Input Solicited for Winter Storm 2015: “How to be a MODEL Language Scientist” January 12-23

Winter has arrived, and close on its heels is the Winter Storm workshop!  Winter Storm is a free annual two-week intensive workshop for Language Scientists.

Winter has arrived, and close on its heels is the Winter Storm workshop!  Winter Storm is a free annual two-week intensive workshop for Language Scientists. By taking the Winter Storm  survey , you can learn more about the proposed activities and give your feedback on plans for this year’s event.  The workshop is still in the organizational phase - we need your involvement to make Winter Storm the best it can be! As the Language Science community has developed and grown, we have come to understand one very important thing: in order to foster interdisciplinary work, we must first foster an environment of interdisciplinary communication. We've been hearing of increasing interest in learning to communicate about language science research and its value to diverse audiences, and realized that this was an ideal theme for training sessions during the Winter Storm workshop. Many of the valuable technical skills typically offered at Winter Storm are relevant in differing degrees to language scientists with different specializations, and attendance at individual Winter Storm events in past years has reflected this fact. In focusing on interdisciplinary and public-facing communication—skills critical to all language scientists—our goal is to make every Winter Storm event an opportunity for education, growth, and collaboration among participants, regardless of background. Also reflected in the theme name above is our plan to include in this year's Winter Storm a series of workshops in scientific modeling. Modeling is an important technical skill that is also broadly applicable across disciplines, and we believe that it will be a valuable addition to the training repertoire of Winter Storm. The basic schedule of Winter Storm will be structured as in past years, with morning workshop sessions, daily lunch talks from invited faculty and University-affiliated researchers, Special Interest Groups (SIGs), and afternoon workshop sessions (possibly after, or alternating with, SIGs).  Please give us your thoughts on the details of the planned schedule , and let us know which modules you would like to get involved in!