GSA SEPTEMBER 20th - ANNOUNCEMENTS

GSA FUN ACTIVITIES: THE PHD MOVIE ADVANCE TICKETS!

GSA will be screening The PHD Movie at the Lyric Theater on Wednesday, October 12th at 7:00 pm! The PHD Movie is based on the popular web comic by comedian Jorge Cham (www.phdcomics.com). The film delves into the unique and funny culture of Academia and follows four graduate students (Cecilia, Mike, Tajel, and the "Nameless Grad Student") as they struggle to find balance between research, teaching, and their personal lives. Tickets are $5.00 and will be available during GSA Office Hours Tue 810am and Wed 1:30-3:30pm in GLC Graduate Student Organization Of fice (21 GLC). Questions: Contact Swetha Kumar at swethak@vt.edu GSA VP of Programs.

GSA SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES (2ND POST) I.GSA-GRADUATE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (GRDP); CYCLE I The GSA-GRDP is a competitive research funding program administered by the GSA to support qualified research and innovative ideas proposed by VT graduate students (awards up to $600 for selected PhD proposals and $400 for selected Master proposals). Applications go through a rigorous review process by a panel of graduate students and faculties. Visit http://www.gsa.uusa.vt.edu/programs/research_program to learn more about this opportunity. Applications open September 14th. Any questions/Information: should be directed to Milad Radiom, at (GSAGRDPChair@gmail.com) GRDP Chair II.GSA-Travel Fund Program (TFP): CYCLE I The GSA Travel Fund Program (TFP) is here to help relieve some of your financial burdens associated with presenting research at a conference. If you travel between July 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011, you Applications open Sept 14-Oct http://www.gsa.uusa.vt.edu/programs/travel_fund. 15, 2011(5pm). Please review

Any questions/Information: should be directed to Franklin Warren, at (GSATFPChair@gmail.com) GTFP Chair

UPCOMING EVENTS - ( 1ST POST) I. Academic I.a. FIRST INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM IN VIRGINIA TECH ANNOUNCEMENT Interdisciplinary Research Symposium at Virginia Tech on Nov 4th, 9am-4pm, in the Graduate Life Center (GLC) Multipurpose room. The goal of this symposium is to showcase student research projects to promote and recognize the interdisciplinary work being performed at Virginia Tech by both graduate and undergraduate students. Please visit our website for FREE registration to the event and view

Questions/Suggestions contact: Shaimaa Abdallah

GSA VP Membership (shaimaa@vt.edu )

GSA SEPTEMBER 20th - ANNOUNCEMENTS

additional information on abstract submission at http://symposium.idrsociety.org Abstracts should be submitted to symposium@idrsociety.org by Oct 2nd. I.b. NANOVT FALL GATHERING AND NEW BOARD ELECTION NanoVT is going to have a gathering next week to elect a new board. All positions are open: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Seminar Committee Chair, Outreach Committee Chair, MICRON Data Base Committee Chair, Supporting Officer, and Undergraduate Liaison. If you are interested to be nominated for NanoVT board, please send me an email including 1-2 paragraphs about yourself (which position(s) are you interested in, why you are interested to serve in NanoVT, what your plan is if you be chosen for that position, and so on). We will serve pizza! Please fill this doodle by Friday, Sep 23rd, to find the best time for the meeting: http://doodle.com/8zmqwb4tecgmfqzg. If you have any question please contact Alireza Salmanzadeh (alireza@vt.edu). Looking forward to seeing you! II. Cultural Secularism and the World of Islam The Iranian society at Virginia Tech is pleased to welcome Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush, the prominent Iranian reformist thinker, for a lecture on "Secularism and the World of Islam". Attached please find the flyer of the event. Time: Friday, September 23rd, at 3:00 pm Venue: McBryde Hall, room 100 Dr. Abdulkarim Soroush is a leading Iranian philosopher and refor mist thinker. He taught at Tehran University and the Iranian Academy of Philosophy, and published on a variety of topics, including the philosophy of science, political philosophy, Sufism, and modern Islamic theology. Since 2000 he has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard and Princeton Universities, teaching courses in Islam and Democracy, Quranic Studies, Islamic Political Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Islamic Law. Dr. Soroush is also a scholar in residence at Yale University. Dr. Soroush's main contribution to Islamic theology includes a sharp distinction between religion as divine revelation and religion as interpretation of scriptures which is shaped by socio -political factors. In 2004 Dr. Soroush was awarded, along with Sadik al-Azm and Fatema Mernissi, the prestigious Erasmus Prize for his important contributions to the debate on religion and modernity. In 2005 he was selected by the Time Magazine among 100 influential people. His publications in English include Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam (2000) and The Expansion of Prophetic Experience (2009).

