Calendar of Events

Working on an academic project on campus this summer? Student researchers are invited to enjoy some refreshments, talk informally about your projects, and learn about available resources. Rain location: Frost Library Friendly Periodicals Reading Room

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a set of powerful tools to discover spatial relationships and illuminate your research with intuitive maps:

• Illustrate historic sites and extract features from old maps
• Spatially correlate census, economic, and other data
• Display geologic formations and delineate watersheds
• Track human, animal, and plant populations
• Map locations from a GPS receiver

You will learn about:

• Constructing and Sharing Maps (including with Google Earth)
• Mapping Named Data (including census data and street addresses)
• Mapping Coordinate Data (including using a GPS receiver)
• Mapping Image Data (including scanned maps and satellite data)
• Extracting Map Features

This workshop is in three parts:

• Tuesday through Thursday, June 5 – 7, 6-9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a set of powerful tools to discover spatial relationships and illuminate your research with intuitive maps:

• Illustrate historic sites and extract features from old maps
• Spatially correlate census, economic, and other data
• Display geologic formations and delineate watersheds
• Track human, animal, and plant populations
• Map locations from a GPS receiver

You will learn about:

• Constructing and Sharing Maps (including with Google Earth)
• Mapping Named Data (including census data and street addresses)
• Mapping Coordinate Data (including using a GPS receiver)
• Mapping Image Data (including scanned maps and satellite data)
• Extracting Map Features

This workshop is in three parts:

• Tuesday through Thursday, June 5 – 7, 6-9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

Want to make your research process more organized and efficient? Attend a one-hour tutorial to get started with Zotero! Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free application that helps you collect, manage and cite your sources. It's available in all computer labs on campus and you can download it on your personal computer for free. If you're interested but can't make it to the workshop, click on the more information link below to see the full workshop schedule or to make an individual appointment.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a set of powerful tools to discover spatial relationships and illuminate your research with intuitive maps:

• Illustrate historic sites and extract features from old maps
• Spatially correlate census, economic, and other data
• Display geologic formations and delineate watersheds
• Track human, animal, and plant populations
• Map locations from a GPS receiver

You will learn about:

• Constructing and Sharing Maps (including with Google Earth)
• Mapping Named Data (including census data and street addresses)
• Mapping Coordinate Data (including using a GPS receiver)
• Mapping Image Data (including scanned maps and satellite data)
• Extracting Map Features

This workshop is in three parts:

• Tuesday through Thursday, June 5 – 7, 6-9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

Join us for an open discussion on research ethics. Several faculty members will lead a group discussion, share their own insights into ethical dilemmas they have encountered, and describe scenarios that student researchers might face. Students will be encouraged to explore ethical questions related to their own research process and consider what to do when presented with an ethical dilemma. All summer research students and faculty are encouraged to attend. This workshop is mandatory for SURF students and strongly encouraged for SRP students. Lunch will be served. Please register in advance using the link below.

Excel is an essential tool for organizing and exploring data from all fields of research. Its flexible tabular format provides a convenient display of data, and it provides many functions for basic statistics, selection, summary and plotting. In addition, if you understand Excel, you will also be familiar with Google Docs online spreadsheets. If you’ve been a casual user of Excel, there are many capabilities and tricks that you may not be aware of. Come and find out what you’ve been missing. Excel is part of Microsoft Office, which students, faculty and staff can download for free.

Monday, June 11, 6–8 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

Want to make your research process more organized and efficient? Attend a one-hour tutorial to get started with Zotero! Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free application that helps you collect, manage, and cite your sources. It's available in all computer labs on campus and you can download it on your personal computer for free. If you're interested but can't make it to the workshop, click on the more information link below to see the full workshop schedule or to make an individual appointment.

Mathematica is a multifacted tool for doing mathematics on a computer, from algebra and trigonometry through calculus and beyond. It can perform both symbolic and numeric calculations, and it provides numerous mathematical and statistical functions, letting you work with many different data formats, solve equations, and fit data to arbitrary functions. It can also graphically display functions and numerical data in two and three dimensions, allowing visualizations that you can easily manipulate. It is used by mathematicians and statisticians, scientists, engineers, economists, and even game developers. Mathematica can be installed on student-owned computers from the software drive; faculty- and staff-owned computers must obtain a home-use license.

This workshop is in two parts:

Tuesday, June 12 and Wednesday, June 13 from 6-9 p.m. A light dinner will be provided at 5:30 p.m.

Please register in advance at https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

The thesis research table is a regular meet-up for students who are starting work on a thesis project to find support from each other and from instructional staff. Each week will focus on an aspect of the research and writing process; topics will be determined by the group. These might be instructional activities, discussions, work sessions or whatever works for the group. Donuts and coffee will be served! Drop in or attend regularly. Hosted by Blake Doherty of Frost Library and Jessica Kem of the Writing Center.

Norm Jones, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, will discuss the office of diversity and inclusion’s work as it relates to staff development and workforce diversity at the College. All welcome! (This is the second in a series of informal dialogues with senior staff designed to enhance communication and interconnection at the College.)

