academic

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Call for Applications: Owens Corning Scholarship and Paid Internship

As we approach the last month leading up to WE16, the graduate community is excited to announce a new scholarship/internship opportunity sponsored by Owens Corning!

Owens Corning will select one SWE graduate student attending WE16 to receive a $1000 scholarship and the opportunity to participate in a paid internship. The recipient will be announced at the WE16 Grad Meet & Greet networking session on Thursday, October 27.

The application can be found here. All application materials are due on October 7, 2016.

Please email richelle.thomas@owenscorning.com with any questions.

 

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Rapid Fire Submission Deadline Extended!

The Rapid Fire submission deadline has been extended until Wednesday, September 30 @ 11:59 PM CST! If you wanted to submit an abstract but didn’t have the time to write one in the past few weeks, no problem! You still have a few more days! Click here for a link to the original blog posting containing the application link.

Don’t think your research fits into the NAE Grand Challenges? Don’t have enough research background or data to reach the 500 max word limit? No worries, submit your abstract anyway! All abstracts are welcome!

There are two Graduate Rapid Fire Sessions: Rapid Fire Session I on Friday, October 23rd, and Rapid Fire Session II on Saturday, October 24th. Both are from 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM.

Please email all questions to Rachel Unruh, Graduate Programming Coordinator – Elect (grad-programs-coordinator-elect@swe.org).

Happy writing!

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Transferable Skills and the Pursuit of PhD

The entrepreneurship bug is alive and well today. We hear about starts as pragmatic as Uber to frivolous games that waste hours on end. It seems that today’s economic environment is ripe for innovative ideas and disruptive technology. It’s all very exciting to hear about technology licensed out of graduate labs and someone else’s uncle’s friend who’s app was purchased for millions of dollars. For the academic, however, it begs the question:

Does graduate school provide any transferable skills that would be valueable in the marketplace?

Of course we can endlessly debate the utility (or lack thereof) of an advanced degree but the reality is that there are more MS and PhDs graduating every year than academia can employ. There are numerous articles that spell doom and gloom for the budding scientist about to enter the job market. Theoretically, we scientists have it better than English majors, yet the prospects are still not so optimistic for STEM majors.  Whether we choose to explore a non-traditonal career, a career in industry or start our own venture, it’s clear that academia cannot absorb us all.

With this is mind, I came across an interesting site this week where the blogger helps wayward academics find their way to starting their own education/teaching/consulting business. It may be worthwhile to explore the option of starting your own venture, either as a source of additional income or full time. The Scholarpreneur took and interesting view of the academic background and gave it a validity that I rarely see. Learn more about the site and their offerings here.

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December Webinar: Confidence for Introverts

Join us on Thursday, December 18th at 10:00 AM CST for a webinar hosted by Dr. Donna Vogel! Dr. Vogel will be talking about different personality traits and how each person can use his or her own strengths to embrace various career environments.
Donna Vogel Bio:
Donna L. Vogel, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Professional Development Office, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.  She graduated from Bryn Mawr College, and the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her Ph.D. is in developmental biology, and her clinical subspecialty is endocrinology. She worked at NIH for 25 years, initially as a fellow conducting clinical and basic research.  Dr. Vogel managed a grant program for 13 years, and then became the first Director of an office for postdocs at NCI. While at NIH, she also worked closely with the Office of Research on Women’s Health.  She joined the Professional Development Office in 2007. She has an ongoing interest in career development and mentoring for students, postdocs, and early-career scientists. 
Abstract: Confidence for Introverts
For introverts and extroverts: Build on your strengths to project outward confidence. Learn to understand and synergize with the style of the opposite type. Acquire some tools to help you advance your career by projecting confidence in anxiety-provoking situations. We will explore introvert and extrovert working styles and develop ways to deal with intimidating circumstances. You do not need to have taken the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory to benefit from this webinar.
Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3739842929723533826
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SWE Webinar – How to Review Academic Papers

Reading and reviewing papers is an integral part of the graduate school life. Incoming students often are required to read relevant papers in their field as part of their graduate program, journal club, or research laboratory. Additionally, once graduate students start publishing research of own, they will inevitably be asked to review and critique papers in relevant academic journals. However, academic papers can prove difficult to navigate. The material is often very dense, and it is easy to become overwhelmed with the content. How can graduate students avoid these feelings when reading and reviewing these papers? Dr. Diane Peters from Kettering University is here to answer these questions!

