Head's Notes on the Retreat
2005 Retreat --> here
Hiring
Existing plan
- re-evaluate Spring 06 (after current round) - extra slots by named chairs - Oser- convert faculty slots into infrastructure?
Non-european & female representation
- select specific candidates and look for special university support? - Is it important or not? (diverse views) - Chris Hearty- would help recruiting grad students. - Ingrid- would help to have a mechanism that specifically encourages extra special efforts go into recruiting faculty candidates. - Vesna- encourage UG females to go into grad school would be useful. - Fact is that the number of female applicants is relatively low. - Get more female to act as role models at 1st year level? - Josh- need to change the rules to attract more females. - Carl- could adopt a leadership role and take advantage of "the pool of reluctance". - Could look at other departments (even at UBC) to see if anyone is doing anything special/good in this regard. - SEEMED TO BE PRETTY GENERAL AGREEMENT THAT IT WOULD BE VERY POSITIVE IF WE ATTRACTED MORE APPLICATIONS FROM OUTSTANDING FEMALES.
Slots for instructors
- possibly get new slots based on u/g initiatives - Bill: has problems with instructors ... UBC doesn’t want to be a community college. Want research active faculty involved in teaching. - Josh- not ALL courses have to be taught by researchers? - Tom agrees with Bill ... want to minimize instructors. - Andrea: an alternative would be RA-level researchers with independent research programs, but who also teach (AMPEL- Mario, Nik, etc.)
Graduate Program
Admission policies
- relative weight of academic versus research experience
- could request a supplemental CV to get more info.
- Distribute information about applicants online (or provide a summary of applicants), as early as possible (password protected). Preferably it should be submitted as much as possible online.
- Continuing student versus outside applicants? Knowlegible letters from faculty members should be given strong weight (caveat against ingrown issue).
- Balance admissions from different fields: status quo is working.
- (point of fact: GRE is departmental requirement)
- Be more flexible with direct entry to PhD, really need GRE?
- Improve recruiting? – encourage early applications? (incentive could be providing Graduate Entrance Scholarship?) ... apparently we already do this to some extent
- Mark v.: target and encourage promising UGs (Canada especially).
- Go back to a special date to invite best looking students? Probably a good idea, but date should be chosen carefully.
- Make sure we get a UBC rep at the CUPC
- TRIUMF summer students from across Canada here…should pitch ourselves to them.
- Seems to be general acceptance of wanting to be more flexible.
Program requirements
- adopt FOGS 12-credit fast track to PhD, 12/12 500 level, plus supervisor approval
- Matt against it…somehow discriminatory
- 6 credits QM still required?
- Bill…ok only with comprehensive
- Ian…likes 18 credits
- No concensus
- More required courses? Currently Physics is 500-501 Astronomy is 500 and ASTR 530….more?
- Mark v. not increase number of required courses
- Require 2 or 3 of 4 or 5?
- Ian doesn’t think 501 should be required.
- Andre: likes 2 or 3 of 4 or 5 for flexibility
- Thesis-less MSc?
Comprehensive
- general agreement it should be worth at least 3 credits
- no agreement if written or oral
- should be as “synthetic” as possible
- Ian “introductory graduate level”, all 4 fields (QM, EM, SM, CM)
- Alex Weber: would prefer more field specific (depth in state-of-the art as opposed to breadth in basics). Bigger problem is synthesizing basics to solve modern problems, rather than just more of the basics
- Bill (other grad student): oral, research-specific committee meetings need to be kept
- Tom: focus on core physics/comprehensive dissuades students from taking interdisciplinary courses
- Required TA? ... yes, PhD only? How many?
- Finding supervisors: formalize by way of poster/information session...part of BBQ day? Something like ASTR or AMPEL jamboree (1 or 2 transparencies)?
- Andrea: new students rotate through 3 or 4 groups @ x months? Sort of like COOP terms
- Another possibility is each prof gives 20 minute talk, maybe 3 per session over first few weeks
Financial support
- provide some additional funds for MSc students (no specified mechanism)
- interdisciplinary students- need flexibility, case by case
Infrastructure & Quality of space
- renovate grad student office space
- grad lounge has disappeared (Matt put some responsibility on grad students for this situation)
Mark Halpern: Infrastructure
More support is needed everywhere, but
Administration
- admin area is qualitatively different than all the rest ... doesn’t work
- big project financial management
- mass mailings (references for instance)
- efficient grant
- logical solution is to get a $30M/yr organizational manager... how?
