Technical Orientation

There is the normal scel orientation meeting, but I'm starting to think that it might be useful to have a technical orientation as well as that one. This is a similar pattern I've seen applied to at work, where the main orientation covers the culture and rules about the organization, the technical orientation is there to make sure that engineers are familiar with the tools, processes and existing systems that the company uses.

Things that could be covered:

• Version control
• Github (PRs and stuff)
• How the existing system works
• How to deploy services
• Infrastructure (dashboard, scelserver-1, infrastructure github, etc).
• types of work to expect (science/research, development, operational)
  • we need examples for this
• TODO - Add more topics
• vpn?
• linux basics (with cli)
• installing SSH on your local machine
  • generating ssh certificates

I think this should be conducted in the first week or so, alongside the normal orientation.

Couple of things I haven't considered yet

• what is the timing with the CDR/PDR/etc?
• any reading ahead of time?
• do we need a similar session for the 296 students?
• what kind of hardware do folks need?
• can mentors/previous lab members be included in this to help out?
• can we record these sessions?
• office hours?
• pacing? is this conducted every semester? (probably)
• what is covered in EE 160?
• might be good to get a survey of who has what experience

Tasks

• Review the current orientation
• Detailed outline of content
• Documents
• Background reading
• Powerpoint presentation