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An informative seminar by Mohamed Abdelgawad download presentation

In this issue:

1. Dr. Zahi Hawas at UofT
2. ESA movie night.
3. NAQAAE seeks help of Egyptian academics abroad
4. Did you pay ESA membership fees?
5. Academic tips: Ten simple rules for making good poster presentations
6. رحلة سعيدة – Have a nice trip!
7. Check ESA online

1 Dr. Zahi Hawass at UofT

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, will be giving a lecture in convocation hall at UofT on Saturday March 6th, 7:00 – 8:00pm. The lecture title is “Mysteries of Tutankhamun Revealed” and is organized by Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) as a satellite event to King Tut’s visit to AGO. Tickets are $10 for students. You can find more info here: http://www.ago.net/zahi-hawass.

2 ESA movie night

ESA will be organizing a movie night on March 5th 7pm. The movie is “Algezira” starring Ahmed El-Sakka, Hind Sabry and Mahmoud Yassin. Refreshments will be served. The event is free for members and for 3$ for the non-members. Stay tuned for more details to follow.

3 NAQAAE seeks help of Egyptian academics abroad

The National Authority on Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education in Egypt (NAQAAE) (www.naqaae.org/index2.htm) is seeking the help of Egyptian academics abroad in evaluating and accrediting educational institutions in Egypt. For more information check the following link on ESANA’s website: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhg8xrj5_38c97zsjck

On a related note, NAQAAE signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ABET (American Board of Engineering and Technology), which is the board that accredit all engineering programs in the USA, in Spring 2008. According to the ABET president in a statement in 2008, “it may take six to eight years to bring Egypt on board”1.

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1http://www.abet.org/BODMarch2009/C.2a%20Approved%20meeting%20minutes-ExCom%20Sep2008.pdf

4 Did you pay ESA membership fees?

Every ESA member should pay the annual fees to enjoy discounted access to all ESA events. Members who pay ESANA events will have access to some social services (check this link for more details: http://esana.org/Members_Area/Social/Social.asp)

The current ESA and ESANA fees schedule is:

1. ESA membership only for UofT students: $10
2. ESA membership only for dependants of UofT students: $5
3. Combined ESA and ESANA membership for UofT students: $15
4. Adding ESANA famliy membership for extra $10

5 Academic tips: Ten simple rules for making good poster presentations 2

A poster is one way of presenting your research at a conference. Poster sessions are alternatives to oral presentations when the conference schedule does not provide the required time for oral presentations. Posters differ significantly from oral presentations and should be prepared accordingly. A poster should be considered as “a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialog about the work”. While not considered as prestigious as oral presentations, posters offer a much better opportunity for exchanging opinions and expertise on the work being presented due to the ability to engage in longer discussions with the audience. “Many lifelong collaborations have begun in front of a poster board”. Here are some rules for making a good poster presentation:

• Define the purpose of your poster

“What do you want the person passing by your poster to do? Engage in a discussion about the content? Learn enough to go off and want to try something for themselves? Want to collaborate? All the above, or none of the above but something else? Style your poster accordingly.”

• Prepare a 10 seconds summary to your work

The first impressions of your poster, and to a lesser extent what you say to present its content to a passer by, are crucial. They will help you attract the attention of conference attendees among other posters.

• Your poster title is important

The title is a good way to sell your work. It may be the only thing the conference attendee sees before they reach your poster. The title should make them want to come and visit. The title might pose a decisive question, define the scope of the study, or hint at a new finding. Above all, the title should be short and comprehensible to a broad audience. The title is your equivalent of a newspaper headline—short, sharp, and compelling.

• A poster is different from a paper

A poster requires you to distill the work, yet not lose the message or the logical flow. One carefully produced chart or graph often says more than hundreds of words; so use them as much as you can. Pay close attention to figure captions since they will do the main explanation of your work. Do not worry if the text space is not enough to present all your thoughts; remember that you will be present beside your poster and can elaborate on any briefly presented topic.

• Layout and format are critical

Unlike reading a paper, which is linear by virtue of one page following another, the reader of a poster is free to wander over the poster in a random order. Guide the reader to move from one logical step to another. Try to do this guiding in an unusual and eye-catching way. Have a clear and obvious set of conclusions after the abstract, this is where the passerby’s eyes will wander. Only then will they go to the results, followed by the methods. Finally, never use less than a size 24 point font, and make sure the main points can be read at eye level.

