Past events 2018

Social Network Analyses

Social Network Analyses
  • Start: Jan 10, 2018
  • End: Jan 12, 2018
  • Speaker: Dr. Damien Farine
  • Damien Farine started as a Primary Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in December. Damien specialises on using quantitative approaches for studying the evolution and maintenance of sociality. He has been involved both in the developed of quantitative tools and their application in a range of empirical studies. His research on birds (both in wild and in captive experiments) and wild baboons uses simultaneous tracking of animal groups to gain insight into mechanisms that underpin the formation of social networks and the evolutionary consequences of group living.
  • Location: Möggingen/Radolfzell
  • Room: Seminar Room
  • Contact: snaworkshop@orn.mpg.de
Social network analysis is becoming a widely used tool for studying social behaviour of animals. However, getting started with animal social networks is often challenging and this half-day student conference + workshop will give a first insight in social network analysis. [more]

Statistics Module 3: Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models

Statistics Module 3: Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models
Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models: Binomial model, Poission model, GLMM and work on own data [more]

Introduction in Scientific Writing

Introduction in Scientific Writing
This two-day workshop enables life scientists to to write clearly and with impact!The participants learn how to construct a “take-home” message that tells the story of their research, choose words that communicate their science clearly, and structure their paper into a flowing narrative. [more]

Selection Symposium 2018

Selection Symposium
At our annual selection symposium, all shortlisted applicants for the upcoming PhD projects are invited to present their most relevant research in 10 min talks and get to know the IMPRS. Besides the public presentations and a 30 min interview, there also is plenty of time for informal exchanges among applicants, students and faculty during social evening events and site visits to all three locations. [more]

Scientific Writing for Advanced Students

Scientific Writing for Advanced Students
Being a scientist means one must have many skills and talents – intimidatingly so sometimes. And writing papers is one of the most important ones. It’s the currency into which we turn our research and also the most important means for the community to judge us by. Luckily, like most aspects of science it’s a skill that we can improve and this course will help you with this. [more]

Statistics Module 4: Own Data Workshop

Statistics Module 4: Own Data Workshop
Guided work on own data. [more]

Getting Published & Understanding Peer Review

Getting Published & Understanding Peer Review
Learning to write and respond to reviewers' comments are vital skills for early-career researchers to master if they wish to become established scientists. However, these skills are often neglected, forcing researchers to learn them by trial and error. By learning to address reviewers' comments, young researchers not only increase their chances of getting their work published but also learn to think critically about their own research. Equally, by becoming better reviewers, researchers can raise their profiles with journal editors. Becoming an invited reviewer for a prestigious journal is an opportunity for researchers to enhance their academic reputation and improve their career prospects. [more]

Poster Presentation

  • POSTPONED
  • Date: Sep 5, 2018
  • Time: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Nora Carlson
  • Nora is a Marie Curie Individual Research Fellow in Prof Iain Couzin's Collective Behavior Group at the Max Plank Institute for Ornithology and the University of Konstanz. Her project will investigate how birds use visual and vocal information to coordinate group movement and maintain group cohesion. She will also test how these methods of maintenance and coordination are affected by different visual and acoustic environments, to determine the effects of anthropogenic noise on flocking behaviour in birds.
  • Location: MPIO Möggingen
  • Room: MaxLounge
  • Host: IMPRS for Organismal Biology
  • Contact: mhieber@orn.mpg.de
Poster sessions are an important part of scientific conferences. They can be an effective way to communicate your research to large audiences and foster in-depth discussions about your research one-on-one with potential collaborators. This opportunity, however, often hinges on whether or not your poster entices people to come and have a look. This workshop will aim to give you the tools to make your posters attractive, encouraging more people to visit. [more]

Introduction to Individual/Agent-Based Modeling

Introduction to Individual/Agent-Based Modeling
  • Date: Sep 24, 2018
  • Time: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Marius Somveille + Dr. Adriana Maldonado-Chaparro
  • Marius is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Yale Center for Biodiversity Movement and Global Change, based at Yale University. His research aims to use a macroecological approach to study animal movements, so far particularly focusing on analyzing bird migrations at large scale. Adriana is a Biologist from Colombia doing a postdoc at the Farine lab at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Konstanz, Germany. Adriana is interested in phenotypic plasticity and how variation in social behavior can drive changes in the emergent properties involving population dynamics and ecological interactions.
  • Location: MPIO Möggingen
  • Room: MaxLounge
  • Host: IMPRS for Organismal Biology
  • Contact: mhieber@orn.mpg.de
Individual or Agent-Based Modeling (IBM/ABM) is increasingly used in many fields of science to study a wide range of phenomena. This modeling approach explicitly represents individuals (or agents) with their own characteristics and ability to make decisions based on behavioral rules. IBM allows to design computer-based experiments to study how the interaction of agents with each other and their environment lead to emergent phenomena such as swarming or epidemics. [more]

Outreach mit MaxCine

Outreach mit MaxCine
Communicating your research to the public authentically! With the MaxCine team, we will develop individual ways to present our own research clearly and to make the public curious about our work, to raise awareness for science and to include young people in our work. [more]

Statistics Module 1: Introduction to basic statistics and R

Statistics Module 1: Introduction to basic statistics and R
Day 1: Introduction to R (working in the batch modus, programming language R, reading and displaying data, writing functions, simulating data) + Basic theory (Probability distributions, Central limit theorem, Bayes theorem, Bootstrapping, Inference from data using frequentist and Bayesian methods, classical frequentist tests (t-, F-, Chi-, Wilcoxon-test)) Day 2: Computation techniques (Monte Carlo simulation, Approximations), Application to own or simulated data: Comparison of two means using frequentist and Bayesian methods, Discussion [more]

