The United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) will hold an Early Career Geotechnical Engineering Conference on 8 July 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts, in conjunction with NSF's Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) Engineering Research and Innovation Conference. This award is for the planning and facilitating this Early Career Geotechnical Engineering Conference which will be the first of its kind for the Geotechnical Engineering research community in several respects. First, the Conference is aimed at addressing issues of importance to early career faculty. Next, the Conference includes an explicit focus on facilitating research connections between participants. This Early Career Conference will provide an opportunity for early career geotechnical engineering faculty to learn of on-going research under the direction of other early career faculty, meet geotechnical engineering faculty at other institutions to facilitate collaborations, and learn of federal funding opportunities for their research.
This Early Career Conference seeks to enhance the diversity of participation by supporting early career faculty through stipends to attend the conference and to stay for the NSF CMMI conference. The Conference will also provide keynote speakers representative of the diversity in geotechnical engineering. By focusing on Early Career Faculty where the demographics are more diverse than later career faculty, the participants will be provided tools and guidance that will no doubt enhance their probability of success in Geotechnical Engineering.
The First US University’s Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) Geotechnical Engineering Conference for Early Career Faculty was held Sunday, July 8, 2012 in Boston MA. The primary purposes of the conference were: to facilitate connections between early career faculty members, provide a forum for a diverse group of faculty to present research findings, and to generate information on how the early career community of geotechnical engineering faculty can be best served. This conference was the first of it’s kind for the Geotechnical Engineering research community in several respects. First, it was aimed at addressing issues important to early career faculty. Second, it sought to enhance the diversity of participation by supporting early career faculty through travel stipends to attend the conference. Third, it included an explicit focus on facilitating research connections between participants. The following Project Outcomes report details the goals of the conference, organizational details including a schedule and conference outcomes. The writer of this report, Jeffrey C. Evans, is the current Chair of the USUCGER Board of Directors and was be responsible for organizing and chairing the conference. Goals of the conference Provide an opportunity for early career geotechnical engineering faculty to: Learn of on-going research under the direction of other early career faculty Meet geotechnical engineering faculty at other institutions to facilitate collaborations Provide keynote speakers representative of the diversity in geotechnical engineering Learn of federal funding opportunities for their research Piggy back projects: addendums Family friendly Relatively inexpensive to attend Conveniently located How to best serve the needs of junior faculty Suggestions for future meetings Role of USUCGER at future ASCE GI GeoCongresses Provide a conference environment that is: Provide a forum to develop ideas for long-term term strategic planning including: Organizing Committee An organizing committee was essentially comprised of some members of the USUCGER Board of Directors and the conference presenters including: Amy Cerato, Board member and presenter, University of Oklahoma Jeffrey Evans, Conference Chair, Bucknell University Richard Fragaszy, Presenter, National Science Foundation Edward Kavazanjiam, Board member, Arizona State University Chris Meehan, Board member, University of Delaware Priscilla Nelson, Presenter, New Jersey Institute of Technology Tong Qiu, Board member & conference secretary, The Pennsylvania State University Glenn Rix, Presenter, Georgia Institute of Technology Conference Program and Schedule The conference schedule was as follows: 9:00 Welcome: Jeffrey Evans, Bucknell University 9:15 Keynote #1: Richard Fragaszy, National Science Foundation (Mechanisms of Funding from NSF) 10:00 Keynote #2: Amy Cerato, University of Oklahoma (Proposals 101) 10:45 Networking Break and Early Career Research Poster Session #1 12:00 Luncheon and Keynote #3: Priscilla Nelson, New Jersey Institute of Technology (Broader Impacts) 1:15 Keynote #4: Glenn Rix, Georgia Tech (Collaborations) 2:00 Networking Break and Early Career Research Poster Session #2 3:30 Panel and Participant Discussion: (How can the research environment be improved for early career geotechnical faculty? Conference Chair and Keynotes on Panel) 5:00 Conference adjourns The conference program included Keynote speakers, poster sessions and participant/panel discussion. The conference, while organized on behalf of early participants, attracted geotechnical engineering researchers in mid to late career as well. Thus, the total conference participation was fifty. Project Outcomes The conference was very successful in providing an opportunity for early career geotechnical engineering faculty to learn of on-going research under the direction of other early career faculty, to meet geotechnical engineering faculty at other institutions to facilitate collaborations and in providing keynote speakers representative of the diversity in geotechnical engineering from which participants could learn of federal funding opportunities for their research and of strategies for successful proposal presentations. The discussion generated some information on how USUCGER and NSF can best serve the needs of early career faculty. Suggestions included: Organize a mentorship program where mentors from other institutions might assist early career faculty; such a program already exists for female faculty (http://geowiki.ce.gatech.edu/index.php/Women_Geotechs). Another conference similar to this one. A formal way to connect early career faculty (such as was done at this conference) More guidance on successful integration of teaching and research More guidance on successful proposal writing Based upon discussion during the conference and feedback from participants after the conference, it is clear the format and content was very effective for the attendees. There is a clear desire for another similar conference that might feature different perspectives and topics of interest to early career geotechnical faculty. Respectfully submitted, Jeffrey C Evans, Ph.D., P.E. Conference Chair and USUCGER Board President
