Graduate Onboarding

Required reading: All new graduate lab members should read this page and complete the acknowledgment workflow at the bottom.

Overview

This document is meant to be a primer and a starting point for how I, as your advisor, begin mentoring you in research skills, rather than simply sending you into the lab and telling you to make robots. It may also be helpful to return to this document throughout your graduate career.

This document is meant to be revisited over time. Some things will make more sense the more you revisit them and the more you progress through graduate school.

Research Primer

Research in the Robot Form and Function Lab focuses on form and function, largely where engineered constructs meet computational intelligence. This may look like the intersection of design and control or hardware and software, applied to robotics, biomechanics, and embedded systems.

My expectation is that you will learn skills in both experimental methods and mathematical modeling. You are expected to do both. Robotics requires hardware verification, or high-fidelity simulation, which we generally do not do.

To start, we need to understand how to read the research literature and where your work fits within it. To push the boundaries of research, you need to know where those boundaries are.

1. Think early about what you want the title of your MS thesis or PhD dissertation to be. It should be descriptive and encompass the work, and you can refine it over time.
2. List a set of questions that you are trying to answer with your research. You can think of these as the journal papers that may come out of your work. Keep them high level at first.
3. Based on these questions and your overall title, come up with a set of keywords and metrics of interest. These do not need to be fixed forever, just useful for a first pass.
4. Set up Google Scholar alerts with these keywords. You can refine them later if they are too broad or too narrow.
5. Use tools such as Google Scholar and other databases to gather relevant references. Begin compiling them in a citation manager of your choice.
6. Create a spreadsheet database based on the metrics you define along with the references you are gathering. Build a method for analyzing this data.
7. Highlight groups that are particularly strong in the relevant research. These are the people you want to talk to at conferences.

Examples of Keywords and Metrics

• Keywords: jumping robots, jumping insects, impulsive mechanisms, multi-material mechanisms
• Metrics: mass, length, takeoff velocity, kinetic energy, energy density, power, number of actuators, acceleration time, acceleration

Reading and Publication Quality

Not all publications have the same merit. Some journals have rigorous peer review and are widely respected in the field, while others prioritize quantity, charge high fees, and publish with very little review.

A few general rules:

• If a paper is published in a journal you have never heard of, look it up and check whether it is indexed in reputable databases.
• Be wary of journals that aggressively solicit submissions or promise extremely fast publication.
• Consider whether the journal is associated with a reputable publisher such as IEEE, Springer, Elsevier, ACM, or Wiley.

Reading broadly is good, but citing low-quality or unreviewed work in your own papers can weaken your research. Use judgment and develop your internal filter over time.

Lab Notebooks

A lab notebook is a living document designed to be compassionate to your future self. It is your external memory, something that captures enough detail so that months or years later, you or someone else could pick up where you left off without guesswork.

Your notebook should include process descriptions, materials, methods, and observations, all of which you will eventually need for publications, reports, or project handoffs.

What to Record

• Procedures: step-by-step descriptions of what you did, including deviations from a planned method.
• Materials and Sources: include manufacturers, model numbers, and key specifications.
• Data: raw numbers, observations, and qualitative notes from experiments.
• Analysis: first impressions, calculations, and summaries of what the data may mean.
• Figures and Plots: if you gather data and plot it, preserve the plot and record your interpretation immediately.
• Ideas and Questions: even quick, incomplete thoughts can be useful later.

Format and Medium

• You may use a bound paper notebook or a digital equivalent.
• Bound notebooks are preferred for physical experiments; digital formats are fine for simulation or coding-heavy projects.
• Date every entry.
• Use clear headings so entries are easy to find.
• Attach printouts, sketches, or photographs when relevant.

Good Habits

• Write as you work, not at the end of the week.
• Assume your future self or someone else in the lab will need to repeat your work based only on your notes.
• Record failures as carefully as successes.

Mentor and Mentee Expectations

My expectation is that communication is open and frequent. Most lab communication happens on Slack. For most graduate students, a weekly meeting is set up during the semester and summer, but do not wait until that meeting to ask questions.

