BE Board:Visiting committee: Difference between revisions
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*Concerns used to revolve around common space - seminar room, student lounge etc. - We have outgrown our seminar space and the Stata works nicely in the interim, but perhaps the more pressing issue is lack of office space for first and second year students after they have joined labs and lack of bench space for large or rapidly expanding labs. | *Concerns used to revolve around common space - seminar room, student lounge etc. - We have outgrown our seminar space and the Stata works nicely in the interim, but perhaps the more pressing issue is lack of office space for first and second year students after they have joined labs and lack of bench space for large or rapidly expanding labs. | ||
*Can pressure be put on the MIT admin. to make building 56 and 16 even more homogeneously BE, or does it look like we'll stay scattered in 4or 5 different buildings for a long time to come? | *Can pressure be put on the MIT admin. to make building 56 and 16 even more homogeneously BE, or does it look like we'll stay scattered in 4or 5 different buildings for a long time to come? | ||
**At least one labs has actually left 56/16 in order to get adequate space. | |||
===Career Development (Nate, Jordan)=== | ===Career Development (Nate, Jordan)=== | ||
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*Industry connections - What happens nbow that formal centers like BPEC and BTP are going away? | *Industry connections - What happens nbow that formal centers like BPEC and BTP are going away? | ||
*Academic Career Workshops - Are students in BE well prepared to interview for top notch faculty positions? | *Academic Career Workshops - Are students in BE well prepared to interview for top notch faculty positions? | ||
**I think the fact that we get to particpate in this process for our own department helps; getting to meet faculty candidates and comment on them gives you a great insight into the process - [[Barry Canton|BC]] | |||
*BE Undergraduate Course Development Opportunities | *BE Undergraduate Course Development Opportunities | ||
*Where are current graduates working? (John Kisiday - faculty at Colorado State, Nora Szasz - start-up, Jon Fitzgerald - Merrimack, Jon Szafranski - Guidant, Laurel - industry, Ali K - HST faculty, Jenny Lee - Centacore, Csani Varga - Millenium, Dan Erickson - Sales/Consulting, Kevin Janes - post-doc/academic, others?) | *Where are current graduates working? (John Kisiday - faculty at Colorado State, Nora Szasz - start-up, Jon Fitzgerald - Merrimack, Jon Szafranski - Guidant, Laurel - industry, Ali K - HST faculty, Jenny Lee - Centacore, Csani Varga - Millenium, Dan Erickson - Sales/Consulting, Kevin Janes - post-doc/academic, others?) | ||
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***Majoring of students found it valuable (~4) | ***Majoring of students found it valuable (~4) | ||
***Suggestions to avoid increased or unequal responsibilities | ***Suggestions to avoid increased or unequal responsibilities | ||
****Get more information about the workload for each class (hours per week, student/TA ratio etc.) This doesn't seem to be done systematically right now. | |||
****Pay TA’s | ****Pay TA’s | ||
****Add graders | ****Add graders | ||
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*Other sources for formal mentoring: committee members, older students, recent graduates ? | *Other sources for formal mentoring: committee members, older students, recent graduates ? | ||
===Faculty Research Directions=== | ===Faculty Research Directions (Barry)=== | ||
A number of students have suggested research areas that are not currently pursued by the department. Of these, the two that are most frequently mentioned are neuroscience and the engineering of prokaryotes. Having said that, BCS covers neuroscience already so its not clear that BE needs to move in that direction. | |||
===Faculty/Student Interactions (Maxine)=== | ===Faculty/Student Interactions (Maxine)=== | ||
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*Increasing First-year study breaks | *Increasing First-year study breaks | ||
*New BE Diversity Initiatives | *New BE Diversity Initiatives | ||
==Discussion Summary== | |||
*Space – both lack of student common space and lack of proximity. | |||
*Size of department and relationship to the feeling of “intimacy” in the department – growth is acknowledged as a necessary evil with the undergraduate major, but proximity and space are strongly recommended before growth occurs. | |||
*Size/Growth concerns associated with TA requirements also discussed. So far, interest from students who want to pursue academia can fulfill needs – future concerns expressed… | |||
*Visiting committee asked how we were so successful at maintaining collegiality of department despite the lack of common space and proximity – response involved a combination of size, social activities, and core classes maintaining relationship most strongly within each year. | |||
*Visiting committee asked about social activities organized by students. | |||
*Concerns with post-doctorate academic opportunities especially considering the end of Whittaker and NIH funding expansions – some disagreement among visiting committee members about the expansion and growth rate of programs. | |||
*Industrial speaker contacts discussed – potential involvement of visiting committee and/or faculty | |||
*Question arose about working under a joint faculty member (as opposed to a primary faculty member) – general consensus was that the pros were that you got to interact with students of more varied backgrounds, cons may be the split administrative duties of the faculty and their familiarity with program requirements. | |||
*ABS/Bioeng track divide discussed as a non-issue now. | |||
</div> | </div> |
Latest revision as of 16:09, 27 April 2006
For current website see begradboard.mit.edu
Student opinionPeople
Topic AreasAdd, subtract as you see fit Curriculum (Sean)
Advisor Selection Process (Diana)
Facilities (Nate & Maxine)
Career Development (Nate, Jordan)
Undergraduate Major (Amy)
Thesis Mentoring (Diana, Danielle)
Faculty Research Directions (Barry)A number of students have suggested research areas that are not currently pursued by the department. Of these, the two that are most frequently mentioned are neuroscience and the engineering of prokaryotes. Having said that, BCS covers neuroscience already so its not clear that BE needs to move in that direction. Faculty/Student Interactions (Maxine)
ABS/Bioengineering (Paul, Bahar)
General BE Board Activity Updates (Diana, Barry)
Discussion Summary
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