The Guidance and Policies of ARRC Seminars

Last Updated: Jan 2011

The Purpose of the Radar Specialty Seminars

The radar specialty seminar is a prestigious seminar series at the National Weather Center (NWC), sponsored and participated by the Atmospheric Radar Research Center (ARRC), its faculty members, staff, and students, as well as external partners. The ARRC seminar provides an interdisciplinary platform for exchanging ideas and technologies, developing collaborating relationships, and promoting academic excellence. The scope of the seminar talks include, but are not limited to, student/staff research progress reports, educational tutorials and introductions, brainstorming activities for new ideas, and presentations from collaborators and visitors. The ARRC seminars are open to the public and have already had a significant impact on the Norman-wide scientific and engineering communities.

The Motivation of This Policy

As ARRC seminars are becoming more and more popular among scientists, faculty members, and students, and in order to coordinate the scheduling, delivery, and evaluation of seminar presentations, a formal policy will help seminar participants, as well as audiences, to have better understanding of the expectations and organization of ARRC seminars. Also, commonly accepted policies will greatly enhance the quality of presentations given in the seminars. This policy began to take effect from fall 2008 and will be modified and updated according to changes in organizations and situations.

The Organization of Radar Specialty Seminars

The organization of ARRC seminars involves the coordination among the following parties:

1. NOAA/NSSL: J. J. Gourley is responsible for updating the seminar information on the unified NWC seminar Web site and Ms. Marcia Pallutto is in charge of coordination of School of Meteorology.
2. ARRC seminar coordinator: This person is responsible for determining the initial seminar plan each semester, scheduling seminar rooms and times, forwarding topic information to web masters and NOAA POCs, and helping resolving scheduling conflicts.
3. ARRC faculty members: ARRC faculty members provide and approve the initial names of speakers (students or visitors) no later than two (2) weeks before the intended presentation date. They are responsible for ensuring that the proposed seminar talks comply with college and school policies, as well as IP/Export control requirements. They also coordinate with other faculty members in case of scheduling conflicts. In addition, it is the responsibility of the faculty advisor/supervisor of the person presenting the seminar to make introductions and lead seminar discussions.
4. Seminar speakers/presenters: Every seminar speaker is required to provide the title of the presentation to the ARRC seminar coordinator no later than two (2) weeks before the scheduled seminar date and submit a short abstract to the ARRC seminar coordinator no later than one (1) week before the scheduled seminar date. If a scheduled talk needs to be canceled, the seminar speaker or presenter should notify the seminar coordinator as soon as possible.
5. ARRC Web master: This person is responsible for updating the seminar schedule, abstract web pages, archiving previous abstracts, conducting necessary editing and text formatting for web publishing, and updating related web pages on time upon request of the ARRC seminar coordinator.
6. Seminar staff and students: The administrative seminar staff is responsible for ordering and arranging food for the associated pizza parties, after confirmation with the ARRC seminar coordinator before each seminar. ARRC students are active seminar participants, in terms of both speakers/presenters and audience.

The Basic Program of Radar Specialty Seminars

1. ARRC seminars are offered each semester, starting as early as the first week of class. All seminars are scheduled on Thursdays from 1:15-2:15 PM in NWC 1350 (subject to change per semester). By default, the seminars are scheduled once every two weeks and adjusted according to specific situations.
2. Student seminars are generally 20 minutes in length plus a 5-minute question-and-answer session. Faculty, scientist, or visitor seminars are generally 40 minutes in length plus a 15-minute question-and- answer session. Staff (postdoc, researcher, and engineer) presentations can either follow the student's seminar length or faculty seminar length.
3. When the seminar serves as the vehicle to fulfill the seminar requirements of the school, the seminars must follow the related rules of the school's graduate program (e.g., ECE requires the seminar be at least two months before the PhD thesis defense and be at least one hour in length).
4. All the seminar presenters are encouraged to use PowerPoint as a presentation tool. Presenters should contact the seminar coordinator regarding equipment requirements before the day of the presentation.
5. A pizza party is offered before every seminar beginning at 1:00 PM in NWC 1350.
6. The seminars do not prevent the individual ARRC faculty members from scheduling and organizing their own seminars and visitor talks, according to their own time and interests.
7. The following sections detail the rules for scheduling, canceling, and adjusting times and venues for seminars.

