It is not typical for a first year graduate student to present at a national conference, at least not in chemistry. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a tight nit group and almost our entire group attended the spring national conference of my first year in graduate school. My PI gave me a short project that I worked hard on to get enough data to make a poster out of and I am very grateful for that because it was one of the best weeks of graduate school for me, especially so early on in my graduate career.
In this trip, since so many people were going, my group got an AirBnB to stay in so everyone could socialize together. It was wonderful! I was the low man on the totem pole, since I was the only first year student, so I took the couch while everyone else got to sleep in beds. It was fine with me, I was happy to be along. With this setup, we all got up in the morning and would get ready and then head to the convention center as a group. Then in the evening we would trickle back to the house in smaller groups as we got done with the talks we wanted to see. Then we would make dinner, drink, and play games late into the night. Wake up after four or five hours of sleep and repeat the process.
With this setup, I got to know the other grad students in my group much better, and we got several stories that we are able to reminisce on years later. If you attend a conference by yourself, it is a good time to make networking connections in industries and other universities. Get to know a few people, bump shoulders, exchange emails (it is a good idea to print business cards before you leave for the conference), try to find people that do similar work or could help you get a job after you graduate.
National conferences have two levels of presentations. The introductory level is doing a poster (I call this introductory because undergraduates are typically able to present posters at national conferences). The higher level is doing a talk, which are typically 10-15 minutes plus a few minutes for questioning. I had done a poster before in undergrad so I was comfortable doing a poster again for graduate school.
Poster presentations are, in some ways, nicer to do than talks. They are stressful to make because you need it finalized by your PI and printed, ideally before you leave for the conference so you don't have to try and print it at the conference. This means about a week of stress making it, but once it is submitted for printing, it is done. Nothing you can do to change it unless there are serious errors, which at this point there shouldn't be. Then you get to enjoy the conference and your only commitment is to present the poster at a two hour poster sessions, which typically offers beer and wine during the session. Once you put your poster up, get your drink in hand, then you just stand by your poster and casually engage people that show an interest in your work. Once the two hours are up, you get to take down your poster and enjoy the rest of the conference.
Talks are different beasts. I haven't given a talk at a national conference yet, only at a regional one so the experiences I will talk about is from the grad students in my group that gave talks. Talks are better than posters because you get to make changes all the way up until you present and you only have to present for 20 minutes rather than two hours. The downside is you get make changes up until you present. This can be a downer, especially when you are attending the conference with friends that are presenting posters. The ones presenting posters are carefree, enjoying talks, food, drinks, while you have a presentation that you are constantly working on, especially if your PI is at the conference as well. Talks are great, they are a right of passage that every graduate student should go through at some point.
National conferences are a party of sorts. Yes they are official and knowledge is exchanged, but they are not the pinnacle conferences in most fields. Most fields have smaller conferences (such as the Gordon Conferences) that put a huge emphasis on presenting unpublished results, bring together the top researchers in the fields, and encourage discussion after each talk. Presenting at a national conference is another stepping stone, another item to check of the bucket list of being a graduate student. Even though it is just one more thing to do, if you attend it with friends and colleagues, you will make many memories that you can share and reminisce about later in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment