> TE Home
> About TE
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> E-Mail Update
> IEEE-USA

08.07

Training Doctoral Students for Academic Careers in Engineering

By Mark Shayman

In the Fall of 2006, the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering launched its Future Faculty Program (FFP). The FFP has two goals: (1) to increase the number of Ph.D. graduates who obtain academic positions, especially at prominent research universities; (2) to improve the preparation of students for academic careers so that they can better succeed once they obtain such a position. Students are admitted to the program through a competitive application process based on their motivation for becoming a faculty member and potential for securing a tenure-track faculty position at a highly ranked engineering school. Thus, promise as a researcher is an important criterion for admission. To be eligible for the program, a student must have passed the Ph.D. qualifying examination and have a minimum of three semesters left before graduation so as to have time to complete the program. Students who are admitted to the program are designated as Future Faculty Fellows and receive a supplementary stipend beyond their regular financial support; half of the stipend is earmarked for travel to conferences. Consequently, the stipend serves both to encourage top students to join the program and to facilitate their professional development.

The FFP consists of a sequence of three one-credit training seminars, a teaching practicum and a research mentoring practicum. The first seminar focuses on giving compelling oral presentations and writing clear technical papers and reports. It also includes discussion about how to develop a research program as a graduate student that has breadth as well as depth, and build a publication record that will enable the Fellow to successfully compete for faculty positions. Having research contacts and collaborations outside the University of Maryland can be very helpful when the students are applying for academic jobs. Consequently, the seminar includes advice about how to network at professional meetings. The travel portion of the student stipend ensures that they can put this information to good use by attending at least one conference each semester.

The second seminar is on successful teaching techniques, covering such topics as creating course content, managing a class, interacting with students, and student learning styles. Participants will play a major role in presenting the material in this class. The third seminar focuses on how to build a funded research program as a faculty member. How to identify promising research areas and write grant proposals are discussed. In addition, students will learn and practice effective interviewing skills.

For the teaching practicum, each Fellow will be teamed with a faculty member and provided with the opportunity to co-teach a course. The Fellow is expected to be involved in all the aspects of the course; she/he will help in the development of the syllabus, teach roughly half of the lectures, write and grade examinations, and evaluate the students. In all these activities, there will be close supervision by the faculty mentor.

In the research mentoring practicum, the Fellow will co-supervise a research project of either an undergraduate or a more junior graduate student. The Fellow will help formulate the research problem and meet regularly with the supervised student to provide advice and monitor progress. Typically, the participant will undertake the teaching practicum and research mentoring practicum after completing all of the training seminars. However, if there is insufficient time until graduation, the student can do one or both of the practicum in parallel with the final seminar.

The concept of a program to train doctoral students for careers as faculty members is not new; it has been recognized for some time that the standard Ph.D. educational experience prepares students to become researchers, but does not adequately prepare them for other duties of a faculty member, especially teaching. This led to the launching of the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) initiative in 1993 as a partnership between the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). During the period 1993-2003, PFF programs received funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Science Foundation and the Atlantic Philanthropies, and were established at over 45 Ph.D. granting institutions together with almost 300 partner institutions. A key aspect of the PFF programs is the establishment of associations between doctorate producing institutions and doctorate employing institutions such as liberal arts colleges, community colleges and masters universities. An article providing a detailed description and analysis of a successful PFF program is available. [1]

While many aspects of the Clark School’s FFP are similar to those in PFF programs, the focus of the FFP is more specialized, namely the preparation for and placement of Ph.D. graduates at research universities. This mission affects both the student selection process and program design. An essential part of the applicant evaluation process is screening for research promise; the student must have the potential to compete for faculty positions at highly ranked engineering schools. The program design is simplified by not involving non-doctorate granting institutions as partners. Instead, the teaching and research mentoring practicum are performed within the University of Maryland.

Since the FFP has been in existence for only one semester, it is too early to gauge its success. However, the initial feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive. After completing the first seminar, Edvin Cetegin, a student in Mechanical Engineering, comments, “I have learned how to present effectively, which is as important as the material that is presented.” Enlu Zhou from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department states that, “Before taking this class, I was only aware of the importance of research for obtaining an academic job. Now I know that I can increase my chances by obtaining teaching experience and networking through involvement in professional organizations.” Bioengineering student Ian Gifford concludes, “Clearly, life as an assistant professor can be very stressful and overwhelming. This first seminar has provided a glimpse of a career in academia as a young professor, and by learning what is expected of me and the resources at my disposal, the transition from mentee to mentor will be a more rewarding experience.”

The Clark School’s Future Faculty Program is off to a good start. However, the true measure of its success will lie in the placement of its graduates in faculty positions, and in whether they develop thriving academic careers.

For more information on the Clark School's Future Faculty Program, visit: www.eng.umd.edu/academics/ffa_apply.html

References

1. C. Purdy, G. Lewandowski, J. Hauser and S. Coppock, “Establishing and Sustaining a Preparing Future Faculty Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science,” Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, Vol. 17, No. 1&2, 2006, 37-59.

Mark Shayman is professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.