Webinar Date and Time: Friday, November 21, 3:00 PM EST (2:00 pm CST)

Overview: If you’ve started to submit papers to conferences and journals, it’s inevitable that you’ll be asked to serve as a reviewer at some point. In this webinar, Dr. Diane Peters from Kettering University will talk about how you go about conducting these reviews. What do the terms blind review and double blind review mean? What are the differences between reviewing a conference paper versus a journal paper? How do you critically evaluate a paper and decide whether to recommend acceptance, revision, or rejection? You’ll learn what some of the key criteria are, and how you can apply them as you begin to review papers and contribute to your field’s academic community.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Diane Peters is an Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering at Kettering University, with extensive industry experience and publications in a wide range of conferences and journals. She has received Best Paper awards from the Graduate Studies Division of ASEE and the ASME Design Engineering Division’s Design Automation Committee. She has served as a reviewer for conference papers for the American Society for Engineering Education, various ASME conferences, and the American Control Conference, as well as for many journals including the Journal of Mechanical Design, Engineering Optimization, and the International Journal of Control.

Webinar Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/pjoin/232203394/105181030

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Future Faculty Workshop at the University of Michigan College of Engineering

The University of Michigan College of Engineering has recently established a future faculty development workshop for potential women and underrepresented minority faculty members.   For more information about eligibility and for an application please visit the website: http://umich.netfxtx.com/

Applications are due June 3, 2013

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2013 Innovation in Graduate Education Challenge

Our world is changing faster than ever before–technology is developing at an unprecedented rate and the world faces extraordinary challenges with solutions based in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). What is needed to prepare STEM graduate students to meet these modern day challenges? Fundamental changes are also occurring in the career options for STEM professionals. What is necessary to navigate the career pathways of the future?

The Division of Graduate Education at the National Science Foundation challenges STEM graduate students across the nation to submit innovative ideas to prepare them for tomorrow’s opportunities and challenges. Entries are solicited for ideas with the potential to improve graduate education and professional development. Ideas can be directed toward, for example, students, faculty, departments, institutions, professional societies, and/or federal agencies. Make your voice heard on STEM graduate education!

Be sure to include the following elements in your submission:

  1. The title of your submission (150 characters or less)
  2. The issue in graduate education you wish to address
  3. Your solution or idea
  4. How your idea will change graduate education
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Conference Session Interest Survey WE13

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WE12: Adjunct Faculty Postions

While many people pursue academic careers as full-time, tenure-track faculty, colleges and universities also employ significant numbers of adjunct faculty, either full time or part time. Some people use these adjunct positions as a pathway into a more permanent academic position, while for others they are a long-term second job or a temporary part of their career path. In this panel, three women who have held a variety of adjunct positions spoke about their experiences and gave advice to those interested in adjunct positions.
In the panel’s discussion, the speakers highlighted that someone who wants to be an adjunct needs to love teaching, since that is the primary role of adjunct faculty. Even at a research university, an adjunct position is not intended to be a research role, although it may allow someone to make contacts with those in research labs. Furthermore, adjuncts need to be flexible and able to respond quickly. All three of the women had, on several occasions, only learned of an opportunity to teach a few days before the class started. And finally, they emphasized that they pay scale typically was not very high, and that someone who expects to earn a large paycheck from teaching will be very disappointed. However, all three of the panelists found their experiences teaching as an adjunct to be personally rewarding.
Panelists:
Diane L. Peters, P.E., Ph.D. is currently a Senior Control Systems Engineer at LMS International. She has taught as an adjunct at both a community college and a regional university.
Anne M. Lucietto is currently a graduate student at Purdue University. She has extensive industry experience, and has taught as an adjunct for over 25 years at a variety of colleges and universities. Most recently, she has been developing and delivering on-line courses in the community college environment.
Cheryl Hanzlik, formerly employed by Xerox Corporation, is a confocal microscopy technician and adjunct faculty member at Rochester Institute of Technology.
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WE12: The Postdoc: Why and How

Postdoctoral training can provide for diversification of technical expertise as well as enhance one’s career development. Critical elements of a successful training period include the selection of an appropriate project(s), the selection of a mentor and the environment within which the work will be done. Central to the process is a clear plan of achievable goals defined by the postdoc in collaboration with her/his mentor. This session explored the pros and cons of pursuing postdoctoral training and presented strategies to achieve success in the postdoctoral training period.  Click The Postdoc for the slides that include resources from the presentation.

Lisa M. Curtis, PhD received her PhD in cell biology at the University of Florida (UF). She completed postdoctoral training at UF and at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) before transitioning to a faculty position at UAB in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology. She is a past member of the National Postdoctoral Association Board of Directors, and she served as a member and interim chair of the UAB Postdoctoral Association. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UAB where she conducts research focused on the cell biology of acute kidney injury.