iMechanica - iMechanica get together at McMat 2007 - Comments

Make it live!!

Aaron Goh — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 14:33:41 -0400

Can we make this event live over the internet? Some sort of webcast? That I think, would do much to promote imechanica and let those 'non-locals' hear your beautiful voices!

HI

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I think if we can invite the

Xu Zhang — Sat, 05 May 2007 10:43:47 -0400

I think if we can invite the well-Knowen scholar to introduce the front of mechanics and also give us some guidance on how to learn and research.Maybe through this way , we can attract more and more scholars and students to come here to communicate.

Agenda: iMechanica get together in Austin

Zhigang Suo — Sat, 05 May 2007 08:18:42 -0400

Dear Rui: Thank you so much for making all the arragements.

Dear All iMechanicians: I've just updated the post to reflect this thread of discussion. Please take a look at the agenda of the get together. Please keep adding your thoughts on the get together as they occur to you. This is our first "formal" get together, when the online community meets offline. I look forward to hearing your ideas.

I've also added a button iMech get together on the right side of iMechanica, under the heading "Quick guide"

Thanks, Rui and Ravi

Teng Li — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:05:05 -0400

Dear Rui and Ravi,

Thank you very much for your diligent efforts to make this get-together happen! Look forward to meet our fellow iMechanicians and iMechanicians-to-be on Jun 6.

-Teng

progress report on Get-together

Rui Huang — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:25:45 -0400

This morning, Ravi and I have confirmed the room for the iMechanica Get-together, for which the reservation lasts until 10 pm on Wednesday, June 6, 2007. Ravi has also assured that catering service with drinks and snacks will be arranged. Of course, we will have beers and wines for the taste of Texas.

I have updated the original post of this thread. Seems like we are all set for a great time in June.

How can iMechanica build up an international reputation?

Zhigang Suo — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 08:36:27 -0400

Henry: Thank you for raising this important question. It might have been too ambitious to ask a 7-month baby to build up an international reputation and ask grownups to take her seriously. However, the Internet has shortened the time scale. Now iMechanica has 1800+ registered users. Perhaps we should be talking about what kind of reputation we'd like like to have, and how to get what we want by providing values to our users.

I have added your suggestion as a topic, "how to build up an international reputation", in the tentative agenda of iMech get together. In the coming months, when more specific ideas come to you, please add them right below your original suggestion. We'll find how others feel about these issues.

my humble suggestion

Henry Tan — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 18:25:21 -0400

Dear Zhigang.

The founding work of iMechanica has been done, http://imechanica.org/node/570, thanks.

As an iMechanica fan, here is my humble suggestion for further developments.

I think it is important for us to find ways to gain peer-reviewed international reputation for iMechanica.

After iMechanica reputation being built up, mechanicians, including established scholars, curious students and experienced engineers, would like to be active here, and devote time to posting, discussing and commenting.

In this way, our mission, to use the internet to enhance communications among mechanicians, and to pave a way to evolve all knowledge of mechanics online, can be achieved.

Henry, could you please make a few explicit suggestions?

Zhigang Suo — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 08:14:25 -0400

Dear Henry:

Very interesting thoughts. Could you please make a few explicit suggestions? Perhaps we can use your suggestions as a starting point of a discussion topic at our get together.

An iteration on the agenda of iMechanica get together

Zhigang Suo — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 07:49:46 -0400

Dear All:

Terrific suggestions! Because the session will be on a Wednesday, which will be near the end of the conference, we should have some idea by then how many people will show up at our session. If we have, say fewer than 30 people, the session can be very informal. We can go by the flow of questions. The list of topics is just a reminder of "hard" things that might be useful.

However, if we have more people, some structure is necessary. I'm now iterating on Teng's version, and inserting other ideas suggested by various people.

Introduction to iMechanica (15 min):

About iMechanica. A brief history. Some numbers. And Why should you register for an account? (Zhigang Suo)
Popular uses of iMechanica (Teng Li)
Journal Club (Pradeep Sharma)

Discussion (25 min. Moderator: Rui Huang and Ravi-Chander. Sample topics, not in particular order. Everyone can raise a new topic):

Comment on iMechanica's mission.
How can we encourage more people to post new entries?
How can we encourage more people to comment on other people's posts?
How can we build up an international reputation?
Should we post original ideas in iMechanica?
How can we make iMechanica more valuable to people?
Who are current and potential users?

A primer on how to use iMechanica (20 min)

How to edit your account? (Teng Li)
How to post a blog entry, a forum entry, an image (Teng Li)
How to track conversations (Teng Li)

Other topics (If time permits and interest lasts)

RSS feeds (Zhigang Suo)
How to set up a course on iMechanica? A case study: ES 240 Solid Mechanics. (Zhigang Suo)

Chips and drinks

Great idea!

