The Condensed Matter + AI Journal Club is an informal weekly seminar at Penn State for anyone who wants to talk through a paper with a friendly room. Graduate students, postdocs, faculty and visitors are all welcome to present — you do not need to be in the Physics department, and you do not need a finished result. A paper you found interesting is reason enough.
How it works
- Pick an open date. The form lists only dates that are currently unbooked. The list is refreshed nightly from the same schedule the home page shows.
- Submit the form. Tell us who you are, what you would like to talk about, and which Monday suits you.
- Yiyang reviews it. Every request is read by a human before anything happens. Nothing appears on the public schedule until it is approved.
- You hear back by email either way, usually within a few days. If it’s a yes, the talk shows up on the schedule at the same time.
If your preferred date gets taken while your request is being reviewed, Yiyang will email you about the alternatives you listed rather than quietly dropping the request.
What to expect
- When: Mondays, 4:30–6:00pm, in Davey 339. A few sessions move to another day or time — those are listed on the schedule.
- How long: roughly 60–90 minutes including discussion. Expect to be interrupted with questions; that is the point of the format, not a failure of your talk.
- Format: slides or blackboard, whichever you prefer. Informal is fine.
- Afterwards: if you would like your notes or slides posted, send them over and they will be added to the Lectures page as a downloadable PDF.
Request a slot
The online sign-up form is still being set up. Until it’s live, email yzj5306@psu.edu with the date you’d like and what you want to present, and Yiyang will add you to the schedule by hand.
You can always check who is speaking next on the home page, or open the full schedule to see every date at once.