[09:18] <rmg51> Morning
[10:46] <JonathanD> Morning.
[12:13] <teddy-dbear> Morning peoples, dogs, turkeys, hamsters and everything else
[16:53] <jthan> waltman: ping
[17:08] <waltman> jthan: pong
[17:14] <jthan> waltman: Soo.. I don't really know how you CompSci people work - but do you do any kind of active research?
[17:16] <waltman> As opposed to...?
[17:16] <jthan> Well - I didn't know if you just taught at this point, or what
[17:16] <waltman> passive research?
[17:16] <jthan> :-p
[17:16] <jthan> Well - we've got plenty of faculty here at CU that are "Associate Professors" or something of the like now that don't actually have active labs.
[17:17] <waltman> Ah. Well, there are some people in the CS department who are "teaching professors". They just teach. Others teach less and do research.
[17:17] <waltman> I'm working as a postdoc and was teaching one class as an adjunct.
[17:17] <jthan> Do you have any undergrads working under you, or is that less common at Drexel because of co-op stuff?
[17:19] <waltman> It's relatively common for undergrads, especially those interested in grad school, to spend a co-op working for a professor
[17:19] <waltman> We've got a number of undergrads working in my lab.
[17:20] <waltman> at the lab I worked in as a grad student, we had a few who helped us out setting up an experiment, but mostly it was just grad students.
[17:20] <waltman> it really depends on the lab
[17:20] <jthan> I guess where I'm really going is - I am currently an undergrad going into my junior year. Not in Computer Science, but... I'm just having a really godawful time finding any research opportunities, and my GPA after taking OChem and my other "Weed out" classes is... meh... okay. But nobody seems interested.
[17:21] <waltman> at Drexel?
[17:21] <waltman> CU == Catholic U?
[17:21] <jthan> CU == University of Colorado.
[17:21] <waltman> http://bioimage.coe.drexel.edu/info/ is where I work
[17:21] <jthan> So no, not at Drexel.
[17:21] <waltman> ah
[17:22] <jthan> But I'm curious what it is that I'm lacking, or what I'm doing wrong.
[17:22] <jthan> I've tried the in person approach. I've emailed. I've sat in on plenty of talks about the people's research and read their papers.
[17:22] <waltman> When I was an undergrad at upenn there were a ton of low-level research positions available to work study students
[17:22] <waltman> maybe try the department office?
[17:23] <jthan> Yeah.. they're kind of helpful. It's tough because we're so big and everyone in my major is like "I wanna go to med school" - so the rest of us get lumped with them a lot.
[17:23] <jthan> Did you know you wanted to go to grad school before you went to grad school?
[17:23] <jthan> :-p
[17:24] <waltman> yeah, but then I put it off for like 20 years :)
[17:24] <jthan> Haha. Maybe I'll take that approach.
[17:31] <waltman> I suppose you could also try chatting up the grad students.
[17:32] <waltman> if the department isn't being much help, maybe try the college of arts & sciences (or whatever it's called at CU)?
[17:32] <jthan> Yeah, that wouldn't be a bad idea. I just wanna get my foot in the door. I'm okay cleaning glassware.
[17:33] <jthan> Maybe I'll just try to meet with the department head and see what he's got to say.
[17:33] <waltman> or find a new professor who's starting in the fall and needs warm bodies to staff his new lab?
[17:34] <jthan> That would be a viable option as well.
[17:34] <waltman> but i betcha somewhere there's a list of profs looking for students to help in their labs
[17:37] <waltman> jthan: have you seen this? http://careerservices.colorado.edu/students/researchOpportunities.aspx
[17:38] <jthan> Yeah - I've played with it and even been to their office. They do a really good job pointing you in the right direction, it just honestly seems like most of our professors don't care enough to sit and talk with us at that point.
[17:46] <jthan> waltman: Okay, so meeting schedule with department head for next week - I'll let you know :-p
[17:46] <jthan> I appreciate your digging around
[17:58] <waltman> good luck!