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Julia Belyakova edited this page Nov 8, 2023 · 37 revisions

Short descriptions and SOPs for the roles from the contact page. It is probably enough to limit "Who did this job before" to 3-5 entries.

  • The roles are to be rotated at the beginning of the academic year. The current contact manager is responsible for scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting.

  • New people assuming the roles should update this document with new and / or changing details about their roles.

Note. Sensitive info related to accounts, calendars, and mailing lists is stored in a separate repository.

  • As a rule of thumb, the repo should be available to at least the webmaster, contact managers, social media manager, PL-seminar manager, PL-junior manager, and reading group manager.

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PRL activities

PL Seminar and Internal Talks

  • PL seminar: often invited talks
  • Internal talks: not polished talks by lab members in front of lab members

Internal talks are often initiated by students or for the purpose of practice talks (by either students or faculty). The description below covers formal seminar talks.

The role is usually divided by a faculty and one or several students.

Beginning of the semester:

  • Pick a regular day and time for the seminar. (Try to) Book WVH 366 for that day and time.
  • There is a page that shows room availability. Log in with your Khoury username/password.

Regular operation:

  • Find a presenter (usually but not necessarily done by the faculty in the role) and a PRL faculty host (someone who would introduce the presenter before the talk).

The rest is usually done by the students in the role.

  • Negotiate a date with the presenter; preferably, according to the regular seminar schedule. Add the date to the PRL Seminar calendar. Book a room for the presentation (usually WVH 366, but it's sometimes hard to get). Inform the speaker about the talk format: 40-45 minute talk with 15 minutes for Q & A.
  • (Important, easy to miss). Notify the Lab via the mailing list about the upcoming talk as soon as you get the date and time. After that, send emails 1 week, 1 day and 10 minutes before the scheduled talk time.
  • Get the details from the presenter (title, abstract, bio). Post them on the website under Seminar and announce on the mailing list.
  • If the presenter is willing to participate in traditional 1-to-1's on the talk day, create a spreadsheet with 30-minutes slots for the time span suitable for the presenter and share the spreadsheet with PRL for commenting. PRL members will leave their names on the time slots when they'd like to meet the presenter. Move their names from comments to the cells. (Example of the spreadsheet.) Encourage students, especially more junior ones, to sign up for 1-to-1's.
  • In the day of the talk make sure that everything (1-to-1's if any, and the talk) goes smoothly.

Who did this job before:

  • Luna Phipps-Costin, Steven Holtzen (2023–now)
  • John Gouwar, John Li, Arjun Guha (2022–2022)
  • Arjun Guha, Andrew Wagner, Michelle Thalakottur (2021–2022)
  • Artem Pelenitsyn, Amal Ahmed (2020­–2021)

PL Seminar, Junior

Beginning of the semester:

  • Ask the previous manager for access to GitHub and mailing list
  • Create a when2meet (or its analog) and send it to prl-students mailing list and Slack
  • Pick a date and time for the first meeting
  • Create a new wiki page for the current semester
  • Run the first meeting:
    • brainstorm topics and record them in the wiki
    • depending on the attendees' preferences, pick the means of communication: we used to send announcements to pl-jr mailing list, but if everyone is on Slack, that can work, too

Choosing a topic. Brainstorming of topics can be done ahead of the first meeting asynchronously (e.g. in Slack). Encourage participants to suggest a learning material along with the topic if they know about one or can take 10 minutes to research one. Suggested topics are put to a poll. A bad method for polling: Slack emoji. A good method for polling: ranked voting using Condorcet Internet Voting Service.

Regular operation:

  • Weekly meetings
  • Send a reminder before the meeting
  • After the meeting, write a quick summary (and possible list of attendees) to the wiki

Formats we've tried in the past:

  • Reading aloud research papers at the meeting (attendees take turns): pause to discuss questions and tough material
  • Reading research papers in advance, with somebody presenting at the meeting
  • Watching lectures/talks during the meeting, pausing for discussion
  • Working through textbooks (either in advance and discussing, or reading aloud at the meeting)

Who did this job before:

  • Sarah Marshall, Liam DeVoe (2023–now)
  • John Li (2022-2023)
  • Olek Gierczak (2021-2022)

ZED-talks

ZED-talks are extremely informal student research talks. ZED does not really stand for anything, but could mean "zero preparation, zero slides, zero expectations, zero judgment," except that all of those are guidelines and don't have to be followed.

