getting started - neu-spiral/SPIRAL-Handbook GitHub Wiki

Getting Started

This is a check-list with things new SPIRAL members need to get started. It should help you navigate around all the numerous small things you need to do within your first week in the lab.

NUID

All instructions below assume that you have an NUid. If you are a student, you must have automatically received one. If you are a post-doc or visiting researcher, you need to apply for a sponsored account. Do so at your earliest convenience, as this is necessary to gain access to NU services.

Once you have an NUid, you can apply for a husky card. This acts as a key for SPIRAL labs; getting this should also be a priority once you are on campus (instructions here).

WIFI Access

The NU-wide wifi access point SSID is NUwave; you can access it using your northeastern credentials. Instructions on how to do so are here. Once you have set that up, you may also want to set up eduroam, which gives you access to academic institutions worldwide.

Access to buildings

  • For ISEC:

    • Complete the Safety Training (if needed, supervisor: Stephen Keane).
    • Send an email to your advisor indicating your Name & NUID number, with subject line "Lab Access Request".
    • Info about ISEC printers can be found here

  • For TF-306:

    • Complete the Safety Training (if needed, supervisor: Stephen Keane).
    • Send an email to your advisor indicating your Name & NUID number, with subject line "Lab Access Request".
    • Info about TF Printers can be found here

Pro-tip! Download CBORD Mobile ID to open doors with your phone.

NEU and COE IT Services

  • Get an ECE email account here. This is not optional! Do not rely on using your @husky email address as a work email address! Try to get your family name as username (if available). Follow these instructions to link your ECE email as altenate email to your gmail, and to subscribe to SPIRAL mailing lists and calendars.
  • Get access to the SPIRAL disk drive, a.k.a the S Drive.
  • Send email to [email protected] (cc your advisor) and ask for ShareLatex license. After they confirm your ShareLatex license, register at http://www.sharelatex.com with your ECE email address. SPIRAL uses ShareLatex as the default academic document editing program.
  • Apply for an account on the Discovery Cluster. See lab-specific topics to see if you need to request privileged access to restricted queues.
  • Certain COE and NU services (including access to the S Drive) are accessible off-campus only using a VPN. You may want to install the appropriate software (the VPN requires multiple factor authentication), especially if you are traveling overseas; instructions can be found here.

Google Services

A lot of services used in SPIRAL depend on google infrastructure, and completing the following steps ASAP is imperative:

GitHub

  • Get a GitHub account using your ECE email (if you already have one, add your ECE email to your github account). Ask your advisor to add you on the neu-spiral organization on GitHub, as well as on your lab team and any other appropriate teams.
  • To be added, you need to provide your advisor with your github account name. This is not the same as the email you used when you signed up. You can find your account name by clicking on your avatar picture on the top right corner of your screen; this will show you a menu saying "Signed in as" followed by your account name. Sending your email address will not allow your advisor to add you to github, unless you make your email public. This is not the default option when you sign up: your email is not public by default.
  • More info on git & GitHub here. Membership to neu-spiral gives you unlimited private organization repositories, and ensures that code you contribute is accessible by members of your lab.

Pro-tip! Request an academic discount to have unlimited private personal repos for free. That said, please use the neu-spiral organization for all work-related projects.

Training

Confirm with your advisor which of the following training courses you need to complete.

  • Human Subject Protection and Research Integrity Training. Complete this training class (~3 hours) and send certificate pdf to your advisor. Update: This is an old link, please complete the Citi Program Human Subject Protection Training instead here. For more information please check here.
  • NSF Responsible Conduct of Research. Complete NSF's RCR training class. See also this. A passing grade of 80% must be achieved on the quizzes taken at the end of these modules. Notification of successful completion of on-line training will be provided by e-mail to the student, post-doc fellow, or faculty, and to the Office of Research Compliance.
  • Environmental Health and Safety Training. Everyone located at ISEC should complete this training class.

Lab-Specific Topics

Read the lab-specific topics on this wiki for lab-specific on-boarding tasks that you need to complete (e.g., lab-specific mailing lists, calendars, etc.):

Where To Go From Here

Once you are all set with the above on-boarding tasks, allocate some time within the first few weeks at Northeastern to:

Finally, if while perusing this "Getting Started" guide you found something that is wrong, incomplete, or could in any way be improved, please help your colleagues by fixing it.