IMPRS Symposium for Alumni + Early Career Researchers

IMPRS Symposium for Alumni + Early Career Researchers
Junior scientists make an important contribution at gaining scientific and social insight and knowledge. At the same time, the predictability of an academic career becomes more and more difficult and the uncertainty in the course of a scientific career continues to grow. The 'IMPRS Symposium for Alumni + Early Career Researchers' aims to show diverse career options within and outside science and to discuss different strategies for successful networking and communication by bringing together our alumni, current IMPRS PhD candidates and external experts. [more]

SCIENTISTS NEED MORE! – Getting Started

Scientists need more
This 3-day workshops is obligatory for the new phD students and offers a first overview on how to get started. AIM - The development of scientific competence of researchers at Max Planck institutes is a major goal. Ph.D. students improve their communication with the supervisor and colleagues, develop professional skills in team working, networking, planning and project management and know how to use feedback in order to deliver a successful performance. This will enhance their overall effectiveness as they pursue their research studies and maximize success of their future careers. METHOD - Participants will experience interactive lectures, moderated discussions and perform activities to learn from first-hand experience. We will safely move them outside their “comfort zone” to the “learning zone” (Gerald Hüther) to enhance acquisition of novel skills. The experienced challenges are discussed in carefully moderated and focused review sessions, using peer-to-peer feedback as a powerful tool. [more]

Good Scientific Practice

Good Scientific Practice
As a researcher, one has the privilege to work freely and creatively, pursuing own interests and adding to the knowledge base of the scientific community - and the community in general. This freedom comes with responsibility: The responsibility for self-control, accuracy, honesty, efficiency and objectivity. The scientific community has introduced rules of research integrity, which aim to prevent scientific misconduct. This 1-day training session informs about rules of good scientific practices and how to avoid research misconduct. [more]

Statistics Module 2: Linear Models and Linear Mixed Models with R

Statistics Module 2: Linear Models and Linear Mixed Models with R
Linear models (LM) and linear mixed models (LME): Linear Regression, multiple Regression, ANOVA, ANCOVA, model selection (group work), linear mixed models, work on own data [more]

Scientific Writing for Advanced Students

Scientific Writing for Advanced Students
Being a scientist means one must have many skills and talents – intimidatingly so sometimes. And writing papers is one of the most important ones. It’s the currency into which we turn our research and also the most important means for the community to judge us by. Luckily, like most aspects of science it’s a skill that we can improve and this course will help you with this. [more]

IMPRS Student Retreat

IMPRS Student Retreat
Annual retreat of the IMPRS PhD students with workshops offered by the PhD candidates for the PhD candidates! Attendance at this retreat is obligatory for all students. [more]

Grant Proposal Writing - How to design and communicate your project convincingly

Grant Proposals Writing
Successful grant proposal writing is a fundamental basis to fund a career in research. There are plenty of national and international funding programmes with different funding schemes. Each scheme has its individual context and thematic focus, eligibility and funding rules, submission and evaluation process, and evaluation criteria. Thus, the detailed features and aspects of a successful proposal in one funding scheme are naturally differing from those of a successful proposal in another funding scheme. However, the process of how to work out these details is a common denominator to the different funding schemes. It requires skills way beyond the ability to work out a research idea in detail.The overall proposal writing starts with the generation of a new research idea and the identification of an appropriate funding scheme. This requires knowledge on funding programmes and their scientific, political or societal background. Here, documents and professionals from contact points and funding authorities may be of much help.For an excellent grant proposal, it is necessary to match the research idea with the evaluators’ view on what is wanted by the funding scheme and what is considered fit for funding. This usually requires work on the details of the idea and the specific research context.After this has been concluded, the work on the actual project and proposal can be started. A concept has to be developed, ideas, workplan and the approach have to be visualised, the budget needs to be planned and the overall proposal has to be structured and formulated. If other project partners or institutions are involved, the submission of documents has to be coordinated.Therefore, the objective of this workshop is, that students obtain an overview on funding opportunities, understand the core aspects of winning grants and know how to adapt the proposal writing process to their funding scheme of choice.Depending on the duration of the training, exercises are focused on different process steps and required skills. [more]

Writing of Research Statements

Writing of Research Statements
Applying for a position in research requires not only a CV, a letter of motivation, a list of publications and references but also a research statement. They are targeted to the job advertisement and the mission of the research group and its hosting research organisation:First, we will understand the function of the different parts of an application to a research position such as letter of motivation, CV, research statement and references. Participants are asked to bring a job application, so that they can receive a targeted feedback during the second day of the workshop.We will then define the different core elements of a research agenda, their objectives in the context of the job application and the key elements they should cover.Participants will then write their own research statement. Based on these examples we will look into approaches for a targeted motivation of the research agenda, the targeted communication of the background and current research as well as a convincing set-up of the research agenda.Depending on time and interests of the participants, we will use the Researcher Development Framework by Vitae UK to investigate into skills and competencies. Based on these a strategy will be developed to convincingly justify the principal investigator’s expertise. [more]

Conference Presentation: Engaging the Listener in Your Talk

Conference Presentation: Engaging the Listener in Your Talk
This activity-based workshop led by theatre professionals provides participants the opportunity to perfect their public-speaking skills, to improve non-verbal communication and the ability to listen and react generously. Participants are required to prepare a three to five minute overview of their work incorporating also the use of a slide, providing a basis for applying the practical aims of the workshop, which are to communicate the importance and relevance of the work and the core message in the talk. [more]

Statistics Module 3: Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models

Statistics Module 3: Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models
Generalised linear models and generalised linear mixed models: Binomial model, Poission model, GLMM and work on own data [more]
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