Pre-Semester Responsibilities

Understanding Research

A key responsibility is to understand each research subteam's research on a mechanistic and experimental design level so that you can provide sufficient guidance to each team. Understanding each team's research on a more fundamental and intimate level is no small task.

A key question to ask yourself before the semester starts is:

• Do I have the knowledge to conduct this research myself?

More specific questions to ask yourself before the semester starts for each subteam are:

• Can I train a subteam of completely new members on this apparatus? (If you can't, can you find someone who can?)
• What are driving mechanisms involved in this research?
• What are the key challenges and deliverables of the team this semester?

Administrative Role

A key secondary part of being an RA is carrying out an administrative role on top of advising a group of subteams. Before the semester, you should review the tasks that come with your secondary role, and determine whether there is anything you can do prior to the semester. For example, the Data Management RA could start organizing both the drive and wiki before the semester begins. 

Review Challenges

Ensure that the challenges are agreed upon by Monroe, the Team Leader, and yourself. There should be a Team Challenges page located under Team Resources each semester.