PI Role Outline + Expectations

This role is aimed to pilot a research initiative to run as a T4SG project: a team of SWEs/researchers and 2 leads spends the semester on social good research work aimed at a submission to a peer-reviewed workshop or conference. As a Principal Investigator, you propose the project, compress an open question into something six part-time undergraduates can finish in twelve weeks, and publish an original paper.

Start of Semester

Hold the first full team meeting with both leads present

Walk the team through the proposal: the open question, what's already known, and what we're claiming

Explain what potential outcomes look like — What are you hoping to achieve, discover, etc.

Set the venue target (if possible)

Put the deadline on the calendar in week 1, along with the date experiments freeze so writing can happen.

Identify faculty or potential guidance mentors

Client projects have a client; research projects have nothing forcing feedback. Find a grad student, faculty contact, DOE, etc. to ask hard questions

Project Context

Deeply understand the subfield and make high-level decisions about experimental design (what the baselines are, what the metrics are, what counts as evidence)

Maintain a living experiment design doc: hypotheses, conditions, ablations, etc.

Maintain a results log (dependent on actual research direction)

Plan out and maintain the project timeline

Timelines slip harder in research than in client work

Logistics

Set up and share the team Notion + Slack

Get infrastructure working in week 0-1: repo, shared compute or API keys, experiment tracking, a reproducible environment, etc.

Define an ownership policy + expectations

Schedule and attend 2-on-1s to get to know each member

Have they done research before? Are they here for the topic, the skill, or the paper?

What would they like to see this semester?

Start planning a team social early

Week to Week

Planning Weekly Team Sync

Schedule the weekly team sync + book a room

Write up an agenda (feedback form, icebreakers, announcements, mini lesson, results review)

Be intentional with meeting goals! What do you hope to achieve? How do you make sure members leave knowing exactly what's expected of them?

Results review: reserve time weekly for someone to show what they actually got, including when it didn't work

Keep detailed notes so anyone can catch up later

Reach out to anyone who missed the meeting

Please make sure they're okay! Beyond being a technical resource, you have the chance to be a friend and a positive force for your members, especially first-years

Share notes and offer additional help

Co-Lead Sync + External Check-Ins

Meet weekly with your co-lead to figure out the plan

Come with a clear read on what moved, what didn't, and what you're cutting

How did experimental results change paper narrative, what new tasks are there, etc

Disagree in this meeting, not in front of the team

Meet your external check-in every 2-3 weeks: present results, etc

Start the paper by the midpoint

Attend the standard T4SG lead sync alongside client-project leads