Endless Problems Boundless Innovations

Vision

Our scholars will independently devise problems, and subsequently solve them leveraging the vast expertise of the JB community

Overview

[Sign-up starts in April/May - stay tuned!]

• Scholars will propose problem statements which will be pooled and shared internally within the community.

• Project Leaders: JB Scholars proposing a specific problem statement may choose to "lead" the project. If a project proposer chooses not to lead but simply give the problem to the community, any other JB Scholar may choose to "lead" the project. Project Leaders will be the primary point of contact for JBSPDF official matters.

• Project Associates: Other JB Scholars, based on their interest, expertise and availability, would associate themselves with a specific project to form a team. Team associates can also be from outside the JB community.

• Project Mentors: Teams work on innovating solutions to these problems with access to individuals for mentorship on an as-needed basis. A mentorship database comprising JB Scholars across the years and across the scientific spectrum, will be maintained, from which teams can find one or more mentors to reach out to, if they need some expert guidance or access to some resource. Scholars should feel free to reach out to mentors outside the JB Scholars community too - as and what the project demands.

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• Each team would make progress at a pace they feel encouraged to pursue it, and motivated by the difference they know the results would make to the world.

• Projects can be experimental or theoretical and any combination of them. Ideally they are Interdisciplinary which may not be easily solved by an individual - therefore the diverse expertise of the JB community can be leveraged.

• Projects may be associated with the specific research one has done or is currently pursuing. However, it should not have a major overlap with the exact same project one is pursuing under a professor.

• Projects solved here may be more exploratory and based on seemingly random thoughts, while the end product still being interesting and impactful.

• A symposium will be held during the JBSPDF Fest (June-July 2021) where the Project Leaders or their designees from among the Project Associates would present the progress, further problems faced, and further innovations executed/planned for. Symposium sessions will have a panel of mentors to give live feedback.

• Based on the individual interest and outcomes, and the feedback, some of these problems would hopefully be pursued even beyond. Another symposium may again be held in December-January 2021, or as and when deemed appropriate.

Primary Organizer: Debarghya Sarkar, Postdoc, Harvard University and Mass General Hospital; JB Scholar 2010