Thursday, November 2, from 9:00 – 12:30pm

621 W. Lombard Street, SMC Campus Center, Room 349

This half-day workshop is designed as an introduction to grant writing for investigators with little or no experience writing an NIH or other peer-reviewed grant application.  The workshop material is based on the NIH grant application, as it is the basis for the majority of peer-reviewed grant applications; however, most of the information covered is relevant to the majority of other grant funding agencies.  This workshop will cover the following subjects: how to determine the most appropriate funding mechanism; developing a fundable research question; how to write the research plan for an NIH grant application, including the new requirements are: Rigor & Reproducibility; and the NIH System of Peer Review. NOTE: A light breakfast will be provided.

Speaker: Wendy Sanders, MA, Associate Dean for Research Career Development, Office for Research Career Development, UMSOM

Registration required online at http://registrationrcdp.eventbrite.com

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame invites applications for multiple tenure-track faculty positions at all ranks, with one position specifically in circuits, architecture, or related areas. We seek to attract, develop, and retain excellent faculty members with strong records and future promise. The Department is especially interested in candidates who will contribute to the diversity and excellence of the University’s academic community through their research, teaching, and service.

The Department offers the Ph.D. degree and undergraduate Computer Science and Computer Engineering degrees. Faculty are expected to excel in classroom teaching and to lead highly-visible research projects that attract substantial external funding. More information about the department can be found at http://cse.nd.edu/.

Applicants must submit a CV, a teaching statement, a research statement, and contact information for three professional references at http://apply.interfolio.com/41330. To guarantee full consideration, applications must be received by December 1, 2017, however, review of applications will continue until the positions have been filled.

The University is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer; we strongly encourage applications from women, minorities, veterans, individuals with a disability and those candidates attracted to a university with a Catholic identity.

Yale Ciencia Academy is an NIH-funded (1R25GM114000) initiative that connects Ph.D., MD/Ph.D. or PsyD students across the U.S. who are conducting biological, biomedical, or behavioral sciences research with a network of diverse peers and role models, and with professional development opportunities to help students navigate graduate school, identify their academic and professional goals, and gain the confidence to achieve them. Students from other fields are encouraged to apply if their work might be of NIH interest.

Key features of the program include:

• Virtual chats with diverse role models and mentors who will discuss topics such as careers within and outside of academia, getting funded, securing a postdoc, getting published, time and project management, and work-life balance, among others.
• Supportive discussions with peers, moderated by experts, on inter-personal issues (mentoring challenges, impostor syndrome, the importance of community, etc)
• Online and in-person workshops for the development of non-research skills such as effective scientific and professional communication, professional goal setting & networking, mentoring, and scientific teaching.
• Attendance to an annual YCA meeting (all expenses paid) to take place during the AAAS Annual Meeting to extend opportunities for networking and professional development.
• Participants will have the opportunity to impact their communities and put in place leadership and communication skills through science outreach activities like the publication of popular science articles, podcasts, or visits to local schools.
• Additional advice on their IDP

YCA leverages CienciaPR, a large and diverse Latino/Hispanic scientific network.

The deadline to apply is Friday, November 10 and the program runs from January to December 2018. Application requirements, selection criteria, FAQs, and the application form can be accessed via this link: http://www.cienciapr.org/yca

Questions can be directed to Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, PI, Yale Ciencia Academy (Giovanna.guerrero-medina@yale.edu) or at yca@cienciapr.org

Understanding professors’ expectations shouldn’t be a mystery. However, sometimes, there are disconnects between what a faculty member wants a student to produce for a project, and how the student interprets the instructions. In many cases, the expectations of faculty are clearly articulated, either in written or oral format. However, in other cases, there are situations where a faculty member’s feedback or outcomes from discussions regarding progress may not be as clear because they involve aspects of non-verbal communication such as eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, the tone of voice, and eye contact.

Addressing the Needs of Graduate Students

We draw particular attention to the needs of graduate students for our “When Faculty Say X” success seminar series. Graduate students have several forms of faculty interaction that have their own sets of nuances. For graduate students, the faculty member is a teacher, a mentor, an advisor, and a future colleague. There are several phases through which one must pass to navigate the transitions. During coursework, there is the phase where one follows the syllabus, turns in the homework, and takes the exam. During the qualifying exam and proposal stages, it can be difficult for a student to determine what they are supposed to know on the journey toward building expertise in a discipline or particular area of research. In addition to becoming a contributor to the field, a professor may have a methodology that must be employed by all in her lab or a set of theories which need to be used set the foundation for all work that comes out of the research group. There may be bibliographies that one must reference, techniques that must be mastered, and simple “unwritten rules” that must be followed. Some of the rules may include attending every group meeting and each departmental colloquium. Other rules may extend to writing, i.e., explicit use of a citation style, paragraph structure, or drafting process.  In the past, we have had in-person seminars and panels where students have a chance to post questions online, and faculty answer them in-person during a dinner seminar.

