Conference Session

Advice from the Experts for NEEs at Small Universities

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claude Villiers, Florida Gulf Coast University; Diane Bondehagen, Florida Gulf Coast University; Chris Geiger

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. Given the unusualcharacteristics of FGCU (new public university, new engineering program, and non-tenuresystem), a young faculty member starting his or her career is indeed in an unorthodox situation.That is exactly the case for the authors of this paper, who represent all three fields. One of theauthors held a non tenure-track assistant professor position at a different university for the lasttwo years, while the other two held post doc positions in their respective fields. Managing theresponsibilities and challenges of our new positions has afforded us lessons that indeed amountto our own innovations in career planning. Cognizant and respectful of the forward-thinkingmission and vision of FGCU and the

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Creating successful NEEs

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kam Jugdev, Athabasca University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

needs that academics have at stages of their careers. The paperemphasises the importance of mentoring in faculty development programs and concludes withsome tricks of the trade, that I learned through my experiences.Tensions between Scholarship PrioritiesBoyer discusses four kinds of scholarship priorities for a professoriate – the scholarship ofdiscovery (research), the scholarship of teaching (pedagogy), the scholarship of practice(application), and the scholarship of integration (critical analysis and interpretation) 3. Mostuniversities focus on the first three priorities - research, teaching, and service. It is an ongoingchallenge for academics to balance their efforts in these three areas, particularly with thepressures to “publish or

Conference Session

Women, Minorities and the New Engineering Educator

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Noel Schulz, Mississippi State University; Kirk Schulz, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

NSF CAREER award recipient. She has been active in ASEE and is currently the Women in Engineering Division Chair. She is also active in the IEEE Power Engineering Society and is serving as Secretary for 2004-2007. Dr. Schulz is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.Kirk Schulz, Mississippi State University Kirk H. Schulz is currently the Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1986 and 1991, respectively. Dr. Schulz has been on the faculty at the University of North

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Creating successful NEEs

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Jackson, East Carolina University; Robert Chin, East Carolina University; Charles Coddington, East Carolina University; Paul Petersen, East Carolina University; Fonooni Hamid

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

). Page 12.1058.2© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Mentoring New Faculty: How Much, How Often, and How?Abstract The Department of Technology Systems (TSYS) at East Carolina University hasimplemented a new faculty mentoring process to enable junior faculty members to learn fromsenior faculty members as they prepare for a career in academia. Five tenured professors andassociate professors in the TSYS department have recently established a new process to mentorfaculty members within the department who have begun not yet completed their initial tenureprocess at a major university. This process includes a series of workshops regarding academicperformance expectations during the early stages of an academic career. Our

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robin Adams, Purdue University; Cheryl Allendoerfer, University of Washington; Tori Rhoulac Smith, Howard University; David Socha, University of Washington; Dawn Williams, Howard University; Ken Yasuhara

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

changing such as the recent transformation of the Journal ofEngineering Education into the premiere journal for engineering education research [8]. Centralto these changes are conversations around envisioning engineering education as a newprofessional discipline [9-11]. These conversations focus on such issues as frameworks for newdisciplinary endeavors [12], guidelines for rigorous research [13], and research agendas [14].One challenge emerging from all these conversations is how to share what we as a communityare learning about the process of conducting engineering education research, ways to make animpact on engineering education, and strategies for successfully navigating an engineeringeducation career. As an interdisciplinary endeavor

Conference Session

Faculty Development: Creating successful NEEs

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Abul Azad, Northern Illinois University; Osman Tokhi, University of Sheffield, UK.

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

matters ‚ Assessment of students ‚ Program approval, monitoring and review ‚ Career education, information and guidance ‚ Placement learning ‚ Recruitment and admissions The QAA can be compared with the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineeringand Engineering Technology) of the US 30. There are a number of differences between theABET and QAA: a) ABET only deals with engineering and engineering technology, whereQAA manages all branches of higher education; b) QAA deals with both the undergraduateand postgraduate programs, when ABET deals only with the undergraduate programs; c)All UK higher qualifications must be accredited by the QAA, while ABET’s accreditationis optional; d) ABET now practices outcome based

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

) Content centered approachesFaculty centered approaches - Creating more faculty timeAs mentioned above, time is limited. Faculty members need to balance their time in terms ofthe three main responsibilities: research, teaching and service. In some faculty memberscases, complicating the time issue can result in creative ways to carve out more time forthemselves.Creating time for oneself is important as faculty members need to juggle between multipleroles and responsibilities within their positions. Most of our participants commented aboutthe three components of a faculty career – research, teaching, and service – have arbitraryand complicated boundaries. In the examples below, three participants claimed that it washard for them to make the

Conference Session

Advice from the Experts for NEEs at Small Universities

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Larson, Seattle University; Agnieszka Miguel, Seattle University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

time on teaching than on research. Colbeck also notices that theproduction of research was somewhat constricted by the narrow definition of what someinstitutions considered as “acceptable” scholarship.The book by Wankat11 is a great resource for new engineering educators. It concentrates on thedevelopment of time management skills in new faculty and discusses effective and efficienttechniques for teaching, scholarship, and service. Reis9 addresses his book mainly to graduatestudents and postdoctoral researchers preparing for academic career. However, the last chapter ofthe book is dedicated to the first years in an academic position and includes advice on timemanagement, teaching, research, professional responsibility, and tenure.3. Choosing

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bobby Crawford, USMA; Tony Jones, USMA

