Students, WEEF will be releasing the requirements for submitting a paper to participate in this conference. Make sure you check our main PROMISE website for a follow-up post regarding what is needed.

Below is a portion of a published statement by the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES):

“IFEES has selected a bid from the Education Promotion Society of India (EPSI, represented by N Sambandam), the Indo-Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE, represented by Krishna Vedula) and the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) to host the 2019 World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF) in Chennai (India). WEEF 2019 is scheduled to be held between November 11 and 17, 2019. The tentative theme is Transforming Engineering Education through Disruptive Technologies in the Industry 4.0 Era.”

This Dissertation House is hosted by the Graduate School at UMBC for UMBC students only.

Dates: Tuesday, January 22 to Friday, January 25, 2019.

Location: UMBC, Commons Building, Room 329.

Time: 9 am – 5 pm (each day).

Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedures on the application webpage for the Dissertation House (below). The application period closes on Monday, January 07, 2019. (Please note that there are only 12 to 15 slots for this event, consider applying early). Applications received after January 07, 2019, will be considered for the DH waiting list.

Registration: Please log into myUMBC: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/66182, click “Going” at the bottom, *AND* follow the application procedures on the main website for the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/. The application period to attend the Dissertation House closes on Monday, January 07, 2019.

Event Details: 

• The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5 PM, for four days, Tuesday, January 22, 2019, through Friday, January 25, 2019.
• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• The daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 12 to 15 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.

Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12. (PDF). More information about the DissertationHouse: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

Dissertation House Application Procedures

Both the on-campus setting and the retreat setting provide Dissertation House participants with productive and rewarding scholastic engagement.  Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations.  Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them from completing their degrees.

The Dissertation House period can span either a Tuesday – Friday (9 a.m. – 5 p.m., non-residential) or a Friday – Sunday weekend (includes evening sessions) commitment to focus on the doctoral dissertation.  The Dissertation House activities focus on areas where students typically have difficulty: conceptualizing a topic, writing a literature review, transitioning from a proposal to a dissertation, analyzing data, writing the last chapter, and editing.

Students may apply to attend the next Dissertation House during open application enrollment, by submitting two parts of an application.

PART I:

I. Submit a brief description (maximum of 2 pages, font size 11-12 point 1-inch margins) that describes the project that you wish to accomplish during the Dissertation House period.  Applications will neither be reviewed nor accepted outside of the application enrollment period.

PART II:

II. Please use the following guidelines  for the application:

(1) Summary of the project, including research question(s), data or texts, and method

(2) Amount completed on the project to date

(3) Any obstacles that you are encountering that hinder completion of the dissertation.

(4) Include the following header information with the description:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone numbers (home, office, and fax)
• E-mail address
• Academic Program and Year in the program

Dates/Location: January 22 to 25 (Tuesday – Friday), 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Dissertation House will be held in COMM 329 (for Dissertation House) and COMM 328 (for one-on-one sessions).

Application Enrollment Period: Application can be submitted within a designated 2-week period, usually scheduled 1-2 months prior to the next Dissertation House session.  Email applications to promisestaff@gmail.com.  Please use the words “Dissertation House” in the subject line of your email.

Selection Process: Eighteen participants will be selected for participation in the Dissertation House.  The following applicants will have priority:  (1) Applicants who plan to finish the Ph.D. within the next 6 months; (2) Individuals who are working on dissertations and theses rather than a proposal; (3) Applicants who submit earliest; and (4) Individuals who appear most able to benefit from the services offered at the Dissertation House.

If your application is accepted, you will receive an acceptance notice via email and additional details about the Dissertation House.  All students, including those who have not applied or those who are not selected, have the option to participate in the next online challenge, a virtual version of the Dissertation House.

Attention Students:

The Secretary of Education proposes to amend regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX).  The proposed regulations would clarify and modify:

1. Title IX regulatory requirements pertaining to the availability of remedies for violations
2. The effect of Constitutional protections
3. The designation of a coordinator to address sex discrimination issues
4. The dissemination of a nondiscrimination policy
5. The adoption of grievance procedures
6. The process to claim a religious exemption

The proposed regulations would also specify how recipient institutions that are covered by Title IX must respond to incidents of sexual harassment consistent with Title IX's prohibition against sex discrimination.

Did you know that there are new PROMISE programs that will focus on faculty diversity in engineering and the biomedical sciences? The PROMISE Academy was funded in October 2018 and bears the official title:

The AGEP Alliance State System Model to Transform the Hiring Practices and Career Success of Tenure Track Historically Underrepresented Minority Faculty in Biomedical Sciences

The PROMISE Engineering Institute is funded by NSF’s Engineering Division, and focuses on preparing diverse engineering graduate students and postdocs for the professoriate, and exploring ways to support the professional development of early-career engineering faculty.

A new landing page has been developed to capture the University System of Maryland’s NSF-funding pipeline professional development programs, based on our #ThinkBigDiversity hashtag: https://thinkbigdiversity.com/

You are invited to attend on November 8, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM a writing for publication seminar hosted by the Graduate Student Association (GSA) and PROMISE.

Place: Meyerhoff Building, Room 120

Agenda:

4:00 – 4:30   Registration & Dinner Service

4:30 – 4:40   Welcome

4:40 – 5:30   Panel presentation

5:30 – 6:00   Panel Q&A

The following are topics that will be covered as part of our seminar and discussion:

Please RSVP at the following link: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/65426

Some students who have been advising the administration, on repairs to lighting around the campus, here is an update from Chief of Staff.
The attachment below illustrates what is being done.

See the attached document for the update.