Improving a Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering Program through Increased Collaboration between Faculty in Engineering and Technology

Carla C. Purdy; Xuefu Zhou

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Professional Graduate Education and Industry
Tagged Divisions: College Industry Partnerships and Graduate Studies
Page Count: 8
Page Numbers: 22.830.1 - 22.830.8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--18111
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/18111
Download Count: 285

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Carla C. Purdy University of Cincinnati

visit author page

Carla C. Purdy is an Associate Professor in the School of Electronic and Computing Systems, College of Engineering and Applied Science, at the University of Cincinnati, where she also directs the College's Preparing Future Faculty program. Her research interests include intelligent embedded systems, bioinformatics, and computer simulations of biomolecular systems. She is a Senior Member of IEEE.

visit author page

biography

Xuefu Zhou University of Cincinnati

visit author page

Xuefu Zhou received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2002 and 2006, respectively, both from the University of Cincinnati where he joined the faculty as an assistant professor in September 2005 and became an associate professor in September 2010. From July 1995 to August 2000, he worked as a R&D Engineer, then Senior Engineer and Project Manager in the industry designing and developing distributed computer control systems, real-time embedded systems for various process controls. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ASEE.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Improving a Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering Program through Increased Collaboration between Faculty in Engineering and TechnologyPreparing Future Faculty (PFF) programs typically meet three standard requirements: 1. they focus on the full spectrum of faculty roles and responsibilities with regard to teaching, research, and service, and how these responsibilities may be interpreted in different institutions; 2. they provide participants with multiple mentors and feedback not only on their research but also on teaching and service; 3. to accomplish these goals, they involve a cluster of institutions, with one doctoral degree-granting institution partnering with a variety of other institutions.For the 12-year-old Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering program at the researchextensive University of X (UX), as well as for similar programs elsewhere forengineering graduate students, meeting requirement 3 can be difficult because of the lackof engineering programs at many four-year colleges. While it is possible to find facultyfrom baccalaureate institutions to participate in panels on how to find a job, for example,it is generally harder to identify faculty mentors at nearby schools who can work with thePFF participants in the classroom over an extended period. In many cases, graduatestudents engaged in engineering research just do not have flexibility in their schedules toaccommodate teaching activities which take them too far from their home labs. A few ofour PFF participants have found teaching mentors at the nearby UX College of AppliedScience, but the majority have ended up completing the teaching component of theirprogram with a UX engineering professor whose primary focus is research. Recently,however, UX merged its colleges of engineering and applied science, replacing separateengineering departments and technology departments with schools, with the goal ofcapitalizing on synergies in these programs which will strengthen both. This newstructure provides our PFF in Engineering participants with the type of broad exposure toa variety of academic programs which was previously lacking. In this paper we describeadditional benefits of this merger for PFF participants. For example, overall thetechnology faculty are much more focused on undergraduate teaching and much moreknowledgeable about recent developments in engineering education. In addition, manytechnology faculty have chosen academic positions after extensive experience in industry.Thus PFF students not only learn how different academic programs are organized but canalso get firsthand information on career paths which may include a faculty position butwhich also accommodate extensive industrial experience.

Citation
Format

Purdy, C. C., & Zhou, X. (2011, June), Improving a Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering Program through Increased Collaboration between Faculty in Engineering and Technology Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--18111

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -    Improving a Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering Program through  Increased Collaboration between Faculty in Engineering and TechnologyPreparing Future Faculty (PFF) programs typically meet three standard requirements:       1. they focus on the full spectrum of faculty roles and responsibilities with          regard to teaching, research, and service, and how these responsibilities may          be interpreted in different institutions;       2. they provide participants with multiple mentors and feedback not only on their          research but also on teaching and service;       3. to accomplish these goals, they involve a cluster of institutions, with one          doctoral degree-granting institution partnering with a variety of other          institutions.For the 12-year-old Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering program at the researchextensive University of X (UX), as well as for similar programs elsewhere forengineering graduate students, meeting requirement 3 can be difficult because of the lackof engineering programs at many four-year colleges. While it is possible to find facultyfrom baccalaureate institutions to participate in panels on how to find a job, for example,it is generally harder to identify faculty mentors at nearby schools who can work with thePFF participants in the classroom over an extended period. In many cases, graduatestudents engaged in engineering research just do not have flexibility in their schedules toaccommodate teaching activities which take them too far from their home labs. A few ofour PFF participants have found teaching mentors at the nearby UX College of AppliedScience, but the majority have ended up completing the teaching component of theirprogram with a UX engineering professor whose primary focus is research. Recently,however, UX merged its colleges of engineering and applied science, replacing separateengineering departments and technology departments with schools, with the goal ofcapitalizing on synergies in these programs which will strengthen both. This newstructure provides our PFF in Engineering participants with the type of broad exposure toa variety of academic programs which was previously lacking. In this paper we describeadditional benefits of this merger for PFF participants. For example, overall thetechnology faculty are much more focused on undergraduate teaching and much moreknowledgeable about recent developments in engineering education. In addition, manytechnology faculty have chosen academic positions after extensive experience in industry.Thus PFF students not only learn how different academic programs are organized but canalso get firsthand information on career paths which may include a faculty position butwhich also accommodate extensive industrial experience.
AU  - Carla C. Purdy
AU  - Xuefu Zhou
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Improving a Preparing Future Faculty in Engineering Program through Increased Collaboration between Faculty in Engineering and Technology
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/18111
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--18111
ER  -