Getting Started as a New PLSE Member

Note: This is a resource for newly-joined members of PLSE.

To get started with joining PLSE, you’ll need a valid CSE NetID, which will grant you access to most of the infrastructure managed by the Allen School. If you’re an incoming PhD student, you should have one set up already.

Below is an outline of the steps you’ll need to complete:

1. Get cardkey access to CSE2 253, the PLSE lab.
2. Join the Allen School’s Slack.
3. Set up your personal homepage*.
4. Add yourself to the PLSE webpage.
5. Join some mailing lists and import the PLSE calendar to your own.
6. Get access to the PLSE Google Drive.

*this is an optional step, but highly recommended. How else are you going to publicize your fancy research?

Code of Conduct

All PLSE members must follow the code of conduct. We expect everyone who participates in any PLSE research, meetings, or social events to be familiar with and follow these guidelines.

Getting Cardkey Access to CSE2 253

If you’re an incoming graduate student, you should likely have access to the lab already. If not, check out the lab cardkey access page for what you should try next.

Joining the Allen School’s Slack

You can join the Allen School’s Slack by logging into the instance with your @cs.washington.edu account. PLSE is active in a couple of channels; you should definitely join the following:

• #plse: For lab-wide announcements.
• #plse-friends: This is a wider channel that is a superset of PLSE and folks who are generally interested in PLSE.
• #plse-students: Ask a current student to be added to this channel!
• #food: For (free) food-related announcements.

Other channels that might interest you are:

• #teatime: Join us in CSE2 253 (the PLSE lab) at 1pm on Thursdays for tea and treats!
• #needlecraft: For fans of knitting and needlecraft. The crafting circle meets pretty often, so stay tuned for updates in this channel.

Once you’re in #plse, feel free to introduce yourself!

Setting Up Your Personal Webpage

A webpage is a useful tool for an academic; that includes you! You can use your webpage to publicize your research, host an up-to-date version of your CV, or disseminate other information, such as technical (or non-technical) blog posts.

Your webpage does not need to be fancy, and folks in the lab will be more than happy to help you set one up. Ask James for help if you need to set one up.

Add Yourself to the PLSE Webpage

We have a great page on the website where we host a (mostly) up-to-date listing of faculty and postdocs, graduate students, staff, and undergraduates. You’re likely going to fall into one of these categories. The source of the PLSE website is hosted within the PLSE GitHub organization. If you don’t yet have access to the PLSE GitHub org, make sure to send Yihong your GitHub user name and cc your advisor.

At a high-level, the steps are to:

1. Clone the uwplse.github.io repository.
2. Create an entry for yourself in grads_phd.yml or whichever file you belong in, add a photo of yourself, and link to your webpage (if you have one).
3. Push your changes to GitHub and open a PR.

See an example PR for an example of how to add yourself. Just make sure you make the change in the correct .yml file. You shouldn’t be adding yourself as a postdoc (post-docs.yml) as a newly arrived graduate student (grads_phd.yml) and vice-versa. Feel free to ask anyone in the lab for a hand if you need one getting started.

Join the PLSE Mailing List(s) and Import the PLSE Calendar

Please add the global PLSE event calendar to your @cs.washington.edu account. Clicking on the link while signed into your account will usually suffice.

We have a central mailing list that is used to coordinate reading groups, seminars, and other events, such as socials.

Please join the PLSE mailing list using your CSE NetID.

Other lists you might consider joining are:

• misc: for, you guessed it, miscellanea.
• fungrads: for fun events for graduate students.

Undergraduate researchers should join the ugrad-researchers mailing list.

Getting Access to the PLSE Google Drive

Some institutional knowledge is stored in an enterprise (i.e., UW-managed) Google Drive for PLSE. You can request access via the link.