Taking Collective Responsibility
University of Washington, Computer Science & Engineering
Aruna Balasubramanian, new faculty at Stony Brook, networking
Gaetano Borriello, faculty, computing for development (ICTD)
Ed Lazowska, faculty, systems and eScience
Ben Ransford, post-doc, sensor systems
Simon Peter, post-doc, systems and networking
Dan Ports, post-doc, distributed systems and languages
Sudeepa Roy, post-doc, databases
Major trends for CSE post-docs
 More post-doc positions
 UW had 2 in 2003, now we are at 27
 growth in dept including 50% more ugrads pales in comparison
 More competitive hiring
 More graduating grads feel a need for a “finishing school”
 Increase visibility within appropriate research community
 Begin to assert more independence in choice of research topics
 Inconsistency in experiences
 Post-docs often viewed as “super-grad” or “staff who write papers”
 Rarely is there collective department responsibility, left to PI
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
2
Our proposal
 Visibility
 Increase visibility with department faculty
 Seminars, discussion of exiting post-docs, exposure to other students,
networking among post-docs
 Independence
 Support fast-tracked REU-like proposals for funding undergrads to work
with post-doc on topics independent of PI
 Workshops on grant writing, publication process/tradeoffs, advising, etc.
 Department investment
 Faculty post-doc coordinator and ombudsman
 Treating post-docs as department products just as grads are – web
pages, job placement, advertising achievements
 Periodic progress check towards goals set out initially in post-doc plan
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
3
Our proposal (cont’d)
 Experimental design and evaluation
 Recruit a set of universities to implement UW policies
 Measure differences against control group w/ no intervention
 National coordination role
 Disseminate practices
 Checklist for post-docs and mentors
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
4
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
5
First steps
 Survey of chairs of Taulbee departments
 Implement department practices for post-docs at UW
 REU-like small grants for independent research
 Checklist for post-doc process
 Decide on metrics and start collecting data (logic model)
 Hire 50% professional staff to manage project (David Rispoli)
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
6
Thank you!
 Gaetano Borriello, gaetano@cse.uw.edu
 David Rispoli, rispoli@cse.uw.edu
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
7
Notes
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
8
Notes
 Chang – NYC Ascent
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Columbia, Cornell Tech, CUNY, NYU-Poly
1300 tech companies, growing ecosystem
38 total post-docs: Columbia 14, Cornell 13, Poly 7, CUNY 4
388 PhD students
Annual career symposium
IDP (UCSF-FASEB), USC form, as part of a post-doc orientation?
Post-doc leadership certificate program
How to involve NYU-Abu Dhabi and Cornell-Ithaca
Tracking their job outcomes – and later in career
Industry post-docs? – MSR, Google for us at UW
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
9
Notes
 ASU
 Multi-level support for post-docs: PI, dep’t, college, univ.\
 ASU, UA, NAU + Science Foundation Arizona
 CSE post-docs in other depts: BMI, EE, Biodesign
 Most post-docs are foreign-born
 4 REU grants
 CSE Post-doc academy
 Synthesis center – post-doc space, career devel skills
 Several social events already
 Looking for coordinator – almost an offer
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
10
Snowbird Panel - Sproull
 90 minutes (1 of n parallel sessions)
 Sproull summarizes the problem (white paper)
 Jane summarizes CIFellows evaluation
 Three programs – 10 minutes each – salient features, what is
underway, web site, contacts
 Brent talks about industry post-doc
 50 minutes – then the rest q/a
 Slides in advance so they can be merged into one package
Post-doc Best Practices Meeting
23 May 2014
11