Faculty event aims to increase inter-departmental communication

By Josh Holderbaum

Western Herald
As students start to make new friends this semester, one office on campus encourages faculty to do the same.

The Office for the Vice President of Research hosted “Research & Desserts,” an open house aimed at fostering interdisciplinary networking on Jan. 22 in the Fetzer Center.

The Faculty Senate Research Policies Council sees the lack of departmental communication as one of the biggest problems in research, said Paula Kohler, Ph.D., assistant vice president for research.

“The Research Policies Council identified obstacles to research from the faculty’s point of view, and the biggest thing is being connected, seeing what’s going on,” Kohler said.

“If you’re in engineering, you want to know what’s going on that relates to your area.”

Kohler said she estimated more than 70 faculty members attended.

Attendees could sign up for discussion tables ranging from ethics in research to sustainable energy and early childhood education, each with a volunteer facilitator.

Several ad-hoc tables were also set up for impromptu discussions.

Kohler hopes to have a repeat of the event in the future.

“We’re hoping to do this again,” Kohler said. “We’ll probably see more volunteers to facilitate discussions, because some people probably said, ‘well, I’ll see how it goes’ before coming here.”

Different faculty resources were also on-hand, including the Graduate College, Statistical Consulting Center and several Office of the Vice President for Research tables, including research compliance and technology transfer and communications.

Scott Garrison, associate dean for public services and technology, manned the University Libraries table.

“We’ve gotten questions ranging like, ‘I know I can borrow books and articles between different libraries, but what about audio and video files?’” Garrison said. “Or we get stuff like, ‘the journal I use the most I can’t find anymore. Where can I get the same volumes?’”

Garrison also encouraged faculty to use the Power Search feature on the libraries’ Web site, which includes over 40,000 journals, books, music and video files.

“We really want to get the word out about it,” Garrison said. “We’re excited about it.”

Booths also showcased technology from the Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics and the Center of Excellence for Advanced Smart Sensors and Structures.

The sensors, small enough to fit in handheld devices or implanted in clothing, can sense pollutants and explosive devices.

“The technology is moving fast,” said Binu Baby Narakathu, student employee at the Center of Excellence for Advanced Smart Sensors and Structures. “They may be out in one to two years. It’s coming out soon.”

David Richter, an assistant professor in the department of mathematics,  attended the event and thought highly of effort.

“I sometimes lament that we don’t have more college meetings,” Richter said. “I worked at two colleges before coming here, and they had both college meetings and university meetings, mainly because they were small colleges. It’s a great idea to have people chat.”

Michigan needs these sorts of discussions, Richter said.

“Michigan has a problem,” Richter said. “It’s in a tough spot. I believe in academics, and it’s worth promoting education and research here.”

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Posted by heraldstaff on Jan 24 2010. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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