---
tags: labmeeting
---
# Whitaker Lab Meeting | 5th May 2022
Time: 4pm-5pm, every Thursday (unless stated otherwise)
Room: All remote until COVID is clear :mask:
Zoom: https://turing-uk.zoom.us/j/97103500702?pwd=VTRlVlVhWS92VWp1N3V0WmkzVTF5QT09<-- update if needed
### Useful links
* Lab meeting guidance: [Onboarding/Lab-meetings](https://github.com/WhitakerLab/Onboarding/blob/master/Lab-meetings.md)
* Lab meeting schedule: [WhitakerLabProjectManagement/lab-meetings](https://hackmd.io/9Y849a_cRCOElugbTlGoQg)
* Check your local time: http://arewemeetingyet.com/London/ddmm2021/09:00/Whitaker%20lab%20meeting
### Attendees
> *Please add your name below*
> Add 🤫 if you don't want your name added to the GitHub record
> Add :rocket: if you're connecting remotely
> Add :information_desk_person: if you'll be there in person
* Elizabeth :rocket:
* Laura :rocket:
* Arielle :rocket: (I think)
* Alden :information_desk_person:
* Patricia :banana:
* Sophia :rocket:
* Dave :penguin:
* Emma :sunflower: :rocket:
* Jen :tulip:
* Achintya :rocket:
* Anne :sunflower:
* Georgia :rocket: :butterfly:
* Vicky :rocket: :last_quarter_moon_with_face:
* Sarah :rocket:
* Malvika :signal_strength:
* Hari :information_desk_person:
### Apologies
> *Please add your name below if you are not able to attend the meeting.
> Don't forget to complete the sections below, even if you are not able to attend.*
> Add 🤫 if you don't want your name added to the GitHub record
* Arron - interview panel
*
*
### What do you want the lab members to know about?
> *Please add a bullet point with something you'd like the lab members to know about.
> You may respond to any of the points before or after the lab meeting, no need to wait until the 1 hour time slot!
> Please add your initials and use the* 🤫 *emoji if you would like the bullet point removed from the GitHub record.*
* [name=Laura] Thursday is local elections day for Scotland, Wales and bits of England. If you're eligible to vote and there's an election in your area, why not take a moment to plan when you're going to vote and how it will fit into your day? This makes it a lot likelier that you'll remember!
* [name=Sarah] I *always* register for postal votes. I've actually never been to a polling station. Something about them triggers my anxiety. With a postal vote, I can vote in the comfort of my own home, read the instructions carefully, read up on the candidates. And I always walked past a post box on the way to the bus in the days when I commuted, whereas the polling station was never somewhere convenient. There are no requirements to get a postal vote, other than "I would like one".
* [name=Patricia] Polling station is just on the way to the park, so we will vote as part of our after work walk
* [name=Arielle] Will be voting first thing! :ballot_box_with_ballot: you can find your local polling station here https://wheredoivote.co.uk/ & you do not need ID or a polling card to vote (although not for much longer :unamused: )
* [name=Laura] The poll workers were talking about how appalled they were by the new ID requirements when I came in (no-one else was in at the time)
* [name=Georgia] Thanks for the reminder! Will be voting at lunchtime
* [name=Laura] Also today is a good day for following [@VotingDogs](https://twitter.com/VotingDogs) and #DogsAtPollingStations
* [name=Alden] so many good dogs! :dog2: :heart:
* [name=Malvika Sharan] I have been doing my research and finding it hard to be objective :grin:
* [name=Patricia] Resignation is now processed - I'm free from August and caring less makes life sooo much easier. Figuring out outstanding leave and then taking some time to think an plan next steps (and rest).
* [name=Arielle] Woooohooo! If we can help with any of the figuring out let us know :sparkles:
* [name=Sophia] echoing Arielle's comment. Happy to support :sparkles:
* [name=Dave] +1 to the above ^ :+1:
* [name=Georgia] +1 that's fabulous Patricia good for you!!
* [name=Laura] Hurrah for an end date in sight!
* [name=Alden] congrats!
* [name=Sarah] Fab news! :hibiscus:
* [name=Malvika Sharan] :muscle:
* [name=Arielle] I'm back from a long weekend to an overflowing inbox and several things that were due several weeks ago :weary: - if I owe you something please be patient and send me a nudge tomorrow!
