Find here a listing of some international alternative learning opportunities recommended by current and former BiSSL students:
TAMIDS Data Science Webinars
Texas A&M Institute of Data Science invites you to attend the “TAMIDS Data Science Webinars” to introduce the fundamentals of data science to students and researchers from the Texas A&M University system.
INCOSE Natural Systems Working Group
The IEEE INCOSE group seeks to improve System Engineering processes and practices with the application of natural systems knowledge and approaches. The goal is for SEs to take full advantage of natural systems, including both biological systems and the elements and forces of nature. The group meets Fridays at 11am CT.
Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) Workshops
“Reinforcement Learning: Algorithms and Applications” by Dr. Dileep Kalathil April 3, 2020. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is extremely useful, starting from classical stochastic control problems to applications in robotics, drones, games, healthcare, and self-driving cars. Tutorial will cover the theory, concepts, state-of-the-art algorithms, and successful applications of reinforcement
learning.
“Network Science Workshop” April 13, 2023, 9am-3:30pm organized by Dr. Nate Veldt, assistant professor in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M. The workshop brings together researchers at A&M interested in both theoretical and applied aspects of network science and graph analysis.
Frontiers in Design Representation (FinDeR) NSF Funded Summer School
The 1st was on “Optimal Transport, Information Geometry, and Generative Models for Data-Driven Design” at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD from July 25-29, 2022. The five-day summer school will introduce graduate students to advances in the fields of Machine Learning, Mathematical Statistics, and Information Geometry.
The 2nd Frontiers in Design Representation (FinDeR) “Designs as Programs – Induction, Analysis, and Generation“ at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD from June 5-9, 2023. It introduces design grad students to some of the advances in the fields of Formal Methods (e.g., Static Analysis, SMT Solvers, Applied CT) and Machine Learning (Program Induction, Transformer models) that mathematicians & computer scientists use to construct/compile new programs or systems and verify their correctness.
National Science Foundation Summer School Programs
“Decision Making in Engineering Systems” at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, June 23-29, 2018. The six-day summer school introduced graduate students to the foundations of decision-making in large systems.
Texas A&M University’s Ecology & Evolutionary Biology’s Open Source for Open Science workshop
October 14-16 in the ILSB auditorium. A free 2-3 day workshop that introduces participants to the use of free, open-source tools for data analysis, statistical analysis, and visualization, particularly via the statistical programming language R. No previous experience with programming or statistics is required or expected.
ASME’s Journal of Mechanical Design Webinar Series
The journal hosts 1.5hr webinars every 3 months featuring interesting research work being published in the Journal of Mechanical Design (JMD). The goal is to share the latest research and development in the field, and by doing so, to keep our community connected. The selected papers are featured with 10-20min presentations followed by a panel discussion and a 30min Gathertown session for further discussion/networking among speakers and seminar attendees.
URSSI (US Research Software Sustainability Institute) Summer Schools
2025’s URSSI summer school is on Open Science + Research Software Engineering and held at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for 5 days in August and applications due in June. 2024’s was in Washington D.C. The travel to and room/board during the school is free to students. The school is not engineering focused providing a unique experience to get to know other disciplines.
SERC Talks series
The Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC, under the DoD) has a series of systems-focused talks all recorded on YouTube, dating back to 2016. A list can also be found on their website.
Engineering 4 Change (E4C) Sustainable Development Seminar Series
Hosted in conjunction with ASME’s Engineering for Sustainable Development Research Committee. The initiative started in 2020 to build a international community of sustainable development researchers and serve as a platform for communication and collaboration to better understand the state of sustainability research and to share knowledge to bolster our work/sector at large. The monthly series involves a presentation and open discussion.
Design Society’s Summer School on Engineering Design Research (SSEDR’25)
2025’s SSEDR summer school is for PhD students who are working on topics related to Design Science to help them be better qualified and equipped in their research by (i) helping them develop a research approach and (ii) encouraging discussion and collaboration. The program is held across 2 separate weeks, in 2025 the first is in Lecco, Italy and the second is in Aveiro, Portugal. The program costs around 1500 euros and includes accommodations and all meals.
Texas A&M University’s Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEBL) program Open Source for Open Science (OSOS) computational workshop
A free 2-day workshop that introduces participants to the use of free, open-source tools for data analysis, statistical analysis and visualization, particularly via the statistical programming language R. No previous experience with programming or statistics is required or expected. Aimed at new graduate students in the life sciences, the event is open to all, including undergraduates, faculty, staff, etc.