The purpose of a ZED-talk is for a student to practice communicating their research, organize their thoughts, realize weak points and/or new approaches, share knowledge, and get help on research.

The difference between an internal talk and a ZED-talk: There is some overlap, but ZED-talks are even more informal and expectations should be even lower. ZED-talks are typically impromptu, and faculty may or may not be present. Any student should be able to give a ZED-talk without prior notice, no matter what state their research is in. A ZED-talk may be a good place to flesh out an early research idea before presenting it as an internal talk.

Regular operation:

  • Depending on the seminar schedule, it may be possible to use the room/slot on days where no PRL Seminar is scheduled.
  • Otherwise, it may be necessary to schedule a separate weekly slot (see "Instructions on booking a room at Khoury" section at the bottom of this page)
  • The main responsibility of the organizer is to solicit talks from students.
  • Ideally, each week a different student gives a talk. After every student has given a talk, enough time should have passed so that a new round of talks is feasible.

Who did this job before:

  • Cameron Moy (2023–now)
  • Satyajit Gokhale, John Gouwar (2022-2023)
  • Julia Belyakova, John Li (2021-2022)
  • Ming-Ho Yee (2018-2019)

Website

Webmaster

  • making sure everything works
  • reviewing pull requests
  • attending to GitHub issues

Who did this job before:

  • Liam DeVoe (2023–now)
  • Luna Phipps-Costin (2022–2023)
  • Yangtian Zi (2021–2022)
  • Michael Ballantyne (2019–⁠2020)

Blog Editor

  • solicit blog posts from lab members
  • review blog drafts and provide feedback

Who did this job before:

  • Katie Hough (2023-now)
  • Lucy Amidon (2022-2023)
  • Ming-Ho Yee (2021-2022)
  • Cameron Moy (2019–2021)

Publication Page Maintainer

  • check PRL members’ publications from time to time and update them accordingly

Usually, people maintain publications on their personal websites. Thus, one way to do the job is to go over PRL members on the people page and check their websites.

To get started with editing the publications page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Who did this job before:

  • Andrew Wagner (2023-now)
  • Katherine Hough (Fall 2020–2023)
  • Artem Pelenitsyn (Fall 2018–⁠Summer 2020)

Teaching & Software Pages Maintainer

  • software: needs updates very rarely
  • teaching: update it once a semester (check faculty’s web pages and NEU system to get info about classes)

To get started with editing the pages, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Who did this job before:

  • Farideh Khalili (2023–now)
  • Andrew Wagner (2022–2023)
  • Michael Ballantyne (2020–⁠2022)
  • Julia Belyakova (2019–2020)

People Page Maintainer

(1) Keep the people page and new members page up-to-date.

  • Add new students and faculty, as well as post-docs and visiting faculty (students visiting as interns are not added to the page).
  • Move graduating students and former members to "alumni and former members".

(2) When new people join the lab, ping them about adding the info to the people page if they don't contact you first.

Note. The hardest part of the job is to make people send you info :)

To get started with editing the people page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Adding new people:

You can ask for the following information:

  • short bio (see http://prl.ccs.neu.edu/people.html for examples)
  • advisor (for students) or title (for faculty/post-docs)
  • contacts (email and optionally website)
  • 180x180px photo or picture with .jpg or .png extension.

Regular operation:

  • At the beginning of the semester, ping new lab members and request the info. If they don't send you the info, remind from time to time.
  • When somebody graduates or leaves, move them to former members.
  • Once a semester or a year, remind everyone that they can send you updated bios and/or pictures.

Who did this job before:

  • Farideh Khalili (2023–now)
  • Andrew Wagner (2022-now)
  • Donald Pinckney (2021–⁠2022)

Facilities

TODO

Who did this job before:

  • Francesca Lucchetti (2023-now)

Social

Twitter

The lab Twitter account is @neu_prl.

