Monday, April 02, 2007

Amateur Hour

Conference in Maryland. I went. I presented. I left. There are pictures...

RURehabLab: (l to r) Adam, Tiff, Dr. C, me, Kim, and Mike

Pretty Slides

Biomech Geeks, Unite!

"...as a result of Longitudinal Contraction..."
or
"It's about this big, actually" (thanks, Will)


It was a decent experience. By no means the biggest or best of my career, but alright. There's not much to say about it, either in anecdotes or in grand sweeping conclusions. Okay, you've twisted my arm... one grand sweeping conclusion.

Whoever decided to award the "Excellence in Reseach Design" prize to a tenured professor with a large, successful lab is a moron. I never expected to win this award (and we're not going to go in to my feelings on the "Best Presentation" award), but that this was the outcome of the weekend just boils my blood. Forget the fact that this guy's version of stastical analysis was to qualitatively glance at bar graphs. Forget the fact that 90% of his presentation was identical to 2 others, both of whom were his students. What gets me is that this award should have gone to someone who needed it. PhDs should be disqualified automatically, let alone PIs. Does he need a $200 gift certificate? Does he need this on his resume? No, but any 5th- or 6th-year grad would give their right arm for it. It's a sham, and frankly, it really turns me off to the whole small startup conference idea.

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