Julia R. Greer — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 01:18:11 -0400

I think it is a really good idea to have this iMechanica "promoting" session. Besides teaching us how to operate the website, some of the members might actually **meet** each other for the first time!

Julia Rosolovsky Greer

"soft” part of iMechanica

Henry Tan — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 00:09:38 -0400

Hardware of iMechanica, and how to use it, are the topics under discussing.

How about the “soft” part of iMechanica? How to encourage more and more mechanicians to participate, and be active?

There should be someway, embedded into the iMechanica system, to encourage comments and discussions.

Therefore, I view future iMechanica not as a website only, but also as a value system for mechanicains …

further on topics for iMechanica

Pradeep Sharma — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 20:05:32 -0400

Everyone, this is quite a nice list of topics. One that is missing (or perhaps under-emphasized) is discussion/solicitation of feedback.

After "introduction to iMechanica", I suggest that we have a discussion session where everyone provides candid feedback on how we can improve iMechanica further to achieve its goals. I also see this meeting as a means to get mechanicians (who while aware of iMechanica) are not active participants. What can we do to make iMechanica more relevant for them? Presumably this feedback and discussion session will provide some answers....This can also be a general Q&A session.

The "primer on how to use iMechanica" and the so-called "advanced topics" are quite relevant and interesting but may not be so for everyone. If we hold the discussion/future vision session AFTER these two, we may either run out of time or loose much of the crowd that this meeting, at partially, is targeted towards. Thus I suggest a change of sequence: (1) Introduction to iMechanica (2) Discussion session (3) Primer on Imechanica and finally, for the aficionados, (4) Advanced topics.

Topics for iMechanica get-together in McMat2007

Teng Li — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:44:02 -0400

Zhigang,

Thank you for proposing the topics above. I share with Rui's concern on the time constraint.

I'm thinking to reorganize and fit the topics into the following three themes:

Introduction to iMechanica:

About iMechanica. A brief history and some numbers. (Zhigang Suo)
Popular uses of iMechanica (Zhigang Suo)

A primer on how to use iMechanica:

Why should you register for an account? (Teng Li)
How to edit your account? (Teng Li)
How to post a blog entry, a forum entry, an image (Teng Li)

Advance topics:

RSS feeds (Zhigang Suo)
How to track conversations (Teng Li)
Journal Club (Pradeep Sharma)
(If time permits) How to set up a course on iMechanica? A case study: ES 240 Solid Mechanics. (Zhigang Suo)

followed by discussions and suggestions, vision for future...

Your comments are welcome.

-Teng

Re: wireless at McMat 2007

Teng Li — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:26:19 -0400

Pretty decent deal, $5 for four days.

Thanks for the update, Rui.

iMechanica get together at McMat 2007

Managers — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:31:52 -0400

Time: 5:45 pm - 7:00 pm, Wednesday, 6 June 2007.

Place: TCC 2.120 , UT Austin. (The room is reserved form 5:45 pm to 10:00 pm.)

Session moderators: Rui Huang and K. Ravi-Chander

Audience: Anyone interested in iMechanica. See a thread of discussion initiated by Pradeep Sharma. The event is free for all. So if you are local but are not attending McMat, you are still welcome to drop by.

Format: Workshop and conversation. Bring your laptop to try some new tricks. (Wireless internet connection is available with $5 fee for an account throughout the conference.)

Introduction to iMechanica (15 min):

A power point slide. About iMechanica. A brief history. Some numbers. And Why should you register for an account? (Zhigang Suo)
Popular uses of iMechanica (Teng Li)
Journal Club (Xi Chen)

Discussion (30 min. Moderator: Rui Huang and Ravi-Chander. Sample topics, not in any particular order. Everyone can raise a new topic):

Comment on iMechanica's mission.
How can we encourage more people to post new entries?
How can we encourage more people to comment on other people's posts?
How can we build up an international reputation?
Should we post original ideas in iMechanica?
How can we make iMechanica more valuable to people?
Who are current and potential users?
How can iMechanica better complement our other modes of communication: classes, seminars, conferences, journals, etc.

A primer on how to use iMechanica (15 min. Teng Li)

How to edit your account?
How to post a blog entry, a forum entry, an image
How to track conversations

Other topics (If time permits and interest lasts)

RSS feeds (Zhigang Suo)
How to set up a course on iMechanica? A case study: ES 240 Solid Mechanics. (Zhigang Suo)

Snacks and drinks

Update on 16 June 2007. Minutes of the get together.