Meeting to clarify objectives and concept of Discovery Week. Concerns raise were:
- We need to take note that it is Ramadan
- Find ways to reach out to students that are disengaged
Presented this: (images are overly large, to view the proper proposal please go here)
Concept
Adopting the model of a Conference with large-scale talks targeted at the general audience but also breakout sessions that participants can sign-up for on an individualised manner.
Emphasis on personal agency to allow for self-discovery of SUTD’s ecosystem.
Inspiration:
- AWS Summit, upcoming Agenda for April
- Fintech festival
Objectives
- Freshmores - understand the spaces (virtual and physical), avenues for resources and communities in SUTD in order to embody the desired culture
Culture embodying the spirit of innovation, collaboration, having self-initiated projects, self-directed learning and broad-based skill integration
- SUTD - celebrate the work done by our research community, 5th rows and housing (specifically amongst seniors)
Showcase the potential of UROPs and taking up research projects in SUTD, similar to LCC in an interactive/ experiential manner
Planning Parameters
Discovery Week to take place in the afternoons within the 1st week of term (i.e. 21 May to 24 May)? Discover Week may tentatively begin from 2pm onwards however do avoid planning activities on Wednesday (22 May) afternoon and the timeslots for Tuesday as stated below.
Take note of Ramadan and be culturally sensitive
Have a focus on engaging students that are disengaged
Need to disseminate information clearly (especially academic matters) and resources/ opportunities
| Key Information |
|---|
| Considering the constraints here, the goal of this team would be to set up sufficient channels for freshmores to have a sustained engagement during Term 1. |
| Rather than relying on mass sessions, to allow them to have a conceptual idea of what might be interesting/important to them and go for it. |
Team Composition
Collaboration
- ensure consistent tone throughout all efforts
- fair representation of the community
- must ensure conceptual integrity throughout the events and update key documents that represent this
Communications
- Visual branding (guide, logos for events, copy)
- Announcement channel (and it’s management)
- Calendaring
Let’s ask for a budget for this rather than having to rely on heavy student involvement considering that it’s Week 7
Content
Overview of activities
- Housing Activities
- Pillar info
- Human libraries
- Lightning Talks
- Bands
Proposed Activities
! Stakeholder buy-in list
- Housing/HG/RLC for hostel access and booking of spaces
- Calendar team that ROOT Communications is trying out
- Indivudal research labs for access, tour guiding
- Pillar reps for introduction to pillar life
- Bands for open-mic
- Location for open-mic (eg. Mont Calzone/ Crooked Cooks)
- DSBJ app devs
- Candidates for lightning talks
- GEXP
- ALP
- GLP
- UROP
- Hackathons
need to shortlist
Establishing Conceptual Map
- User Guide - Gitbook/Github Page/Wiki to explain the program
- Demarcate events into ‘Levels’ based on level of technical difficulty
- Static one-stop page to serve as event calendar
- Working together with DSBJ app, pending their initial take-up rate and on evaluating their app’s roadmap to check for alignment
- Using OpenSUTD as the go-to conduit into SUTD life
- Fifth Row Guides
- Communication channels for queries
- Knowledge/skills
- Contribution guides
- Proposed wiki format
- Badges within the ecosystem so people know who is maintaining what.
Academics
- Plenary session on general Pillar information
- Class simulations conducted by actual students
- Open Office Tours for Academic Labs
- Lightning Talks targeted at sharing students’ experiences working on research projects
- OpenSUTD Notes and Project repository sharing, NUS example
Student Life
- Housing
- Getting to know the facilities that people can use
- Getting to know people in your floor including seniors
- Getting to know the academics that stay next door (but take note this must be a purely voluntary basis)
- ROOT Cove
- Easter eggs/ hunt the mouse to get people to congregate at this designate student space
- Challenges people can try
- ! SAC usage and activities. Also to understand how one can utilise it
- Unified Fifth Row calendar for tryouts
- One-stop Telegram message group for information
- Human Library
- Lightning Talks targeted at sharing the Fifth Row experiences
- After-party - Open Mic
Theory of Change
Taken from A novel approach to onboarding
| IF | THEN |
|---|---|
| We define our desired culture clearly and it’s exhibited behaviours | A natural transition into university life may occur smoothly |
| Freshmores are introduced to existing communities or given the opportunity to start their own. Every Freshmore is inducted into the people on their floors and shown how the spaces in Housing may be used | The gap between freshmores and seniors may be better breached |
| Freshmores are prepared for upcoming projects with tools, resources, meetups to get inspiration from. This may result in a guided project that culminates in an actual product within the stipulated time | Freshmores will be able to uncover their personal interests earlier in the university journey |
| Freshmores need to be shown the realities of working in SUTD and have their expectations tempered to realistic levels and the urgency of taking on a project early | We will be able to identify talented freshmores to carry on key initiatives and culture-building exercises |
| Emphasise the potential of projects as a catalyst for growth | We will be able to map the state of SUTD on a yearly basis |
Stakeholder Map
Pillar Rooms meaning Learning Lab (ISTD), ESD Room, ASD Studios
! Ensuring alignment with Open House themes. Key objective to show them the embodiment of the ‘why SUTD’ statements.
- Design-centric education focusing on human-centred solutions
- Multi-discplinary curriculum to nurture future-ready graduates
- Active, self-directed, collaborative and hands-on learning
- Start-up atmosphere brimming with community spirit
- Dedicated time to pursue your interests (Weds and Fri half days)
Review
Discovery Week 2018
- Students lost interest quite quickly as they had no mental compass as to what events would be useful
- better aesthetic language would be desired
- students are looking for something to transition them into university life to help them cope with Freshmore term
- 13 events spread over two days starting from 0930 and ending at 1630
Other University orientation efforts:
- USP academic camp - introduce to incoming scholars the culture expected in the programme
- Renaissance engineering programme camp - they undergo a guided project during the camp that is meant to be hands-on
Organisation employee orientation efforts:
- Public Service Foundation Course (https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/programmes/pages/display%20programme.aspx?epid=vae3uj66l29irohmc3tpgfolam)
- Valve’s employee handbook (https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf)