Research Group Dynamics
Lately, I’ve been wondering about my research group and if I’m bringing the right people on board in the right order. It’s not that I have specific doubts about a person or anything to directly point at. Rather, I think everyone in the research group should operate, well, like a well-meshed gear set (pun intended, [photo credit]). Mentally, this makes perfect sense to me. I just wonder if I’m suffering from delusions of grandeur and they’re going to mix like oil and water once we get past the initial phase. I’m currently up to 5 students with sufficient overlap on projects to ensure they have a reason to work together and I have reiterated it in almost every group meeting. My students seem to want to work together and are open/friendly with one another, so that is a very good sign. But more importantly, what are the key mechanics of running a…
Zero is never a good number
These past few weeks have been insanely busy for me. I alluded to this two weeks ago with my post on how blogging is hard. Obviously, it’s not too hard and you certainly don’t need any credentials to do it (otherwise I’d be screwed) but it is time consuming. And right now, time is one form of currency that I am severely lacking. I managed another proposal submission, which should be my last one for a few months. In addition to that, I was lacking in my classroom preparation and it certainly showed. Plus, I’ve started to take delivery of my equipment for my lab which is very cool but another thing to coordinate. Also, my group is a little bit bigger (one PhD student, one MS student, and now one undergrad). On top of all of that, I’ve had the obligatory “new faculty” events to attend, which is an…
Blogging is hard…
…when you have a lot of other stuff to do. It’s not that blogging is difficult, although I think I’m running low on relevant topics. Rather, it’s more of a time crunch that’s killing me. I started blogging last February over at GEARS (not that I’m trying to self promote…) thinking that 30 minutes per day writing about some of my experiences with the tenure track process will be good for me. I’ll be able to clear my head, vent occasionally, maybe get good advice from more senior readers, and possible help someone else that’s in my shoes. Plus, blogging makes me keep up with other bloggers. I particularly like following Dr. Becca (@doc_becca, Fumbling Towards Tenure Track Tenure) even though she’s a scientist because we’re both at the same stage in the game. When she posted about being paraded around like a new puppy, I totally understand what it means to go…
The Economics of Academia (Part 2)
Last week, I started to respond to a reader’s question: Why, with the high cost of university tuition, can’t schools have teach-only professors? With a ratio of 20:1 in the classroom and a rate of 100/hour (roughly), why do professors still need to get research dollars? Is it economically feasible to have teaching-only professors? Why doesn’t this happen more? Why do universities have to rely on research funding to stay afloat? We were talking about the demands on researchers and how that prevents better teaching (because so much time is involved chasing funding) and were questioning why not just give up the research side of things? In Part 1, I answered the questions from the perspective of a community college and my estimated numbers simply did not add up to make this feasible. Cherish jumped in to the foray, essentially saying that research and teaching go hand-in-hand. I commented on how…
Why Research?
A couple days ago, GEARS decided to tackle the following set of questions: Why, with the high cost of university tuition, can’t schools have teach-only professors? With a ratio of 20:1 in the classroom and a rate of 100/hour (roughly), why do professors still need to get research dollars? Is it economically feasible to have teaching-only professors? Why doesn’t this happen more? Why do universities have to rely on research funding to stay afloat? We were talking about the demands on researchers and how that prevents better teaching (because so much time is involved chasing funding) and were questioning why not just give up the research side of things? There are a lot of ways to tackle these questions, but I’d like to make a few different points. (I’d also like to mention that GEARS discussed the teaching school alternatives, so I don’t plan on hitting that point again.) The…
The Economics of Academia (Part 1)
A question was posed my way on the economics of academia. The question(s) asked are as follows: Why, with the high cost of university tuition, can’t schools have teach-only professors? With a ratio of 20:1 in the classroom and a rate of 100/hour (roughly), why do professors still need to get research dollars? Is it economically feasible to have teaching-only professors? Why doesn’t this happen more? Why do universities have to rely on research funding to stay afloat? We were talking about the demands on researchers and how that prevents better teaching (because so much time is involved chasing funding) and were questioning why not just give up the research side of things? Wow, that’s a loaded set of questions. There is, actually, an easy answer to this. In short, we have institutes that do specialize in teaching. Community colleges and technical colleges specialize in teaching rather than research. If…
Warping young minds
I got a call last week from the electrical engineering department on campus asking if I would teach a class this semester. The class has the potential to be one of the most important classes that they will encounter in school. No, it’s not circuits 1. It’s University Studies. You see, our university requires every freshman to take a class to orient them to living life at a university. My sister went back to school when I started my master’s degree, and she complained to me over and over about how irrelevant the class is. There was a section on, for instance, talking to your roommate about making living arrangements. At this point, she’d moved out of my parents’ house and been living with someone for 12 years! The custom in electrical engineering has been to try to use this class for something better: what specifically do you need to…
T-minus 1 month and counting
Lately, I’ve been discussing a lot about proposals (see here and here) and some work outside of academia but I’ve only briefly touched on the some of the other aspects of being a professor. Presently, I’m finishing up a young investigator proposal which is due shortly and consuming most of my time (hence my lack of posts at GEARS). Well, the fall semester starts at the end of August so as soon as I’m done with this proposal, I’ll have to focus more on teaching preparation. Luckily, at SnowU, I only have to teach one class in the fall and one in the spring. Unluckily, however, my first class will be a senior comprehensive lab-project course. In addition to a class full of seniors, there are usually about 10 graduate students who take it who did not go through UG at SnowU. Now, many new profs negotiate to have their first semester off from…
The Daily Grind
Chris Gammell and I were chatting the other day (well, five minutes ago) about the hours that a professor works. And in that discussion, I was reminded of a post by GMP a few months ago, basically describing how no one cares about your work life balance. Now, I’ll pause for a minute for you to read her post. … Pause for effect… … Ok, so first I’ll hit the hours question and then tie in my little figure in above. The hours that I’ve worked so far haven’t been crazy. That’s probably because it is the middle of the summer and because I’m only supervising one student. My daily schedule is roughly: up at 5:45 am, leave house at 7:15-7:30 (Myself, DrWife, and NanoGEARS), get on campus ~8, work until 5, NanoGEARS in bed by 7, sleep sometime between 10 and 11. Most days, I drop NanoGEARS off and…
Academic Breakdown: The other stuff
Ok, so I was lazy and just cropped my figure from last week’s entry, so sue me. Anyway, last week, I discussed a general breakdown of academic activities for faculty members, focusing mainly on research. Without reliving old glories, quality research at a top university doesn’t happen without money. A reasonable number to think of when you’re considering funding a project, it costs roughly $120k/year/student and that’s with minimal equipment. But finding research money isn’t the only part of it. A good prof has to find money, effectively mentor his/her students, write highly relevant papers, and still teach and perform academic service at their university and to the community at-large. Once again, we’re back to generically looking at the time breakdown: research = 50%, teaching = 30%, service = 20%. Towards the end of semesters or exam weeks, teaching will dominate. When it’s time for committee work or conference organization/reviewing,…