* On a slightly more positive note, **United Tech & Allied Workers are hosting a worker's inquiry** on Friday night from 7pm - [**more details here**](https://www.meetup.com/tech-and-allied-worker-solidarity-education/events/285154820) - it's open to everyone so please sign up and share with your networks! From the event blurb:
* > The Workers' Inquiry is a tool for tech workers to learn about and understand the conditions and struggles shared by our colleagues in the sector. This is an opportunity for tech workers to come together and discuss not only our working conditions but also tactics to promote change.
* [name=Malvika Sharan] :fist:
* [name=Sophia] It's the first official week at Turing!! I've felt super welcomed and it's all so totally rad. I'm also trying to wrap my head around who to introduce myself to and if I'm moving at the right pace (trying to crunch on HR/admin work so that it doesn't drag itself out and also give myself headspace to get up to speed about what the scope of my role is). In other news, we've finalized our built in bookcase and desk in the flat and it's starting to feel like life it settling a bit more - the 9-5 this week is helping for sure!!
* [name=Dave] Welcome! Glad to hear you're enjoying your first official week :smile:
* [name=Emma] Welcome, welcome :tada:
* [name=Jen] Woohoo!!! Welcome!!!
* [name=Anne] Woohooo welcomeee!!
* [name=Georgia] Yaay!! Welcome Sophia :yellow_heart: :star2: :brain:
* [name=Alden] welcome to the best dressed person in the office! :dress:
* [name=Vicky] Wahoooo! Excited to see you in the office at some point soon!
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Welcome again!! So glad to have you join us officially.
* [name=Dave] Had a great trip down to the office yesterday and was so lovely to actually see people in person - makes such a difference! Had a chat with a couple of PMs, met up with Alden & Sophia, and also met Evelina for the first time - so feeling super socialable :tada:
* [name=Georgia] Ah nice! It does make such a difference seeing people in person sometimes
* [name=Malvika Sharan] I agree. We should plan a lunch together when you are here next time.
* [name=Emma] Headless chicken mode :chicken: for me again this week as moving between so many tasks and meetings. Main joys of the week are finishing the first draft of a paper on Reproducible Archaeology that I'm writing with Esther Plomp (Turing way star!) and prep for TTW bookdash - lovely to see new folks and chat with them at the collaboration cafe.
* [name=Georgia] Yay congrats on finishing your first draft! That's great progress :)
* [name=Anne] It was super cool to hear about this draft - would love to read just for my own knowledge when it's ready :nerd_face: ... Also, very excited for Bookdash!
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Sending lots of positive thoughts! :muscle: Looking forward to reading the paper. :eyes:
* [name=Jennifer] Lots of catch up after Public Engagement course week - May is sooo busy! Hoping June will be better. Thank you to the Collab Cafers for welcoming Dustin and Fernando yesterday! I think they were both a bit confused about what was going on, but despite all that, really appreciate everyone creating an open/friendly environment for newbies.
* [name=Georgia] :orange_heart:
* [name=Anne] Lovely to see ya at Collab Cafe and please tell Dustin & Fernardo that their projects are so so fascinating + amazing to see progress!!
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Thanks for bringing then to the Collab cafe Jen. I abandoned Anne to deal with the hosting yesterday. Please do let us know if a separate onboarding call will be useful.
* [name=Anne] Hosted my first collaboration cafe and it was a bit chaotic :laughing: Had some audio issues at first- a big big thank you to Arielle for taking over for a while! But learned about some really interesting projects (like Emma+Esther's work on open archeology that is super cool or an emerging section on using wikipedia for science communication or the awesome work being by Dustin & Jennifer on the Synthetic Population Catalyst?!)... This week definitely felt like a mix of :sparkles: major :sparkles: imposter syndrome & community management capabilities alongside very inspiring conversations.
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Thank you Anne. Sorry for not giving sufficient heads up for the hosting. Thanks to Arielle for always being a huge ally.
* [name=Georgia] I've had a lovely bank holiday weekend/few days off this week so feeling refreshed! I'd recommend the [Kyosai](https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kyosai) exhibition at the RA for those of you in London. Also trying a full deetox including from all alcohol & caffeine and I'm sleeping so much better.
* [name=Patricia] Nice! Glad you found something to help with your sleep :sleeping:
* [name=Alden] that exhibition looks really cool, thanks!
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Thanks for sharing about the exhibition Georgia.
* [name=Vicky] Went to Roche Welwyn yesterday for the first time which was great! Very fancy campus as expected (with massage chairs!) and presentation to the Roche board went well but felt very 'apprentice boardroom' :laughing: Feeling quite tired now from it all so going to make sure I have a proper rest this weekend.