- management training for profs?
- Jess blames it all on UBC’s structure, bigger problem than just trying to solve within the dept.
Matt ... we are cronically underfunded for support ... only solution is more bodies!
Get more of the university’s 20% infrastructure support in the department? (note that much of this money is helping us, but does not flow through the deparment) AMPEL, Westgrid etc.
Computing
- need more support for clusters & research computing…absolutely
- could also make things more efficient by standardizing, or only providing support for certain platforms
- actual software support (web-based stuff, even research software)
Building
- clean slate, ideal scenario: "clean part of" AMPEL, PITP, Planetary Science, all classrooms, integrated shops, loading dock, tolerable sized office vibration-free etc.
- probably can see going through a clean slate planning exercise…how it integrates with reality, who knows?
Balance between faculty and staff
- if we can afford it, then no fundamental reason not to sacrifice staff
- online room reservations (Rm 318 and 309 even)
- get high-volume printing capability
Jaymie: Undergrad Stuff
Lab experience: discussed mostly 1st year service courses
- inquiry-based learning generally agreed upon
- a critical sense of the measurement process
- practical experience with instruments and computers
- generally doing a fairly good job, lots of innovation being introduced
- need more labs: 1 per week
- closer synchronization of labs and lectures/tutorials
- increase relevance of labs
- better physical space
- more support and training of TAs
- stable funding for demo room
- credit course for physics/astronomy education (required)
- Less formal TA training (give seminars, "how not to give a talk" etc.)
- Some places give some form of accreditation for TA experience
- Keep equip current
- More technicial support
- Field-specific lab sections to make as relevant as possible
- Shorten labs to 2.5 hours would allow 4 per day.
Curriculum
- should poll graduates for feedback
- need more exposure to scientific computing (2nd year physics-computing course, integrate it in core courses) Honours and majors
- combined honours and majors courses (Phys 301, some ASTR courses)…difficult to teach. Only real suggestion was fixed lectures, and then variable levels of project/additional information
- PHYS 301: (Fei) enrollment increasing constantly (now 75), and clear 2-hump distribution. PHYS 308: (Bill McCutcheon) nightmare
- Awareness of what is covered in other departments re: pre-requisites
- Look at cases where we have Eng Phys and Phys versions of courses, and make effectively “honours” and “majors”, and mix Eng Phys and Phys students between them
Research experience for UGs
- definitely need to address this, how?
- Get 5 minute research talks injected in UG courses, even/especially 1st year?
- Improve displays (main lobby) [donor?] Hebb?
- Phys 209 now getting some research-based modules (Andre)
- ASTR 304…research topics in astrophysics (multiple instructors)
- Introduce similar course for physics
- Some system for getting eager ugs into lab (match them systematically) related to the student-driven UG research experience? Not necessarily a great use of time.
External (Tom)
Goals
Raise external profile (grant success)
Attract better applicants (students, faculty etc.)
How?
- set up an external advisory committee
- needs to have a well-defined mandate that members feel they can really contribute to
- support-guidance on new initiatives!
- Dept. website ... on-going effort required ... simplify!
- Get a webmaster
- Promote accomplishments widely ... press releases etc.
- Would require developing more comprehensive/polished items to send out
- Exchange programs, visitors (long term relationships…investment)
- Eg Wurzburg, Korean exchange of Gordon and Matt
- Encourage sabbatical visitors (topup $$, advertise!?)
- Try and establish links with China (institute support, student exchanges, interview grad students in China?).
- Externally funded chairs
- Choose 3 research areas (pass on to Dean)
- High profile visiting professor position (1 year or 6 months, not necessarily endowed) (would also help cultural diversity)
- Mark: idea would be maybe bringing in biologist interested in spending time with physicists
Jess: willing to set up a web-based system for advertising research accomplishments.
