Emma Rand, a multiple-award-winning R lecturer, will provide an introduction to the R programming language, suitable for those who have never programmed or those who simply need a refresher.  She will introduce ‘Tidyverse‘ and how to develop reproducible code that “helps your future self”.

Translating biology to data science:  This session will cover the four main “types” of problems that data science can help address (visualising high dimensional data; clustering; classification; and regression).  You will learn how to translate your scientific question into one of these “problems”, which will help you identify the best techniques for analysing your data.

You will learn how to use Unix-based command-line programming, which is often necessary for running bioinformatics software.  

You will learn how to use Quarto to write reproducible reports that help you understand the path that you took from data collection to results.  This is invaluable for long-term projects, like a PhD thesis, because you are likely to forget what you began in your first year by the time you reach the phase of writing up your thesis.

In the next few years, you will attend many conferences and training events (like this one!)  It can be very intimidating to make connections and build a network.  However, the people that you meet will be able to support you and collaborate with you in future years, if given the opportunity.  This session will give you practical tips for building a scientific network.

Science is only valuable if you can communicate it with others.  This session, run by a professional science communication coach, will teach you about effective communication, including developing a compelling narrative, using body language effectively, etc.

You will use your newfound skills in science communication to record short videos about your research.  A representative from the York Creativity Lab will be able to give you feedback on social-media specific topics and suggest editing software, etc.

Representatives from the York Biorenewables Centre will explain alternative paths to commercialisation of research outputs, from collaborating with industry to licencing IP to entrepreneurship.   A key aspect of the session will be to identify whether there is any piece of your work which has commercial value, even if it is something that could have value to other researchers or a company (not all products are sold to consumers).

There are numerous predatory journals and conferences out there.  As you start to publish, you will likely face an onslaught of emails from these sources: how can you distinguish between a genuine email and one from a predatory source?  This is not as clear-cut as you might expect.

You are at a stage where you are beginning to plan your papers.  How do you effectively discuss scientific narrative decisions with your supervisor?  How can you tell whether you have enough data to write a paper?  How do you get started when facing the horror of a blank page?

This will provide an overview of the thesis writing/viva process and systems that you can use to help you manage your time.  This will also be an opportunity to ask any questions about this key final stage of the PhD.

Students will undergo “mock interviews” with faculty members and get direct feedback on their answers.  These could be aimed towards postdoc interviews or other kinds of non-academic interviews, based on the interests of the student.  This should be a low-stress way to practice some interview techniques!

Nico is a social scientist who focusses on stakeholder engagement.  He will explore how to identify who will use your research and engage those audiences to help create a clearer path to impact of your thesis outputs, either within academia or the real-world.  Social science methods can be very handy, even for bench scientists!

Safwan will explain his personal journey through a non-traditional career path.  The talk will hopefully help you realise that a career is not a linear path.  The talk may also give you ideas about types of careers that you might not have previously considered.