• Good practices during your poster presentation

1. Work to get a crowd by being engaging; one engaged viewer will attract others. Do not badger people, let them read.
2. Engage all the audience at once, do not leave visitors waiting for your attention.
3. Make eye contact with every visitor.
4. Prepare letter-size copies of your poster with you; many people will be interested in getting a copy. You can also handout copies of any publications you have on the presented work. This can increase the number of citations this work gets.
5. Have plenty of business card on hand; maybe you can attach them to all the handouts you distribute.
6. As the host of the work presented on the poster, be attentive, open, and curious, and self-confident but never arrogant and aggressive.

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2 Summary of an Editorial published in PLoS Computational Biology by Thomas C. Erren and Philip E. Bourne, vol. 3, issue#5, e102, pp. 0777-0778

6 رحلة سعيدة - Have a nice trip!

Written by ESA member Sherif Kinawy.

Place: Don River trail

How to get there:

The trail runs through Toronto (just east of downtown) between Lakeshore in the south and Edwards Gardens in the north. There are several access points and street crossings (with nearby bus stops) along the path. Typically, a tour would start with a walk through Edwards Gardens and then down to the end of the trail at Lakeshore and Cherry St. Some hikers prefer to start in the opposite direction. For hikers, the high volume of bicycle traffic can become annoying, specially on weekends. Otherwise, the trail offers a very peaceful stroll that's not so far from the city's core.

Recommended duration: Half a day at an easy pace.

Some attractions:

Beech-maple forests, very dense in some areas

About 13 km of trails

Paved and natural trails

Edwards Gardens

Activities: Walking, cycling, rollerblading, photography, bird spotting

Links:

http://ontariobikepaths.com/DonRiver.htm

http://www.donvalleytrails.com/

Stay tuned for more places in Canada and Egypt in our upcoming editions. رحلة سعيدة

7 Check ESA UofT web pages

¨ Homepage: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/ ESA’s homepage contains all previous issues of the ESA’s Newsletter.

¨ On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233824902 (you will need to login to Facebook)

¨ On Twitter: http://twitter.com/egyptiansa

Hi Everyone

Welcome back, are you ready for our first event in the Spring? ESA will to organize a "blood donation+dinner" event to encourage ESA members to participate in the blood drive organized by the multi-faith center on Wed Jan 27th. . We will meet at U of T main campus entrance at 5 pm, walk to the Canadian Blood services office (corner of College and Elizabeth) which is a 5 minutes walk. After donating blood we can go to dinner at Indian Flavor (Dundas and Bay). You are also very welcomed to just join the dinner around 6:15 pm if for any reason you wouldn't be able to participate in the blood donation part.

It is a wonderful opportunity to do a great act of Charity for One blood donation can save 3 lives. In addition it is a great chance for ESA members to demonstrate that they are an active part of U of T and the city of Toronto community. In addition, it will be such fun to meet one another and chit chat while to having dinner together.

People who will pay the ESA membership before or at the day of the event will receive 4$ discount on the dinner.

Please if you are going to attend register at the link below AND send an email to Alyaa=> media.esa.uoft@gmail.com to confirm that you will be attending.

http://www.multifaith.utoronto.ca/Events-And-Programs/UofT-Blood-Drive.htm

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

Ahmed Huzayyin & ESA Exec

Hi Everyone

Welcome back, are you ready for our first event in the Spring? ESA will to organize a "blood donation+dinner" event to encourage ESA members to participate in the blood drive organized by the multi-faith center on Wed Jan 27th. . We will meet at U of T main campus entrance at 5 pm, walk to the Canadian Blood services office (corner of College and Elizabeth) which is a 5 minutes walk. After donating blood we can go to dinner at Indian Flavor (Dundas and Bay). You are also very welcomed to just join the dinner around 6:15 pm if for any reason you wouldn't be able to participate in the blood donation part.

It is a wonderful opportunity to do a great act of Charity for One blood donation can save 3 lives. In addition it is a great chance for ESA members to demonstrate that they are an active part of U of T and the city of Toronto community. In addition, it will be such fun to meet one another and chit chat while to having dinner together.

People who will pay the ESA membership before or at the day of the event will receive 4$ discount on the dinner.

