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The LSST All Hands Meeting 2012 Survey Results
LSST Science Collaborations Chair Michael Strauss (Princeton University) takes advantage of a quiet outdoor moment during the 2012 LSST All Hands Meeting. Michael is wearing the t-shirt designed for the meeting by LSST graphic designer Emily Acosta. (Image Credit: Emily Acosta)
The majority of 2012 LSST All Hands Meeting (AHM) attendees enjoyed a productive week, according to a survey conducted after the conference’s conclusion. However, many survey respondents felt the experience could have been improved with more downtime for impromptu discussion.
The LSST project held its fifth AHM August 13-17, 2012 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona, approximately 30 miles north of Tucson. AHMs are week-long conferences designed to bring together members of the Science Collaborations, advisory boards, and engineers and scientists building the telescope to share ideas and maximize the impact of LSST. More than 260 people, including 32 representatives of potential international affiliates in nine different countries, participated in the five day event.
After the meeting, the project conducted a 10 question survey to assess the success of various elements of the conference. 144 AHM attendees took the survey.
On the whole, survey participants reported a good experience. More than 85% described the meeting as “extremely” or “quite a bit” productive and enjoyable; 93% are “extremely” or “quite a bit” likely to attend the next AHM. Attendees continue to prefer holding the AHM in the summer months (with August the front-runner) because they present the fewest conflicts with the academic calendar. While most of the respondents gave favorable marks to the venue, and half voted to return for the next AHM, a number of respondents expressed the desire to rotate among LSST’s partner institutions such as University of Washington, SLAC, or Princeton. Also, a significant minority expressed concerns about the Ritz-Carlton’s cost and isolation. In general, respondents were satisfied with the meeting’s agenda.
The most significant area for improvement identified in the survey was the fullness of the agenda. Many survey participants described their informal, impromptu interactions as the most productive of the meeting, but 28% of respondents considered downtime for discussion to be “inadequate.” The related comments expressed the desire for a less crowded schedule with fewer concurrent breakouts and more opportunities for informal interaction. Suggestions for accomplishing this included
- Scheduling more downtime into the agenda,
- Focusing on cross-domain sessions,
- Limiting prepared talks at breakouts in favor of discussion,
- Having longer breaks in between sessions,
- Setting aside blocks of unscheduled time for ad hoc meetings, and
- Holding more frequent, targeted workshops in addition to AHM.
For a full report on the survey results, visit https://www.lsstcorp.org/ahm2012/sites/default/files/AHM%202012%20Survey%20report.pdf.
For more information about the 2012 AHM and to view the meeting’s plenary and breakout presentations, visit the 2012 LSST All Hands Meeting website.
Article written by Robert McKercher
LSST is a public-private partnership. Funding for design and development activity comes from the National Science Foundation, private donations, grants to universities, and in-kind support at Department of Energy laboratories and other LSSTC Institutional Members:
Adler Planetarium; Argonne National Laboratory; Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Chile; Cornell University; Drexel University; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; George Mason University; Google, Inc.; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Institut de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3); Johns Hopkins University; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) – Stanford University; Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, Inc.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); National Optical Astronomy Observatory; National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Princeton University; Purdue University; Research Corporation for Science Advancement; Rutgers University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Space Telescope Science Institute; Texas A & M University; The Pennsylvania State University; The University of Arizona; University of California at Davis; University of California at Irvine; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Michigan; University of Pennsylvania; University of Pittsburgh; University of Washington; Vanderbilt University
LSST E-News Team:
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LSST E-News is a free email publication of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project. It is for informational purposes only, and the information is subject to change without notice.
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