Course Checklist
See also: OrganizingFSCourse
Before announcing course:
- Set date for course - reserve Conference Room A and B for two days and Conference Room A the evening before the 1st day of the course
- Stacey block hotel rooms at Constitution Inn
- Nick or Krish create new registration database (saving prior database) and update cgi files
update CourseDescription wiki page (make it world unreadable until time of announcement is made)
After sending out course announcement:
- When all spots are full, send out "Hotels and Times" email
- Discuss participants' interests from registration forms
3 weeks before course: (Monday, March 16)
Create pairings for laptops
- order supplies needed (binders, binder clips, dividers, paper, pens, certificates, name tags, batteries [2 AA for clocks, AAA fo rlaser pointer)
email auditors with schedule
2 weeks before the course: (Monday, March 23)
- order breakfast and coffee - Stacey
- email participants about "Parking"
- set up online Evaluation form
1 week before the course: (Monday, March 30)
- Print final slides and bring to Kinko's for copying and binding (Deadline for slides: Friday, March 28 so can be printed and given to Stacey before Monday.)
- Update wiki schedule with slides
Email participants and auditors with "Final Schedule"
- People bringing own laptops must drop it off to get tutorial data installed
Update course laptops with latest version of FreeSurfer and tutorial data
A few days before the course: (Tuesday, March 31)
- order parking stickers - Stacey
- Stacey makes name tags and certificates
- Print up list of participants for Registration
Print up list of pairings with their own laptops
- pick up parking stickers and other supplies from Stacey (2 easels, fMRI signs, laser pointer, keys to downstairs cabinet for binder clips, wires, markers, and clocks)
Print up FreeSurfer signs if necessary, Registration Table Sign, Unix Tutorial sign, copies of schedule for door, podium, walls
Day before the course: (Sunday, April 5)
- Set up tables and chairs (getting additional tables from closet) for participants, auditors, staff; tables for coffee (inside and outside room) and registration
- Set up laptops, mice, power cords with binder clips, ethernet cables, hard drives
- Test laptops for internet, tkmedit, tksurfer, qdec
- patch laptops, tutorial data with final updates
make sure firefox homepage points at FsTutorial
- Test projector, laser pointer
- Set up class easel with login and password info
- Write wiki website on easel and white board
- Put binders on desks
- Put up clocks (check batteries)
- Put up signs directing people to conference room on easels near both security desks and tape signs on parking garage entrance and entrance on Constitution Inn side
Day of course:
- call Environmental Services (x6-5490) to open conference room door
- Tell security to direct people to course
- bring down name tags, pens, shuttle schedules, and participant checklist for registration table
- turn on laptops; test internet
- Tell everyone policy about damaged laptops
E-mails
FreeSurfer Course Announcement - Hotel, Times, and Payment
Hello everyone, Thank you for signing up for the FreeSurfer course. On the Course Description wiki you can find information about the course schedule, our location and hotels: http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/CourseDescription
Payment
*Important*: Your payment is due immediately. If at any point, you can no longer attend the course, please contact me as soon as possible. If you are from within the Partners network, you can pay via fund transfer (send the full fund number along with the PI name and fund title).
Computers
If you are local to Boston and can provide a laptop to have the latest version of FreeSurfer installed on it so that it can be used during the course (by you and one other participant), please contact Nick (email below). The laptop must have either a Mac or Unix/Linux operating system, have a 17" screen (or larger), 22GB of free disk space (of which 18GB could be on an external drive), and 1GB of ram. You'll need to bring the laptop to us a week before the course to have FreeSurfer and the tutorial data installed. 4 laptops are needed, otherwise we'll have to drop some participants. Volunteer and all the installation work is done for you!
Schedule
Day 1 of the course (April 6) will have an optional Unix Tutorial starting at 8am. This tutorial is very basic and is meant for those with no Unix experience. It is by no means an in depth tutorial and it will not cover scripting. The goal is simply to get users with no Unix experience familiar enough with it to easily interact with FreeSurfer data. If you plan to attend this tutorial, you must sign up for it by emailing me.
