We can all agree that the Digital Age has changed the way we communicate and the level of intimacy associated with it.

Jin Lee new graphic called “10 Levels of Intimacy in Communication” definitely opens the floor for further discussion. What do you think of the levels? Are [...]]]>

We can all agree that the Digital Age has changed the way we communicate and the level of intimacy associated with it.

Jin Lee new graphic called “10 Levels of Intimacy in Communication” definitely opens the floor for further discussion. What do you think of the levels? Are there similarities in research or scientific communication?

[via Design Year Book]

Just a quick informational post guys. If you’re at all interested in: becoming a patent lawyer, business development professional, or even if you think you’ll need to apply for a patent one day there is a course being offered over at the National Council for Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET) website that [...]]]>

Just a quick informational post guys. If you’re at all interested in: becoming a patent lawyer, business development professional, or even if you think you’ll need to apply for a patent one day there is a course being offered over at the National Council for Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET) website that you might want to take. It’s relatively cheap for students ~$30 and starts on May 11th. Keep in mind it is specific to the US patent system – but let’s be realistic EVERYONE wants a US patent first (at least right now).

Topics covered:

Course name: Understanding patents and the patent process

Overview of patents
Drafting the application
Components of an application
Best practices (to retain patent rights and prove you were “first to invent”)
Valuation of patents, licensing, commercializing etc.

Check it out!

Link: NCET2

and in case that link doesn’t work, go here and look in the online webinars section.

This is more of an informative post than anything. As graduate students, I would assume that most of us are life long learners and pride ourselves in our capacity to understand new things. Unfortunately for us, our education has been expensive. Even as graduate students, we somehow find $3500 a term disappearing from [...]]]>

This is more of an informative post than anything. As graduate students, I would assume that most of us are life long learners and pride ourselves in our capacity to understand new things. Unfortunately for us, our education has been expensive. Even as graduate students, we somehow find $3500 a term disappearing from our bank accounts for tuition.

Luckily enough for future generations, I think there may be a trend towards cheaper (or free), less formal education with the evolution of Web 2.0. For example, I recently came across a resource on the web, offering an entire Webinar on Technology Transfer for free. For those of you also interested in this career (or if you’re just interested in intellectual property and/or business for that matter) I would recommend checking it out.

You can find it here: http://bit.ly/axxIMa

Simply create a free account with a username and password and you`ll have access to the entire course which includes slides and audio lectures. It is offered by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Technology Transfer in the United States – Kudos to them. However, some of the intricacies of patent and business law discussed are different in the States, but most of the material applies here in Canada as well.

I had a discussion about this website with a friend and he mentioned there were a number of initiatives like it spearheaded by large academic institutions in the U.S. (and possibly in Canada?). I was curious about this, so I did a little digging and to my surprise- and probably to many of you- there are actually MANY full length courses, including video and audio (even assignments and tests!) posted online for FREE by colleges like Yale and MIT.

I think this is great and although most of the courses are basic first year classes, there are definitely some gems to be found.

Here is the link to the Yale open learning website : http://bit.ly/R2LFr
and MIT: http://bit.ly/33VIo

These sites are supplemented by iTunes libraries and YouTube channels. It appears that at least some academic institutions are embracing social media and web 2.0. I’m wondering, however, what exactly is their motivation for doing this? Do they believe that it will attract extra students because only the most basic courses are offered and they will want more? Is it in preparation for charging students for access? Are they going to adopt a “youtube” model of revenue (ie Ads) Or is this a truly altruistic act? Somehow I doubt it…
I’d love to hear some of your opinions.

The need to express personal feelings, dietary habits, travel itineraries, misfortunes and general whereabouts has become widespread. This somewhat egomaniacal urge has spawned from the proliferation of social media websites – facebook, myspace, twitter, linkedin and other general blogs. But what to do when these social media outlets cause embarrassment, ridicule, or worse…?

What compels [...]]]>

The need to express personal feelings, dietary habits, travel itineraries, misfortunes and general whereabouts has become widespread. This somewhat egomaniacal urge has spawned from the proliferation of social media websites – facebook, myspace, twitter, linkedin and other general blogs.
But what to do when these social media outlets cause embarrassment, ridicule, or worse…?

