2009 USFOE Breakout Sessions
On the first afternoon of the meeting we have scheduled some time for an activity that will facilitate networking among attendees since creating opportunities for interaction is such an important component of the Frontiers of Engineering meetings.
Thursday Breakout Session
Everyone will be assigned to a small group of 12-13 members, with organizers serving as chairs of the sessions. We ask that you provide a slide, which describes or captures the essence of the research or technical work you do, by Friday, August 14. It could be text, e.g., bullet points or a paragraph, or it could be a picture or figure (chart or graph). You are encouraged to be creative. These PPTs will be made available to all attendees.
Session organizers will chair the groups. Each member of the group will get three minutes - one minute to describe the slide and two minutes to answer follow-up questions. Once everyone has had time to present (approximately 45 minutes), the remainder of the time will be opened up for discussion.
Group assignments will be made at the symposium.
Submit your slide.
Friday Breakout Session
Friday’s afternoon session will provide for more informal discussion with groupings by research interests and fields. We plan to have “salons” based on the following groupings: Materials, Energy/Environment, SystemsBio/Nano, Information/Communication, Product/Process Development, and Simulation/Modeling.
Previous attendees have expressed an interest in having time set aside where it is easier to identify others in a particular field. We expect this to be quite fluid with movement among different groups, if desired; therefore, you do not need to sign up in advance. We hope that this will provide sufficient opportunity for interaction with those in related fields while still encouraging interdisciplinary interactions.
Additional rooms will be set aside for discussion on issues pertaining to policy and education. These groups will be led by members of the organizing committee:
1. Screening of movie, Liquid Assets, with discussion
2. Discussion group: Transforming graduate education
3. Discussion group: International engineering education exchange programs
Finally, five rooms have been set aside for ad hoc groups that may self-identify during the first 1-1/2 days of the meeting and wish to gather to discuss a particular topic. Some possibilities: What are the National Academies? What is the stimulus package all about? Lessons learned with landing research grants. The philosophy of industrial research in this day and age. How do academics assess the state of incoming engineering students and if they leave, why? What is new in the tenure race? To claim a room, you must propose a topic (does not have to be one of the above) by starting a sign-up sheet at the registration table, and have others sign up for it as well.