My Profile Photo

Frontiers in Design Representation Summer School

2024 Frontiers in Design Representation Summer School at the University of Maryland, College Park — June 10-14th, 2024

Logistics

This page covers various Logistics and Frequently Asked Questions for accepted Summer School attendees, and will be updated as questions are received and as further logistics become relevant.

Logistics Frequently Asked Questions

Travel

  • When should I travel in an out of the Summer School? The 2024 Summer School officially runs from 8:30 am Monday, June 10th through 5:00 pm Friday, June 14th. There is an optional pre-week social outing on the afternoon of Sunday June 9th for those who are in town already. More details are available on the Schedule page. We encourage folks to check into the provided hotel sometime on Sunday. Participants should plan on departing College Park no earlier than 5pm on Friday, June 14th – to avoid having a tight flight connection with traffic and security, we recommend planning flights leaving no earlier than 9 pm on Friday or departing Saturday morning.

  • What are the key modes of transportation to College Park? By Air the nearest airports are BWI, DCA, and IAD all of which have public transit options directly to College Park. DCA and IAD connect to College Park via Washington Metro system, which is a safe, convenient, and cost effective means of getting to College Park from those airports. BWI is serviced by the local MARC train to New Carrolton station, from which either the metro or buses can take you to College Park. You can also take local car services such as Uber or Lyft, however they can be a particularly expensive option depending on the airport, and if depending on the time of day can get stuck in heavy beltway traffic. Those taking a train or major bus route along the Northeast Corridor can take the train to Union Station, Greenbelt, or New Carrolton, all of which have local transport to College Park that takes around 20-30 minutes. You can get more detailed directions to campus using different transportation methods at this link.

  • Where on campus is the Summer School located and how do I get there? We will be in the Edward St. John Teaching Learning & Teaching Center in Room 2309. You can see maps/floorplans of the building here. There is some construction on the north end of the building, so we recommend entering through the south-side entrance (picture, map and walking up the stairs to the 1st floor. Once on the first floor you can take the “red stairs” as shown in this picture to get to the second floor and find ESJ 2309 and the check-in table.

  • What is the dress code/What do I need to pack? There is no strict dress code, but there will be final presentations on the group, a networking reception Monday evening, and group photo on Friday afternoon – for these events having comfortable business casual attire would be useful and you can see past group photos here to give you an idea. During most of the days we will be working in small groups and with other students or invited speakers, so feel free to bring and wear what makes you feel most comfortable and productive. For evenings or other social outings, June weather in Maryland can be quite warm already with highs in the mid-80s and lows in the 60s (Farenheit).

Technology

  • How do I connect to the campus Wifi? You have two main options. The first is through EduRoam, which works at a variety of academic institutions and you can see instructions on how to do this via the main UMD wireless page. If you have already set up EduRoam at your home institution, it should work seamlessly here. The second is via connecting to the UMD Guest wifi network via these instructions.

  • What do I need to bring with me? Mostly an open mind and willingness to explore new things, but a laptop will also be helpful for working on the challenge problems or running some of the tutorial code provided by the various speakers.

  • What Programming Languages or Software Stacks do you recommend? These details will be updated closer to the time.

COVID-19

  • What are UMD’s Vaccination/Testing/Masking Requirements? Current official University guidance is on the 4Maryland website and we will follow any updated guidance on that website during the event. Briefly, most of the pandemic-era restrictions have been removed or are optional at time of writing, though any updates would defer to the aforementioned website.

Reimbursement

  • I was eligible for a travel stipend; what do I need to do for reimbursement? For those eligible for Travel Reimbursement, please complete and upload the following files using a personalized upload link that we will send to each eligible participant separately:
    1. Download and fill out this Travel Expense Form and upload it to the link we will send you. You will leave most of these fields empty except for the “AIR/RAIL/BUS” and “TAXI OR LIMO” if you took something like a metro or taxi or rideshare during part of the trip. In the top part of the form, fill out (1) the SSN, (2) your name information, (3) Home Address (we will send the reimbursement check there) and (4) the Purpose of Travel (you can put: “Attend the NSF FinDeR Summer School 2024”)
    2. If you are claiming airfare/rail/bus transportation, please upload a digital copy (PDF) of the receipt showing the total amount paid. (Note that this should be the receipt showing the actual cost, not just a “confirmation” or itinerary email). To help us disambiguate various receipts, it would be helpful if you could label the filename something that makes it clear what it is (e.g., airfare_receipt.pdf or train_receipt.pdf, etc.). Please also upload a scan or picture of the boarding passes if possible.
    3. If you have any local transportation costs related to getting to the hotel that you wish to put toward the travel stipend, you can also upload them as PDFs. This can include scans of metro receipts, taxi receipts, Uber/Lyft, etc. You can upload those labeled something like “local_transportation.pdf” or “metro.pdf” or “taxi.pdf” or similar.
    4. If you have any digitally scanned receipts from local transportation such as the WMATA (Metro) used to go to local events as part of the Summer School, you can upload them here for inclusion in the travel budget.
    5. For the “Itinerary” section, note the times that you left your original point of departure and arrived at College Park, and vice versa for your trip home. For the “FROM” and “TO” fields, you can provide a city (e.g., College Park) or an airport code (DCA).
    6. It is OK if the Travel Expense Statement exceeds the maximum travel stipend amount on the form when you total up all rows, but recall that we will only reimburse up to the maximum of the travel stipend.
    7. For Domestic Students: Please complete a W-9 form and upload it to your box link.
    8. For International Students: Please complete a W-8 Ben form. W8 forms would be submitted by non-U.S. citizen, non-resident alien (NRA) individuals. This would include international students studying in the U.S., as their residency is maintained in a different country. If there are any international student visitors who will not be present in the U.S. when their reimbursement processed several weeks after the summer school, you should complete this wire transfer form form as well and upload them to your box link.
    9. Make sure to add your signature and date at the bottom of the form before uploading. You can reupload documents if you need to make an adjustment/correction or forgot something.
  • By when do I need to complete the reimbursement procedure described above? Please complete the above steps no later than one week after the end of the Summer School.