At the beginning of the year:

  • Update the followed accounts (unfollow people who have left the PRL, follow new members)
  • Update the lists (e.g. current members, former members) See if any new accounts need to be added to the appropriate list (e.g. conference account)
  • The account follows:
    • current PRL members
    • relevant Northeastern University accounts
    • relevant CS/PL/PL-adjacent organization/conference accounts
    • software project accounts with PRL involvement

Regular operation:

  • Tweet any relevant PRL news and announcements (e.g. accepted papers, upcoming seminars, new blog posts)
  • Retweet anything relevant or important (could be PRL-specific or relevant to the wider PL/PL-adjacent/CS community)
  • Tweet anything "fun" that happened in the lab
    • e.g. tea time, plants, artwork
    • This is to advertise the social atmosphere/culture of the PRL

Who did this job before:

  • John Li (2023-now)
  • Sam Stites, Artem Pelenitsyn (2022-2023)
  • Ming-Ho Yee (2016-2020)

Happy Hour

  • weekly/biweekly meetings in pubs after work (sometimes not only PRL would join)
  • mailing list TODO

Who did this job before:

  • James Perretta (2023-now)
  • Aaron Weiss (2019-2020)

Coffee Czar

Responsibilities:

  • ensuring that there's a steady supply of coffee beans;
  • fundraising for coffee-related purchases (general guideline: when beginning your tenure as czar, gather names of people who will use the coffee machine, and every few months ask them for money for beans/cleaning supplies);
  • maintenance of the coffee machine (people generally help out with this).

Who did this job before:

  • Minsung Cho, Ryan Doenges (2022-now)
  • Ben Greenman (2019-2021)
  • Alexi Turcotte (2018-2019)

Might need a Deputy Coffee Czar for helping out.

Tea Tsar

Responsibilities:

  • The water pitcher and hot water dispenser need to be cleaned regularly
    • Cleaning should be at least once per month, maybe even as frequently as once per week, depending on usage and cleanliness
      • The drainage tray might need to be cleaned more frequently (once per week)
    • The pitcher can just be watched with dish detergent and water
    • To clean the hot water dispenser:
      • Dissolve some citric acid (or lemon juice) into the tank and run a few cycles at the highest temperature
      • Unplug and wipe down the exterior
      • Wash the tank and drainage tray with dish detergent and water
      • Run a few cycles with drinking water to rinse out the citric acid (or lemon juice)
  • People will usually bring their own tea, but some people will donate tea to the lab
    • If the community tea supply is low, you might want to solicit donations

Who did this job before:

  • Max Bernstein (2023-now)
  • Olek Gierczak (2022-2023)
  • Ming-Ho (2017-2019)

Tea Time

Tea Time (or Tea(m)Time or PLTea) is a short (15-30min) break to enjoy tea/snacks and chat with labmates.

  • At the beginning of the semester, choose 1-2 times to meet, using a new when2-meet or the lab-wide when2meet
  • ~5 minutes before Tea Time, the Tea Tsar (or Deputy Tea Tsar) should start preparing (i.e. brewing a large pot of tea, bringing snacks out) so that everything is ready when Tea Time starts
  • When Tea Time starts, announce it on the #tea-time channel on Slack
  • Gently remind people when Tea Time is over, and make sure someone is responsible for cleanup if people choose to stay longer

Who did this job before:

  • Max Bernstein (2023-now)
  • Olek Gierczak (2022-2023)
  • Ming-Ho (2020-2021)

Rice Cooker Czar (Rice Rzar)

TODO

Who did this job before:

  • Yangtian Zi (2023-now)
  • Max Bernstein (2022-2023)

Chat Administrator

TODO

Who did this job before:

  • Sam Stites, Donald Pinckney, Satyajit Gokahale (2022-now)

Lunch Ambassadors

TODO

Who did this job before:

  • Olek Gierczak, John Li (2023-now)

Contact Managers

Students and GitHub org + Onboarding

Responsibilities:

  • Adding new members to mailing lists:

  • Pointing new members to the new members page.

