Total Time 1hr 15 minutes # Review from Last Week (25 mins 10:20-10:45) - Everybody go around the room with Heilmeier questions. - Go up to Podium # Goals and Outcomes Presentation (35 mins 10:45-11:20) - This is the first section of your proposal[^1] - This will be the first thing that people read, so honestly its one of the most crucial sections of your proposal - It's the tablesetting for the rest of what you're going to talk about too. If you write something in your G&O, you better talk about it later - Tell em what you're gonna tell em, tell em, tell em what you told em - So what goes into a G&O section? - First Paragraph(s) - First sentence - RESEARCH GOAL!!!! - The first sentence you write is critically important and should explicitly say what you're going to do, no bs - 'The goal of this research is to ...' - *Explain what you're trying to do, using absolutely no jargon* - One to three sentences. Be concrete. You should be clear in the goal, specific enough to seem feasible, but not too too narrow. - Rest of paragraph based writing - Briefly cover other sections. How will you get to your goal, what will be done, and who will care? - This is basically an ad for your researcher. The reviewer of your proposal wants to know, if this project is approved and funded, what are they going to get. - What are they buying? - What is the product of your effort? - What will you achieve? ## Outcomes Based Approach (ME) -" If we are successful, we will able to do the following:" - 3-5 clear and concise **capabilities**. - What is a capability? It's what we'll be able to DO after the research is successful, that we cannot do now. - One liner about the capability - rest of language explaining a little bit - Good capabilities are clear, verifieable, and concise ## Hypothesis Based Approach (MSE) - Some MSE professors really love hypothesis - Similar to outcomes but instead of creating capabilites you're creating observable knowledge - By doing X thing we can introduce Y change in Z behavior - Must be falsifiable and specific! - Then explain more specifically how you would measure such a thing, and briefly! why that change is posisble given the literature. - You will talk more about this in SOTA and RA, so give a preview and not an expansive discussion ## Big Takeaways 1. **Clarity is Key** - State exacty what you want to, with as little fluff as possible. 1. You are smart. You know a lot of words. But reading all of them is a lot of effort on the reader. 2. **Your reader is lazy** 1. Not a dig on professors because everyone here is working hard. 2. But reading takes effort, and ultimately good writing and a good GO section should be easy to read. The easier it is to read your writing, the more of your meaning will be absorbed by the reader 3. **Tablesetting as a Narrative** 1. Your GO should set up the rest of your proposal. Give the reader a preview and a sample of what you're going to talk about. 2. Set things up, and get your GO almost like a prologue. [[GO Presentation Outline]] # Open Questions / Chit Chat (11:20 - 11:30) - Goal for next week - Have a rough draft of your goals and outcomes (~1 page) - Keep working on other sections as you can. Keep reading and outining! [^1]: Well technically it's preceded by your summary but whatever