#academicchatter

I’d love to connect with other mature PhD students to share experiences. I’m 41 and just getting started researching citizen science in river health monitoring and restoration. #PhD #AcademicChatter

#Academia#AcademicChatter Watching an symposia on #AI use in #Genetics and #Genomics. At least one person is using corporate LLMs to power their platform to understand SNP-disease associations. I asked if the corporate model use is ethical or do we need ethical models for research use (I mean I don't want them anyway, but that's another thing). Person's answer sums to: I wouldn't say that LLMs are from intellectual theft. It was scraped from the open web so it's ethical. Oh. Sweet child.

I'm hoping it says something about me as an instructor that 60/62 students submitted their first assignment on time. One has an extension as they enrolled in the course the day it was due. So out of 62, only 1 AWOL assignment and could very be one of the accommodation students - haven't checked yet. As a TA, I don't think I ever saw more than 80% submitted on time. Class seems to be taking me seriously. #AcademicChatter

I could really have done much better without dealing with a pompous, mildly anglophone chauvinist reviewer this week and their supposedly helpful but contempt-dripping, passive-aggressive report. #Reviewer2 #AcademicChatter

First lecture in a course that I have taken over and teach for the first time. A very large class, second-year students who are eager to learn and who are also anxious, as the course was taught very rigidly before. I have discarded slides altogether and develop the material on the whiteboard, as I used to do. So liberating. 10-20 minutes for setting the scene, then I give them a mini case to work through with their neighbours. The students are wonderful. The room buzzes in eager discussions between them; they compare notes, check each others calculations, argue earnestly with each other. Live discovery of fundamental truths, in a shared space. The subject is alive and speaks to us. After the session I release my notes, which put all the micro insights together. Real teaching, I and Thou, is possible. I am lucky to be a teacher and to have these students. Life is good. #teaching #lectures #HigherEducation #IAndThou #AcademicChatter #StopTheAICorruption

Analog privilege is real, teacher bots have already arrived, and the sick leave bot in Elysium or the court bot in Andor are coming, unless we do something about it very quickly. #academia #academicchatter #AISociety https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/21/stop-relying-on-chatbots-for-customer-care-uk-service-providers-urged

It would be pretty cool to have a fediverse version of ResearchGate. Someone should look into that. Someone with a lot more free time than me. #fediverse #AcademicChatter #academia

I am looking for something to cite about the link between between tech billionaires and new eugenics, with a focus on Peter Thiel's backed Orchid society. Any idea? #academicChatter

Using FediWings (https://rstockm.github.io/fediwings/) by @rstockm@chaos.social, I've calculated the net reach across the Fediverse of German universities during the last 30 days. Here are the top 5:

1. Universität Ulm (@UniUlm@mastodon.social): 6860

2. Technische Universität Berlin (@tuberlin@wisskomm.social): 4315

3. RWTH Aachen: (@rwthaachenuniversity@wisskomm.social): 3660

4. Universität Bremen (@unibremen@wisskomm.social): 3352

5. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (unimainz@wisskomm.social): 3307

Next up are @tu_freiberg@wisskomm.social, @tudresden@wisskomm.social, @Uni_Stuttgart@xn--baw-joa.social, @tu_muenchen@wisskomm.social, and @hszg@wisskomm.social.

Thanks to @54gradsoftware@norden.social for providing the list of universities.

#fediverse #academicchatter #wisskomm #sciencecommunication #fediwings #germany

Many sad and powerful slides and references in Sara Bonito's talk on Gender Inequality in Astronomy - this one did in particular hit home. #astrodon #science #AcademicChatter

I am not going to finish my PhD or this puzzle anytime soon. #AcademicChatter #procrastination

Transnational and/or South Asian Feminisms My department is hiring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies! I'm the chair, so I can field questions. Deadline: October 22, 2026 Please share! Assistant: https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississauga-Assistant-Professor-Transnational-andor-South-Asian-Feminisms-ON/605444617/ Associate: https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Mississauga-Associate-Professor-Transnational-andor-South-Asian-Feminisms-ON/605444917/ #AcademicJobs #AcademicChatter

My profession (research) is just becoming increasingly unhinged in terms of "AI" use. Last three days:

• Day 1: Meeting on a grant proposal. Colleague has not read the call, but has Google Gemini Chatbot open and asks the Chatbot during our meeting constantly about call specifics.
• Day 2: Another meeting about a possible grant proposal (yes, my life). Colleague has not read the call, but brings an "AI" summary they read while discussing it with me.
• Day 3: Preparation for a kick-off meeting on a project. Colleague has prepared a list of tasks and timeline with Claude. I dread looking at it.

#academia #research #academicchatter

And you know, I even use LLMs to generate text for computer code sometimes, so I am not generally opposed to tightly scoped use of generated text in some places, but this is just an avalanche of carelessness by now.

My wonderful PhD adviser is hiring! He's searching for a PhD student to work on combining search algorithms and machine learning. He's at the department where I did my MSc research back in the day, and where I had an amazing time. https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/60705642?lang=en #PhDLife #AcademicMastodon #AcademicChatter #GetFediHired #Belgium #MachineLearning #ComputerScience #Algorithms #Optimization

I inquired about the status of a manuscript I submitted to a regional journal 170 days ago. Apparently they are still looking for a second reviewer! #AcademicChatter #AcademicPublishing

At this point, I was involved, directly or indirectly, in the mentorship of students and postdocs from 12 countries (🇳🇱🇮🇹🇩🇪🇬🇷🇮🇱🇮🇷🇷🇺🇨🇳🇮🇳🇰🇪🇳🇬🇺🇸). Each of them was their own person, but there were some common communication issues, some of which cultural. They are what this thread is about. 1/ 🧵 #AcademicChatter #Mentoring

My colleague just asked me if I can bring my lock picking tools to the office on Wednesday and I feel like I should be worried, except that I have no reasonable right to be, since I am the one who has a set of lock picking tools at home... #ProfessorLife #AcademicChatter

"... Many forms of foundational and integrative labour essential to infrastructure-scale science remain inconsistently recognised within conventional attribution systems." Link: https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/14096/ #Geology #AcademicChatter #Recognition #ValuingLabor

I was looking at a new paper that came out. It had a map in the discussion showing some things. I'm looking at it, and I can spot some glaring omissions in the Indian Ocean. The thing is, I know for sure one of the authors should know about them - we co-authored several papers on them. #AcademicChatter

Just me looking into a UofA masters degree in optics. While I'm working full time. Because I get jittery when I've been out of classes for more than 3 years. I mean, it would only be 7 years of taking classes after work, and work would pay for it all. No biggie. Guys, I might have a problem. #academicchatter