CNBC Trainee Council Roles & Responsibilities

General Council member responsibilities

• Attend monthly council meetings to the extent possible
  • If you are not able to attend one meeting, ensure that at least one committee representative is present at the meeting
• Participate in CNBC events to the extent possible, and generally be an active member of the CNBC
• Assist in the logistics of the annual retreat (e.g., attendee check-in, room setup, poster easel setup, food/snack distribution, talk introductions, technology troubleshooting)
• Assist in the recruitment of new trainee committee members after the spring retreat in the early summer of your term(s) of service.
• Document and transfer your knowledge through meetings with future committee members or written notes stored in the shared Google Drive.
• Assist in general CNBC trainee council duties (e.g., communicating with the trainees to identify needs and desires, communicating with CNBC faculty/staff/administration)
• Communicate with the rest of the committee members via the Slack channel #cnbc_committees on the CNBC Slack.

NOTE: Ideally, each committee will have at least one member from Pitt and one from CMU, but this is not strictly necessary. It is also ideal for many different departments to be represented in the CNBC Council (e.g., there has not been a student from Philosophy or History & Philosophy of Science in recent years).

Brain Bag

Current Members

• Nate Brantly
• Emily Goldberg
• Jennifer Mak 

Description

The Brain Bag committee organizes and operates a weekly seminar series (Brain Bag) where trainees present their research or a related scientific topic to their peers. When the seminars are in person, the event is typically catered with dinner. All CNBC graduate trainees are required to present at the Brain Bag seminar at least once by the end of their third year of graduate studies, and it is the responsibility of the Brain Bag committee to track this presentation requirement and communicate with students who have not yet completed it. The Brain Bag committee communicates weekly with the CNBC community via the email listserv to notify the community of the upcoming Brain Bag seminar, including presenter names, labs, talk titles, and abstracts. An RSVP form is also sent for accurate food ordering. The Brain Bag event has traditionally been held in the Mellon Institute social room on Monday evenings at 6pm. The CNBC supports dinner catering and should be coordinated with Melissa Stupka in the Mellon Institute offices. The Brain Bag committee should consider attendance and strive to maximize trainee attendance and community engagement. The Brain Bag committee is also responsible for reserving Monday evening time slots for the three, faculty-led required ethics seminars throughout the year (i.e., professional, human subjects research, and animal research ethics seminars). These ethics seminars should be scheduled at the start of the academic year prior to sending out the Brain Bag schedule sign-up spreadsheet to senior graduate students. It should also be clearly communicated that the ethics seminars are not Brain Bag seminars and do not count toward the Brain Bag attendance requirement. Committee members are responsible for tracking attendance for the Brain Bag and Ethics seminars (in a spreadsheet) and communicating this information to the CNBC staff (Melissa Stupka) at the end of the academic year. The Brain Bag committee may also schedule other informal events, including research discussions and related social events in conjunction with the social chairs.

Colloquium

Current Members

• Kendra Noneman
• Mark Nicholas

Description

The role of the colloquium committee is to organize the selection of speakers for the student run colloquium series and the alumni series. For the colloquium series, this involves an initial nomination stage, where the committee solicits, nominations from all members of the CNBC community for speakers that fall within 5 areas of research (neuroimaging, neurophysiology primate related, neurophysiology non-primate related, computational modeling, and psychology). The committee then selects a subset from the list of nominations to include speakers that are engaging and would appeal to the broad CNBC community. Once the final list is approved the committee must hold a student vote through email. The final duty of the committee is to find student hosts to invite and sponsor each one of the selected speakers. In the case that a student nominated the selected speaker, that student should be the host. If multiple students nominated the speaker, the senior student should be the host. If a faculty member or post-doc nominated the speaker, then the committee should appoint an appropriate student host. Prior to the date of the speaker’s seminar, the host student should work in conjunction with Emily Bandi to maximize the student body’s interaction with the visiting speaker.

Education

Current Members

• Sophia Robert
• Xueying (Caroline) Ren

Description

Student representatives, one from each school, represent the student community during meetings with the education committee. The education committee consists of the graduate training program co-chairs, faculty representatives from each department affiliated with the CNBC, and the two student representatives. In previous years, during hour long monthly meetings, the committee discusses issues related to graduate education in the CNBC: admissions, classes, funding, and general student policy. The student representatives have the opportunity to offer opinions and observations about all of these issues as they are being discussed. They also bring student concerns to the attention of the faculty and act as advocates for student issues. However, with the lack of CNBC directors, many of the action items on the Education committee’s list have had to be on pause until new directors are put in place. For now, we are meeting only on a need basis. 