Please if you are going to attend register at the link below AND send an email to Alyaa at  media.esa.uoft@gmail.com to confirm that you will be attending.

http://www.multifaith.utoronto.ca/Events-And-Programs/UofT-Blood-Drive.htm

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

Ahmed Huzayyin & ESA Exec

ESA at Uoft brings back BOWLING NIGHT!

Date: Friday, November 13, 2009

Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Location: Playtime Bowl

Street: 33 Samor road, M6A 1J2

City/Town: Toronto, ON

This is an open event, so feel free to bring along friends. You can form a team and compete in the torunament (got prizes for everyone!) or you can just come out and play for fun.

It's only $15/person for 2 hours of bowling+ shoe rental+ house balls+ taking part in the tournament (optional!).

**Tournament**

Prizes awarded to the top team, most honest team (lowest team!) and other mystery score prizes

> to sign up for yourself and your friends as a team for the tournament, please message Alyaa at media.esa.uoft@gmail.com

**If you’re willing to eat in, a food selection is available at the venue (Extra cost- order for yourself)

 Event's facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190406988326

In this issue:

• Cairo University ranking
• An ESA member’s research covered by news media worldwide.
• ESA UofT on the website of the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt
• KAUST inauguration covered in Science
• Professional Engineers info session
• Academic tips: How to get the most out of scientific conferences
• رحلة سعيدة – Have a nice trip!
• Check ESA online

1 Cairo University ranking

Cairo University ranked #193 worldwide in Engineering/Technology in The Times Higher Education – QS world university ranking.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2009/subject-rankings/technolog

Ranking criteria can be found here:

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/methodology/simple-overview

2 An ESA member’s research covered by news media worldwide

Research done by ESA member, Dr. Noha Mousa, on breast cancer risk detection attracted attention in Canadian and international news media. A full coverage of the story is done by The Toronto Star: http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfeatures/article/707030--u-of-t-team-s-lab-on-a-chip-may-detect-breast-cancer

You can learn more about Noha’s research through her article published in Science Translational Medicine where it was featured on the front cover: http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/1/1/1ra2.abstract

The story was also covered by The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, and MSNBC. A television clip on the achievement was broadcast by GlobalTV on October 7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04l1Wr1VwNs&feature=player_embedded

Noha is a PhD student at the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, and an assistant lecturer with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Assiut University, Egypt.

3 ESA UofT on the website of the Ministry of Higher Education in Egypt

Below is a link for the website of cultural affairs and missions sector at the ministry of higher education. It summarizes the ESANA Semi Annual Meeting (SAM-09) and mentions the poster work of ESA UofT students. ESA executives would like to thank all who volunteered to do those posters; as well, we would like to thank the former ESA executives (2008-09) for their enthusiasm and activity.

http://www.mohe-casm.edu.eg/Main_menu/mom/2009/Canada/Canda.jsp

4 KAUST inauguration covered in Science

The inauguration of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) was covered in Science latest issue. They report "KAUST is perhaps the most-watched experiment in higher education taking place anywhere in the world". You can read more here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/326/5951/354

5 Professional Engineers info session

The student liaison of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) will host a session to discuss the application process and requirements for getting a professional engineering designation. Information on the Engineering Intern Training (EIT) program, and what pre-grad work may be attributed to the required licencing experience will also be available.

This session will occur on Thursday October 29, from 11:00 am to 12:30 in Lash Miller Chemical Labs, room 162 (80 St. George Street). The talk will be approximately 45 minutes, with a question and answer period following.

6 Academic tips: How to get the most out of scientific conferences1

Scientific conferences are ideal places to find out what's hot, and not so hot, in your field, observe the various debates and controversies under way, meet interesting people, make contacts for the future, and, in general, interact with professionals in your field. In many disciplines, job contacts and some preliminary interviews take place at conferences.

Conferences can often seem overwhelming, particularly to beginners, and it's easy to be intimidated by the list of speakers and attendees, all of whom seem to know more than you. To understand how to make it a low-stress, productive experience, consider the conference experience in three stages

Before the conference

• Don't arrive unprepared: Check out the schedule of events on the conference Web site. Scan the session titles and note those that look useful. Highlight all interesting sessions and, where there are conflicts, decide which ones you will attend and which ones you will want to read about in the published conference proceedings.
• Go through the conference guide and highlight the names of people you would like to meet, such as other graduate students and postdocs, as well as senior researchers.
• Ask your adviser, if attending the conference, to introduce you to people he know who might be interested in what you are doing.
• Make sure you have plenty of business cards with your latest title, telephone number, and e-mail address.
• Also, prepare your "no-notes talks." These are the informal talks you give every time someone asks, "Who are you and what is your research area?" This will happen dozens of times throughout the conference, and you need to be prepared.