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Well done Vicky! I am sure you nailed the talk and so gald that folks had a chance to meet you. I hope this was a useful investment on a formal pants :grin:
* [name=Arron] On interview panels for two RSF Data Wranglers and met some very interesting candidates! I really enjoyed the Turing-Crick sprint on developing two courses in AI and computational projects - even if I was only able to attend one session in the end.
* [name=Achintya] Turing podcast mini-series on ASG [is a go](https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/asg-community/issues/53)! Quite excited about this. Oh, and I passed my probation!
* Also, greetings from Painswick in the Cotswolds! So pretty here. Moved work around so I could spend part of yesterday afternoon gallivanting with my family on my wife’s birthday, but have been sadly indoors on a gorgeous sunny day today while they’re exploring the north-east bits of the region. Drove a car in the UK for the first time this week and got much more used to it after a couple of days.
* [name=Malvika Sharan] For others, Achintya passed the probation :tada: all the best for the podcast and many more interesting projects to come.
* [name=Anne] WOOO!!
* [name=Sarah] I am in my happy place of bots and automation right now
* We have a few rotating roles at 2i2c, but everyone was ignoring the GitHub issues about them (combination of high SNR and the issues needed to be updated in order to tag the appropriate person). So I'm designing a bot that will dynamically create Geekbot standups to remind people of their roles in a more persistent and visible way (results will be posted to team channels)
* Code: https://github.com/2i2c-org/team-roles-geekbot-sweep (still under development)
* It also transpired that people find the GitHub UI very confusing when trying to distinguish between GitHub Actions that ran before a PR was merged, and those that run on the default branch after merge. So I whipped up a quick Action that will comment on a merged PR with a link to a specific workflow running on the default branch.
* Code: https://github.com/2i2c-org/infrastructure/blob/master/.github/workflows/comment-test-link-merged-pr.yaml
* [name=Malvika Sharan] Caught something viral and was down with fever yesterday. So strange to have dodged this for last two years. Feels weird to take a sick day while WfH.
* Book Dash prep is underway, Turing-Crick review sprint went well but haven't had a chance to summarise the work, something exciting :shushing_face: : I have been invited to join the [NASA-TOPS (Transform to Open Science)](https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/transform-to-open-science) panel.
* [name=Sarah] Amazing! Say hi to Jim Colliand!
* [name=Anne] Wow!! Congrats!!
### What would you like lab members' opinion(s) on?
> *Please add a bullet point with something you'd like lab members' opinion on.
> You may respond to any of the points before or after the lab meeting, no need to wait until the 1 hour time slot!
> Please add your initials and use the* 🤫 *emoji if you would like the bullet point removed from the GitHub record.*
* [name=Arielle] Wednesday afternoon feels the wrong time to ask this, but what types of questions do you have about strategy development you'd like me to try and answer or discuss in the lab meeting tomorrow?
* [name=Patricia] Something around making it democratic and getting all those onboard that you will need to deliver it.
* [name=Georgia] Understanding how to strategically make new connections and links.
* [name=Sophia] these may be rogue questions but:
* what is listened to and what isn't? what things have you seen so far actually enact changes? how much/far separates operational workflows from strategic fluff? What does Turing hold as mission critical that is different from other orgs (and is that good/bad)? What paths are there in reality to support or influence strategy? When we say "leadership", what does that actually mean and what do they actually do? (that question is fueled by the classic PI happening of 'write grants and sign off emails with a single lowercase letter').
* [name=Jen] Not a TPS oriented question, but general Turing - how do you manage big personalities on project teams, particularly when this gets in the way of progress or decision making? Also, what unexpected forms of work do you consider "strategy" work?
* [name=Georgia] There's a difference I think between well-meaning but perhaps unaware dominating personalities who may need some care and compassion and probably honest feedback, and people who need standing up to and confronting (I'm not very good at this so advice would be appreciated!)
* [name=Anne] Super basic question but: How do you manage competing priorities in developing strategies (i.e. funding/donor priorities vs community needs)?
* [name=Sophia] Reviving a classic 'new starters' question and adding my own spin: Who do you think I (Sophia) need to meet at Turing? Could be someone you think is just cool, maybe someone who's a hub of all knowledge (other than Arielle), or someone specific that you have in mind.
