions as Institutional Research Analyst at the Center of Institutional Effectiveness at UC Merced, SMB Data Scientist at Facebook, and Lead Data Scientist at pymetrics. Before the panel, read more about their work on each panelists' LinkedIn and visit their company websites. Come with your thoughts & questions for an engaging discussion!
Corinnne Townsend: LinkedIn | UC Merced CEI
Bryan Kerster: LinkedIn | Facebook
Janelle Szary: LinkedIn | pymetrics
8th Professional Development Event
8th Professional Development Event
Topic: Industry(+) Job Market Panel A
Panelists: Chelsea Gordon, Tim Shea, Maryam Tabataiean, Gina Pretzer
When: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Pacific | Monday, March 15th, 2021
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our eighth professional development event and the second of the 2021 Job Market Panel series. This event will be a ~1 hour workshop discussing the industry (+) job market with three CIS alumni .
Alumni at this panel hold positions as Learning & Data Analysis Lead at zyBooks, Research Lead for Neuromorphic Computing at Accenture, a Data Scientist at Cisco, and as a Speech-Language Pathologist. Before the panel, read more about their work on each panelists' LinkedIn and visit their company websites. Come with your thoughts & questions for an engaging discussion!
Chelsea Gordon: LinkedIn | zyBooks
Tim Shea: LinkedIn | Accenture
Maryam Tabataiean: LinkedIn | Cisco
Gina Pretzer: HopeSparks
7th Professional Development Event
7th Professional Development Event
Topic: Academic Job Market Panel
Panelists: Jessica Ross, Alexandra Paxton, Drew Abney
When: 11:00am - 12:00pm Pacific | Monday, February 22nd, 2021
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our seventh professional development event and the first of the Spring 2021 semester. This event will be a ~1 hour workshop discussing the academic job market with three CIS alumni .
Come to this panel to discuss navigating the academic job market, including reflections on the experience of being a post-doc, what to do after the post-doc ends, working as an adjunct or sessional instructor, the approach to finding a job as a professor or research scientist, and all of the transitions in between. Before the panel, read more about their work on each panelists' website. Come with your thoughts & questions for an engaging discussion!
Jessica Ross: https://jessicamarieross.com/
Alexandra Paxton: https://alexandrapaxton.com/
Drew Abney: https://www.devdynlab.us
6th Professional Development Event
6th Professional Development Event
Topic: Giving Effective Presentations at Online Conferences
Presenter: Shannon Proksch
When: 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific | Wednesday, October 28th, 2020
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our sixth professional development event. This event will be a ~1 hour crowd-sourced workshop highlighting effective virtual presentation techniques led by current CIS grad student Shannon Proksch. Online conferences and virtual presentations have become part of our "new normal" in academia during this pandemic. Given the benefits for our planet (less CO2 emissions); for accessibility (no flight, hotel, or travel visa costs!); and inclusivity (log in from any country and any institution in the world), online conferences & virtual presentations might be here to stay! Come along to discuss best-practices of online presentations and to learn from each other about the positive experiences and horror stories of our recent forays into the realm of virtual conferencing.
5th Professional Development Event
5th Professional Development Event
Topic: Time Management
Presenter: Dr Hanna Gunn
When: 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific | Wednesday, September 30th, 2020
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our fifth professional development event and the first of the Fall 2020 semester. This event will be a ~1 hour workshop highlighting time management techniques led by Dr. Hanna Gunn. The first version of this workshop ran last year, providing practical tools for our graduate students to effectively balance our time amongst work, rest, & recreation while strengthening and ensuring our overall wellbeing. With a new year and new challenges, we'll revisit some of these tools and examine our strategies for time management and well-being in our current (virtual) context.
4th Professional Development Event
4th Professional Development Event
Topic: Open Science & the Practicalities of Pre-registration
Presenter: Emilio Lobato & Dr Paul Smaldino
When: *New Date and Time!* 3:00pm -4:00pm Monday, April 27th, 2020
Where: Virtual Meeting on Zoom!
Please join us for our fourth professional development event, a ~1 hour workshop on the topic of Open Science led by our colleague and current CIS grad student, Emilio Lobato, and one of our CIS Faculty, Dr Paul Smaldino. Our generation of scientists are matriculating into a scientific community which increasingly emphasizes replicability and reproducibility. Various efforts at achieving these goals, such as open access, open data, pre-registration, open peer review, and more, fall under the umbrella term of Open Science. Emilio & Paul will highlight a few of these approaches under the Open Science umbrella. And they'll spend at least some of the time addressing concrete answers to the questions of "what can *we* do? & how do we do it?" For example, they'll discuss some of the pros/cons of pre-registration, how to pre-register, and when it even might make sense not to.