During the conference

• Review the latest program and finalize your choices for each day.
• Generally, I recommend sitting toward the back of the room during sessions. If a session doesn't look like it is going to give you what you want, you can leave and go on to your second choice. Be sure to take notes on ideas you can use.
• While attending sessions is important, most experienced conference-goers know that much of the action lies not in the talks themselves but in the hallways, at dinners, and in informal seminars. Here are some things to do outside the formal sessions:

1. Talk to others about new directions developing in your field and find out about emerging leaders who might be attending. Keep your eye out for colleagues who might review your work, collaborate with you, and help you with future connections.
2. Talk about your research enthusiastically, and at the same time, be sure to listen to others as well. You'll learn more this way, and people will feel that your conversations are a two-way street.
3. Finally, find a good place to keep the business cards you collect.and note down if you promised to send the card holder a paper or a book title that you mentioned during the conversation. Don't rely on your memory to help you do this later.

After the conference

There are really just three things you need to do after the conference: follow up, follow up, and follow up.

• Follow up with a note and promised abstracts or publications to the contacts you made. Ask them to send promised material.
• Follow up with presenters you missed and ask for a copy of their handouts.
• Follow up by summarizing what you learned, particularly the informal insights, in an e-mail message, and send it to your colleagues. Some supervisors ask their students to summarize their conference experience to their colleagues in the form of a presentation; ask for this opportunity if not brought up by your supervisor. Making a presentation of what you saw and learned in the conference is the best way to secure this info in your brain.

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1 Summary of an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education website (http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Get-the-Most-Out-of-/46399 ) by Richard M. Reis, director for academic partnerships at the Stanford University Learning Laboratory.

7 رحلة سعيدة - Have a nice trip!

Written by ESA member Ahmed Osman.

Place: Montazah-Palace Park, Alexandria, Egypt

Montazah-Palace Park has a wonderful special taste of mixing history, modernity and nature. The park contains gardens with numerous trees, palms, and flowers; while overlooking several natural bays and beaches. It also includes pedestrian paths, promenades, restaurants, cafes, tennis & football fields, classical and modern style architects. The place is really attractive for people from all ages.

The park was previously known as the Royal gardens of King Faruk (last Egyptian monarch). It was originally built by Khedive Abbas Helmi in 1892 over an area of 370 Feddans. The park includes the elegant Montazah palace which lent its design ideas from both the Ottoman Empire and Florence in Italy. In addition, it includes both Salamlik palace & Haramlik palace in which the first is now a luxurious heritage hotel and the latter is one of the presidency palaces.

How to get there:

The park is located on Montazah Bay, about 20 Km to the East of Alexandria’s old district. The easiest way for reaching the park is through the Kornish roadway which will lead directly to the gardens if followed till its Eastern end (30 minutes driving along the beautiful coast of Alexandria). Travelling to the park this way could be considered a trip in itself after the recent renovation and widening of the Kornish. In addition, the park is easily accessible by means of transit for those lacking a private car.

Recommended duration: One day trip

Main attractions:

Although Montazah Palace is now closed to the public, the surrounding gardens and the beaches are open for all after paying a small admission fee for the gardens (L.E. 5) and a separate fee for the beaches (depending on the beach). The main attractions are:

Activities: Family picnics, Photography, Water sports and Fishing.

Links:

http://i-cias.com/egypt/alexandria12.htm

http://www.detoursegypt.com/montazah-palace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montaza_Palace

8 Check ESA UofT web pages

¨ Homepage: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/ Esa’s homepage contains all previous issues of the ESA’s Newsletter.

¨ On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233824902 (you will need to login to Facebook)

¨ On Twitter: http://twitter.com/egyptiansa

In this issue:

• Report: Behavior of Egyptian citizens
• Lecture: “Israel and Palastine: What’s preventing peace?”
• Athletic events proposal
• Academic tips: Responding to Journal decisions
• رحلة سعيدة – Have a nice trip!
• Check ESA online

1 Report: Behavior of Egyptian Citizens

The Ministry of Administrative Development in collaboration with Cairo University has conducted a survey to study current behavior of Egyptian citizens. A summary of the survey results was published in Almasry-Alyoum newspaper (http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=229148). The full report is available on the ministry website (http://www.ad.gov.eg/IMG1.PDF).

