Communication skills (once per two terms): presentation of diploma Theses of students - both oral and written; discussion about just passed seminar of the Institute; structure and style of scientific writing; basic rules of typography; LaTeX
Publication (once per four terms): tools for preparation of posters and presentations; scientometrics; process of publication of a scientific article; english in the scientific text; ethics of the scientific work
Tools (once per four terms): tools for data processing and presentation (Gnuplot, Matlab, IDL); UNIX
(Linux) and standard UNIX tools (bash, awk, grep, Python, etc.)
Programming (once per four terms):
GCC - compilation and linking, program "make"; C - pointers, memory management; Fortran; debuggers (gdb); parallel programming - multithreaded applications, computation on GPUs, distributed computing
Other (once per four terms):
SI vs. CGS; from the astronomer's life (foreign stays, grants, summer schools); databases - SQL language, frontends, virtual observatory; data formats (FITS, etc.); popularisation of science
Primary aim of the Seminar is development of the students' communication skills with emphasis on presentation of results of their work for the scientific audience. The presentation is in oral as well as in the form of short article. Side effect of the presentaion of diploma Theses is supervision of their progress.
Second aim pf the Seminar is to get the students acquainted with various tools and methods used in the scientific work (publication of a scientific article,
LaTeX, typography, GCC, UNIX, etc.), or, e.g., with ethic of the scientific work.