What compels me to write this post today was reading this entry on the Huffington post “The Funniest Facebook Snafus Of All Time” and Facebook recent privacy changes. The first article made me laugh for a good 10 minutes, but then hilarity was overcome by a sinking feeling of terror (fueled by the second article): world-wide-web embarrassment could happen to anyone, it could happen to you or me.

The idea of offering to the public an extremely private or sacred piece of information, offers a compelling question at this point of my life: should we protect our lives from lab mates, co-workers, collaborators and supervisors? How much information should we really put out there? Are our private lives a liability for our careers? Do we risk to lose the respect of our colleagues or bosses after they take a glance at the “crazy pictures from last night party at John’s house”? Should graduate students be weary of messages, posts, pictures they share with the world? In my opinion the answer is YES.

Any good book on graduate school will warn the student too eager to produce his or her first research article from publishing mediocre results, to avoid the embarrassment years down the road, when that journal article might be considered at best, regrettable. Likewise, these social networks are creating an everlasting retrievable digital trail that one day may be hard to look back with pride.

Tasteless pictures, controversial comments and opinions might not turn off a prospective employer or collaborator, but we should all keep in mind that we are liable for whatever we decide to release into the “social media-sphere”, and that it is certainly up to one’s judgment to decide what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate

That being said, to open up our lives and psyches to general examination by people who might judge us may seem scary. But personal expression can be quite liberating. Also, sharing the content of our character and displaying an interesting personality may actually endear someone to you; your lab-mates may find you funnier than during those ‘Thursdays morning meetings’ and your future boss may think that your traveling experience may come in handy with the new collaborator from Spain.

There is no doubt that social networking may be a liability when used inappropriately, but the possibilities for success (personal and non-personal) are limitless. Perhaps, one must remember the goal for which social networks were created : simpler and faster social interaction.

UPDATE Feb 10 – As though we needed another social networking website the “big G” aka big brother Google jumped in the mix with the new ‘Google Buzz’, here’s what NOT to get into:

My last blog just scratched the surface of the many career options available to graduate students in the department of Medical Biophysics (or most graduate departments for that matter). So I’m going to discuss with you three more options today. Someone mentioned they’d be interested in hearing what a radiation physicist does, [...]]]> Welcome back!

My last blog just scratched the surface of the many career options available to graduate students in the department of Medical Biophysics (or most graduate departments for that matter). So I’m going to discuss with you three more options today. Someone mentioned they’d be interested in hearing what a radiation physicist does, so I’ll try my best to answer that question.

Medical Radiation Physicist (Radiation Oncology Physics)

These advanced degree holders (typically a Ph.D. in medical physics) work in the hospital setting. Medical Radiation Physicists are involved in all aspects of radiation therapy. Their day to day responsibilities include ensuring that radiation emitting devices within the hospital are functioning properly, monitoring emissions and recommending safe dosages and treatment parameters. Radiation Physicists verify that the hospital is following established guidelines for the use of radiation. This career will expose individuals to radiation equipment design and enable them to research particular medical devices in order to make policy recommendations based on the findings.

Becoming a Radiation Physicist unfortunately requires more training. The program lasts 2 years and includes both a classroom portion (typically in the first year) and a clinical rotation portion (typically in the second year). Does this sound interesting? Here are some links to get you started.

The Toronto Residency Program in Radiation Oncology Physics http://bit.ly/aXOtTD
Radiation Oncology Physics: An in depth look (text book) http://bit.ly/9kVwcj

Technology Transfer (Business Development)

Technology transfer professionals work at the hub between academia, private industry and law. They generally work either for large corporations or academic institutions. Backgrounds are diverse but they typically hold at least 1 advanced degree in the life sciences if not an MBA. Day to day activities can include market research to assess the potential of a new technology coming out of the lab, researching the existing patent landscape to determine if the invention is patentable or meeting with businesses, lawyers and researchers to help negotiate licenses or purchases. This career requires knowledge of law (particularly IP and contract), business (market research, business plans) and science. Nearby technology transfer offices include the UHN TTO at the MaRs centre (http://bit.ly/cyUrEz), Ryerson Office of Research Services (http://bit.ly/b5PPsv), McMaster Industry Liaison office (http://bit.ly/aCty7E) and MaRs Innovation (http://bit.ly/cY463W). Sound like this is up your alley? Check out these other links!

