Are you an experienced or senior research software engineer? Are you interested in helping out early-career RSEs and maybe learning a little bit about a new domain? #RSECon23 is currently seeking mentors to advise early-career RSEs and newcomers to the profession in the preparation of their talks, posters, workshops, hackathons, walkthroughs, and audience-led panels and presenter-led panels for #RSECon23.

The conference committee is keen to encourage contributions from a wide variety of experience levels, since we recognise that many new RSEs may not yet have experience presenting at conferences, in particular research software engineering rather than discipline-specific events. 

Following a successful mentoring scheme in 2022, we plan to offer mentoring by a more experienced member of the community to any accepted submission. As a mentor, you would have the opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise with speakers whose abstracts have been accepted and are in the process of preparing their contributions. You would provide guidance and support, helping them to refine their ideas and improve their presentations.

Responsibilities

The mentorship will be tailored to the needs of the mentee, but some potential activities include:

  • Providing feedback on a draft of the material.
  • Acting as a practice audience and offering suggestions.
  • Answering questions and sharing relevant experience of similar events.

It’s important to note that mentors are not being asked to assess or vet the material to be presented. All mentees’ submissions have gone through the same peer review process as all other #RSECon23 submissions, and have been accepted. The main role of the mentor is to build the mentee’s confidence and help them feel prepared to deliver their presentation at #RSECon23.

All interactions between mentors and mentees are bound by the RSECon23 Code of Conduct, which we encourage mentors to review in advance.

Time commitment

The time requirements for mentorship will vary depending on the needs of the mentee, but mentors should be prepared to dedicate at least:

  • 30 minutes to read a draft of the presentation materials.
  • 1 hour to exchange emails with suggestions, feedback, and answers to questions.
  • 2 hours for video conference meeting(s) to discuss in more detail.

For workshops and hackathons, the timings may be longer due to their extended format.

Mentors should be available to provide the bulk of this support between May 31st (when successful submitters are notified of the acceptance of their submission) and August 23rd (when presentation materials need to be uploaded to the conference management system). However, some mentees may require further support closer to the conference date.

How to contribute

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, please sign up using this form.

We will be in touch to pair you with a mentee!