PROTOCOL FOR THE ANNUAL PHD COUNCIL MEETING 6 OF DECEMBER 2011 This is the protocol for the annual meeting for all the PhD students at the school of Computer Science and Communication held Tuesday 6 of December at 12.00 in room 1537, Osquars backe 2 / Lindstedtsvägen 3, floor 5. PEOPLE ATTENDING: Cenny Wenner Elina Eriksson Fredrik Enoksson Hannes Ebner Henrik Holst Jeannette Spühler Jennifer Grünig Jon Häggblad Karl Palmskog Kaspar Müller Kristoffer Sjöö Magnus Burénius Mehmood Alam Khan Mikael Lindahl Niclas Jansson Niyazi Cem Degirmenci Pedro de Carvalho Gomes Pernilla Josefsson Raveesh Meena Siavash Soleimanifard Torbjörn Granlund (1) OPENING OF THE MEETING The chairman of the PhD Student Council, Mikael Lindahl, opened the meeting. A quick introduction to the work of the PhD Student Council was given. (2) FORMALITIES - Adoption of the agenda. - Jon Häggblad was elected as secretary of the meeting. (3) DOCTORAL PROGRAMS - What has been done? Representatives of each the three doctoral programs gave a quick rundown on the status of the respective programs. - Stockholm University (SU) funded students at CSC participating? The status of the SU-funded students were highlighted. They may not join any doctoral program, but the policy is that they are welcome to all activities and courses of the doctoral programs. (4) TIME COMPENSATION FOR REPRESENTATION The suggested new rules for time compensation for the PhD Student Council was discussed and thereafter approved. These rules are: 10 % and 5 % for chairman and secretary as before (10 and 5 days, respectively). Work in doctoral program councils, work environment group and equal treatment group - One hour for meeting preparation and the hours for the meeting are always given. - Up to 5 hours for work done in between meetings. - The time is counted as departmental service (institutionstjänstgöring) or for prolongation of employment. - Reported in a time sheet which states the type of work and the hours put towards the work. Found on the Ph.D council web page. Hand in time sheets to CSC school economy administrative personal at the end of each year. (this year Linda Kann) Employment committee case based as before. (5) NEW ORGANISATION DUE TO THE INTRODUCTION OF DOCTORAL PROGRAMS Change of organization where the core of the PhD council now is made up of representatives from each department; TCS, CVAP, CB, NA, MIND, and TMH. A department council member represents the council in their respective group and also participates in one of the doctoral program councils. (6) ELECTION OF PHD REPRESENTATIVES Chairman of the Postgraduate Students' Council / Member of Strategic Council and Executive Group Mikael Lindahl Secretary of the Postgraduate Students' Council / Deputy Member of Strategic Council and Executive Group Jennifer Grünig Election of PhD program representatives Doctoral program in Mediated Communications Media technology and interaction design: Maria Svedin Media technology and interaction design (deputy): Fredrik Enoksson Speech, Music and Hearing: Doctoral program in Computer Science Computational Biology: Iman Kamali Sarvestani Theoretical Computer Science: Karl Palmskog Computer Vision and Robotics: Magnus Burenius Speech, Music and Hearing: Raveesh Meena Doctoral program in Applied and Computational Mathematics Numerical Analysis: Kaspar Müller Member of Working Environment Group Jennifer Grünig Member of Equal Treatment Group Pedro de Carvalho Gomes Mehmood Khan , Member of Employment Committee Elina Eriksson Kaspar Müller Raveesh Meena (7) DEVELOPMENT TALKS FOR PHD STUDENTS Jan Gulliksen has delegated the duty to the department heads. Either the department head himself or a suitable stand in (not the PhD students supervisor). Has to be attended. It is a private discussion about your situation as an employee at CSC school similar to career counseling given in industry Example of what can be discussed:  - Future career goals and necessary steps to achieve them - Working environment - Teaching, the balance between research and teaching - Supervision - Management - International dissemination (8) IMPROVING WORK ENVIRONMENT FOR PHD STUDENTS Mikael gave an update on the work that is done at CSC on improving the work environment for PhD students. The idea seminars were cancelled due to a lack of attendance. PhD student council and Eva-Lena Åkerman agreed that we should try again. Main motivation: The dean is prioritizing the question of PhD students working environment and is willing to invest time and money in this. We should use the opportunity. The next step is to hold two meetings 1) Department level arranged by the PhD department representatives. 2) School level with Eva-Lena Åkerman and FA Erik Fransén with input from the department meetings. When? By 28 of November have the list finished. By 13 of January meetings at the departments should be finished. Big meeting somewhere between end of January beginning of February. Depending on the outcome appropriate action will be taken. One scenario to involve the supervisors in the discussion with the goal of creating a list which both supervisors and Ph.D. students support. Preliminary list of issues that could be improved: - Department goals, better defined so it is easier to relate to them. - Expectations, better information about what is expected of you as a Ph.D. student - Finance situation, for example if employed by EU money how to get time for courses? - Gender differences - Head of department, improving the relation with your boss - KTH, clearer picture between the school and KTH - Leadership, clearer Who is in charge? – Supervisor?, Head of Department?, Dean? - Management and planning of Ph.D time; dealing with teaching responsibility, research projects, and courses in an effective way. - Research project work, how to work with your supervisor in an effective way, with external collaborators. - Stress and pressure; dealing with it, comes from inner demands, expectation from supervisor, research setbacks - Workload, deal with work peaks , recovery learn to take time of since it is not given - Work equipment supply - Social activities at department and /or school level (9) CHANGE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE FROM SWEDISH TO ENGLISH. It was decided that the official language of the PhD student council should change to English. This includes: - Web page - Mail communication - Meetings (10) TIME OR PERFORMANCE BASED SALARY? Jon Häggblad informed on some rumours that have been floating around that the salary level is performance based, when in fact it is time based. It was emphasized that for this it is important to keep the study plan updated if you research changes focus. Individual study plane states when salary should be increased. Important to put the correct date. If supervisor do not agree he/she has to motivate this in written form in order to change the date stated in the study plan. (11) FOCUS FOR NEXT YEAR - Work environment initiative - Develop PhD programs - Stipends contracts, compensation, representation, further discussion (12) OTHER QUESTIONS No other questions surfaces. (13) CLOSING OF THE MEETING