Notes from TOW Teachers dinner, May 7, 2015 Notes by D. Behrend Notes are in order of teacher remarks, as we went around the table. Relevant comments are indicated by rectangular brackets. Individual Remarks ================== Rich Strand, Pre-checks and operations, Failure recovery, Feedback: Having been to every TOW, this meeting has to be ranked on top. There are basically three reasons for this: new material, new system for the pre-checks class, and having an outing. We replaced the hardware class with a class on recovery from system failure. The new class was very successful with spontaneous responses from the operators. Westford was using the VGOS system, which had a huge impact on the pre-checks class, in which we covered the legacy and the VGOS systems. All our teaching slots were filled. We went to a ball game of the Boston Red Sox. There is hardly anything more American and it was fun for all. Rick Hambly, Time and frequency: Tom and I joined forces with Katie merging the Timing and Maser classes into one. This worked extremely well. The class went very smoothly and there were questions even later in the week. [Tom: An interesting sidenote was that the GPS clock was not set up correctly, which turned out to be a boon for the presentation.] Ed Himwich, Pointing, FS Coding, FS plans, Operations impact on analysis: I had not as many classes to teach this time. It was a good opportunity to talk to people in person. I'm still amazed that people sign up for the FS coding class. For me this TOW was relatively uneventful and more relaxed. Dan Smythe, Mark 5 Advanced Topics: I only picked selected topics. It went very well. Mike Poirier, Pre-checks and operations, Failure recovery, Feedback: I fully agree with Rich. I noticed a difference in the classes for non-native speakers of English; it went ten times better than in previous TOWs. The choice to go to the VGOS system at Westford was huge. Heidi Johnson, local coordinator: All went well. Don Sousa, Disk Module Testing and Shipment: The new people that attended my class had some knowledge already. Chester Ruszczyk, Mark 6 operations, Mark 5 software, e-VLBI overview: The TOW went very well. Arthur Niell, broadband and VGOS network: A major benefit of the TOW is to meet the people face-to-face. It is good that the operators get something out of it as well. Brian Corey, RFI, phase cal, advanced pre-checks: I'm happy with how the TOW went. It was good to see new hardware in the teaching. The RFI class is still needed. The PCAL and RF system testing was too much material to cover in one time slot. However, it is not enough for filling two slots. For the Advanced Pre-checks we could include more software for testing digital backends in the next TOW. [Arthur: Perhaps you can check in a year from now how much the students still remember.] Daniel Veillette, Understanding Correlator Feedback: This was my first TOW. So I experienced it more from a student perspective. I learned new stuff. In particular the Pre-checks class was valuable for me. Mamoru Sekido, VGOS-related Developments in Japan: I appreciate the opportunity to speak about VGOS in Japan. It was quite useful to get information about jive5ab and Mark 6. Dirk Behrend, Program coordination and Web site: It was easier to schedule the classes with a larger number of students (to balance the sizes of classes). The outing to the Red Sox game was a great success and we could repeat something similar in future TOWs. However, the conditions need to be favorable. David Hall, Understanding Correlator Feedback: I've been coming to TOW workshops in the last twenty years, but only attended four altogether. It is important to meet people face-to-face. It was very enlightening and exciting to see the new technologies. David Gordon, Science Overview: This was my second TOW at Haystack. It was a very interesting meeting. It was good to connect an e-mail address with an actual face. Tom Clark, Time and frequency: The TOW has the best caterer. My hearing gets worse; it would be good to use a microphone. A less noisy venue for the Teachers Dinner would be good. I disliked closing the library for non-Haystack folks. The combined Time and frequency session worked very well. I commend Brian on his ability to convey difficult topics in an easy way. I suggest to have one session where students present their problems and possible solutions to it. Alessandra Bertarini, Understanding Correlator Feedback: The TOW was good. There should be more hands-on activities, as you remember better things you did actively. It was good that the correlator classes were full. As there was not much new material, we could consider changing the rhythm of the TOW meetings to, say, every three years. [Dan S.: Perhaps split the TOW into half and cover all topics over a time span of four years.] Harro Verkouter, jive5ab and FlexBuff: This was my first TOW. I learned a lot. I couldn't attend all the classes. More hands-on would be helpful. Uwe Bach, Amplitude Calibration, DBBC operations: This was my second TOW as a teacher. I was more content with myself than two years ago. The classes went smoothly. [Ed: A class on RDBE operations was probably missing.] [Chet: I prepared a class; the notes will be part of the notebook.] Gino Tuccari, DBBC Developments: I asked myself if the TOW was useful. And I concluded, yes it was. In fact, it is very very important. Something that I missed was some unstructured time for interaction. It was difficult to meet people, as the schedule was very busy. Michael Lindqvist, Antenna Gain Calibration: I very much enjoyed the baseball game. I agree with Gino to have extended time to discuss things with people. The remote setup for my class worked well. It is better to have the theory first, then the practice. More hands-on is needed. [Arthur: Adding more hands-on activities will require the meeting to run longer.] Alexander Neidhardt, FS Remote Operations, MCI Monitoring and Control: I enjoyed the TOW quite much. There were a lot of new things. The wireless LAN with Eduroam was excellent. The feedback on the general feedback class should be extended; it was mostly reading off the slide without any real discussion.