2 Lecture: “Israel and Palastine: What’s preventing peace?”

Engineers for Justice is organizing a lecture by Norman Finkelstein on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The lecture will be held on October 15, 2009, 7:30 pm at the Health Sciences Auditorium, Health Sciences Building, Room 610, 155 College St. (at McCaul, one block west of University).

Tickets $10 for students, $15 for non-students.

For more details, please visit: http://www.engineersforjustice.org/finkelstein_event.html

3 Athletic Events Proposal

ESA execs are about to submit an application for long term fund from the UTSU and we are in need for volunteers to organize Athletic events. Possible events include, but not limited to, Soccer, Ping-pong, and Squash tournaments. You can offer Prizes for winners, treats...etc.

If you can organize one or more of those tournaments or other that you think of, please e-mail president.esa.uoft@gmail.com before Oct.22, 2009.

4 Academic tips: Responding to Journal Decisions1

Receiving an unfavorable review for your submitted manuscript is, for sure, an unpleasant experience; but do not let this weaken your spirit. About 85-90 % of prominent scholars have had some of their work rejected. So, do not look negatively to rejections you get; actually they could constitute very useful advice to improve your research.

If you get your manuscript rejected by a journal, you have four choices: (1) to abandon the article, (2) to send the article without a single change to another journal, (3) to revise the article and send it to another journal, or (4) to protest or appeal the decision and try to resubmit the article to the rejecting journal. Let's go through these choices.

Should I abandon the article?

If your article is rejected the first time you send it to a journal, you should definitely send it to a second journal. About 85 percent of scholars now send their rejected articles to another journal. If three or more journals have rejected the article, it may be time to think about revising it. The only reason to abandon an article is if reviewers raise objections to your methodology, theoretical approach, or argument so serious that you believe, upon long reflection, that they are unsolvable. Another reason is if the peer reviewers regularly agree on what is wrong with the article.

Should I resubmit the article elsewhere without revising it?

Some scholars insist that they never revise an article until it has been rejected by three different journals. As one author put it, " Some reviewer may argue strongly that you change x to y, another may argue equally strongly that you change y to x”. Authors should be wary of being drawn into this morass until they find an interested editor.

Should I revise and resubmit the article elsewhere?

Most scholars try to use the recommendations to revise the article each time it is rejected so that they can send an improved article to the next journal. You can't go wrong with this practice, so long as you don't spend too much time on revising and you only respond to critiques with which you agree. You should take care of any factual errors or real mistakes. The purpose of peer review is to provide you with sound recommendations for improving your article; you might as well use them.

Should I resubmit my article to a better journal?

Deciding which journal to resend your article to is another important decision. According to several studies, scholars traditionally send their rejected articles to less prestigious journals. But other studies show that many scholars send their rejected articles to equivalent journals and some send them to better journals. I think it depends on how you feel about your revision. If you got excellent comments the first time around and have substantially strengthened the article without revising it, you may want to pick an equivalent journal, or a lower tiered one.

Should I protest the decision?

If you want to protest the journal decision, go ahead. All editors have received one or two rants from authors about their decisions or their reviewers' reports -yours won't be the first or the last. Just make sure that your protest letter does not commit the same sins that inspired it: Do not be insulting. Since we often lose impartiality in such situations, let someone edit your protest letter before you send it.

On the other hand, the plain truth is that writing such letters won't change anything. Journal editors are well aware that the process is flawed; thus, they tend to think that the real problem is authors' expectation that it be otherwise. What you definitely should not do is insist that you know who the unkind reviewer was and that that person has a personal vendetta against you. Some authors find it difficult to refrain from trying to guess who the reviewers are. All I can say is that your chances of being right are low. In my years as an editor, I have never had an author guess correctly. And I have seen more than one relationship fail because the author was wrongly convinced about the identity of a negative reviewer. Don't waste time on this game.

Should I ask for additional reviewers?

