1、CSS:10mar05,Slide 1,Being a University Professor Skip Poehlman Associate Professor Computing & Software Department McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario Cayuga Secondary School, Cayuga, Ontario March 10, 2005,CSS:10mar05,Slide 2,What does a Prof do?,Three main things -,CSS:10mar05,Slide 3,Teaching D
2、uties for me (this year),Specifically, I lecture in two courses per term Term I Design of Visual Programming Environments To level III students in B.Sc.(CS) and B.Eng.(SE) programme Distributed Networking Systems To Level IV students in B.Sc.(CS) Term II Design of Computer Human Interfaces To level
3、IV students in B.Eng.(SE) programme Knowledge-Based Problem Solving To graduate students in Masters and Ph.D. programmes in CS and SE.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 4,Teaching Duties Time Involvement 1,On average, each course takes about 3 hours per week of student contact (in class time) Generally, for every h
4、our of class contact, there are 3 hours of preparation Very few courses remain static in content every year, new material needs to be added or changed Some courses have 3 hour lab sessions Usually there are TAs (teaching assistants) who are graduate students that help with delivering the material to
5、 students,CSS:10mar05,Slide 5,Teaching Duties Time Involvement 2,The previous times assume the courses / labs / tutorials are already written. It requires about a 10:1 time effort to create a new course from scratch, so when you are a brand new professor, you are spending nearly ALL your time creati
6、ng new courses for the first years. How and what is presented is entirely in my hands subject to general content that must conform to the program (degree) curriculum.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 6,Teaching Duties Department Wide 1,Undergraduate Degrees offered: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Bachelor
7、 of Engineering in Software Engineering Undergraduate Programmes Take about 4 to 5 years to complete. Requires about 40 to 50 courses to take, overall. In CS, this means courses in programming (coding & languages), hardware parts(architecture), software parts (e.g. database, OS), interconnection (ne
8、ts & WWW) and mathematics (algorithms and data structures). May be done as CS major, or CS & Math or CS and Economics, etc.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 7,Teaching Duties Department Wide 2,Graduate (really post-graduate) Degrees offered (Masters Level): Master of Science in Computer Science Master of Applied S
9、cience in Software Engineering Master of Engineering in Software Engineering General comments at the Masters level Takes about 2 years to complete and 5-7 courses Must create and defend a Masters thesis based on research (more later about research) of some topic in CS (or SE).,CSS:10mar05,Slide 8,Te
10、aching Duties Department Wide 3,Graduate (really post-graduate) Degrees offered (Doctoral Level): Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering General comments at the Doctoral level Both take about 4 to 6 years to complete Require 4 courses be completed in an
11、 area of research Major effort necessary to finish and defend a thesis involving new studies (or research see later); sometimes this is called the dissertation.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 9,Administrative Duties - 1,Generally composed of being members of committees Committees are required at three levels wit
12、hin the University Departmental level Computing and Software, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc. Faculty level Science, Engineering, Social Sciences, Humanities, Business, etc. University level,CSS:10mar05,Slide 10,Administrative Duties - 2,Committee
13、 Examples Departmental Appointments hiring new profs. Promotion who gets moved up in career path Curriculum courses necessary and their contents Library what books, journals, magazines to acquire Faculty Planning where new efforts should go (new Dept.?) Curriculum mainly for common year I University
14、 Budget funding new facilities, salaries of staff Planning vision of future, buildings, roads, access, etc. Facilities operation, rules & regs., planning, budget(maybe),etc.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 11,My Administrative Duties,This year Department Curriculum Computing facilities, Chair Faculty Science comp
15、uting facilities University Nuclear Reactor Operational Control Committee,CSS:10mar05,Slide 12,Research Aspects - 1,How much effort, direction, and student numbers are solely under the control of the Prof to determine! This is like being self-employed BUT I still get a salary from the University! Pe
16、rformance of any persons research programme is determined by How many publications are written per year How many conferences are attended How many students are graduated,CSS:10mar05,Slide 13,Research Aspects - 2,So what does a Prof get for being GOOD at research? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, personally! Howe
17、ver, good researchers get grant money to perform more research and/or may work under corporate research contracts to create something a company needs for money. What good is the money, if the Prof cannot use it personally? Used to pay graduate students money to live ( from research & from TA duties)
18、 while doing research more money = more graduates Used to pay page charges to get publications printed in journals more graduates = more publications Used to pay for more computers, software, maintenance, supplies, etc. better facilities = attract better graduates so easier to publish more Moral of
19、the Story: PUBLISH OR PERISH!,CSS:10mar05,Slide 14,Research Aspects - 3,WORK, WORK, WORK! So why do I do this? I like helping students discover things (teaching is good) NOTE: profs do not need to go to teachers college. I like being part of creating learning strategies (administration of curriculum
20、, for instance, is good) I like investigating how things work and being able to follow ANY direction of discovery that suits me This is like having the fun of managing your own company and establishing directions of investigations and work BUT having your salary paid by someone else! (i.e. not tied
21、to the company and its success no bankruptcy possible) In other words, I can be as active in research as I like! Some profs have few students but travel the world to conferences Some profs have lots of students & large research labs to investigate things Some profs like to simply use a pencil and pa
22、per to do research in an office,CSS:10mar05,Slide 15,Comments about the Job - 1,How do you get here? After high school, go to University for four years to get a Bachelor degree B.Sc., B.Eng., B.A., etc. After graduating , go back to University for two years to get a Masters degree and then four more
23、 for a Doctor of Philosophy, OR do 5-6 years and get a Ph.D. directly Finally spend several years as a PDF = post doctoral fellow to try teaching and research together under an experienced prof. Look for a job at a University as a faculty member.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 16,Comments about the Job - 2,Caree
24、r Paths: Once a Prof, always a Prof? You can stay as a prof and do what I do OR You can be promoted to be a Department Chair (head) I have done this but was not happy about it. You can be promoted from there to be a Dean of a Faculty: e.g. Dean of Engineering, Dean of Science. You can be promoted to
25、 be Associate Dean (under the academic Dean above) which means focussing on students and their problems in getting a degree in the Faculty from any of the Departments therein.,CSS:10mar05,Slide 17,Comments about the Job - 3,Career paths continued If you are really good: you can be promoted to Vice-P
26、resident (Academic) which is really the top job in academia, others are VP (Administration) which runs the University as a business, VP(External Relations) which looks into research contracts, corporate relations, international funding agreements, etc. Generally President of the University is a poli
27、tical appointment; the position is used to get money (donations), lobby the government for more funds, etc. and not suitable for an academic prof.!,CSS:10mar05,Slide 18,CONCLUSION,Being a Prof is good IF EDUCATIONALLY You like teaching students from all over the world. ADMINISTRATIVELY You like bein
28、g part of an organizing team to help run an academic department and create operational structures within it. RESEARCHINGLY(sic) You like having your cake (research programme director) and eating it too (salaried by University) with respect to doing investigative research into how things work.,CSS:10
29、mar05,Slide 19,REFERENCES,This document is available on the WWW at http:/www.cas.mcmaster.ca/skip/css10mar05.ppt OR http:/www.cas.mcmaster.ca/skip/css10mar05.pdf My research group maintains a WWW site athttp:/www.acsg.mcmaster.ca/group/index.html My own web site is located at http:/www.cas.mcmaster.ca/skip/wfsp.htm AND thanks for the opportunity to talk to you!,