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS - (1st POST) I. GSA Graduate Undergraduate Mentoring Program (GUMP) COMMITTEE We are s where undergraduate students shadow a graduate mentor. This new program is based on successful programs at other universities whereby undergraduates can get a taste for graduate school while forming real relationships with graduate students whom they can contact for advice in the future. Students will spend 2-4 hrs per week with a graduate student observing routine activities. They will rotate every two weeks for a set period of six weeks in the Spring semester, allowing for a diverse experience with three different mentors. Committee volunteers are needed to help with advertisement materials, recruiting graduate

Questions/Suggestions contact: Shaimaa Abdallah

GSA VP Membership (shaimaa@vt.edu )

GSA SEPTEMBER 20th - ANNOUNCEMENTS

students, hosting one short orientation meeting in the fall semester, and hosting one program completion meeting in the spring semester. Questions/Information contact: Risa Pesapane rpesapan@vt.edu II.GSA HEALTH CARE COMMITTEE (HCC) The VT Graduate Student Assembly Health Care Committee is dedicated to improving the health - mental and physical of our graduate student body through facilitating discussions and advocating policy changes with the icated consecutive members/team after three years of hard work, last year had a major success and a break through leading to great improvements. We were able to get a new Health Insurance vendor, AETNA, with better benefits and service quality, a 90% subsidy for Grad Students. This year we are seeking volunteers to follow on our HCC PLAN 2011-2012. Check our FB page (no account is needed!) for more information about earlier work milestones: http://www.facebook.com/pages/VT-GSA-Health-Care-Committee/105179039565894#!/pages/VT-GSAHealth-Care-Committee/105179039565894?sk=info Questions/Information contact: Amit Amritkar amritkar@vt.edu - GSA HCC Chair (2011-2012). III. BLACKSBURG DOWNTOWN TAILGATE Downtown Blacksburg Inc. is looking for volunteers for the upcoming Downtown Tailgate on September 30th at 5:00pm!! Volunteers will be checking IDs and selling tickets. If interested: contact: Laureen Blakemore at events@downtownblacksburg.com HELP IS ON THE WAY!! GSA GUMP Chair.

All LISA Courses are from 5-7pm this semester in either Fralin Auditorium or 3060/3080 Torgersen Hall. For Full schedule & Registration check: www.lisa.stat.vt.edu/?q=short_courses
I. TITLE: INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS Tuesday, September 20; Instructor: Jonathan Stallings Location/Time: Fralin Auditorium from 5-7pm Course Topics: Across all disciplines, the ability to test theories by experimentation is vital for validation and discovery. When designing an experiment, the researcher hopes to maximize the obtained information by reducing wasted resources and allocating treatments in such a way as to minimize variances. Ideally, a design will account for major sources of variation so that the researcher can be confident the effects of treatments are not confounded with some extraneous factor. In this course, the basic principles of experimental design will be given and specific designs discussed. The first designs introduced will be completely randomized designs, the most straightforward design when a researcher wants to test for differences amongst multiple treatments. Optimal blocking strategies will then be presented as a variancereducing technique, e.g. perhaps the researcher feels a subject's gender may significantly affect observations. For each design we will discuss implementation, appropriate analysis and provide examples in SAS. If time permits we may also introduce more complicated designs tailored specifically to the researchers attending the course. TODAY!

Questions/Suggestions contact: Shaimaa Abdallah

GSA VP Membership (shaimaa@vt.edu )

GSA SEPTEMBER 20th - ANNOUNCEMENTS

REPEATED I. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL FAIR! II. LISA (LABORATORY FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STATISTICAL ANALYSIS) SERIES OF EVENING SHORT COURSES III. NEW STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN! IV. *"LIKE" OUR NEW FACEBOOK FAN PAGE*

I. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR GRADUATE & PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL FAIR! Final CALL Be a part of the action! Graduate Student Assembly is looking for volunteers to make this year's Graduate and Professional School Fair a success. This yearly fundraiser will be held on Monday Sept 26th at Squires Commonwealth Ballroom. Volunteers may sign up for a 1 hour or longer shift assisting with setup, transportation se+rvices, general support, check in/registration desk help and more. Free t-shirt and food will be provided for all volunteers! Please complete the registration form to provide your contact information and shift preferences. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dERNVXZYMy1OMXNqNm9FU3 dDb0V4LUE6MQ#gid=0 Questions: Contact Courtney Gleason (vtgpsf@gmail.com) GPSF 2011 Chair

II. LISA (LABORATORY FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STATISTICAL ANALYSIS) SERIES OF EVENING SHORT COURSES (2ND POST) To help graduate students who use statistics in their research. The focus of these two -hour courses is on teaching practical statistical techniques for analyzing or collecting data. See www.lisa.stat.vt.edu/?q=short_courses for instructions on how to REGISTER and to learn more. Short courses will be held from 5-7PM. Please see our website for the full schedule. III. NEW STUDENT HEALTH INSURANCE ENROLLMENT NOW OPEN! - (DUE DATE: OCT 3rd 2011) The 2011-2012 VT student health insurance plan provided by Aetna Student Health is now available for enrollment online at http://www.aetnastudenthealth.com. Graduate students (GA's, GTA's and GRA's) eligible for the health insurance subsidy should choose a "subsidy plan" and should show a $0 balance when completing the enrollment process. If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact the Stud ent Medical Insurance Office at smi@vt.edu or call 540-231-6303. Aetna Student Health will be the new student health insurance carrier for the 2011-2012 academic year. Learn more about the insurance plans and rates at http://www.co.vt.edu/Risk/index.html IV. *"LIKE" OUR NEW FACEBOOK FAN PAGE* Graduate Student Assembly invites you to LIKE our new interactive Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-Tech-Graduate-Student-Assembly/101362179953389). You will receive updates about current GSA news, events and programs right in your Facebook newsfeed! Also, you will be able to share departmental events by posting event information directly on our Facebook wall. For a full listing of summer events, visit the Google Calendar on the GSA Website (http://www.gsa.uusa.vt.edu) including trips to the Cascades, the Summer Wine Social, and the annual Welcome Back BBQ!

Questions/Suggestions contact: Shaimaa Abdallah

GSA VP Membership (shaimaa@vt.edu )