NSF EAPSI 2013

[GarbageNerdUCF]

I received the same email. I believe they are going to finalize on the 27th.  

[Pauli]

Yeah, that message is something we can pretty much avoid since it's automated. I talked to SATO earlie this week about that message, and they said that my ticket will be finalized tomorrow or so.

[ajcsh15]

I have seen the sites in D.C. enough times that all I'm really interested in is the cherry blossoms since I have never been during the festival.  I will probably do that between check in and dinner on Day 1 if possible ...   

[GarbageNerdUCF]

@ajcsh15: I would be interested in joining you. 

[Pauli]

@ ajcsh15

Hell yeah!  Cherry blossoms party!  Count me in.

[GarbageNerdUCF]

Sweet! Can't wait. :-)

[ajcsh15]

Awesome!

[CountingSeeds]

@Pauli: I posted it before, but I'm not on the list so --> My flight arrives at DCA (Reagan) at 5:00pm.   

[Pauli]

I can't seem to edit my orignal post anymore, CountingSeeds, but that should be plenty of time to meet up for group dinner fun.  Details TBD.

[dcfryxell]

What is this "Working Dinner: Presentation of Abstracts" ? Do we have to talk about our project plans?

 

Thanks for all the info Pauli - I think a lot of us owe you a beer

[GarbageNerdUCF]

@dcfryxell: He already has me done for a hot chocolate? 

[Pauli]

What is this "Working Dinner: Presentation of Abstracts" ? Do we have to talk about our project plans?

 

Ah, yes.  I got this question from a fellow fellow (lol) recently, and I remember this session quite vividly.  It's basically a group-wide activity which the NSF coordinators split everyone into their round tables (about 8 per table in a large banquet hall?) that they're already sitting at, and we discuss how to improve our abstracts and titles from our accepted proposals with our tablemates before we submit final versions to the NSF coordinators. Each table then sends one of their members to the microphone to tell the coordinators and everyone else in the room what their old and new titles were.  That's what they did last year, at least.

 

The session is primarily so that we can make it easier for external people (like non-expert government-funding policy-makers) to better understand our research projects in plain English.  Some people had really long and complicated and difficult-to-understand titles, so this session made their titles surprisingly...more clear to everyone.

[Pauli]

So the NSF EAPSI program is pretty major news to your university, so you may likely receive an e-mail from your department or college PR member to write a news blurb about you and also a photo.  I know of some fellows last year such as myself receiving an e-mail some weeks before orientation, and if you haven't received one from your department or college, you may possibly receive one afterwards also.

 

One suggestion that I would like to share is what past EAPSI fellows have done in previous years by taking their photo in front of one of the famed D.C. historical monuments (e.g., Lincoln memorial) and using it as their photo for the news blurb.  Another suggestion that PR people really love is posing in that photo with a large flag from their university.  I can share some examples for mine below, and you can catch some more from other previous fellows:

• http://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2012/03/30/computer-science-graduate-students-awarded-nsf-eapsi-fellowships
• http://www.cse.tamu.edu/news/items?id=2856
• http://www.cs.utexas.edu/news-events/news/2012/utcs-alum-awarded-nsf-eapsi-fellowship

[GarbageNerdUCF]

My ticket was finalized.

[Pauli]

Mine too.  Operation: Cherry Blossoms Party commencing soon.

[gzahn]

Same here!  I get in around 2:30 and plan to go on a walkabout (my first time in the capital) to see the sights.  I would love to meet up with some fellow EAPSI fellowship fellows later on in the evening!

[ajcsh15]

Is it necessary to call the airline directly to confirm our tickets?  And, do I just bring the ticketed invoice to the airline counter to get a proper ticket?  I feel silly not knowing this stuff.   

[GarbageNerdUCF]

You should be able to use your confirmation number and check into your flight and print your ticket. I was able to log into my flight even before it was confirmed to change my seat. 

[Eastern_wind]

Hi everyone,

 

Sorry I'm late to give the news, but I will also be arriving at 2:30pm at Raegan National (DCA). Also since the first day is rather free, I was interested in sight seeing also. If anyone wants to join, would be great. The main thing I want to see was the Air and Space museum at the Smithsonian. I could pretty much spend the whole day seeing all the smithsonians, but if anyone is interested in seeing something else I'm cool with that also!

[Eastern_wind]

Also Pauli gets a beer from me also! I would love to meet everyone from this forum and I'm interested in any events you all plan for a meetup.

[Pauli]

You guys crack me up, lol.

 

So is anyone coming into D.C. for the first time and taking the metro from the airport to the hotel?  If so, be sure to bring some exact change.  Oh man, the employees at all the metro station service windows I've been to told me they don't give out change for the automated ticket machines, so they couldn't break my $5 bill to make a less-than-$2 trip.  And the stupid machines put credit all into those paper ticket cards.  I ended up going to Dunkin' Dounts to buy a drink and getting change to catch the metro back to the airport.

 

/end rant

[Pauli]

So according to the hotel, we will be receiving three (3) food meal vouchers that are good for the restaurant inside the hotel:

• 1 dinner voucher for April 1
• 2 breakfast vouchers for April 1 and 2

The breakfast voucher for April 1 is pretty much useless since almost all of the non-local D.C. area fellows will be arriving after 11 AM.  Ah, well.

 

Also, I think Elena probably already sent out host country-specific e-mails regarding the upcoming pre-orientation to all the fellows within your host country program.  Within that e-mail, you should be able to see the e-mail addresses of all the other fellows for that host country.  it might be a good idea to copy all those e-mail addresses and send out a greeting e-mail to everyone else that is going to that host country with a quick intro and possible meet-up plans for a host country dinner outing for Day 2 on April 2.

[Pauli]

@ ajcsh15, GarbageNerdUCF:

 

Did you two already get your seat assignments for your flight to and from D.C.?  I usually just show up to the airport to the airline counter and get my ticket with my ID (driver's license or passport) when I book through SATO, and then chance it with whatever seat they give me when I check-in since I tend to show up early if I haven't received my seat assignment yet.  For the D.C. trip, I'm guessing most of us already have our seat assignments available since we're booking on a domestic carrier and got a seat with a couple weeks in advance.  But last year, some of us didn't get seat assignments for our international flights, especially for overseas carriers.  I think we can just call our SATO agent since they tend to have similar information to those airline agents?

Edited March 29, 2013 by Pauli

[pig]

@ Pauli: There are breakfast vouchers for Apr 2 and 3 according to Elena's email. Also I changed all my seat assignments WRT seatguru.com. 

[Pauli]

Ah, thanks 小豬.  That means the hotel people either lied to me or are deceiving us!   And awesome suggestion with seatguru.com!