  • Adding new members to nuprl GitHub organization and the lab-members team there.

  • Inviting students and postdocs to the lab Slack and inviting everyone to the lab Matrix.

  • Forwarding info about new members to the people manager.

  • Updating contact page at the beginning of the academic year, after the beginning-of-the-year lab meeting; also updating this very wiki page to record who has taken the roles.

  • Updating GitHub org access rights (see the top of this wiki page for info about the repo with sensitive data).

  • Scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting for the next year at the end of the current academic year.

Getting started:

Ask previous contact manager for access to mailing lists and GitHub org.

Requesting contact information:

Ask new members for:

  1. email they would like to use for mailing lists;
  2. [students and postdocs only] email they would like to use for Slack;
  3. GitHub handle for adding to the org.

Editing website:

To get started with editing the contact page, see Instructions on editing PRL pages at the bottom of this page.

Note. The source file is in a racket DSL. Class parameters such as "col-xs-6 col-md-3" are from the Bootstrap framework.

  • Numbers denote how many horizontal slots out of 12 are taken by the element. E.g. if we need a row of 4 elements, every element within the row should use value 3; for 2 elements in a row, use value 6.
  • col-xs specifies the size for small screens; col-md specifies the size for medium screens and larger. Thus, "col-xs-6 col-md-3" will occupy half of the screen on a small screen but only a quarter on larger ones.

Scheduling a beginning-of-the-year lab meeting: (old approach)

  • Some time close to the end of the summer, create a when2meet and share with the mailing lists. It is useful to set an explicit deadline.
  • Ask faculty to volunteer for running the meeting (this can be done in the same email you use to share the when2meet).
  • To pick the dates for when2meet, check NEU calendar: start some days before the beginning of the semester and give ~2 weeks span for scheduling.
  • If the meeting is to be held in person, book a room with the College.
  • It may help to create and share an agenda doc prior to the meeting. Sharing this wiki page will also be useful for incoming members.

NOTE. It might be good to reconsider the approach to this meeting, e.g. make it student-run with the faculty only doing introductions. Consider talking to other students about this.

Who did this job before:

  • John Gouwar (2023-now)
  • Cameron Moy (2021-2023)
  • Julia Belyakova (Fall 2019–Summer ⁠2021)

Instructions on editing PRL pages

We use the people page as an example.

Getting started:

  • Fork the website (or you can work with the main repo directly if preferred).
  • Install racket and build the website following these instructions.

Making a change:

  • Edit people.rkt and run make people.html to make sure the edit is working.
  • Commit and create a pull request (make sure to commit images in img if needed).
  • If the pull request builds successfully, you can merge it right away or wait for a couple of days in case other people notice any discrepancies.

Note. The source file is in a racket DSL, but it should be straightforward to copy-paste and edit similar blobs of code. Just keep an eye on matching brackets and the end of the section you are editing.

Instructions on booking a room at Khoury

As of 2022, email Khoury Operations Team (khoury-opsteam@northeastern.edu) to ask for a room. If you know which rooms are good for the event, it may help to specify them, but in any case, the opsteam expects you to provide info on:

  • date and time
  • for how long the room is needed
  • expected number of participants
  • whether projector/whiteboard are needed
  • purpose (e.g. seminar)
  • your name and NUID

And it's always better to ask for card access to the room!

Management info

  • @neu_prl Twitter - Ming-Ho Yee
  • pl-sem-jr Mailing List - Andrew Wagner and Artem Pelenitsyn
  • prl-reading-group Mailing List - John Gouwar and Arjun Guha
  • prl-all Mailing List - Cameron Moy and Jan Vitek
  • prl-students Mailing List - Cameron Moy
  • prl-staff Mailing List - Jan Vitek
  • NU PRL Seminar Google Calendar - Aviral Goel
  • neuprl Disqus - Artem Pelenitsyn
  • PRL-students Slack - Ming-Ho Yee and Alexi Turcotte
  • PRL Matrix - Leif Andersen
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