You can sometimes convince an editor who has rejected your article to send it to new reviewers. Only the most dispassionate of appeals, based on evidence not rhetoric, will win the day. An important key to success in this process is a very professional tone, never insulting the reviewers, accepting that their concerns were valid, and being willing to go through a second review process.

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1 Quoted from the book “Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success” by Wendy Laura Belcher, SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320.

A more detailed excerpt can be found here: http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/posting.php?ID=939

5 رحلة سعيدة - Have a nice trip!

Written by ESA member Sherif Kinawy.

Place: Mount Sinai (Jabal Mousa)

How to get there: From Cairo, take the Suez road to the tunnel to Sinai, then take the road to the town of St Catherine (Katreen).

Recommended duration: A weekend or 3 days.

Accommodation is available in several hotels around town. Many also prefer to spend the night in Taba or other towns along the Red Sea coast.

Some attractions:

Monastery and a number of historic sites

Natural landscape

Local markets selling herbs and handmade artifacts

One of the best sun rise scenes

Anticipate some snow in winter

Activities:

Photography, camel ride, trekking, climbing, camping

Visiting the protectorate's visitors' center

The hike up the mountain usually starts at night.

Links:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/mountsinai.htm

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297545-d460000-Reviews-Mount_Sinai_Mount_Moses-Red_Sea_and_Sinai.html

6 Check ESA UofT web pages

¨ Homepage: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/ Esa’s homepage contains all previous issues of the ESA’s Newsletter.

¨ On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233824902 (you will need to login to Facebook)

¨ On Twitter: http://twitter.com/egyptiansa

In this issue:

• Work opportunity in the Middle East: Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
• Call for event ideas.
• Academic tips: Your lab notebook.
• ???? ????? ? Have a nice trip!
• Check ESA online

1 Work opportunity in the Middle East: Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

A team from Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) will be making a visit to campus on to promote recruitment in the Middle East and North Africa. They will be holding an informational event with a short presentation and reception on Friday 2 October, 2009 at the Waters Lodge in Woodsworth College Residence (321 Bloor Street West)12 pm to 1:30 pm.

The following is an excerpt from the e-mail ESA received from BCG:

?BCG is a leading international strategy and general management consulting firm whose mission is to help leading corporations create and sustain competitive advantage through unique solutions. We build capabilities, mobilize organizations and drive sustainable impact for our clients. We entered the Middle Eastern and North African region (MENA) through the establishment of our Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices in 2005. Since then the development has been record breaking. The strength of our brand, the quality and depth of our client relationships, and the motivation of our team has enabled us to firmly establish ourselves in the market. We have developed deep client relationships with the leading banks, energy companies, telecommunication providers, and heavy industry players in the region. In addition we are working for several of the largest government/investment bodies in the MENA region?

To register for this event, please e-mail international.events@bcg.com to indicate you will attend, and if possible please attach your CV.

For more information or questions please contact:

Emily M. Shields, International Recruiting Coordinator

shields.emily@bcg.com

617.973.4329

2 Call for event ideas

We are currently drafting our year plan to submit it to UTSU (University of Toronto Student Union) for funding. If you have an idea of an event that you think will be interesting to ESA members or the university community at large, please share it with us. You can forward your ideas to any of the executives; contact info of ESA executives is listed here: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/executives.htm

3 Academic tips: Your lab notebook1

Every researcher should keep detailed records of the experiments conducted each day in his lab notebook. Your notebook is a place to collect descriptions of experimental goals, experimental procedures, all the data you collect, and your interpretations of results.

Here are some reasons why you should keep a lab notebook:

1. Keeping track of your achievements and planning for future steps: recording your research results regularly helps you keep track of your progress and find whether your research is progressing well or not. It also helps you record interesting phenomena or questions you face during your work which may lead to new research projects.
2. Establishing good work practices: Lab records allow your work to be reproduced by others. The records you keep should allow you and others to re-create the work and achieve the same results, thereby validating or extending your work. The records also allow you to prepare formal reports, papers, and presentations. They also serve as a source for assigning credit to lab members.
3. Defending patents: Your lab notebook is a legal document that can help you defend your priority to an invention. U.S. patent law follows a first-to-conceive rather than a first-to-file system. That is why documentation to support the date of discovery or invention is critical and why pages of lab notebooks and other records should be consecutively numbered, dated, and signed. Careful records can save a patent.