Technology transfer professional talking about his career path http://bit.ly/d0TsgB
Tech transfer professional giving an overview of their daily activities http://bit.ly/9PWgVv
Tech transfer article http://bit.ly/crCE4m

Securities (stocks/bonds) Analyst

Have you ever invested any of your own money? Are you interested in the stock market and in particular the technology sector? Being a securities analyst might be for you. People with a technical life science or physics background are in demand because they have a better understanding of the products that certain companies (ex. medical device, biotechnology) offer and already have strong quantitative skills. The main function of an analyst is to determine the intrinsic “worth” of a company by evaluating their product pipeline. They also stay updated on industry trends and regulations. With this information in hand the analyst will issue a statement to inform investors whether they should buy, sell or hold the security in question. Successful analysts may go on to obtain a CFA designation (chartered financial analyst), a rigorous exam.

Sound interesting?
These links should get you started:

The type of article you would be responsible for writing as an analyst -
http://bit.ly/9dN0Oo
Day in the life – http://bit.ly/94COvz
The winding road to equity research http://bit.ly/aVih0E

Well that’s it for this installment, I hope you found this information useful! As before if you have any particular career paths in mind for me to research, drop us a line or just leave a comment. There are ton of alternatives out there and I’m here to help you discover them!

I promised my next post to be dedicated to the end of Paper Lab Notebooks, but on Wednesday January 27th, Apple released the device that pretty much every geek has been waiting for (to either bash it or adore it). It’s called, the iPad.

Here is the illustrious Steve Jobs introducing this little device [...]]]>

I promised my next post to be dedicated to the end of Paper Lab Notebooks, but on Wednesday January 27th, Apple released the device that pretty much every geek has been waiting for (to either bash it or adore it). It’s called, the iPad.

Here is the illustrious Steve Jobs introducing this little device to the world:

Instead of posting my thoughts on its’ limitless potential and use-case scenarios, let me do something different ask the people in MBP: what do *YOU* think about the iPad? Where do you see the iPad fitting in with your life? What are your questions/concerns/criticisms?

I’ll collect all your questions from the comments below (feel free to leave anonymous q’s), and try and address as many as I can in Part 2 of this post (as well as my thoughts on where the iPad is going)

…. Fire away!

P.S. Let’s try and keep the comments mature and thoughtful – the internet is full of hate, I’d hate to give a voice to internet trolls!

(more after the jump)

I’ll be honest: I hate the term BLOG.

The word BLOG arose from a mashup of the words WEB and LOG ?

It’s ancient, unelegant, sounds cacophonous, and looks just downright ugly.

With that being said…

——————————————————-

My name is Firas Moosvi and I’m an MBP Blogger for [...]]]>

I’ll be honest: I hate the term BLOG.

The word BLOG arose from a mashup of the words WEB and LOG ?

It’s ancient, unelegant, sounds cacophonous, and looks just downright ugly.

With that being said…

——————————————————-

My name is Firas Moosvi and I’m an MBP Blogger for 2010 ! (P.S. Happy New Year)…

What will I be writing about? Well, I’m a big technology geek and love to talk about ways of enhancing your productivity using technology. One could argue that people like me – those that look too hard at ways of becoming productive – will likely never achieve that goal. And to those I say: “You’re probably right.”

My first feature post will be entitled: ‘Paper Lab Notebooks: The end of an era.’

Sound boring? Don’t worry, I’ll be doing something cool after my posts that should keep you coming back for more, month after month. This feature will be called: “Fails of the Month”….  Here’s a sneak peek:

Fail of the month:

This is the apparatus that a collaborator and I designed and built a few weeks ago. It is the central component to my project and my timely graduation (what does that even mean around here?) hinges upon its’ success:

Well this is what my supervisor had to say about it:

Wow.

See you in a couple of weeks!!

F.