Conference Attendance SIGCSE 2015 - Day 1 Morning

It is colder here in Kansas City.  Fortunately, I will only be outside briefly.  Most often I will be networking and continuing my efforts to both become a better teacher, as well as finding an academic job teaching.

This morning, I am focusing on the "Curriculum" track.  I am excited by the three papers in this track, the first looks at research, the second is on systems courses, and the last on parallel computing courses.  Alas, I was in the hallway track and missed the first work.  Perhaps I can find the authors later.

Backward Design: An Integrated Approach to a Systems Curriculum
The goal of systems is "higher level software creation".  Computer Science courses are split into Core Tier 1 and Tier 2 (a term from the ACM 2013 curriculum), where the former are taken by all CS majors and the later are only taken by most or some.  One issue in the old curriculum was that OS also taught C.  In crafting a new curriculum, first establish a vision statement, which can be used in conflict resolution (and also revised).  Establish SMART objectives to prepare and build the assessments.  The results can be found on github.

A Module-based Approach to Adopting the 2013 ACM Curricular Recommendations on Parallel Computing
Parallel computing is important and important for CS graduates to know.  The 2013 ACM Curriculum increased the number of hours that students should take in parallel computing.  Part of the recommendations are to place parallel computing into the curriculum and not just as a course.  Thus parallelism modules are placed throughout the curriculum (perhaps as early as CS1 or CS2).  Find the level of abstraction for a concept and introduce it appropriately.  For example, Amdahl's Law in CS1 versus cache coherence in senior-level class.  5 modules of parallelism were established, which have equivalences with the ACM.  Each course in the curriculum may have 1 or more modules, which then teaches and reinforces the topics.  Even after adding these modules, there has continued to be incremental development and revisions, which have improved student outcomes.  The key take away is that it is possible to introduce these recommendations without completely rewriting the curriculum.

In the afternoon, I will be standing with my poster -  Using Active Learning Techniques in Mixed Undergraduate / Graduate Courses.  Later I will post updates from my afternoon.

Liberal Arts College Positions Mini-Seminar

In continuing my search and preparation for a faculty position, today I attended a mini-seminar by LADO faculty.  (LADO - liberal arts colleges with diversity officers)  Here are some points that were raised during the breakout and panel discussions:

Teaching:
- You will teach both upper-level courses, as well as "service" courses.  Service is a good term to describe the low-level / introductory courses, as the faculty are rotating through this service to the department.
- Try to setup the teaching schedule so that 1 day is free solely from research.
- Continue to revise courses so they are fresh and current, but also avoid constantly creating all new courses.
- Valuable to set aside "non-office hours" times, during which the door can be shut.
- Faculty will sit in on courses and additionally interview the students, as part of composing an evaluation of your teaching.

Research:
- Recruiting undergraduates earlier for research to have time to train them, so that they will later be able to contribute.
- You can still collaborate and have broad impact through research with faculty at other more research-focused institutions.
- Grant proposals can also be keyed "RUI" (research at undergraduate institutions)
- Regular funding for sabbatical leaves, first often after the renewal of the 3-year contract.  This leave is focused on research and may be held at R1 or other institutions.
- Startup package is present to cover the transition to grant-based funding.
- Research lab costs are significantly lower at these institutions, as funds are not required for grad students, post docs, etc.
- Schools are looking for faculty hires that add diversity to the research available.

Service:
- Service is a component, but is much smaller than teaching and scholarship.  So be cautious about accepting invitations to committees, in terms of time commitment.  The service time can provide valuable insight to the functioning of the institution, as well as possible collaboration with collegues in other departments.
- You will be chair of your department someday.

Other:
- Many liberal arts institutions are located in small towns.
- Take the time to customize the cover letter.  Do you really want and care about this job?

Preparing for Academic Jobs

I went to a recent seminar about the preparation and practice of finding an academic job.  The following summarizes the answers given by the panelists, each of whom was giving his or her opinion.  The short version is that your letters of recommendation are key.  They are the summary of your skills and qualifications by your (future) peers.  The panelists are all research-oriented faculty, which may skew some of the opinions provided.  One quality resource on teaching jobs can be found here.

Most important things in a candidate:
- Publications (some in the right places)
- Letters (don't really lie)
- Fulfilling the needs of the department
- Put "top" school in middle of interview schedule, chance to work out mistakes but not be burned out
- Energized / excited about place
- In 1:1 with faculty, only discuss own research for half of time (~15min)
- Be formal (jacket, etc)
- Prep work with faculty letter writers (explain research, plans, etc)
- Ability to connect across areas (your own area will get you the interview, the other areas will get you the offer)
- Talent, passion, impact in research
- Have a set of questions for 1:1 time of "do you have any questions?"

Things to avoid:
- Wrong / bad job talk (did you target the right audience, and yet convey knowledge in subfield)
- Attitude (arrogance that job is yours, or desperation about finding a job)
- Two interviews in one week

Letters of Recommendations:
- Especially letters from externals
- Prepare a statement of contributions (what have you really done / achieved?)

Things to focus on:
- Take risks in your research
- Network and get your name out / aware of

Postdoc versus Second Tier:
- Find collaboration and mentoring in a postdoctoral position
- It depends

Non-Research:
- Still except some quality research
- Your research talk is a demonstration of teaching

Deciding on schools to apply:
- Location
- Areas of Focus

Packages:
- Find packages from previous applicants