ITSC-IC Seminar – SOC-Board Report

Aim of the board

The role of the SOC board as part of the ITSC-IC seminar is the organization and realization of the final poster symposium of the individual research projects. The students of the board are assigned individual tasks that are essential for the execution. For example, the writing of invitations to professors, doctoral students and participants, the design of a promotional poster, the printing and exhibition of the posters as well as the organization on the day of the symposium and the final evaluation of the posters to award the poster prize.

Structure/Organisation of the board

During the last year (summer term 2020), we lead the SOC board in the form of a group of about 15 students. The organisation of the symposium was completely different from the previous semesters, due to the special circumstances. It was held for the first time as a virtual event, which brought new challenges. For the virtual presentation, recordings of the posters had to be made in advance with the help of an external company in order to provide a digital walkthrough of the symposium. This was then integrated on the ITSC-IC homepage and the symposium was held as a synchronous online event. Via individual zoom rooms, visitors were given the opportunity to exchange ideas with the presenters, to discuss and to ask questions.

Tasks 

Our task as the directors of the board consisted largely of coordinating the students as well as monitoring progress and maintaining contact with the seminar administration. Especially the changes compared to the previous years and the new and innovative design of the ITSC-IC seminar could only be successful through a close cooperation and consultation of the individual boards (EO-, WAB- and SOC-Board). This excessive exchange and the joint work turned out to be the main task of the individual board leaders.

Personal conclusion

Participation and the work as the leader of the SOC-board provide insights into organisation of scientific events. As a coordinating force, you learn to take responsibility for the students, to find constructive solutions to problems that arise, and to form a functioning team in close cooperation with fellow students and the seminar administration. Taking charge of the leadership of the SOC-board was lot of fun, even though it was quite time-consuming. You gain a lot of experience, which is mainly due to the excellent communication with the other boards.