Graduate Student Seminars - MBP 1015Y

The primary goals of the MBP Student Seminar Series (course MBP1015Y) are to provide the student with practical experience and guidance for clear and concise oral communication of research results to an audience of educated non-specialists. This is an essential skill for anyone seeking a career in scientific research and beyond.  This emphasis differs from that of a group meeting or conference style talk given to an audience of specialists; here, the student presents to a diverse interdisciplinary group of peers, so familiarity with the field, its details, its specialized terms and abbreviations CANNOT be assumed. This may be more analogous to a job talks or a teaching situation, where getting the essential points across and engaging the audience are key. In this year's seminars, all speakers should expect a particularly broad audience with the mixture and uptown and downtown physics and biology talks.

A secondary important goal of the series is to give each student a broad knowledge of all aspects of research undertaken in MBP. At any oral examination and committee meeting, a student can be asked to demonstrate some familiarity with research in the Department not related to their own area. Attendance at the Student Seminars is the principal means of acquiring this familiarity.

Concise abstracts (~ 250 words) should be provided similar to an abstract for a poster at a scientific conference. The name of the supervisor should be included on the abstract. All speakers should Email their abstracts to Daphne Sears on the Friday before your seminar. All students are asked to use the templates below when preparing their abstracts. Abstracts should not be over 1 page in length.

***Please note: abstracts received after the deadline will NOT be circulated*** 

• Abstract Template - Sunnybrook
• Abstract Template - Downtown
• Evaluation form to be used by faculty
• Evaluation form to be used by students

While it is expected that MBP students attend all student seminars, students are required to attend a minimum of 80% of seminars for 2 years of their MSc and 4 years of their PhD. Students must attend seminars in person and sign their own names on the attendance form.

An engaged, interested, interactive audience is essential to the success of MBP1015Y, hence ask questions. We will note attendance at both sites through the seminar evaluation forms each attending student fills out. Non-participating students can face mark deductions at the end of the academic year.

It is very important to get regular attendance from a significant number of faculty members, to ensure consistent and fair evaluations. Please attend and interact with colleagues whenever possible (ideally every week). There is compelling evidence that the mark a student receives in this course is correlated with the attendance record of the supervisor.  So please lead by example!  

Following the seminars, the faculty members remain in the seminar room for a brief evaluation period that provides direct feedback to the presenters. The discussion is led by the course coordinators Dr. Margarete Akens and Dr. Shane Harding for the downtown location and Dr. David Goertz at Sunnybrook. 2nd year MSc and PhD students will receive a mark providing the basis for the grade on their transcript. As mentioned above, good faculty participation, comprising in and out of stream members, is important to ensure a fair and robust evaluation process.

All students are evaulated by faculty using the form below. To have a better understanding of evaulator expectations, please review this document.

Download the Student Seminar Evaluation Form.

• Both auditoria are available half an hour before the start of the seminar onwards to provide ample time for presenters to test computer equipment and presentation material prior to going live.
• First year MSc students will give a practice seminar towards the end of the winter term; the schedule for these will be posted in early 2019.
• Post-docs, technicians, clinical collaborators and other interested staff are welcome to take part.
• It is extremely rude and disruptive for any attendee to enter late and/or leave early. Please remain for the entire session (two to three speakers) if possible.

Learn more about the Seminar Guidelines.