Some tips for keeping a good lab notebook:

• Use a permanently bound book, with consecutive signed and dated entries.
• Record entries chronologically.
• Each entry should stand on its own to permit others to replicate the work.
• Organize material with sections and headings.
• Outline new experiments, including their objectives and rationale.
• Identify and describe experimental conditions clearly (reagents or specimens used and experimental parameters or numerical parameters of your model if doing simulations)
• Numerical data and calculations should be written directly into your notebook, not on scraps of paper to be entered later.
• Include periodic factual, not speculative, summaries of status and findings.
• Enter ideas and observations into your notebook immediately. Summarize discussions from lab meetings and ideas or suggestions made by others, citing the persons by name.
• For important findings or observations, witness entries as well.
• Write all entries in the first person, and be specific about who did the work.
• Use ink and never obliterate original writing; never remove pages or portions of a page.
• Permanently affix with glue any attachments (such as graphs or computer printouts) to the pages of the notebook; date and sign both the notebook page and the attachment.
• You can keep a computer log, but make sure to reference them clearly in your lab notebook. Note that pages must be consecutively numbered (using a sequential page-number stamp), dated, and signed.

1 Quoted from ?Making the Right Moves: A Practical Guide to Scientif?c Management for Postdocs and New Faculty? a book by Burroughs Wellcome Fund and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

http://www.hhmi.org/resources/labmanagement/mtrmoves_download.html

4 ???? ????? - Have a nice trip!

Written by ESA member Sherif Kinawy.

It's fall! a chance to enjoy the fall colors and some lush greenery before the snow cover. Algonquin park is a popular destination for this season. It's also a unique chance to visit Muskoka before the anticipated makeover in preparation for the 2010 G8 summit. This is a double edition on two places you should not miss!

Place: Muskoka

How to get there: Driving north on Hwy400, most towns in the Muskoka region are a 2- or 3-hour drive from Toronto.

Recommended duration: Day trip is possible, but a weekend or a full week is more common.

Accommodation is usually in travel lodges. Cottages are also available for rental, often in resorts on beautiful lakes, in a very private setting.

Some attractions:

Towns: Huntsville, Orillia, Bracebridge

Various lakes, falls and rapids: Lake Couchiching, Fairy Lake, High Falls

Fall colors along the highway, lakes and lookoffs

Local diners, family-owned authentic local food

Activities: Photography, canoeing, white water rafting, fishing, golf

Links:

http://www.discovermuskoka.ca/

http://www.traveltomuskoka.com/

http://www.visitmuskoka.com/

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Place: Stratford

How to get there: The easiest way to get to Stratford is using railway. The train trip is just over 2 hours (http://www.viarail.ca).

Recommended duration: Day trip or weekend

Some attractions: Theatres, ponds and the famous Stratford swans, public gardens, Stratford Shakespeare Festival (May 9 - October 30), chocolate and toy stores

Activities:

Photography, theatre, picnics, strolling by the ponds

Links:

http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/

http://www.welcometostratford.com/

http://www.city.stratford.on.ca/

Stay tuned for more places in Canada and Egypt in our upcoming editions. ???? ?????

5 Check ESA UofT web pages

o Homepage: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/ Esa?s homepage contains all previous issues of the ESA?s Newsletter.

o On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233824902 (you will need to login to Facebook)

o On Twitter: http://twitter.com/egyptiansa

In this issue:

1. Call for event ideas.
2. Academic tips: Staying on top of literature.
3. ???? ????? ? Have a nice trip!
4. Check ESA online

1 Call for event ideas

We are currently drafting our year plan to submit it to UTSU (University of Toronto Student Union) for funding. If you have an idea of an event that you think will be interesting to ESA members or the university community at large, please share it with us. You can forward your ideas to any of the executives; contact info of ESA executives is listed here: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/executives.htm

2 Academic tips: Staying on top of literature

Are you overwhelmed with the amount of papers you have to read for your literature review? Do you find it difficult to keep up with the new papers that keep appearing on your research topic? Can not remember in which paper you read about this technique/theory which you need now for your current project? All these are challenges that we face as graduate students/researchers, and they all call for awareness of the previous/current achievements in your research area.

Staying on top of literature is the first step towards a successful research project because, first, you can not make a significant contribution to your field unless you know what is already there. And second, you do not want to see the following sentence in the reviewers comments on any of your submitted manuscripts: ?The authors did not read the work of XXXX et. al. who solved this problem before?.