Outside of the education committee student representatives manage and organize several important CNBC events including the data blitz portion of the CNBC Visiting Day for prospective students. At the beginning of each semester, the representatives gather all of the student committee members to discuss the current state of affairs and facilitate student involvement. They may also recruit volunteers to organize a CNBC methods seminar each semester. In the past these seminars have brought experienced faculty members together to provide an introduction to a very detailed field of research to the broad CNBC community. Potential seminars would include methods such as FMRI, electrophysiology, imaging, etc. 

Postdoc

Current Members

• Shawn Willett
• Andrew Gerlach
• Daniel Albaugh 
• Asma Motiwala

Description

The CNBC Postdoc Committee aims to build a community of postdoctoral researchers affiliated with the CNBC focused on professional development and social engagement. These goals will be primarily achieved through event hosting, including social gatherings and professional development opportunities (for both academic and non-academic career choices).

Professional Development

Current Members

• Adiya Rakymzhan
• Rinu Sebastian
• Deying Song

Description

Members of the CNBC professional development committee manage and organize events that provide networking opportunities and information on career preparation to CNBC student members. The committee brings in guest speakers from job fields of interest to speak on their career, the path they took, and what they look for in applicants in their field. In addition to bringing in guest speakers, the committee coordinates Faculty and Alumni panels to encourage discussion about paths to careers both inside and outside of academia. The student representatives have the opportunity to make connections with professionals in several job fields as a means of building a strong network.

Retreat

Current Members

• Alex Swiderski

Description

• Plan the CNBC Retreat that occurs at the end-of-the-year in May
  • Secure a venue for the ‘conference’ based on the number of RSVPs
    • A hybrid option was very appreciated by attendees for the 2022 CNBC retreat
  • Secure catering for the ‘conference’ based on dietary restrictions from the RSVPs
    • The day typically begins with a small breakfast including: bagels, coffee, tea, juice, an assortment of muffins, and fruit.
    • At lunch, a build-your-own lunch can be arranged, or sandwiches can be ordered from a local restaurant. It is possible to cater banquet food depending on the venue, but the cost is much higher and the quality of food is not great.
      • A typical budget of $15/person for lunch/dinner seems to be the going rate 
  • Secure memorabilia for the retreat; this could be in the form of new stickers, tote bags, t-shirts, etc. 
  • Organize time slots for the keynote speakers; these are presentations given by awardees of the Strick and McClelland awards
  • Plan for other events to occur during the day(s) of the retreat
    • Examples include: poster session, career panel, discussion about X subject (e.g., open-science), data carpentry (i.e., learning about new statistical tools, etc.), data blitz
      • Prioritize events that allow individuals to socialize
      • Feedback that we received emphasized socializing; the difficulty may depend on the venue – if the venue is local, but off-campus, perhaps a hiking trail, kayaking, etc. might be of interest to organize

As you are planning the retreat, you will be asked to provide updates to staff members. For 2022, the point-of-contact was Barb Dorney, and Emily Bandi. These will be individuals who will help with paying for items needed for the retreat (especially if lodging and transportation is involved). These contacts may change following the appointment of the new directors. 

The budget for the retreat for 2022 was: ~$9,000.

In short: “Student members on the CNBC retreat committee assist and facilitate the planning of the annual CNBC retreat. Student, faculty, and postdoctoral representatives meet several times during the year. Responsibilities for the retreat include planning presentations and professional development activities, leading discussions, and organizing the schedule of events. Furthermore, committee members will assist with planning ride sharing, soliciting student and outside speakers for short presentations during the retreat, planning events for free time, and assisting the social chairs with preparations for the student-hosted party on the first night of the retreat.”

Social

Current Members

• Urszula Oszczapinska 
• Shane McKeon 

Description

2021-2022 members: Julia Badyna & Rebecca Ehrenkranz

• Plan extracurricular social events for the CNBC members throughout the year (goal: about 1 per month, at least 2 per semester)
  • Examples: happy hours, movie nights, volunteer events, etc.
  • Secure funding for events whenever possible so that students have to pay as little as possible to participate!
    • Budget information should come from CNBC administration
• Organize social events after each day of the retreat (work with retreat committee to help with the social aspect of the overall retreat)
  • Examples: picnic, game night, dinner, etc.
• Organize an end of the year event (after retreat probably during the summer) for the committee head members to celebrate all the hard work throughout the year!

New Committees?

Ethics, DEIA (Outreach), Academic Development

Other Positions within Council?

Past Members

Former U. Pittsburgh Student Organization  (CNBC – Pittsburgh, 2019-2021)

1. President  (Maria Jantz)
2. Vice President (Erinn Grigsby)
3. Business Management (Angelica Herrera, Social Chair)