Transition Week

Final Exams for the spring semester concluded last week. I got my grading done and submitted final grades. Teaching-wise it was a much lighter semester compared to last fall when I taught biochemistry for the first time. In the spring I had two small classes: P-Chem II and the honors section of G-Chem II. With only a dozen students in each class, there was much less grading to do! I also feel that I do a better job helping students puzzle over the material in class and answering their questions when there are fewer students and my attention is not spread too widely.

 

Summer research will commence full swing starting on Monday. I had a grant funded so I will be onboarding a new crew of five undergraduates. Some of the students have just finished G-Chem, some have just finished O-Chem, none have taken P-Chem yet, and all will be new to computational research. The research students I had this past spring semester have either just graduated (this past weekend) or have other summer plans lined up. This will be the first time in a while I have had so many new students join my lab without any experienced ones present to help as guides. I’ve been updating my research guides and crib-sheets to help orient my new students. This morning I worked on detailing the training schedule for the first two days. After that students will be assigned their individual projects.

 

I am also making a software transition. This was rather annoying at first. My current software vendor essentially doubled the license renewal price; after some frustrating back-and-forth I was able to negotiate it down partially, but that was still not enough. I was particularly annoyed because I had told them the previous year what my budget would be (written into my grant) according to what I had been paying the last several years with minor increases for inflation. Thus began a hunt for new software which meant getting trial licenses and testing things out to make sure I had continuity. I found some suitable packages that will expand my research methodology options so I now see this as an opportunity. And it fit my budget.

 

The transition will still be frustrating. For most of the summer, my students will be able to get their computations done on the old software that I’m very familiar with. The very tail end is when my present licenses run out, and that’s when the group will have to make the transition. I will have a month overlap between the old and new software licenses which will give me time to write up new protocols and orientation guides. Then my pitch to the students will be that they are helping me test new protocols! And for anyone who wants to continue research with me during the semester, they’ll have to learn the new software anyway, so it’s better to do it during the summer. Once classes get started, things get busy.

 

So unlike other transition weeks in past years, this one is busier than usual. In the final two weeks of the spring semester, as finals were looming while I was busy testing out new software, it felt overwhelming. But because much of the administrative paperwork was figured out last week, this week has felt more calm. Also, I can work from home this week which saves me the commuting time! I’m no longer frazzled, and I’m working on tuning my mindset to make the most out of summer research!