Below are a few tips to help you stay on top of the literature:

1. Use bibliographic management software.

Although reading a hard copy of any paper is more comfortable than reading a PDF file on the computer screen, keeping track of hard copies and the notes you wrote on their margins can be a daunting and time consuming task. Bibliographic software (e.g. EndNote and Procite) can help you build an accessible database of the papers you read and have fields to insert your comments, notes, and even figures with each paper you read. An added bonus of using bibliographic software is the ability to compose reference list for any manuscript you write within seconds. For detailed tutorials (short video clips) on how to use the different tools in EndNote, check this link:

http://www.endnote.com/training/wmvs/enx1/enx1tutorial_download.asp

Refworks is an online alternative for bibliographic management software that is free to all UofT students. (http://refworks.scholarsportal.info/Refworks/login.asp?WNCLang=false).

Some researchers even use iTunes to organize their reference libraries.

(http://sciencesampler.blogspot.com/2007/04/organizing-pdf-papers-in-your-computer.html).

2. Subscribe to e-mail alerts.

Almost all databases provide e-mail alerts service that notifies you of new papers on any topic or published by any author you specify as soon as they are added to the database. It is recommended that you create alerts on the popular databases in your field using keywords related to your research and also using the pioneers in your fields as authors. Similarly, you can subscribe to RSS feeds or tables of contents e-mails from the journals that are most related to your research area.

3. Check the webpages of the leading research groups in your area regularly.

Being aware of the achievements and latest publications of the leading research groups in your area is of utmost importance. First, every one (your supervisor, thesis examiner, or grant/paper reviewer) will expect you to know these researchers and their latest achievements; it will be embarrassing if you don?t. Second, group webpages sometimes contain useful information that may not have been published yet or have been published in conferences that are not indexed in databases.

4. Attending conferences or checking relevant conference proceedings.

Conferences gather researchers interested in a specific field from all over the world which makes conferences the best place to learn about what other groups are doing and whether another group is working on the very same point you are working on or not. If you are not able to attend conferences regularly because of funding limitations; try to check the proceedings of the important conferences in your area.

3 ???? ????? - Have a nice trip!

Place: Wadi Rayyan (Wadi Ar-Rayyan), Elfayum, Egypt

How to get there:

Located south-west of Cairo, next to the city of Fayoum. Wadi Rayyan is about a 2 hour drive from Cairo on the Cairo-Fayoum Road. The road is paved all the way except for a very short dirt road that leads to the waterfalls. Wadi Al-Hitan is another area that can be accessed by driving farther on a 40 km dirt road. 4-wheel drive cars are recommended to get to Wadi Al-Hitan as ground clearance is necessary. Most cars however can make it to Wadi Rayyan waterfall. Lake Qarun offers a spectacular view towards the end of the drive.

Recommended duration: Day trip

For longer trips, there are several options for accommodation including hotels and guest houses. If you are interested in ecolodges, Zad Al-Mosafer offers reasonable prices and very basic accommodation.

010-6395590 or 084-6820180

guesthouse@zadalmosafer.com (might not be valid any more)

Main attractions:

Beautiful rock formations

Wadi Rayyan lakes and falls

Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) - UNESCO World Heritage Site: hosts fossilized remains of creatures that roamed the ocean floor about 40 million years ago

Activities:

Camping, hiking, sand boarding and boat rides

Bird watching

Photography

Ideal for family picnics

Links:

http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/introduction-to-el-faiyum/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Al-Hitan

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/valleyofwhales.htm

http://egyptopia.com/Guide+and+Information+for+Natural+Park+of+Wadi+EI+Rayyan_30_100_8_11582_en.html

Health note: The Fayoum area is one of the few areas in Egypt with an active history of Malaria, though it remains a low risk area. If you visit Fayoum, you may not be allowed to donate blood in Canada for up to one year. As a general travel tip for most places, it is advised that you follow proper protection from mosquito bites around or after sunset.

Stay tuned for more places in Canada and Egypt in our upcoming editions. ???? ?????

4 Check ESA UofT web pages

o Homepage: http://esa-utoronto.webs.com/ Esa?s homepage contains all previous issues of the ESA?s Newsletter.

o On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233824902 (you will need to login to Facebook)

o On Twitter: http://twitter.com/egyptiansa