About CELEST
What is CELEST?
Overview
People
Administrative Structure
Faculty
Staff
Participating Institutions
External Advisory and Scientific Review Board
Diversity Outreach Committee
News and Events
CELEST News
Upcoming Events
Research Highlights
NSF Highlights
Honors and Awards
Books and Book Chapters
Peer-reviewed Publications
Conference Presentations
Non-conference Presentations
Lectures on Video
First Annual CNS/CELEST Student/Postdoc Career Day
The CNS/CELEST 1 st Career Day, sponsored by the Center of Excellence for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology (CELEST), was held on October 24, 2007 at the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems (CNS) at Boston University .
Company representatives of four hi-tech companies with headquarters or research labs in Massachusetts participated in this student-organized event. Representatives from iRobot Corporation , MIT Lincoln Lab, BAE Systems and Icosystem Corporation interacted with students and postdocs from selected departments from Boston University and the larger CELEST community, including the departments of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology. Approximately 35 students and postdocs were in attendance.
The advertisement and organization of the event was supported by a website http://www.cns.bu.edu/careerday developed by two PhD students at the CNS department: Bret Fortenberry and Greg Amis. This website helped students and postdocs familiarize themselves with company representatives before the event and allowed for the companies to have access to CVs from attendees ahead of time.
The Career Day was held from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the CNS auditorium. Representatives gave presentations aimed at introducing their companies, their specific area of expertise, and job opportunities. Students also learned about job requirements, "life after academics", and pros and cons of industry jobs.
Company presentations were followed by a panel discussion and lunch and breakout sessions where students, postdocs, and company representatives had the chance to closely interact and learn about each other's work.
Heather Ames, CELEST student/postdoc leader and a PhD student at the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, co-organized the Career Day. Heather reported that the companies and participants were impressed with the career day and in particular with the quality of the audience and the organization of the event.
"We plan to turn this into a yearly event," said Massimiliano Versace, chair of the Career Day planning committee and postdoc at the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems. “One of the goals of our department, and of CELEST, is to promote the creation of a network of learning scientists in education, academia, and industry. Today's event was a successful step in this direction.”
Many thanks to the Career Day organizing committee: Heather Ames, Greg Amis, Andrew Browning, Bret Fortenberry, Himanshu Mhatre, Jesse Palma, Max Versace, and Eugene Zaydens.