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

about new technologies without the aid of formal instruction.BackgroundThe first course in the mechanical and civil engineering sequences is a course in staticanalysis and materials taught by the civil engineering faculty. It is not until the secondcourse in the sequence that the student meets the mechanical engineering faculty. Thefaculty members are predominantly mid-career U.S. Army officers with a Master ofScience degree in a mechanical engineering discipline, comfortable with more advancedmechanical engineering concepts, and accustomed to teaching engineering majors. Asmaller segment of the faculty consists of senior U.S. Army officers and civilians whohave earned a Ph.D. in their discipline.The typical student arrives in

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Marshall, University of Southern Maine; June Marshall, St. Joseph's College

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

Education Commission of States, and The Johnson Foundation.These Seven Principles are also presented in Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F.Gamson’s book entitled Applying the Seven Principles for Good Practice inUndergraduate Education.11Encourage Student / Faculty ContactFrequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor instudent motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through roughtimes and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students’intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and futureplans. • I make a point to talk with my students on a personal level and learn about their educational and career goals. • I seek out my

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karen Benitez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Juan Jimenez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Yesenia Cruz, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Marta Rosa, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Alexandra Medina-Borja, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

companies in the island. Graduate school is also an option as all engineeringspecialties have well-established graduate programs and many prestigious engineering schools inthe continental US come to recruit students, offering full scholarships to the most qualifiedgraduates. Besides, large companies and consulting firms in the US participate in the annual jobfair by the hundreds, in search for qualified Hispanic engineers. Research wise, three fourths ofits faculty has Ph.D. degrees from the most prestigious American and European engineeringschools. The UPRM has a research-oriented culture that resonates in society due to a history ofacademic success, having several NSF’s CAREER awardees among its engineering juniorfaculty and several department

Conference Session

Women, Minorities and the New Engineering Educator

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brook Sattler, University of Washington; Jessica Yellin, University of Washington; Yi-Min Huang, University of Washington; Jennifer Turns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

-- INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I see. YI105: Which I think is very relevant for future career stuff, to interact with people who -- who -- yeah, I mean have really good intentions, but maybe have slightly different view that to me surprises me.”YI105 claimed that she was used to a certain “politically correct” way of discussing diversity andwhen people diverged from the norm she was surprised. When YI105 first spoke about diversity, Page 12.558.10she used the acronym PC for politically correct. She also spoke about trying to frame diversity inthe “correct” way, so that people can understand. Several other participants talked about

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward Gehringer, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

required before the assessment is done.Despite the lack of a formal assessment mechanism, faculty would be well advised to explain tothe students what is expected of them, and what scale they will be evaluated on. An independentstudy can be one of the most rewarding parts of a student’s career, but if expectations are notcommunicated carefully, students tend to drift, being driven by other demands on their time, andaccomplish little. Hoskin and Welch2 give sample documents and timetables that can be used totrack student progress.4. Making effective use of independent studiesAs a faculty member, you can wait for students to come to you and suggest projects you areinterested in. Indeed, some independent-study course descriptions seem to assume that

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Off the Beaten Path

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenny Lo, Virginia Tech; Vinod Lohani, Virginia Tech; Michael Gregg, Virginia Tech; Richard Goff, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

driven engineering issues. Team teaching in this context obviously did notinvolve widely different areas of expertise or disciplines. Neither did it generally involve a Page 12.1092.6blanket separation of teaching duties, e.g. one teaches programming and the other teaches design.This approach might have been less resource intensive, however the authors opted to co-teachmost topics. With minimal formal training in team-teaching, but with a wealth of collaborativeexperience gained over the course of their respective careers, the two faculty membersapproached the design and delivery of the course from the standpoint of ‘what will work best forthese

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Chesney, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

! I decidedthat if I could not come up with a major professional accomplishment from that year, thenperhaps it was time for a change. By the end of the subsequent year, I had left my job in industryfor a full-time teaching position.The lesson. It takes courage (and sometimes a little bloodshed) to acquire a new skill like story-telling. Also, sometimes it is life’s little events that have significant personal meaning and leadto significant life decisions (like career changes). Page 12.307.3Basics from Big Fish I “Story-telling is first for the benefit of the audience, and only a distant second, for

Conference Session

New Engineering Educators: Tricks of the Trade II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claude Villiers, Florida Gulf Coast University

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

remains a challenge for young facultymembers. There are helpful materials that are provided in the literature 2,3; however, they maynot be specific enough to deal with one’s actual struggles. When a new faculty member joins anew institution, they may be pressured to adapt to that institution’s teaching style, researchinterests, and its cultural environment. This pressure may be driven by the administration and/orthe individual may simply feel pressured to fit in. Graduating from the University of Florida(UF), the author’s academic career started at The City College of New York (CCNY). CCNYand UF differ in teaching atmosphere, research environment, history, demographics, and culture.The author believed that the use of visual aids such as

Conference Session

Best of the NEE

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Squire, Virginia Military Institute; Charles Bott, Virginia Military Institute; Matthew Hyre, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

New Engineering Educators

a student asking to join aresearch time on a work for pay basis during his last year. Since he was a very good student andhad already taken most of his engineering classes, he was immediately given critical tasks for thecompletion of a project which had a very aggressive schedule and hard deadlines. The studentdid quite well until he had earned enough money for his spring break trip. During the last 6weeks of the semester, it was very difficult to get any meaningful work out the student. Havingcome to the project late in his student career, he felt little responsibility to the sponsor. Since hedid not need the research in order to graduate, it quickly fell to the bottom of the priority list. Inthe end, he was dropped from the project. This