* [name=Dave] Pragmatically, it's always good to make friends with someone in IT, the guys on reception/facilities, and someone in HR :wink:
* [name=Emma] Great advice from Dave above :point_up_2: Would also add get to know the health project management team and also the comms/events team as you will need their help to do stuff. Comms are often in the office, especially on wednesdays.
* [name=Jennifer] not a specific person, but would you (and anyone else in the lab) be interested in joining some Urban Analytics folks for indoor golf on Friday the 13th? (https://swingers.club/uk ) :ghost: :woman-golfing: [name=Arielle] YES TO GOLF (depends on time as I'm going dancing later that eve!)
* [name=Arielle] Would recommend specifically chatting with Jessie who is lead on public engagement within comms&events team + chatting with any of the Data Study Group folks (if you haven't met them already!)
* [name=Vicky] I'd recommend the academic engagement team! Just spoke to Patty from the team this morning and she gave me a really useful overview of the interest groups, fellows programmes and university liason managers!
* [name=Patricia] I think I asked something similar a while ago, but what do people recommend I do for the re-charge and plot the future part?
* [name=Arielle] I will always advocate for the Get Bullish "design your 20XX" workbook which I find useful for thinking both short and long term (but that is in light of a total lifestyle overhaul)
* [name=Laura] I'm a big advocate for - if you can - taking enough rest time that you are actually bored by it, before you start planning the next steps.
* [name=Georgia] Are there any upcoming talks, lectures or workshops you'd recommend?
* [name=Anne] Just saw the Riot science club schedule, might be of interest! https://twitter.com/riotscienceclub/status/1519271362354892800
* [name=Arielle] Recommend all the health talks coming up & checking out the Open Research Calendar for ideas: https://openresearchcalendar.org/calendar/
* [name=Georgia] Great suggestions thnaks Anne and Arielle!
* [name=Anne] How do you like to be recognised for work you've done or projects you have been a part of? How do you NOT like to be recognised?
* Context: In these 1:1 convos with TTW/Open science contributors, I've been learning so much about how huge parts of the project were products of informal conversations that weren't documented anywhere (but were so integral! imp! creative! inspiring!). Recognising and acknowledging that work is super important, but I know that people may have different preferences for experiencing recognition - so I thought I'd crowd source some personal prefs as I go about asking people 1:1!
* [name=Arielle] Personal preference is just public acknowledgment :sweat_smile: I'm happy with the opportunities that I get to represent the Turing Way (& TPS) through my work (& think it's really cool that they get shared out!). Also my career path is very much less focused on individually attributed output at the moment - my performance review isn't impacted by how many times I'm an author or citations I receive.
* [name=Laura] I just want the people I respect in my various fields to think "yep, this is good, Laura does good work." Hard to implement or quantify though!
* [name=Sarah] Agree with both Laura and Arielle. I also think [Jupyter's Distinguished Contributor programme](https://jupyter.org/governance/distinguished_contributors.html) is a nice model. Traditionally in open source, recognition was equated with maintainer status - but that was just a cloaked way of saying "you do good work - here's more work to do!" This programme brings the recognition without the added expectation of extra work. (And yes, I am biased as I most recently received this recognition :laughing:)
* [name=Vicky] Trying to get more ahead of the game with finding speakers for the Turing-Roche Knowledge Share's- June's theme is synthetic data for health- anyone know anyone working on this in the Turing?
* [name=Sarah] I think Callum in REG is on a synthetic data project
* [name=Jennifer] A few folks in S&R and UA are working on synthetic population models for things like covid transmission. They synthetic part is the household and people data though (not health data directly)
* [name=Sarah] Oh, I think this is the project I mean. Checking for COVID viral levels in sewerage right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsVgi8hoFFc
* [name=Arielle] Speak to Greg Mingas (REG) who worked on QUiPP (& also have a chat to Tony Zemitas who organises the synthetic data seminars)
* [name=Jennifer] There was some talk awhile ago about an open source repo template. If that exists, would someone be able to share a link to that? :smile:
* [name=Sarah] Could it be this one? https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/reproducible-project-template
## Agenda
| Time | Event |
|:------------- | ------------------ |
| 16:00 - 16:10 | HackMD run through |
| 16:10 - 16:55 | TPS Leadership & Stategy Development Process - Arielle |
| 16:55 - 17:00 | Next week plan: ASG White Papers update - Achintya / Goatherder: Sophia |
### Shared Notes
* https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1020402/National_AI_Strategy_-_PDF_version.pdf
* https://www.ukri.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/UKRI-210422-Strategy2022To2027TransformingTomorrowTogether.pdf
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