Procedures for Seminar Scheduling

1. Each semester, the ARRC seminar coordinator will generate a list of students and staff who will give presentations in the coming semester. This is a preliminary sequential list of presenters, consisting mainly of students and staff. The preliminary list is designed to collect all the possible intentions from faculty related to their research and collaboration development plans, as well as from students related to their research/thesis schedules.
2. ARRC faculty members will discuss, modify, and approve the initial list of presenters. During the first week of the new semester, the list will become a formal draft schedule of the seminar and will be posted on the ARRC web site.
3. During the first two (2) weeks of a semester, the seminar coordinator will confirm with each presenter about their detailed schedule and make appropriate adjustments. At end of the second week, all presenters' times will be confirmed, and each presenter will be assigned a specific schedule that includes the date, time, and length of the talk.
4. After the initial schedule is confirmed, every seminar speaker is required to provide the topic to the ARRC seminar coordinator no later than two (2) weeks before the scheduled seminar date. Every speaker must also submit a short abstract to the ARRC seminar coordinator no later than one (1) week before the scheduled seminar date. The seminar coordinator will forward this information to NOAA POC. All abstracts are required in .doc, .pdf or .txt format.
5. If changes need to be made to the existing confirmed schedule (including delaying the presentation, changing the presentation time, changing the presenter, or canceling the presentation), the responsible person needs to notify the seminar coordinator as soon as possible, coordinate with other speakers to resolve any potential schedule conflicts, and notify the seminar coordinator of the resolution results.
6. If a new seminar needs to be added to the existing confirmed schedule, the responsible person needs to notify the seminar coordinator a least two (2) weeks before the intended presentation date and provide the speaker's name, a biographical summary, and an abstract of the talk. The seminar coordinator will make every effort to reserve a room and make other necessary arrangements. If efforts to accommodate the additional seminar fail, the seminar coordinator will send a notice of rejection to the proposed speaker and encourage the responsible faculty member to seek other solutions.
7. Any changes made to the seminar schedules will be updated in parallel on the ARRC web site.
8. No schedule changes will be made for a presentation within one week of the presentation date, except in the case of cancellations.
9. One or two days before the scheduled presentations, the seminar coordinator will work with the seminar staff to arrange for pizza and food. The pizza will still be offered if all seminars for that day are cancelled.

Policies for Schedule Change, Cancellation, and Conflict Resolution

1. If a speaker/presenter listed on the initial preliminary schedule has concerns or issues about the assigned schedule, he or she should contact the seminar coordinator during the first two weeks of the semester.
2. If a presenter proposes to cancel a scheduled presentation, or a presentation is to be cancelled for other reasons, the seminar coordinator will first contact the ARRC faculty members or collaborators to see if there are alternative recommendations. If there is no alternative recommendation, the scheduled presentation will be canceled.
3. If a presenter/faculty member needs to change the talk to another time when a there is already a confirmed schedule of other presenters, the presenter and the responsible persons should negotiate to reach a resolution. If no resolution is achieved, the presentation will remain at the scheduled time or be canceled.
4. If a presenter/faculty member wants to change a talk to a time when no other seminar is scheduled or a new seminar needs to be added, the coordinator will make every effort to make suitable arrangements. Refer to item 5(6) for details.
5. The seminar coordinator will summarize all schedule changes after the confirmed initial schedule from time to time, which then goes to the director of ARRC for approval. The web site will then be updated with the new schedules.
6. If a presenter or ARRC member has any objections to the schedule changes after the new schedule is posted on the web site, he or she can contact the director or associate directors of the ARRC for a discussion and review of the changes with the ARRC directors and the seminar coordinator for a final decision.