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to host (semi)monthly Professional Development events, coordinated by our Professional Development Officer, Shannon Proksch. These events will focus on skills or topics requested by our CIS grad community.
Open Science (and what better way to introduce open science than from the open-collaboration project of Wikipedia)
Above Graphic By Petr Knoth and Nancy Pontika - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science#/media/File:Os_taxonomy.png, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61125075
3rd Professional Development Event
3rd Professional Development Event
Topic: Graduate Student Experience and Navigating Support Structures
Presenter: Maria Nishanian
When: 3:00pm - 4:00pm Tuesday, February 18th, 2020
Where: SSM 317
Please join us for our third professional development event, a ~1 hour discussion based workshop loosely organized around the theme of Graduate Student Experience and Navigating Support Structures. Whether it's our first year, we’re prepping for our qualifications, or we’re on the edge of graduation, we are all facing new and challenging transitions as we navigate the CogSci graduate realm. Through talking with our peers, we discover the similarities in our experience and learn tips and strategies that are sometimes impossible to uncover if we are working alone. That is the motivation for our third workshop. We are happy to introduce Maria Nishanian, UC Merced’s new Graduate Academic Counselor. Maria will briefly talk to us about her role and how it complements available support systems on campus, and facilitate a discussion about our needs & personal strategies for topics such as work/life balance, mentor/mentee communication, imposter syndrome, or anything else we may like to discuss regarding our experience as CIS graduate students.
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to host (semi)monthly Professional Development events, coordinated by our Professional Development Officer, Shannon Proksch. These events will focus on skills or topics requested by our CIS grad community.
2nd Professional Development Event
2nd Professional Development Event
Topic: Grant Writing
Presenter: Dr Kristina Backer & Dr Tony Shahin
When: 2:00pm - 3:00pm Friday, November 22nd, 2019
Where: SSM 217
Please join us for our second professional development event, a ~1 hour workshop highlighting tips and tools for effective Grant Writing led by two of our CIS faculty, Dr. Kristina Backer and Dr. Tony Shahin. Many of us are reaching a stage where we are looking to apply for pre-doctoral grants to help us complete our degree, post-doctoral grants to improve our prospects for post-doc positions, and eventually will be in a full-time position where we may need to apply for grant funding. This is the motivation for our second Professional Development event, and our presenters have ample experience writing their own grants and a wealth of effective tips and strategies to share. They will address topics voted on by the CIS GSG regarding 1) The grant proposal process (i.e. where should I look for grants; who should I contact ahead of time (like program directors in the NSF/NIH); what are reviewers looking for?; 2) Tips for writing an effective grant proposal (i.e. how much detail should I include? do I need preliminary data? how should I frame the significance/innovation of my proposal?), and more!
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to host (semi)monthly Professional Development events, coordinated by our Professional Development Officer, Shannon Proksch. These events will focus on skills or topics requested by our CIS grad community.
1st Professional Development Event
1st Professional Development Event
Topic: Time Management
Presenter: Dr Hanna Gunn
When: 1:30pm - 2:30pm Friday, October 4th, 2019
Where: SSM 217
Please join us for our inaugural professional development event, a ~1 hour workshop highlighting time management techniques led by our new faculty member, Dr. Hanna Gunn. As many of us are reaching the time of our qualifications (integrative review paper + defense) while juggling other experiment/research commitments, we are finding that it would be very helpful to have a review of time management techniques to avoid burnout and allow for ample productivity and work-life balance. This is the motivation for our first Professional Development event, and our first presenter has a wealth of expertise on this topic!
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to host (semi)monthly Professional Development events, coordinated by our Professional Development Officer, Shannon Proksch. These events will focus on skills or topics requested by our CIS grad community.
Notable Past Events
Notable Past Events
Summer 2022 First Annual CIS Community Picnic & Games
Summer 2022 First Annual CIS Community Picnic & Games
The GSG and Climate Committees hosted an event at the end of the semester for grad students and faculty to get together, relax, and play some fun games: The First Annual CIS Community Picnic & Games at Moraga Park, Merced.
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to foster a vibrant and supportive intellectual community. Planned and organized by our CIS GradStudentGroup officer & GSA Delegeate, Ben Falandays., this survey and event highlights what we think are the most influential "CogSci Classics" as chosen by the CIS graduate students & faculty.
Fall 2021 CogSci Classics Blitz
Fall 2021 CogSci Classics Blitz
In Fall 2021, CIS grad students and faculty were ask to report their favorite or most Important and Influential Papers in Cognitive Science. Then, in a series of blitz talks, we shared the big picture on why our chosen paper or book is important or influential, and even if we thought a reading got things wrong but was still useful. Check out more at the link! CogSci Classics Survey Results
The CIS GradStudentGroup Executive Committee aims to foster a vibrant and supportive intellectual community. Planned and organized by our CIS GradStudentGroup officer & GSA Delegeate, Ben Falandays., this survey and event highlights what we think are the most influential "CogSci Classics" as chosen by the CIS graduate students & faculty.
