Training Activities

Progress and Experiences in Emerging Research Seminars (PEERS)

The PEERS series will feature trainees presenting their most recent results within a confidential peer group setting. Each monthly seminar will include two talks from PhD students or postdocs. In addition, trainees will be asked to include a slide on either a conference they attended, or an informational interview/career profile they have investigated. Fellows will be expected to participate in PEERS sessions throughout their Ph.D. program.

Goal-Guided Communication Workshop

This workshop will be offered jointly with the Academic, Professional, and Technical Graduate Writing Development Director for the Graduate Division. Trainees are encouraged to attend in Year 2 or 3 as they start to think about presenting their work at conferences and professional venues. These workshops will help Trainees to identify barriers to communication and information sharing between disciplines, among social and cultural groups, and prepare Trainees to develop strategies for delivering clear and compelling presentations.

Grant and Fellowship Writing Workshops

These workshops, led by the Graduate Writing Development Director, Dr. Nadler, offer training in writing fellowship applications to NSF GRFP (Fall and Spring quarter) and NIH F31 programs (Winter quarter). In addition to training on technical writing by Dr. Nadler, recent awardees of graduate and postdoctoral fellowships provide personal insights on applying for funding and on the resulting impacts of such funding; faculty volunteers review drafts and share insights from their service on review panels. DDB Fellows will attend these workshops in Year 2 or 3 of the program, as a building block in professional grant-writing and communication, and as a means of securing independent funding either during or after their graduate training.

Career Planning

DDB trainees will have the opportunity to enroll in a 6-week course, offered by Graduate Division, in partnership with Free the PhD. The course is an intensive and interactive blended professional development learning experience that guides students step-by-step through the psychology and practical protocols for career success. At the individual level, to support self-reflection, deliberate career planning and self-efficacy, we will deploy a 3-pronged mentoring plan including a faculty advisor, peer feedback, and self-assessment through IDPs. All DDB trainees will be required to attend a workshop on using IDPs in their first year. DDB will also organize regular career development workshops which invites industry coaches, workshops will focus on goal setting, career planning, and how to request and receive feedback from faculty and industry mentors. DDB will encourage Trainees to participate in CSEP's Individualized Professional Skills (IPS) program at some point in their program. IPS is designed to bridge significant gaps in career readiness by supporting experiences such as informational interviews, participation in extramural leadership institutes, or skills workshops that are essential for confidence building, skills development, and networking. For students interested in careers in industry, we will encourage and facilitate internships; for those interested in careers in clinical research, non-profit or national labs, DDB will sponsor externships. For students interested in policy, law, and government, DDB will include relevant speakers in our career exploration seminar series.

Mentoring REU Students

As part of their training, DDB trainees will mentor a research experience for undergraduates (REU) student at least once in Years 3-5. This experience will build their mentorship skills and fill the arc of the mentoring chain from faculty to undergraduates. DDB trainees will participate in mentor training and prepare, with DDB faculty, a project proposal where they will serve as a mentor to an undergraduate student for at least one quarter.

Career Exploration Seminars

For careers in industry, entrepreneurship, STEM policy, law, governmental agencies. DDB, the Center for Bioengineering, and Student Committee will draw on an extensive network of contacts and alums to organize monthly seminars featuring speakers currently employed in industry (startup & established), science policy, law, and government. Speakers will be invited to discuss not only their career path, but also offer reflections on the ways in which their academic training has prepared them for the jobs they currently hold, as well as active steps that students can take in graduate schools to become more competitive for such positions. These seminars will be open to all UCSB students. UCSB also offers separate courses on entrepreneurship, biomedical device design, and drug development R&D and regulation which we will recommend to students.

Internships

For R&D careers in industry and national labs. A diversity of opportunities are available to our DDB Trainees as there is huge demand for well trained scientists who can work with multimodal data across the science and engineering spectrum, including microscopy imaging companies, national labs, pharma, and the biotechnology industry. As part of the DDB traineeships, we will routinely encourage students to engage in domestic or international paid internships for at least one quarter. The Center for Bioengineering and student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society organize a Biotechnology Industry Showcase each spring which features speakers and panelists from industry, career planning sessions, and a networking poster session and several breaks for students to interact with potential internship employers. We additionally have a list of contacts at over 500 companies with overlapping interests. The Executive Committee and Program Administrator will help connect students according to their interests and ensure that such opportunities will be available.

Externships

For careers in clinical research, non-profit, industry. To expose Trainees to a range of scientific research careers and engage with outside stakeholders, DDB will support externships to provide interactions with diverse research settings such as non-profits, national labs, or other academic/industry centers that align with DDB themes of stem cells, gene editing, imaging, and machine learning. Funding will support trainee travel costs. Short proposals describing the intent of the visit and projected outcomes will be reviewed by the Executive Committee and funds will be awarded competitively to ensure effective use of this mechanism. All Trainees who have completed the DDB curriculum will be eligible to apply any time after their 2nd year when their research projects are expected to be solidified.

Ethics Training

In addition to online training through CITI, UCSB has launched a new ethics course (BIOE 101: Responsible Conduct of Research) that consists of interactive analysis of case studies around ethical issues that are commonly encountered in science. Topics include conflicts of interest, research misconduct, responsible authorship and publication, peer review / implicit bias, data management practices, intellectual property, societal responsibility, and contemporary issues. All DDB trainees will attend this course, and DDB faculty mentors will contribute as presenters and moderators.

Responsible Conduct of Research Training

Fellows in the Program will be required to take a course in Rigor and Reproducibility and Responsible Conduct of Research. All members of the UCSB community are expected to follow the Standards of Ethical Conduct, as defined by the Regents of the University of California.

Skills Development Funding

The program offers limited funding for trainees to attend specific courses or skills development programs that enrich their skills as related to the DDB. Trainees are encouraged to choose short courses or skills workshops that are interdisciplinary in nature and complement their research. Trainees will be asked to discuss their experience when they next present at the PEERS seminar series.