GRADskills Postgraduate X-Change
The X-Change event is for PhD students from all years, Schools and disciplines. (Taught postgrads are welcome to attend as well.) Interdisciplinary events like this can help develop collaborations, trigger new research interests and create new perspectives on a given issue. The benefits for participants include:
- Opportunity to gain experience of 'chairing' a whole event;
- Present your research to the 'public' (non-subject specific);
- Good preparation for conferences and other events;
- Gain valuable experience and feedback from peers;
- Trigger new research interests;
- Create new perspectives on a given issue;
- Network and develop new collaborations;
- Learn about something new.
Dates of PG X-changes in AY 2012-13:
- 25th October 2012, 12-1pm
- 23rd November 2012, 12-1pm
- 21st February 2013, 12-1pm
- 15th April 2013, 12-1pm
Every X-change is followed by a free networking lunch from 1-2pm for all participants (audience as well as speakers).
There are three speakers at each event; each speaker has 15 minutes to present, followed by 5 minutes of questions and answers. The whole event is chaired by a PhD student.
Chairing or Presenting at an X-change:
If you would like to present your research or chair an X-change event, you need to register your interest three weeks prior to the event (see below for deadlines and instructions). Three presentations will be selected at random once the submission deadline for each X-change has passed. After this date the three lucky speakers and chair will be notified by email. We welcome presentations on work in progress or methodologies, so we will accept requests from students at all years of study.
- 5th October (for the 25th October X-change)
- 2nd November (for the 23rd November X-change)
- 1st February (for the 21st February X-change)
- 22nd March (for the 15th April X-change)
To register an interest in chairing or presenting, you will need to book a place on the event using the online booking system, AND email coursescapod@st-andrews.ac.uk with the following information:
- Title
- Forename
- Surname
- School
- Will you be attending lunch?
- Would you like to be considered to chair?
- Are you interested in presenting your research?
- If yes: Title of research/project talk and a short (2-3 sentence) description of your presentation
Audience Participation:
The audience plays a huge part in the success of the X-Change and in order to help reach its full potential, we would ask that the audience be as interactive as possible and ready to provide feedback, especially for the Q&A sessions. As most PG students will be expected to give conference talks, speeches and interviews at some point, this is an ideal opportunity to get some experience of communicating your research to the 'public'. Gain valuable experience and feedback from peers and develop new contacts / collaborations you may never have thought of otherwise!
Feedback from previous events:
- Gave me some ideas for presentations of my own;
- Engaging presentations from various fields;
- Chairing it was a great experience - thanks;
- Presentations skills - seeing others present their research in a way that is interesting to the audience;
- Variety of topics was well chosen/distributed;
- It is really good to organise such events because students can experience and learn things on presenting in a conference.
- Also good for networking;
- It isn't too long and offers an interdisciplinary insight!
