“Quick Fix” meetings are generally held on Fridays at 11am, in our “journal club” time slot. The goal of “quick fix” or “10 min brainstorm” meetings is for each person in lab to have the opportunity to crowdsource a problem that they are facing to the lab. Anyone can ask a question on a single topic. Attendance is optional. Please feel free to attend and ask, or attend without asking. This is a great way to learn about the nitty gritty issues underlying the techniques we use in the lab.
For the askers…#
“Asking” is optional. If you would like to present a problem/question to the group, please prepare 1 slide that summarizes your question/problem and a very brief (<2 min) pitch for what you need help on. Please limit yourself to 1 problem/question. Depending on the number of people who opted-in for given week, each person will only have 5-10 min each so be efficient with your time! Post your slide here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dDSx2JZV1kTFLah8wAJ7aUHiOCYqgS6P?usp=sharing
This is a great opportunity for practicing quick and efficient science delivery. Try to present the problem/question with only the necessary details and do not include background on your project. Your data slide can be whatever would be most useful for discussion, this could be raw data (e.g., here is a behavior trace, why are my flies doing X?) or summary data (e.g., here is a scatter of X v Y, what would be a good way of representing Z?).
Please try to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to ask questions. If you were the first to present in the previous session because you had an urgent problem, maybe you can be the last to present this session.
If there are follow up discussions that you would like to have on related questions/problems, please do so after the meeting. In that sense you can use these meetings to identify folks in lab who might be helpful to follow up with!
For all other attendees…#
This is a great opportunity to practice efficient problem solving. Please be respectful of the fact that each presenter only has 5-10 min. Focus any clarifying questions only on the material being presented and stay on topic. Keep your answers brief when possible. Following up for longer discussion is encouraged!
For the organizer…#
One person should be in charge of running these meetings. Said person has two jobs:
- Keep folks on topic, limit extensive discussions
- keep a running notes page that briefly summarizes 1) the question/problem that was presented and 2) the solutions that were offered. That way folks in the future can look back at common problems for answers.