Communication

Lab Meetings

  • Schedule: Weekly during the Fall and Spring semesters, lasting one hour.
  • Purpose: Share scientific challenges, progress, future directions, and news with lab members.
  • Format:
    1. Opening: Lab-wide activity and updates.
    2. Students share past challenges and progress.
    3. Discussion of any pressing news.
    4. Presentation by one student or group (work or article).
    5. Wrap-up.
  • Attendance: Members are expected to attend lab meetings regularly, treating them as equivalent to a course.
  • Presentation Schedule: A schedule will be provided during the first week of each semester. Students are expected to select a date/time to present and, if relevant, share scientific manuscripts one week in advance.

Slack

  • Purpose: Main tool for fast, informal communication among lab members.
  • Setup:
    • Sign up with your university username at Slack .
    • Download the app for desktop and mobile use.
  • Workspaces and Channels:
    • All lab members join the compuncertlab workspace.
    • Channels correspond to specific topics/projects.
    • Default channels: #general and #random.
    • Guidelines: One channel, one topic.
  • Communication Style: Quick, informal discussions.

List-Serv

  • Address: compuncertlab-list@lehigh.edu.
  • Purpose: PI shares information, opportunities, and resources.
  • Joining: Email the PI at mcandrew@lehigh.edu to be added.

Email

  • Use email for more formal communication.

Uncertainty Science Levels

Lab members are categorized into three levels based on experience and responsibilities. Levels can be adjusted by mutual agreement with the PI.

Uncertainty Scientist I (UncS-I)

  • Responsibilities: Attend lab meetings, join Slack, and read relevant literature.
  • Optional: Participate in a project.

Uncertainty Scientist II (UncS-II)

  • Responsibilities:
    • Select and contribute to a specific project.
    • Maintain weekly contact with team and PI.
    • Produce outputs such as manuscripts, abstracts, presentations, or public reports.

Uncertainty Scientist III (UncS-III)

  • Responsibilities:
    • Funded position.
    • Conduct novel research leading to manuscripts.
    • Work on human judgment, probabilistic forecasting, ensemble models, compartmental models, etc.
    • Support and instruct UncS-I and UncS-II members in programming.

Expected and Potential Skills

Students are expected to gain skills in time series modeling, mechanistic modeling, optimization and fitting models. Students should have familarity with the python programming language and basic knowledge of the terminal. Below is a partial list of resources that can help students acquire skills.

Scientific Programming

Mathematics and Statistics

Forecast Evaluation

Conference and Journal Submissions

Scientific Abstracts

  • Structure:
    1. Title: Reflects the infectious agent and major contribution.
    2. Background: Two sentences on disease burden and related work.
    3. Gap: One sentence on innovation or contribution.
    4. Methods: Two sentences on data collection/modeling.
    5. Results: Summary of main findings.
    6. Discussion: Significance and impact.
  • Funding: Speak with the PI immediately upon abstract acceptance to secure travel and poster resources.
  • Procedure: The student will be responsible for sharing the abstract, poster, and/or scientific talk with the PI for approval. The research product should be presented to the PI 7 days before the event for approval.

Scientific Papers

  • Submissions to journals are supported. Prioritize journals that are aligned with lab goals.
  • Authorship and placement on the paper will be discussed during the beginning stages of manuscript preperation.

Resources on Campus

  • Health and Wellbeing: Support available for all students.