Many tasks in graduate school are unlike anything you may have done before, including writing research papers, creating supplemental materials, and conducting independent research. You are expected to ask questions and seek feedback rather than trying to guess what I want.

Often, I do not have all of the answers either, and we may need to work toward a solution together. This is normal and expected. Asking for help is not failure.

I also expect you to be proactive in your communication and research.

Authorship and Paper Writing

Producing research papers is expected during your graduate career. For MS students, the expectation is one peer-reviewed paper, either conference or journal. For PhD students, the expectation is at least three peer-reviewed papers.

LaTeX and Overleaf

Papers are generally written in LaTeX, using Overleaf for collaboration. Overleaf provides significant support for writing in LaTeX, and there are many online resources. Ask questions if you need help.

Figures

Figures in research articles are essential. The goal is for figures to be informative, readable, and consistent throughout the paper.

If you are preparing figures, export them in vector format such as PDF, SVG, or EPS unless the figure is a photo or another raster image. Ask if you are unsure about formatting.

Authorship and Credit

We follow a contribution-based authorship model. I generally use the CRediT taxonomy to assess and discuss contributions, including roles such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing, supervision, visualization, software, and funding acquisition.

We will discuss authorship order early in the writing process and revisit it as the work evolves. If you are unsure where you stand, ask.

Why I Edit Your Writing

Expect your writing to go through many rounds of feedback, especially early on. I will edit your work heavily, not because your ideas are not good, but because scientific writing is a skill that takes time to develop.

Think of this like code review or prototype iteration. The goal is clarity, structure, and precision. Good writing is not just about sounding smart. It is about being understood.

My expectation is that you take this editing constructively. This is not an attack on you or your words. It is about framing your work in the best possible light for reviewers.

The goal of writing is to present enough technical detail to make the work reproducible. This means you will be asked for makes, models, and specific details of equipment and materials.

Conferences and Presentations

One path to publication is through conferences. The group generally submits to and attends robotics conferences such as ICRA, and there is an overview of robotics conferences on the shared Box folder.

If you are preparing for a conference, start planning early enough to meet the deadline. If your work is accepted, start planning early enough to practice your talk before the conference.

Lab Safety

You are expected to work safely in the lab. This means only using equipment that you know how to use and not working when you are too tired to do so carefully.

Students should also complete Environmental Health and Safety training in order to work in the lab.

Group Meetings

Group meetings are relatively low stakes. You will usually present a brief slide summarizing your progress and goals. This keeps everyone engaged in the lab, asking questions, and helping one another. It is also a chance to practice communication skills.

The group meeting schedule is set at the beginning of each semester, and you are expected to attend weekly.

• Download Group Meeting Template

Archiving Data

When finishing up in the lab, whether by graduating or moving on, archive all of your data in the appropriate formats and locations with a ReadMe.txt file.

Archiving on UB Box

We store active and archived data on the Robot Form and Function Lab UB Box account. Go to the lab folder, then the Projects subfolder, and create a folder for yourself and your project.

Archiving on the Server

The Box folder can be used for projects and papers, while the server can be used for raw data such as high-speed video files.

Server paths:

\\afs.acsu.buffalo.edu\sens_research_mae\ryans
smb://afs.acsu.buffalo.edu/sens_research_mae/ryans

Your username should be ad\ followed by your username.

GitHub

You are expected to learn how to use GitHub. The lab wiki uses GitHub, and many archival papers require public access to data and software through GitHub repositories.

Graduate School Realities

The reality of graduate school is that it can be tough. At times, you may feel burnt out, like you do not belong, or generally unmoored. Often, that is a sign that something needs to change.

I am here to help with those issues to the best of my ability, but you may also need support from other people or resources outside the lab.

Verification

After reading this document, complete the lab acknowledgment workflow below.

• Slack Acknowledgment Workflow

Placeholder: Replace this button link with the Slack workflow URL once it is ready.