Conference Session

Mentoring Graduate Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Frehill; Amanda Lain, New Mexico State University; Ricardo Jacquez, New Mexico State University; Lauren Ketcham, New Mexico State University; Karen Luces, New Mexico State University

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

is now has a fourth cohort of students at NewMexico State University. For each student, pre- and post-program data were available viaindividual interviews, focus groups, transcripts, students’ writings related to career goals, andinterviews with their advisors. These rich data provide multiple insights about the students’mentoring experiences as well as the expectations of their mentors.Although the program is now working with its fourth cohort of students, the analyses in thispaper are based upon results from just the first two cohorts. Almost all of the members of thesetwo cohorts have transitioned out of the program. The cohorts differed in terms of thedisciplines and ethnic backgrounds of the students. For example, all of the members of

Conference Session

New Trends in Engineering Graduate Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Farrar, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Michael Todd, University of California-San Diego; Phillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

validation and uncertainty quantification. Industry short coursesprovide an avenue of outreach to the engineering community at large as well as an additional,non-traditional form of peer review. Most recently, the SHM course has been taught at NASAMarshall Space Flight Center, Sandia National Laboratory, and Boeing Inc. (St. Louis). Theseshort courses speed industry adoption of EI research and provide a metric for the relevance of EIresearch activities. The courses are completely self-sufficient and require no funding fromLANL.Additional ActivitiesAdditional strategic guidance of the EI comes through an annual workshop, with a four-yearcycle of recurring themes. Each year, a workshop is organized that focuses on one of the threefundamental

Conference Session

Graduate Student Experiences

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Eisenman, University of Maryland; George List, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

they finish at the end ofthe 3rd year, but the opportunity does exist. The new found independence from classes incombination with the daunting task of writing a dissertation often leaves the third yearstudents lost again. Students typically have a hard time defining the research in theirdissertation and getting started.The Third Year (and Beyond) StudentYou made is through two years, now is the tough part. By the third year you have shouldbe a fairly independent researcher. At this point you need to start working on yourdissertation. (Your own research problem and solution.) If your advisor is nice he/shewill help you get started by working with you to lay out your dissertation, but this is notalways the case. If your advisor doesn’t sit down