If you do not plan to attend the tutorial, please arrive by 8:30am for registration. Coffee and a continental breakfast will be served. Day 1 ends at 5pm unless you would like help installing FreeSurfer on your personal laptop or would like help running your own data. Day 2 (April 7) will begin at 9am and end at 6pm. A more detailed schedule will be sent out at a later date.
If you have any questions about payment, please contact Stacey Ladieu at sladieu@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
If you have any questions about FreeSurfer installation, please contact Nick Schmansky at nicks@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
For any other questions, feel free to e-mail me. Allison
FreeSurfer Course auditors
Hello, I have you down as an auditor for the FreeSurfer course being held on April 6-7. If this is not correct, please let me know.
The course is being held in Conference Room A at Building 149, MGH-Charlestown Navy Yard. There are directions at the bottom of this page that show exactly where if you are not familiar with our campus: http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/CourseDescription
Day 1 of the course (April 6) will have an optional Unix Tutorial starting at 8am. If you plan to attend this tutorial, please e-mail me to sign up. This is a very basic tutorial for individuals who have never used FreeSurfer or Unix before.
If you do not plan to attend the tutorial, then the first talk of the day starts at 9am. Day 1 ends at 5:30pm. Day 2 will begin at 9am and end at 5:30pm. At the back of the room, there will be chairs along the wall for auditors. Please make a point of saying hello to me so I know you've attended (and who you are if we've never met).
A detailed schedule of the course will be sent out closer its date. If you have any questions, please let me know. Allison
FreeSurfer Course Announcement - Parking
Parking near the Center is difficult to get and is either metered (with a 2 hour limit) or expensive ($20+/day for a garage). We can get discounted parking for a group at $5/day ($10 for the 2 days of the course).
If you plan on driving to the course and are interested in purchasing this discounted parking, please let me know for how many days by April 1st. When you arrive, you will have to pay us in cash or by check (made out to MGH) to receive the parking validation sticker(s).
This is very *important*: we cannot wait for checks to be processed by your institution, university, etc. for the price of the parking. You will have to have the check ready on the first day of the course during Registration.
HOW TO DETERMINE HOW MANY STICKERS YOU NEED Each parking sticker is good for 24 consecutive hours of parking. Once you park in the garage, you cannot take your car out without needing an additional sticker to pay for your re-entry.
For example, if you are driving on the day of the course, leaving at the end of the course that day, and returning the next day - you only need two stickers to pay for those 2 days. If you are arriving in Boston on Sunday at 6pm and leaving at 8am on Wednesday (62 hours), you will need 3 stickers.
If you are unsure of how many you might need, just tell me the maximum amount you would need so I can be sure to have enough stickers.
Thanks, Allison
FreeSurfer Course Announcement - Final Schedule
Hello everyone, The final schedule for the FreeSurfer Course can be seen here: http://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/FsTutorial/April2009CourseSchedule
If you have no prior experience with FreeSurfer, I suggest taking the time to preview the first set of slides before the first day of the course (click on where it says "Introduction to Freesurfer" next to 9:00-9:20).
Also on that wiki page, you'll find links to a few Unix tutorials. If you have *no* experience with Unix, I would suggest taking a look at these online tutorials, as well as attending my Unix tutorial. If you would like to attend, please email me so I can put you on the list.
Two final issues - if you want to purchase parking stickers, tomorrow is the last day to request this from me. And if you have not arranged payment with Stacey by the end of this week, you cannot attend the course - no exceptions.
See you on Monday! Allison
Future FreeSurfer Course Ideas
- If expand course, consider Larry Wald to cover MRI, Matti to cover MEG, Doug to do Functional
- wmparc movie (David)
- block diagram for edits
- aparc+aseg on talairach
- longitudinal analysis
- local gyrification index
- more info on fmri
- From Nick about the tutorial data set: the problem with using these new recons (done with v4.2.0) is that the currently used set, which was done with v4.1.0, and used in the course (ie all the group study stuff), is that that set contains all the edits that sita did. i think it would be best to make our reference buckner40 used for the course based on v4.2.0 though, but i dont know how much effort is involved in transferring edits.}