GoBiG 2013 Schedule and News

I hope you have all had a nice Christmas and New Years holiday. Right before Christmas, we had a GoBiG meeting in student seminar form, but we also made some important decisions for GoBiG in 2013. The details for that is outlined below.

1. Schedule for the Spring 2013 GoBiG Meetings
– Thursday, January 31 (Master of Article: Kemal Sanli)
– Wednesday, February 27 (MoA: José Sanchez)
– Tuesday, March 19 (MoA: Chandan Pal)
– Monday, April 22 (MoA: Francesco Gatto)
– Thursday, May 30 (MoA: Amir Feizi)
– Wednesday, June 19 (Special Problem Solving Meeting)

As you can see, we are still missing master of articles for the last two meetings of the spring. If you want to take a spot (this is your chance to influence our choice of subjects!), or have an idea for another scientific activity, please send me an e-mail. Spots will be filled at a first come – first served basis.

2. Credits for the GoBiG meetings
We have previously talked about how to squeeze out course credits for our meetings. Viktor Jonsson has investigated this possibility. However, it seems that we will need the course to be set up separately at each department/faculty. Therefore all interested in getting points should talk to the local person responsible for PhD courses (supervisor/examiner/study director/etc.) and ask what is required for THEM to pass a course. Viktor is currently drafting a course plan that can be used as a template for this course, which should be completed before the January meeting (31/1). If everyone has a talk with their responsible person, we can make a definite decision on this subject in January.

3. Suggestions for activities in 2013
We had an interesting discussions about what activities we should plan in 2013. Some suggestions were:
– Make smaller projects in groups that can go on between two or more meetings, and then be presented. This work could later end up as course credits, or even a published paper, depending on what kind of project the group engages in
– Having an open discussion meeting on applications of various technologies/software once every semester
– Holding a short problem solving session at the end of each meeting
– Having a workshop where everyone can bring their data and try to squeeze out as much as possible in a number of hours
To simplify things, if you have an opinion on any of these questions, please fill in this doodle before the next meeting: http://doodle.com/7mmmpakbem6d6rva

4. Swedish Bioinformatics Workshop
It turns out that the Swedish Bioinformatics Workshop in 2013 will be held in Skövde. Björn Olsson will be responsible for the workshop which will take place in october or november. We will (hopefully) get further updates through Marcela. This means that we should volunteer for the 2014 workshop. If interested in joining the organizing committee, fill in that at the doodle above (http://doodle.com/7mmmpakbem6d6rva), or mail me. Note that we won’t start planning for that workshop in the nearest future!

5. Other news
– Did you know that GOTBIN has a Google Group message board? This is a very useful forum if you have questions about anything in bioinformatics, linux, clusters etc. It is also a nice place to get the latest news in bioinformatics in Gothenburg. It can be found here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gotbin
– Anna Johnning will look into the possibilities of getting a “fika grant” from the Hvitfeldtska foundation. The idea is to get money for interaction within out network. We’ll see how that works out.

6. Evaluation of 2012
At last, some words on how the evaluation of the 2012 activities ended up. Overall, the people who have attended most of the meetings were satisfied with the format, time and subjects of the meetings. Those who didn’t attend more than a few meetings generally did not come because of lack of time. There were suggestions for moving the time of the meetings, however, the great majority of people want the meetings to remain on their 15-17.30 time with following afterwork.

Best wishes for 2013, and remember to fill in the Doodle: http://doodle.com/7mmmpakbem6d6rva