Every workday, every group member who isn’t taking classes full time should send a Noon Report to Prof. Toback (unless we are having a group meeting that day or they have already talked to him about their work). Ideally, this would be around noon-preferably no later than 1pm (otherwise he’ll bug you). This can be by e-mail, Skype, etc. The primary goal of Noon Reports is to make sure your path is clear, you have clear goals and are moving in the right direction. They are NOT him checking on your work, and they are NOT progress reports nor status reports. They are more about where you are going instead of what you have done. You should mention each of the things on your plate, and often a sentence per item is fine. Asking questions is also fine. If no progress has been made on a given project, that’s ok. In that case, just write a sentence or so to note where things stand and what the next steps are and when you will get back to it.
Problems occur when priorities aren’t clear. If you aren’t getting to your highest priority, that is a problem. If you are doing side work instead of tackling the highest priority tasks, that is a problem. That is the point of the Noon Report, to check in and see if you are on the right path. If you have questions about what your priorities should be, ask!
For example:
Classes: I had Quantum Mechanics this morning; homework is due next Wednesday. Studying for E&M test.
TA: The students have a test next week, so I’ll have to grade a lot then, but nothing unusual until then.
SuperSIM: My simulations keep crashing before the ROOT files get written, but I have a few leads. Plot attached.
[Plot]
I get this data from the TXT files. Are these the sorts of energies we should be expecting?
Test stand: No progress. Next step will be checking with Jon about how to get the DAQ up and running.