As an (ex) university professor, there is nothing, NOTHING better than getting an email out of the blue from a student from ten years ago who found some article he thought you’d be interested in, and then goes on to tell you how “you probably don’t remember me, but your class totally changed my life and now I live in Japan and am really into astrophotography”.
academicchatter
I hate how busy everyone always is in academia. It feels so inevitable and necessary, but it's just not. We do it to ourselves! I know it stems from the pressure to publish and prove your worth to get grants and tenure and all that. A lot of this is institutional, not the choice of individuals, but we are also the institutions.
In my experience, taking time and care is not only more comfortable, it's usually faster and more reliable! If we could all just chill out a bit, it would be better for everyone involved...
A colleague is asking how many #Neuroscientists are here on Mastodon / Fedi. If you are one, could you make yourself known in this poll? Also, more specific comments about your field welcome! 🧠
please boost around if you don't mind
#Neuroscience #Academia #AcademicChatter
Options: (choose one)
Macron is now openly calling out bigtech extractive practices and commidification of the user. Good. We need a lot more of this. We need universities to lead this pressure everywhere.
#digitalsovereignty #eu #Datasociety #academia #academicchatter
"75% of scientific researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country" - must-watch if you haven't fully grasped yet the attack of Trump on US science.. It's somehow more impactful to see actual testimonies instead of facts and numbers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO070E_dI
The whole #Trump thing is sad but the long-term damage of what he is doing against research and science, not just in the US but worldwide, is horrible. Just like the damage on the planet, it is not too late to resist of and fix it though! Universities should stick together, people should come out in support of scientists, PIs should come out of their silence - as in this video - to alert the public on the ongoing destruction.
Quoting @Nonya_Bidniss:
https://infosec.exchange/@Nonya_Bidniss/115464536239675362
We’re excited to invite you to Computational and Medicinal Chemistry by the Lake 2026, happening June 2–4 in beautiful Kuopio, Finland.
This three-day symposium brings together researchers from academia and industry to explore the latest in drug discovery — from PROTACs to AI-driven screening, molecular dynamics, and more.
We’d love to see you too there — let’s talk science by the lake!
https://sites.uef.fi/cmcl-2026/
#medchem #compchem #science #kuopio #AcademicChatter #drugdiscovery #chemistry
I think EVERY student, graduate students included, should register with the disability office, and here's why.
#AcademicChatter #HigherEd #Disability #AccessIsLove #Neurodiversity
If you're in STEM, at what level did you first get taught ethics (in general, and as specifically relevant in your field)?
Mastodon only allows 4 poll choices so please write in the comments if these choices don't cover you.
#Ethics #Science #AcademicChatter #STEM
Options: (choose one)
This situation isn't that much different from what most post-docs experience in academic R&D IMO.
- highly trained individuals
- neither staff nor student
- pay under industry level
- fixed term contracts
- little growth prospect but lottery tickets and politics
- requirement to move without support
- department shenanigans
Insult to injury here is the fact that many get suckered into sub-contracting as self-employed.
@academicchatter
Hey, Glasgow-local people, want to do an experiment? Come into my lab and have your eyes tracked while I study how you process sound and syntax, predict meaning, and encode memory!
One hour, and I pay £15 cash in hand.
Boosts welcome (especially people on Glasgow/Scotland-related servers!)
Edited to add link: Sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/46AtS0ikaj
#Scotland #Glasgow #linguistics #experiment #psycholinguistics #academicChatter
Edited 248d ago
I used to review student work digitally. I would type up notes, do tracked changes edits, and etc.
At some point last year I slowly switched to printing out student work and reviewing it by hand with a pen. I'm not sure why I changed my process but I did. Once I finish a review, I scan it in and send them the PDF plus leave the hard copy outside my office for them.
Students initially didn't like it because they had to interpret my handwriting.
But in the last few months, students have been quite happy because they know I'm not using AI to review their work. They can literally see my handwriting.
The students can (and often do) feed their work through AI to do a pre-review before sending it to me. I have other thoughts on the usefulness of AI in these cases but I allow the students a great deal of latitude in that regard as long as they disclose and document what they're doing with AI. They don't need me feeding their work through AI.
I suspect it'll become a differentiator between how I approach education and how some colleagues are now approaching it. If I'm not using my expertise, then why am I even employed when the students could use an LLM without a faculty member doing it for them?
Anyway... It turns out handwritten feedback once again has a place in education.
I've also gone back to paper and pencil in-person exams. Students are not entirely thrilled about it but some are starting to come around to the idea.
I talked to @404mediaco about generative AI's impact on teaching. Apparently I wasn't alone... not by a long shot. @jasonkoebler got a ton of responses about this topic and ran many of them here:
https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/
While it's distressing to read all of them, it's good to see I'm not alone.
I am hiring!
I have a fully funded PhD position available for someone with an interest in logic and statistics, at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands).
Application deadline: 31 August 2025
#AcademicJobs #AcademicMastodon #GetFediHired #AcademicJob #SymbolicAI #Statistics #AI #ConstraintProgramming #CombinatorialOptimisation #SensitivityAnalysis #FormalMethods #CombinatorialOptimization #Delft #TUDelft #AcademicChatter
Pleased to announce that my book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media, is now available online, and will be out in print in a couple weeks!
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com
That site has more stuff, too -- links to related articles, some notes about how I researched it, and a contact form in case you want to talk about the fediverse with me! (I'd be happy to chat with journalists about it!)
#academicChatter #bookstodon #fediverse #mastodon