Student Chapter Report, 2004/2005:
The System Dynamics Student Chapter has the primary objective of bringing together PhD students who are involved in System Dynamics research and to give them the opportunity to raise key questions and/or concerns related to their research and discuss these in depth in a constructive and enjoyable atmosphere.
Since 2000, the main activity of the Chapter has been to organize a PhD Colloquium in connection to the yearly SD Conference. In 2004, Burak Güneralp from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign organized the 5th International PhD Colloquium in Oxford.
The all-day colloquium in Oxford, 2004, was held on Sunday, July 25 from 9.00 am to 6:30 pm. The opening event was a panel session in the morning, followed by three presentation sessions. Each session consisted of two back-to-back 20-minute presentations followed by two parallel 35-minute discussion workshops, one for each presenter. The final event of the day was a poster session, scheduled in order to give all the students who had submitted a proposal the chance to present their work. Though scheduled to last one hour the poster session actually lasted two hours as a result of the continuing rigorous interaction between the participants.
The theme for the morning panel session was “the Career Options for Life after PhD”. Birgit Kopainsky of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology organized the panel. The panelists were two academicians and one consultant: Etiënne Rouwette from the Nijmegen University, Oleg Pavlov from the WIP, and Dennis Sherwood from the Silver Bullet Machine Manufacturing Company.
Monday, the 26th of July, at the main conference, the Student Chapter meeting was held, chaired by Birgit Kopainsky of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Most of the attendants were students who expected to finish their PhDs in 2005. It was decided to ask Birgitte Snabe from Mannheim University to organize the PhD Colloquium in Boston in 2005, as well as being the next Chair of the Student Chapter. Birgitte Snabe is organizing the 6th International PhD Colloquium together with Markus Salge, who is also from Mannheim University.
The next Student Chapter meeting will take place the 17th of July immediate after the PhD Colloquium, and Birgitte Snabe, Mannheim University, will chair the meeting.
This Chapter report is written by Burak Güneralp,, Birgit Kopainsky, and Birgitte Snabe