Designed for students embarking on a large scholarly project, this workshop will introduce writing techniques for taking effective and versatile notes, processing what you learn as you read and developing your own ideas in relation to the texts you’re reading. Bring a reading from your project, as we'll practice the techniques together. This workshop is taught by Jessica Kem, Director of the Writing Center.

Mathematica is a multifacted tool for doing mathematics on a computer, from algebra and trigonometry through calculus and beyond. It can perform both symbolic and numeric calculations, and it provides numerous mathematical and statistical functions, letting you work with many different data formats, solve equations, and fit data to arbitrary functions. It can also graphically display functions and numerical data in two and three dimensions, allowing visualizations that you can easily manipulate. It is used by mathematicians and statisticians, scientists, engineers, economists, and even game developers. Mathematica can be installed on student-owned computers from the software drive; faculty- and staff-owned computers must obtain a home-use license.

This workshop is in two parts:

Tuesday, June 12 and Wednesday, June 13 from 6-9 p.m. A light dinner will be provided at 5:30 p.m.

Please register in advance at https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

Due to overwhelming demand, a second class has been scheduled!

Excel is an essential tool for organizing and exploring data from all fields of research. Its flexible tabular format provides a convenient display of data, and it provides many functions for basic statistics, selection, summary and plotting. In addition, if you understand Excel, you will also be familiar with Google Docs online spreadsheets. If you’ve been a casual user of Excel, there are many capabilities and tricks that you may not be aware of. Come and find out what you’ve been missing. Excel is part of Microsoft Office.

If you are getting started on a long-term writing project such as an honors thesis, you may have good intentions about setting deadlines and staying motivated, but you may also recognize that you've never done this before. Learn practices that will help you start and complete a project you can be proud of while avoiding agony and despair. This workshop will introduce you to strategies for establishing good habits early, for writing more in less time, and for addressing procrastination and writer’s block. Participants should bring their calendars.

Python is a freely distributable high-level programming language that has become very popular for everything from scripting applications and web-page generation to solving scientific problems. It shares many basic characteristics with languages like Mathematica, Matlab and Labview, and has an extensive set of numerical and scientific modules. In this class we will use Python to build instructions describing a scientific problem, and solve it using the college computing cluster.

This workshop is in three parts:

Monday through Wednesday, June 18 – 20, 6–9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

The Title IX team has been working hard to spread our message across campus, but we have not reached everyone. Given that most staff have the responsibility to report information about sexual misconduct, it is certainly our goal to reach as many in our community as possible with training that specifically addresses mandatory reporting and our Title IX processes. Our Title IX training is a 75-minute session. If you have questions about the training, please do not hesitate to contact me.

With warm regards,

Laurie Frankl
Title IX Coordinator

Python is a freely distributable high-level programming language that has become very popular for everything from scripting applications and web-page generation to solving scientific problems. It shares many basic characteristics with languages like Mathematica, Matlab and Labview, and has an extensive set of numerical and scientific modules. In this class we will use Python to build instructions describing a scientific problem, and solve it using the college computing cluster.

This workshop is in three parts:

Monday through Wednesday, June 18 – 20, 6–9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

The thesis research table is a regular meet-up for students who are starting work on a thesis project to find support from each other and from instructional staff. Each week will focus on an aspect of the research and writing process; topics will be determined by the group. These might be instructional activities, discussions, work sessions or whatever works for the group. Donuts and coffee will be served! Drop in or attend regularly. Hosted by Blake Doherty of Frost Library and Jessica Kem of the Writing Center.

Python is a freely distributable high-level programming language that has become very popular for everything from scripting applications and web-page generation to solving scientific problems. It shares many basic characteristics with languages like Mathematica, Matlab and Labview, and has an extensive set of numerical and scientific modules. In this class we will use Python to build instructions describing a scientific problem, and solve it using the college computing cluster.

This workshop is in three parts:

Monday through Wednesday, June 18 – 20, 6–9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.
(additional meetings may be arranged if there is interest).

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response

The thesis research table is a regular meet-up for students who are starting work on a thesis project to find support from each other and from instructional staff. Each week will focus on an aspect of the research and writing process; topics will be determined by the group. These might be instructional activities, discussions, work sessions or whatever works for the group. Donuts and coffee will be served! Drop in or attend regularly. Hosted by Blake Doherty of Frost Library and Jessica Kem of the Writing Center.

Want your computer code to be perfect? Start by realizing that you will make mistakes when writing it! In this class you’ll learn how to discover and fix your errors. We will cover basic principles of debugging applicable to any programming language, though examples will use the Python language and its standard debugger pdb. Sometimes you’ll also want to try out new ideas without ruining the code that’s already working. We will therefore learn the basics of using the Git version control system, which makes it easy to fall back to an earlier version of your code if necessary. Git is also an important tool for working collaborating with others, so that you can safely experiment with taking their code in new directions.

Thursday, June 28, 6–9 p.m.; light dinner provided at 5:30 p.m.

Please register in advance:

https://www.amherst.edu/library/services/students/summer/response