Summer Events 2020

Universities worldwide typically expect faculty members, and increasingly their advanced students, to publish their research and develop a publication record. But why do we publish? In what forms and contexts do we publish? What is different about writing for publication genres? What does the publication process look like? In addition to discussing these preliminary questions, this seminar will highlight considerations and habits that can enable publishing success. Journal article sections will also serve as examples to demonstrate how we can develop our genre knowledge to produce our own manuscripts for publication.

Molecular modelling (MM) has become a central tool supplementing wet lab experiments. While its first applications date back to the 1950s, the widespread use of MM has started in the 80s. The approach initially provided little information besides confirming theoretical physical knowledge; yet, it became a field on its own right as efficient approaches that use the underlying physics have been conceived along with the advances in computer power and development of fast algorithms. Using MM, we are now able to dream up new molecules for designed purposed, and we find ways to synthesize them if the modeled properties match our targets. It also helps solve conundrums posed by molecular systems which have superior experimentally measured properties that cannot be directly explained. With the modelling approaches we develop, we can now compute those properties for which we used to say, “how great it would be to measure this!” Equipment manufacturers can then design new experimental tools that make such measurements accessible. And, for those who are more visually inclined, we can now make movies of the nano-world using MM. In this seminar, we will make a very simplistic introduction to MM and provide a glimpse into what may be accomplished through MM through examples from our own research at Sabancı University. These include understanding molecular mechanisms that lead to antibiotic resistance, predicting dynamics of proteins by viewing them as nano-machines, deciphering the three-dimensional structures of self-organizing molecules, and ultimately linking their structure to how they function.

In this workshop, the participants will work in groups to solve a real-life problem by designing an appropriate test, deciding how to carry it out subject to any possible ethical constraints and finally determining how the evidence bears on the solution of the problem. Then the groups will present their approaches,  which will be discussed collectively.

Since the 1970s, and arising upon Harold Lasswell’s conception of public policy as a “science” as an objective, evidence-based practice, public policy field has emerged as a field that is located at the intersection of multiple disciplines such as political science, economics, sociology among others. This seminar presents public policy field. We will discuss the basics. These include what public policy is, the stages of policymaking, as well as actors and institutions. We will also discuss briefly the three main theoretical approaches to policymaking, namely Advocacy Coalition Framework, Multiple Streams Framework, and Punctuated Equilibrium Framework, as these approaches help us examine the politics of policymaking. As such, the seminar intends to increase awareness about the public policy field and encourage students to study the politics of policymaking.

Final Reports will be submitted through online system.

Posters will be submitted via email.