Information for guest speakers
Guest speakers, or hosts of lab visits, often ask questions about the structure
of the course, and the background of its students, that I hope are addressed
in what follows.
Who will be in the audience?
Anyone in attendance can safely assumed to be either in the second, or
later year, of a doctoral program, or to have a doctorate, with a specialization
in vision, or in a related area. This specialized "topics" course typically
draws a handful (e.g. 2-6) of students taking the course for credit, as
well has students who have taken the course in a prior year. Visitors on
sabbatical, postdocs, or departmental faculty occasionally attend, as well.
What level of background can I safely assume students will have?
Everyone in attendance will have had, at least, a graduate course in vision.
Students from the CNS department will have had a course that covers (1)
elementary physiology (at the level of chapters from Kandel, Schwartz,
& Jessel), supplemented by 8-10 review articles, (2) basic psychophysical
concepts (e.g. "contrast sensitivity function", "interstimulus interval",
"two alternative forced choice", etc.) and (3) computational models of
early vision (e.g. brightness perception, illusory contour formation.)
Some in attendance will have backgrounds going considerably beyond these
basics.
How will/should my presentation differ from a colloquium?
(1) I do not actively advertise presentations. You, or anyone from your
lab, are welcome to attend any sessions held here. Web postings and word
of mouth mean that, occasionally, a visitor will show up to listen to a
particular speaker's presentations. I therefore ask speakers to "pitch"
their talk not to the casual generalist, but to individuals who either
have, or are aggressively pursuing, advanced training in vision.
(2) Students meet on Mondays for one hour to discuss readings for UPCOMING
guest presentations or lab visits.
(3) You are asked to suggest required readings to be covered in advance
of your presentation. I consider it my job to insure that students taking
the course for credit actually read that material! Most others will do
so in any case, because they are motivated!
(4) Most importantly: Please do not feel that you must present primarily
new ("latest and greatest") research material exclusively. It's not that
we mind that (!), but this is a CLASS, and it is entirely appropriate to
present tutorial background, methodological detail, or any other ancillary
stuff that you feel is worth transmitting to the next generation of researchers!
What, and how much, should I suggest for readings?
The idea here is: More is more. Many speakers simply suggest one or two
recent research articles from their labs, and that is fine. If it seems
appropriate, though, and you have the time, please send an "augmented"
list, using such designators as "background", "core", or "supplementary"
to indicate the utility of specific articles. An example of a reading list
generated by a previous course with a similar structure can be found by
clicking
here.
What can I do to make Ennio's life easier?
As you've no doubt figured out, the major difficulty in organizing this
course consists in organizing the course. "Easiest" would be for you to
do the following, soon, and in a single pass:
(1) Send me an exact title for your presentation, or, if you prefer,
just indicate the topic.
(2) Send me, in electronic form, the *complete* references for readings.
(Yes, we've all heard that you were featured on the covers of TIME and
NEWSWEEK, but it would be so much easier if you could provide the particulars!
;-)
(3) Send me two (!) paper copies of all "core" readings. I keep one
copy in my personal archives, and make another available to the students
for their own photocopying. Pertinent info:
Ennio Mingolla
Center for Adaptive Systems &
Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
Boston University
677 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02215
TEL: 617-353-9485
FAX: 617-353-7755
email: ennio@cns.bu.edu
(4) Tell me whether you would like me to incorporate links to your
own lab's web site in the course's web listings. If so; please send the
reference.
(5) Tell me if you'll need any unusual audiovisual resources; if so,
just HOW unusual?
Link back to Course
Home Page .