Launching #WhenFacultySayX 2017

In order to accommodate schedules of faculty guests who will join our seminar this year, and in an attempt involve all of the students in our PROMISE AGEP network and beyond, we are launching an interactive, online version of the seminar that will allow all to participate.

Here’s how it will work.

Between Friday, October 20 and Tuesday, October 31, 2017, we invite graduate students to post questions to faculty below in the comment section (you do not need a WordPress account to participate, we encourage anonymous posts.) We will encourage questions from graduate students broadly, and answers from faculty colleagues from any school.

Faculty: Faculty colleagues from around the world are welcome to share things that they want students to clearly understand, using the hashtag #WhenFacultySayX. You are also welcome to join the conversation below and reply to the comments. 

Students: This program was developed for you. It was developed to remove the barriers and fear regarding asking any and all questions related to your success. You may post anonymously.  Do you have a question that you want a faculty member to answer?

Post your questions in the comment section of this post at the bottom of this page. You may post anonymously. Our panel of experts will answer each question in the comments as well.

Our featured faculty panel of experts will answer questions that are posted on this website, below. 

PROMISE Director, Dr. Renetta Tull (@Renetta_Tull), Dr. Sarah Chard, Dr. L. Michael Hayden, Dr. Christopher Murphy, and Dr. J. Alan Yeakley.

Featured faculty:

1. Dr. Sarah Chard, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UMBC, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Health Administration and Policy.
2. Dr. L. Michael Hayden, Chair, and Professor of Physics at UMBC, Department of Physics.
3. Dr. Christopher Murphy, Chair, and Professor of Psychology at UMBC, Department of Psychology.
4. Dr. J. Alan Yeakley, Chair, and Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems at UMBC, Department of Geography and Environmental Systems.
5. Dr. Renetta Tull – Online Moderator. Dr. RenettaTull will moderate the discussion and will add commentary based on her experience as a former faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Madison, adjunct at College Park (http://hesp.umd.edu/facultyprofile/Tull/Renetta), and member of the program faculty groups for MSRP at MIT, and QoLT at Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh.
   Tull is the University System of Maryland (12 Institutions) Director of Graduate and Professional Pipeline Development, and Special Assistant to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, http://www.usmd.edu/institutions/; at UMBC she is the Associate Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives, Professor of the Practice, College of Engineering & IT.

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Historical Perspective

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The “When Faculty Say X” seminar began as a PROMISE seminar in 2003, initially titled, “Understanding Faculty Expectations” as part of the PROMISE SUCCESS 2003, a precursor to the PROMISE Summer Success Institute (SSI). During an orientation session for new graduate students at UMBC circa 2004, UMBC Psychology Professor Dr. Susan Sonnenschein posted a chart with two columns. The left column noted “What Faculty Say,” and the right column noted, “What They Mean.” PROMISE adopted this method and started the “Faculty X|Y – When Faculty Say X, They Really Mean Y” seminar to allow students to anonymously ask questions, and have a faculty panel answer the questions (grouped by topic area) in person. This seminar has drawn crowds of more than 100 graduate students. The “they really mean y” portion of the title was dropped over time.  This 2017 #WhenFacultySayX virtual seminar is the online evolution of those early panels and workshops.

Some of the programs and questions from past years can be found in these links:

When Faculty say “X” … Understanding Faculty Expectations, Unwritten Rules. Dinner Seminar, Fri. Oct. 10, 2014

“When Faculty Say ‘X’ …” Do you understand what faculty say and mean? Dinner seminar, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013

Other videos that answer questions from past years can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_uKXMv-Mty_sRI31EzJm0E0cJTX20mve

The third and fourth floors of the AOK Library are Quiet areas.  These are good places to study if you don’t mind the occasional whisper or vibrating phone.

The fifth and sixth floors of the AOK Library are designated Absolute Quiet areas at all times.  If you need an environment free from talking, cell phones, or any other noise sources, these are the floors for you!  Library staff walk through the area periodically to enforce quiet rules, but you can also report violations to the Security Desk at 410-455-2331 or Circulation Department staff at 410-455-2354.