From Graduate Students to Faculty: Portraits of Balance in the Professional Development Plans of Engineering Graduate Students

Juan David Ortega; Ruth A. Streveler; Audeen W. Fentiman; Harsh Wardhan Aggarwal; Sayan Biswas; Brandon S Coventry; Abdel-Rahman Hassan; Margaret L McNamara; Smirti Nandan Paul

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Student Division Development of Professional Skills Technical Session
Tagged Division: Student
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28390
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28390
Download Count: 580

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Paper Authors

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Juan David Ortega Purdue University, West Lafayette / Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia orcid.org/0000-0001-6110-0791

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Juan David Ortega Alvarez is a Collegiate Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech and a Visiting Professor in the Process Engineering department at Universidad EAFIT (Medellin, Colombia). Juan holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University and an M.S. in Process Engineering and Energy Technology from Hochschule Bremerhaven. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses for more than 10 years, Juan has over 6 years of experience as a practicing engineer, working mostly on the design and improvement of chemical processing plants.

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Ruth A. Streveler Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Ruth A. Streveler is a Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Streveler has been the Principal Investigator or co-Principal Investigator of ten grants funded by the US National Science Foundation. She has published art

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Audeen W. Fentiman Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Audeen Fentiman is the Crowley Family Professor in Engineering Education at Purdue University.

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Harsh Wardhan Aggarwal Purdue University

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Graduate Research Assistant, Purdue University

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Sayan Biswas School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University

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Sayan Biswas is a PhD student in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, Purdue University. His research interest is rocket propulsion and computational fluid dynamics of reacting flows. He is also interested in different educational methods in aerospace engineering. Sayan teaches rocket propulsion, air breathing propulsion, and fluid mechanics. Other than teaching, Sayan like launching model rockets and flying airplane.

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Brandon S Coventry Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University; Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue University orcid.org/0000-0001-5524-0261

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Brandon received his bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Saint Louis University in 2012 and his masters in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University in 2014. He is currently a PhD student in biomedical engineering at Purdue University under the guidance of Edward Bartlett, PhD. His research interests include optical neural stimulation, computational and systems neuroscience, and novel neural engineering technologies.

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Abdel-Rahman Hassan Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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Abdel-Rahman Hassan is a PhD candidate at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University. Abdel-Rahman obtained his bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering at Alexandria University, Egypt. He has a master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Florida State University. Currently, Abdel-Rahman conducts research in biomechanics of cell migration. Abdel-Rahman has interest in multidisciplinary research using theoretical and computational techniques. Recently, he developed an interest in engineering education within the biomedical field and in how to bring the benefits of theory and mathematical analysis to such audience.

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Margaret L McNamara Purdue University orcid.org/0000-0003-3008-229X

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Smirti Nandan Paul Purdue University

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Smriti Nandan Paul is currently pursuing his PhD at School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University under the advice of Dr. Carolin Frueh.

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Abstract

The job of a college engineering faculty member is multifaceted. Faculty are not only expected to teach and conduct research but also to write proposals, consult, network, engage in administrative duties, and the list continues. The relative importance and time allocated to these different functions varies according to the nature and focus of the institution and the interests of the faculty. However, graduate students aspiring to careers in academe are not usually trained in the multiple facets of the profession. As a result, they often struggle to find ways to balance the parallel and many times competing demands of these functions. Literature on the early careers of junior faculty at research institutions evidences their struggles to find such balance, particularly when their interests deviate from the requirements of a tenure-track position. This paper examines the professional development plans of engineering graduate students with an explicit interest in an academic career, as these plans are written and evolve throughout a three-credit graduate course at a large, research-intensive university. The overarching goal of this course, as stated on its syllabus, is to provide students with an opportunity to learn and practice the skills that complement and enhance classroom teaching and learning in a tenure-track faculty position , either at a research intensive university or at an institution that focuses on undergraduate engineering education . The research questions that orientate the study are: How do graduate students with different backgrounds and a common interest in academe conceive of the idea of balance in their future professional lives? How do their professional development plans reflect such conceptions?

The analysis of students’ professional development plans as qualitative artifacts reveals a wide variety of approaches to the role of faculty, focusing on different perspectives of it. Follow-up interviews with the students show that beneath these different approaches lies the idea of balance, evolved and transformed by the discussions and activities in the course.

Citation
Format

Ortega, J. D., & Streveler, R. A., & Fentiman, A. W., & Aggarwal, H. W., & Biswas, S., & Coventry, B. S., & Hassan, A., & McNamara, M. L., & Paul, S. N. (2017, June), From Graduate Students to Faculty: Portraits of Balance in the Professional Development Plans of Engineering Graduate Students Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28390

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The job of a college engineering faculty member is multifaceted. Faculty are not only expected to teach and conduct research but also to write proposals, consult, network, engage in administrative duties, and the list continues. The relative importance and time allocated to these different functions varies according to the nature and focus of the institution and the interests of the faculty. However, graduate students aspiring to careers in academe are not usually trained in the multiple facets of the profession. As a result, they often struggle to find ways to balance the parallel and many times competing demands of these functions. Literature on the early careers of junior faculty at research institutions evidences their struggles to find such balance, particularly when their interests deviate from the requirements of a tenure-track position.
 
This paper examines the professional development plans of engineering graduate students with an explicit interest in an academic career, as these plans are written and evolve throughout a three-credit graduate course at a large, research-intensive university. The overarching goal of this course, as stated on its syllabus, is to provide students with an opportunity to learn and practice the skills that complement and enhance classroom teaching and learning in a tenure-track faculty position , either at a research intensive university or at an institution that focuses on undergraduate engineering education . The research questions that orientate the study are: How do graduate students with different backgrounds and a common interest in academe conceive of the idea of balance in their future professional lives? How do their professional development plans reflect such conceptions?

The analysis of students’ professional development plans as qualitative artifacts reveals a wide variety of approaches to the role of faculty, focusing on different perspectives of it. Follow-up interviews with the students show that beneath these different approaches lies the idea of balance, evolved and transformed by the discussions and activities in the course.

AU  - Juan David Ortega
AU  - Ruth A. Streveler
AU  - Audeen W. Fentiman
AU  - Harsh Wardhan Aggarwal
AU  - Sayan Biswas
AU  - Brandon S Coventry
AU  - Abdel-Rahman Hassan
AU  - Margaret L McNamara
AU  - Smirti Nandan Paul
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - From Graduate Students to Faculty: Portraits of Balance in the Professional Development Plans of Engineering Graduate Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/28390
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--28390
ER  -