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Information for Students / Collaborators

Dr. Franco's open laboratory works with graduate students from many different backgrounds and programs.  Students typically are from the Medical College of Wisconsin or Marquette University, but the open lab also hosts from other academic institutions locally and internationally.  Short term summer research experiences can be arranged. Motivated undergraduate and high school students are occasionally allowed to participate.

This website provides onboarding information for the open lab, as well as practical tips and more theoretical information about the philosophy of the lab itself.

Faculty collaborators from multiple organizations flow in and out of the open lab to facilitate supervision and collaborate on projects.  These include individuals from the Veteran Affairs Healthcare System, National War College, UW Milwaukee, etc.

Onboarding

The process of onboarding in the open lab can be a bit challenging because you may not feel like you have a project or task immediately.  Just observing for a while can help you become oriented to the range of projects underway.  When you are ready, ask to be involved in something and we will start finding tasks for you to take on.
  • Because this lab works with humans, it is important to complete Human Subjects research training through the CITI program.  You must complete the Social/Behavioral Learner Group training material.  If you are a non-MCW student or collaborator, contact me directly for more information.
  • You should work to connect with other students in the lab.  There is a Google Group for the lab, please join it.
  • Become familiar with publications from the lab group.  
    • Many of these publications are listed in my Google Scholar profile.  If you have trouble accessing a journal article, let me know and I can provide that article to you.
    • There is a lab reader here.  This has masters theses and PhD dissertations from former students as well as selected publications from our team.
  • Attend Open Lab meetings regularly.  There are at least two per week.
  • Ask to be put on a project when you are ready.

Open Lab Times

TUESDAYS:        10 AM (Central Time US)  Hybrid - in person at MCW and virtual option.  This time is used for all topics.

THURSDAYS:     10 AM (Central Time US)  Virtual.  This time is used for more veteran and healthcare information systems topics.

To be added to the invite list, email me (change "at" to the @ sign): zfranco at mcw.edu

Main Lab Topic Areas

  • Health care systems research
  • Community Engagement / Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
  • Veteran enagement and veteran engaged techology design
  • Mental health - with a particular focus on the detection and prevention of acute MH crisis
  • Disasters and crisis events
  • Health and Public Health informatics
  • Social psychology of heroics and leadership in crisis events
  • Cultural tailoring for high through-put research recruiting
  • Public understanding of science
For a more detailed list of specific projects and sub-topics, look at this research topic areas list.

US Marine Veteran providing feedback on smartphone app designs for a student project.

Philosophy of the Open Lab Model

The philosophical underpinning for this lab emphasizes transdisciplinary research, practical solutions that are driven from a human factors perspective, collaboration, open information, and using transactional processes to create transformational change.  More information about these approaches can be found here.