Changing an Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Culture from the Bottom Up: Action Plans Generated from Faculty Interviews
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Faculty Development Division
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Page Count
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8
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--34273
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/34273
- Download Count
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287
Paper Authors
Elise A. Frickey Iowa State University
Elise is a graduate student at Iowa State University. As a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology, she has been involved with research on the application of self-determination theory to different domains to allow for better understanding of the relationships between contextual factors, basic psychological needs, and indices of well-being. Prior to attending Iowa State University, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Spanish from Hillsdale College.
Diane T. Rover Iowa State University
Diane Rover is a University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. She has held various faculty and administrative appointments at ISU and Michigan State University since 1991. She received the B.S. in computer science in 1984, and the M.S. and Ph.D. in computer engineering in 1986 and 1989 (ISU). Her teaching and research has focused on embedded computer systems, reconfigurable hardware, parallel and distributed systems, visualization, performance monitoring and evaluation, and engineering education. She has held officer positions in the ASEE ECE Division, served as an associate editor for the ASEE Journal of Engineering Education, and served on the IEEE Committee on Engineering Accreditation Activities, the IEEE Education Society Board of Governors, the ABET EAC (2009-2014), and EAC Executive Committee (2015-2018). Dr. Rover is a Fellow of the IEEE and of ASEE.
Joseph Zambreno Iowa State University
Joseph Zambreno has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University since 2006, where he is currently a Professor. Prior to joining ISU, he was at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., where he graduated with his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2006, his M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2002, and his B.S. degree summa cum laude in computer engineering in 2001. While at Northwestern University, Zambreno was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Northwestern University Graduate School Fellowship, a Walter P. Murphy Fellowship, and the EECS department Best Dissertation Award for his Ph.D. dissertation titled "Compiler and Architectural Approaches to Software Protection and Security."
Ashfaq A Khokhar Iowa State University
Ashfaq A. Khokhar received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, in 1985, MS in computer engineering from Syracuse University in 1988, and his Ph.D. in computer engineering from University of Southern California, in 1993. After his PhD, he spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. In 1995, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware and served at assistant and associate professor levels. Dr. Khokhar joined UIC in Fall 2000 and served there till Summer 2013. He is currently serving as Professor and Palmer Department Chair of ECE at Iowa State University. Dr. Khokhar has published over 280 technical papers in refereed conferences and journals in the areas of wireless networks, parallel computing, image processing, computer vision, and multimedia systems. Dr. Khokhar is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 1998. He is a recipient of numerous outstanding paper awards. He is also an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to multimedia computing and databases. His research interests include: search and retrieval for Internet data, multimedia systems and communication, multidimensional spatial databases, data mining, health informatics, computational biology, and high-performance computing.
Douglas W. Jacobson
Iowa State University
orcid.org/0000-0002-6835-4687
Doug Jacobson is a University Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. He is currently the director the Iowa State University Information Assurance Center, which has been recognized by the National Security Agency as a charter Center of Academic Excellence for Information Assurance Education. He teaches network security and information warfare and has written a textbook on network security. For a non-technical audience he co-authored a book on security literacy and has given numerous talks on security. His current funded research is targeted at developing robust countermeasures for network-based security exploits and large scale attack simulation environments and is the director of the Internet-Scale Event and Attack Generation Environment (ISEAGE) test bed project. He has given over 75 presentations in the area of computer security and has testified in front of the U.S. Senate committee of the Judiciary on security issues associated with peer-to-peer networking. He has served as an ABET program evaluator representing IEEE for 10 years. He is a Fellow of IEEE and received the IEEE Educational Activities Board Major Educational Innovation Award in 2012 for his work in teaching information assurance to students of all ages.
Lisa M. Larson Ph.D. Iowa State University
Dr. Larson is a professor in the department of psychology. She has examined Self Determination Theory as a framework to explain how the environment impacts well-being for faculty, students in general, and student veterans. Her other work includes the intersection of personality and vocational interest as well as how counselors learn to become effective in their work with clients.
Mack Shelley
Iowa State University of Science and Technology
orcid.org/0000-0002-0414-5843
Mack Shelley holds the titled position of University Professor of Political Science, Statistics, and School of Education. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Political Science. His research and teaching focuses on public policy. He has extensive experience with grants- and contracts-funded research and evaluation for federal and state agencies, and for nonprofit organizations.
Abstract
Changing Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Culture from the Bottom Up: Action Plans Generated from Faculty Interviews We prefer a Lessons Learned Paper. In a collaborative effort between a RED: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) National Science Foundation grant awarded to an electrical and computer engineering department (ECpE) and a broader, university-wide ADVANCE program, ECpE faculty were invited to participate in focus groups to evaluate the culture of their department, to further department goals, and to facilitate long-term planning. Forty-four ECpE faculty members from a large Midwestern university participated in these interviews, which were specifically focused on departmental support and challenges, distribution of resources, faculty workload, career/family balance, mentoring, faculty professional development, productivity, recruitment, and diversity. Faculty were interviewed in groups according to rank, and issues important to particular subcategories of faculty (e.g., rank, gender, etc.) were noted. Data were analyzed by a social scientist using the full transcript of each interview/focus group and the NVivo 12 Qualitative Research Software Program. She presented the written report to the entire faculty. Based on the results of the focus groups, the ECpE department developed an action plan with six main thrusts for improving departmental culture and encouraging departmental change and transformation. 1. Department Interactions – Encourage open dialogue and consider department retreats. Academic areas should be held accountable for the working environment and encouraged to discuss department-related issues. 2. Mentoring, Promotion, and Evaluation – Continue mentoring junior faculty. Improve the clarity of P&T operational documents and seek faculty input on the evaluation system. 3. Teaching Loads – Investigate teaching assistant (TA) allocation models and explore models for teaching loads. Develop a TA performance evaluation system and return TA support to levels seen in the 2010 timeframe. Improvements to teaching evaluations should consider differential workloads, clarifying expectations for senior advising, and hiring more faculty for undergraduate-heavy areas. 4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Enact an explicit focus on diversity in hiring. Review departmental policies on inclusive teaching and learning environments. 5. Building – Communicate with upper administration about the need for a new building. Explore possibilities for collaborations with Computer Science on a joint building. 6. Support Staff – Increase communication with the department regarding new service delivery models. Request additional support for Human Resources, communications, and finance. Recognize staff excellence at the annual department banquet and through college/university awards. We prefer a poster.
Frickey, E. A., & Rover, D. T., & Zambreno, J., & Khokhar, A. A., & Jacobson, D. W., & Larson, L. M., & Shelley, M. (2020, June), Changing an Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Culture from the Bottom Up: Action Plans Generated from Faculty Interviews Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34273
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