Spring 2019 Alumni Job Market Panels
Spring 2019 Alumni Job Market Panels
Ten alumni from the Cognitive & Information Sciences PhD program virtually returned to campus (over Zoom!) to discuss their experience transitioning to from the PhD to their Academic and Industry positions.
As PhD students, we have ample advice from professors and from courses for entering the academic job market. What is often missing is concrete and up to date advice regarding the current academic job market, and the transition away from the PhD student experience. Our alumni featured in the Academic Job Panels discussed the experience of being a post-doc and what to do after the post-doc ends, balancing research and work as an instructor, the approach to finding a job within a university, as well as the importance of balancing your own life, including your partners, families, and hobbies, with your decision to pursue and engage in an academic career.
Additionally, sometimes missing from the PhD experience is concrete and up to date advice regarding the industry job market, and other professions well-suited to the unique computational and data-science skills we gain in the CIS program. Our alumni featured in the Industry(+) job market panels discussed their transition from the PhD to industry (e.g. taking advantage of the internship & placement programs vs applying straight to industry or government positions), the interview and hiring process, and their general experience in their positions as compared to the time in the PhD program.
Given the circumstances surrounding COVID19, each of our panelists also discussed any effect on their jobs as a result of the pandemic and speculated on the trajectory of industry and academic jobs in the future.
This alumni panel series was hosted by the CIS Graduate Student Group as a component of the ongoing Professional Development Event Series. These events were organized by the CIS-GSG Professional Development Officer, Shannon Proksch.
Fall 2019 Symposium of the CSSA
Fall 2019 Symposium of the CSSA
Topic: Branches of Cognitive Sciences
Keynote: Dr Hanna Gunn & Dr Michael Spivey
When: 8:30am to 3:30pm Saturday, November 16th, 2019
Where: COB 105
Improving Workplace Climate & Gender Equity in Academia
Improving Workplace Climate & Gender Equity in Academia
Speaker: Pamela K. Smith; Associate Professor of Management, UC San Diego
Title: Gender Equity in the Workplace: Changing Structures as Well as Individuals
Abstract: As a psychologist, I am accustomed to viewing the world through the lens of individual-level actions and change. Similarly, much popular writing on gender equity in the workplace, such as Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, has focused on what individual women can do to achieve more power. I will first review research on what individual-level changes work for women. However, an individual focus ignores how much of gender disparities and inequities are created and reinforced by the way workplaces are structured. As an example, I review my research on gender representation in symposia over 13 years of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s annual convention. I end with some discussion of how better workplace structures can be put into place to support gender equity.
Speaker: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe; Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry; Ted and Jan Falasco Endowed Chair in Earth Sciences
Title: Improving Workplace Climate: Responding to Harassment
Abstract: Harassment endangers the professional and personal well-being of individuals and their communities and contributes to hostile climates in science. It can exploit differences in religion, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and gender identity and is especially toxic when perpetrated by people in positions of power, such as supervisors or advisors. The workshop goal is to raise awareness of the problem, discuss initiatives to address harassment as research misconduct, present practical strategies for reducing instances of harassment and for supporting its targets, and discuss ways for creating workplace climates that do not tolerate harassment. As a result of this session, participants will be able to identify: (1) different ways in which sexual and other types of harassment can manifest in research environments; (2) strategies for bystander intervention and for reporting harassment, and (3) resources to share with their home departments for cultural change.
October 28th, 2019
Presented by Cognitive Science for the Common Good* &
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for the Faculty
*Fall 2019 organizers: Dr Colin Holbrook & CIS graduate students Alexandria Pabst,
Emilio Lobato, & Shannon Proksch
Find more resources on promoting a healthy workplace climate via diversity, equity, and inclusion here: https://aaberhe.com/equity/
This google site is meant to accompany the CIS program's official website, at cogsci.ucmerced.edu. Visit the official website to learn more about current students and faculty and for guidance regarding program requirements. We've tried to include up to date information and forms (i.e. for advancement to candidacy) on this CISGradStudentGroup google site (e.g. in our "What is an IR?!" section), but always keep in contact with your committee, UCM Graduate Division, or ask your fellow grad students if you need any help navigating the paperwork side of the PhD process.
Have a question? Find a broken link? What to add information to this site, or an event to the google calendar? Contact the CIS GradStudentGroup at ucm.cis.gradstudentgroup@gmail.com
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