GBM6330

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Hi! I’m Jane. I took GBM6330E in Fall 2023 so let me tell you about my experience:

One thing I particularly liked about the class: the range of topics discussed. The first one on the list was metascience. We had the pleasure of listening to Matt Clancy, researcher at Open Philanthropy, Stuart Buck, executive director of the Good Science Project, Evelyn Mclean, amateur scientist writing about the history of science as well as Adam Mastroianni, scientist writing about social psychology. We talked about different aspects of metascience: When was the birth of science? Who pays for science? Should we fund the person or the project? What’s the optimal method for scientific mentorship? Is science a weak-link or strong-link problem?

After that, we were exposed to 3 other themes: Biomaterials (May Griffith), Virtual Reality in Rehabilitation (Danielle Levac) as well as Artificial Intelligence in MRI (Julien Cohen-Adad). For each one of those topics, we had these professionals coming in and talking to us about their research. The best part? It was dynamic and interactive, not just lectures. Dr. Stikov encouraged us to ask questions, promoting real curiosity over rote learning. It was refreshing to be exposed to exciting scientific fields, with a different professional to guide us along the way. This exposure helped me orient myself regarding my future specialization. If you’re anything like me, and have tons of scientific interests, attending these lectures and talking to professionals in such a short timeframe can be very helpful.

After hearing from the invited lecturers, the following week the lecturers would return and we would present our projects to them (see Alyssa’s blogpost). Then they would rank our assignments, ask questions and give feedback. One cool thing is that you’d be able to see how different professionals grade differently (although they’d usually end up converging on their rankings). You’ll quickly understand that their ratings are usually based on clearness of content, visual aspect and occasionally, some personal opinions presented by the student. One other good thing is that you get direct feedback. If you’re open to constructive criticism, this class will definitely grow on you.  

GBM6330E was the first class I took during my master’s degree, and I’m glad it was. The curiosity and critical thinking I developed were crucial for fully enjoying the rest of my classes. The work you’d put in this kind of class is not the same: you don’t learn by heart, nor debug code, nor solve equations. This class is about understanding a system as a whole, not just the cherry-picked details shown to you. It’s how to understand the message of scientific articles and convey it in a clear way. 

If I could summarize my 4-months learning in 4 words, it’d be that “Simplicity is always better”.