Free ticketed event
During this workshop, participants will learn strategies for implementing major changes in their departments, teams, and other groups. We will highlight some of the revolutionizing changes realized by our NSF RED project and then we will lead attendees to explore how what we learned might be adapted to their own institutional contexts.
The key takeaways of this workshop that may be easily implementable by other programs include the following:
1. Shared Vision: Attendees will learn how to work together to update the department mission and how to sustain the shared vision through “Teaming” exercises.
2. Reflective Faculty: Attendees will learn to put care for students in the forefront of their department’s goals through myriad actions such as DEI training, using advising checklist, adding supportive syllabus statements, and engaging practicing engineers in professional and technical mentoring.
3. Curriculum: Attendees will learn how to include all faculty and how to use students’ voices to minimize conflict and reach consensus when revising a curriculum.
4. Policy: Attendees will learn how to use annual performance reviews and tenure & promotion to recognize the hidden work (caring for students, innovative pedagogy, service to department, etc.)
Culture change does not need to be more work, but it may be different, more fulfilling work, more inspiring work. It is our hope that this workshop will provide a few sparks that ignite the culture change of academia.
Teodora Rutar Shuman is a Professor and Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Seattle University. She is the PI on the NSF RED grant titled “IUSE/PFE:RED: Revolutionizing Engineering Education through Industry Immersion and a Focus on Identity.” Her research also includes NOx formation in lean-premixed combustion and electro-mechanical systems for sustainable processing of microalgae. Her work is published in venues including the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, International Journal of Engineering Education, Transactions of ASME, Chemical Engineering Journal, Bioresource Technology, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, and Combustion and Flame. She is a member of the ASEE, ASME, and the Algae Biomass Organization. Dr. Shuman served as chair of the ASEE Energy Conversion and Conservation Division.
She received a Dipl. Ing. degree in mechanical engineering from Belgrade University, and an M.S.M.E. and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She has held the title of Paccar Professor and is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington.