The faculty of the Materials Science and Engineering Department represent a diversity of curricular and research expertise, educational and industrial backgrounds and cultures.
In this section:
- Competency to Cover all Curricular Areas
- Faculty Interaction with Students
- Adequacy of Size of Faculty
- Faculty Evaluation
Competency to Cover all Curricular Areas:
The faculty composition is summarized in Table B5.1 with respect to rank and primary and secondary area of expertise.
Teaching Preferences for all required courses in the program.
Because most faculty are flexible in the courses they can teach, it is possible to review adequacy of faculty by considering which faculty can teach each course in the curriculum. Table B5.2 shows the depth of "coverage" for each required course in the program. Each faculty selected either 1st preference (they are currently willing and prepared to teach the course) or 2nd preference (they are willing to teach with some preparation). A faculty member could also select "not appropriate to teach". Note that all courses are well covered with the exception of Mat E 431 Semiconductor Fabrication. This course is co-listed with Electrical Engineering which also has several faculty capable of teaching the course.
Faculty interactions with students
MSE faculty are actively engaged with students in a number of ways. Table B5.3 summarizes the involvement of faculty with students. Appendix IA summarizes the faculty workload including teaching and other responsibilities and activities.
TABLE B5.1, TABLE B5.2 AND TABLE B5.3
Responsibility Chart for the Materials Engineering Program
The faculty are ultimately responsible for the undergraduate program. Figure B5.1 shows how this responsibility is distributed among the faculty.
FIGURE B5.1
Adequacy of Size of Faculty
With 22 budgeted and 8 adjunct faculty, the MSE department is one of the larger Materials programs in the country. In addition, a number of researchers at Ames Laboratory, the Microelectronics Research Center, and the Center for Non-destructive Evaluation provide additional materials resources to our program both in research collaboration and teaching.
The MSE faculty are a very dynamic group. Almost half of the faculty have been hired since the last ABET visit. This high turnover has allowed us to consider the needs of our constituencies and our revised programs as part of our selection criteria. In polymers, Vladimir Tsukruk and in electronic materials, David Cann and Alan Constant have been added.
Adjunct Faculty
The MSE department is uniquely placed to make use of expertise of neighboring scientists at Ames Laboratory. A number of these scientists and engineers are adjunct faculty with the department. Adjunct faculty go through the same interviewing process as tenure-track faculty prior to appointment and are subject to the same evaluation criteria after appointment. Adjunct faculty occasionally teach classes, and frequently mentor graduate and undergraduate students in the research laboratory. Adjunct faculty attend faculty meetings and provide valuable input. They have the same voting rights as budgeted faculty except in personnel decisions and curricular matters.
Faculty Evaluation
Faculty in MSE submit a yearly self-evaluation of their performance based on the performance objectives outlined in Section B2. Additionally, faculty discuss plans for improvement in each area in which they have responsibility (as outline by a Personal Responsibility Statement).This document is used as a basis for discussion in a yearly performance coaching with the D.E.O. In this way the D.E.O. can monitor faculty growth and balance the needs of the department and the individual.
