5/11/07 2:08 pm Investigator Name: Marc Sommer Team Members: Gaia Bellone and Shuhei Okumura Project Title: Neurons' Firing Features INTERACTION WITH TEAM * Was the frequency of meetings with the Stat Practice team about right? YES I think we communicated well, and got together when necessary -- around once every 3 weeks. For me, it was about right. For them, I'm not sure -- they said it was good -- but it's always hard to tell if they're being shy, and actually want to meet more often. * Did the team make a genuine effort to understand your problem from your point of view, and translate it into statistical tasks? YES They were good about asking me lots of questions and reading the primary literature. * Was the team able to translate the results of their statistical work into terms that are/were helpful to you? YES I was very pleased with the final analysis results. It was very helpful to have them apply their expertise to the data; it was beyond the scope of my own direct experience. * Did the team keep you informed of its progress? YES Mostly yes. Sometimes I wondered if they were floundering and were afraid to tell me, but then again it was probably my imagination -- I worry too much about students. They sent me lengthy emails frequently, with questions and updates, that were very professional and to the point. I appreciated that a lot. * Did the students accept your suggestions gracefully? YES Absolutely. They were very polite and open to new ideas. DOCUMENT * Do you have an acceptable final paper from your team? YES It was an impressive document that combined the neurophysiological facts with the statistical techniques and results. A very good foundation for a real, submittable paper. * Does the document achieve your goals? YES Exactly what I wanted. * Are you satisfied with the document? YES No other comments - it was fine. FINAL PRESENTATION * Was the team able to highlight the most important aspects of their work with you? YES I think they communicated it well, except they could use some practice putting together powerpoint slides (i.e. making axis labels big enough to read, etc.) But the content was superb. OVERALL * Would you comment on strengths or weaknesses you perceived in any member of the team you worked with? Shuhei seemed to be the leader when it came to writing emails to me, while Gaia was more in the lead in our face to face meetings. Both of them seemed to be matched in their statistical talents. They were, perhaps, a little too deferential, so that I sometimes was unsure about their status. But when I pressed them to make sure they had things in control, they were good about being very clear as to what was going well vs. what required my assistance. * Would you comment on any aspect of the design of the Statistical Practice course that you would like to see changed? I was a bit surprised at the amount of time I needed to spend with them, but I suppose I was naive. I didn't realize that the students know essentially nothing about neuroscience. You might want to warn the faculty ahead of time in a more explicit way that it won't be a matter of just handing them the data and waiting for the final result. It's a project for the faculty member, too, not just the students. Which is totally fine, just a bit unexpected. Thanks again. Your willingness to participate and give advice is invaluable for our current and future students. I appreciate all the help you have given us. You're welcome, it was a pleasure working with Shuhei and Gaia. Best, Marc Sommer * * ===================================================== * * -- Marc A. Sommer, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Neuroscience and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) Training Faculty Member, Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh (CNUP) A210 Langley Hall University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260 412-268-4486