MPI-B Graduate Program
Soft Skills Development Team
The Soft Skills Development Team welcomes you on our website. This website will provide you with all information about our Hard and Soft Skills Workshop Series. The Hard and Soft Skills Workshop Series is a training program funded by the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry to broaden professional and social competence. Several workshops are organized throughout the year. The workshops are given in English by experienced, professional trainers on a 1-3 day basis for small groups of 10-12 students. Please check this website every once in a while as we will update our program for 2017 here on a regular basis. All information regarding seminar content, application details and deadlines will be announced on the website as well as by email (4-8 weeks prior the workshop).
If you have any questions or suggestions for new workshops, please feel free to contact the Soft Skills Development Team under softskil@biochem.mpg.de
Or get in touch with the current team members:
Meera Phulphagar and Sarah Scholze
Upcoming Workshops
Unfortunately, not many students attend the last workshops being organized by the MPI-B Graduate program. Therefore the Soft Skill Development Team decided together with the GL to only organize 1-2 workshops in 2018. Students that have a wish to attend Soft Skill workshops should please contact the Soft Skill Development Team under softskil@biochem.mpg.de so we can get an idea of which workshops we should/ could organize in 2019. In the meantime, we will upload the IMPRS workshop schedule. If you wish to attend such a workshop, please contact Viktoria Korzhova or wait until IMPRS opens up the workshops for us.
| IMPRS Workshops | Trainer | Date |
|---|---|---|
|
Poster Design |
Ruth Willmott |
08. - 09.11.2018 |
|
Career Orientation: Shaping and Steering your Career Path |
Ruth Willmott |
10.11.2018 |
|
Enabling Innovations |
MPI Innovations |
22.11.2018 |
|
Introduction to Science Journalism |
Kristina Popova |
26. - 27.11.2018 |
|
Data Visualisation with R |
Rick Scavetta |
29. - 30.11.2018 |
|
Career Mentoring & Management |
Ruth Willmott |
07. - 08.12.2018 + either 14. or 15.12.2018 |
|
Scientific Writing |
Ruth Willmott |
10. - 12.12.2018 |
WORKSHOPS OF 2017
| Hard Skills Workshops | Trainer | Date |
|---|---|---|
|
Introduction to Python |
Andreas Knist |
23. - 24.02.2017 |
|
Macro programming for image analysis in Fiji/ImageJ** |
Giovanni Cardone |
04. - 05.04.2017 |
|
Advanced Image Processing (ImageJ/ Matlab)** |
Giovanni Cardone |
tba |
|
Adobe Illustrator* |
Andreas Binder |
06. - 07.07.2017 |
|
Programming in R |
Assa Yeroslaviz |
19. - 21.07.2017 |
|
Introduction to Python** |
Nic del Grosso |
25. - 28.07.2017 |
|
Galaxy: DNA/protein sequence/ NGS-data handling |
Michael Volkmer | tba |
|
Applied Statistics |
Tobias Straub |
21. - 22.09.2017 |
| Soft Skills Workshops | Trainer | Date |
|---|---|---|
|
Getting funded with follow-up*** |
Ruth Willmott |
16. - 17.06.2017 + 23. or 24.06.2017 |
|
Scientific Writing*** |
Ruth Willmott |
19. - 21.06.2017 |
|
Leading & Supervising in Science*** |
Viola Kraus |
19. - 20.09.2017 |
|
Career Mentoring & Management*** |
Ruth Willmott |
27. - 28.10.2017 + 03. or 04.11.2017 |
|
Job hunting |
Philipp Gramlich |
05. - 06.10.2017 |
|
Personal Development |
Sina Mehl |
19. - 20.10.2017 |
|
Networking |
Rob Thompson |
16. - 17.11.2017 |
|
Personality-based Communication |
Sylvia Loehken |
27. - 28.11.2017 |
|
Scientific Writing*** |
Ruth Willmott |
04. - 06.12.2017 |
* organized by MPI-Neurobiology PhD-student representatives
** offered together with post-doc association
*** offered together with IMPRS
The program will be updated as soon as the exact dates are fixed.
Short Course Descriptions:
Adobe Illustrator
The participation in this intense workshop enables students to use the complex program Adobe Illustrator for a surprisingly easy and fast production of high-quality graphics, fit for publications, posters or presentations.
Macro programming for image analysis in Fiji/ImageJ
The course provides an introduction to the programming capabilities of Fiji/ImageJ, an open source software for image analysis in life science. It is mostly aimed at researchers who have some basic familiarity with the software, need to perform image analysis in their work, and desire to customize and automate processing workflows to their project needs. The training is organized as a hands-on session, where students apply immediately what they learn. The workshop does not focus on principles and best practices in image analysis, but will show some analysis methods in light microscopy applications, used as examples during the course. At the end of the last day an open session will allow students to get advice on specific problems of their interest.
Introduction to Python
No programming, math, or statistics knowledge is required.
In this intensive course the basics of the Python programming language and some of its scientific library will be covered, in order to enable students to conduct data analysis, focusing techniques for performing essential data analysis steps using real-life problems that the practicing scientist regularly encounters in his/her work. Libraries covered will be NumPy, MatPlotLib, Pandas, Seaborn, and Scipy-Stats. Students will learn to write their own functions, scripts, and Jupyter Notebooks.
MAJOR FOCUSES OF THE COURSE:
- Fundamentals of Programming
- Data Structures
- Reading and Writing to Various File Formats
- Building Publication-Ready Figures
- Good Coding Practices
- Data Analysis Workflows
Personality-based Communication
This workshop focuses on academic communication settings and helps participants
- understand their individual advantages and hurdles as introverts or extroverts as well as
- cope with specific communication challenges that come up when interacting with others.
A specific focus is on status messages: In the more challenging case studies, particpants will reflect on how to communicate effectively when there is more at stake than smart arguments and rational thinking: when they encounter power rituals, provoking and testing or even attacks and conflicts. The higher the stress level is, the more important (and the more difficult) it is to stick self-confidently to what is really important – and matching for the respective personality type.
The workshop is very application-oriented and makes sure participants learn by testing strategies in real-life examples. Cases from their own experience are welcome. Participants will receive plenty of feedback on their interactions plus other options to consider: in an encouraging, safe and pleasant setting.
After the workshop, participants know about their individual strengths and challenges and are able to apply them in challenging professional situations. They will also be able to identify the needs of their communication partners and adjust their strategies accordingly – while maintaining a style that is matching with who they are.
