The Problem

Traditional science and engineering graduate programs have historically given our students a world-class academic preparation, but have not given them significant training in how to apply that academic knowledge in large organizations that seek common goals across large work groups (such as in high-tech industrial settings).

In addition, the professional behaviors our students observe in the academic environment are often opposite to those that will make them successful in industry (where most students enter the job market).

Neither system of behaviors is wrong, as they are driven by different objectives. But students that know only academic behaviors are at a disadvantage entering their first job.

The table below illustrates this by listing several attributes of professional behaviors, and the differences between those behaviors in academic and industrial settings.

Practice	Industrial	Academic
Job goal alignment	Management defined to support group goals	Individual voluntary alignment to departmental efforts
Creative work	Balanced between management assigned tasks and self defined tasks	Self defined, with possible voluntary collaborations on large projects.
Work hours	Coordinated to optimize group performance	Self scheduled to meet personal goals and institutional assignments
Work location	Generally works at common location to support ad hoc problem solving	Independently set hours between home and campus to meet personal needs (and class/office hours).
Compensation system	Rewards group performance, then individual contribution	Rewards individual accomplishments, not departmental success
Problem solving	Collaboration is necessary for success and is strongly coordinated across groups	Collaborations are theme based voluntary coordination of individual research projects

 

Industrial Work Group Structure

The Solution

Teach and demonstrate the professional behaviors that will make a graduate of these programs more successful in their early career.

At the same time, do not abandon any of the techniques currently used for the academic transfer of content knowledge in the degree.

The model used was developed beginning in 1998 by the interdisciplinary microelectronics-photonics graduate program, and is called the Cohort Method (see http://www.uark.edu/depts/microep).

In this simple but profound approach to graduate education, students entering school from June 1 through May 31 of the following year are grouped into a Cohort. This Cohort operates in a fashion modeled after industrial technology groups, with every student agreeing to take responsibility for the academic success of every student in the Cohort.

Retain Traditional Departmental Academics	+	Supplement with Proven microEP Elements
Technical Knowledge Core classes in undergrad dept Most electives in department Few other technical electives		Technical Knowledge Device definition and creation Ethics for Scientists and Engineers Proposal writing and management
Research Methods Slow student initiated linkage to research professor Professor's group meetings		Research Methods Design of experiments class during summer Quick assignment to research prof Formal research project plan
Team Skills Project teams in classes		Team Skills Pseudo-industry technology group Weekly research management seminars
Invention and Innovation Individual mentoring within research group		Invention and Innovation Summer inventiveness workshops Personality and learning methods mapping Into summer camp for all Physics graduate students
Results In
Sound Technical Graduate Degree		Broadened technical knowledge Rapid acclimation to first job Early leadership roles Earlier significant personal success

Expand Academic Emphasis

Tactic 1 ­ Academic Rigor of Graduate Program

Creating new approaches to address current program shortcomings does not mean discarding past successful techniques. Instead, it means that the strengths of our traditional graduate education in both coursework and research must be embraced rather than abandoned.

The Cohort Method’s success depends on the melding of the graduate academic preparation (sought after by students from all over the world) with a new form of human resource skills training that is well suited for the academic environment.

Tactic 2 ­ New Courses

PHYS Advanced Device Design (3 hours, fall)
PHYS Advanced Device Prototype and Characterization (3 hours, spring)
PHYS Research Management (1 hour, fall and spring)
MEPH Proposal Writing and Management (1 hour, 12 week summer)
MEPH Ethics for Scientists and Engineers (1 hour, 12 week summer)
MEPH Nanotechnology I ­ Materials (3 hours, fall, Chemistry)
MEPH Nanotechnology II ­ Devices (3 hours, spring, Physics)
MEPH Nanotechnology III ­ Nanomanufacturing (3 hours, fall, Mech Eng)

 

Tactic 3 ­ Summer Camp

Two day creativity camp the week before fall semester. One hour competitive exercises with reshuffled team members each exercise. Designed to unleash innovation and to force students to learn each other well enough to trust each other.

Tactic 4 ­ Research Management Seminars

Students in each Cohort attend research management weekly seminars during the fall and spring semesters to address five issues:

1. The instruction and practice in communication and presentation skills
2. The theory and practice of management of the human organizations in high-technology based work places (using The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation by Ralph Katz)
3. The comparison of organizational behaviors between academia and industry, with the strongest focus on academic organizations
4. The concept that the more educated a scientist, the higher the obligation to lead the community as a citizen-scientist
5. The need for routine discussion of items of common interest in order to develop the natural work group community of the Cohort

Ensure Continuing Success

Tactic 5 ­ Matrix Management

Students report to their major (research) professor in a traditional standing organization. They also report to their Cohort leader in a dotted-line capacity similar to ad-hoc problem solving teams in large organizations.