2012 NSF CISE CAREER Workshop

A one-day CISE-sponsored CAREER Workshop with participation from all three CISE Divisions will take place on March 30, 2012 at Drexel University. The agenda includes NSF leadership and former CAREER awardees who respectively speak on objectives and personal experiences with the program. The agenda also includes mock review panels. This gives attendees first-hand experience with the NSF review process and helps their understanding of evaluation criteria such as intellectual merit, broader impacts and the integration of research and education. For these panels, former CAREER awardees (from IIS, CNS, and CCF) will volunteer their past CAREER proposals as 'case studies' for discussion. This CAREER Workshop gathers more than 100 junior faculty, including about 15% from schools that serve under-represented groups (e.g. HSBUs and MSIs). Such a workshop fills an important void; many junior faculty have little to no personal interactions with NSF. Thus, beyond the agenda, the workshop gives such young researchers opportunities to network with NSF leadership and colleagues from the CISE community. The workshop's intellectual merit stems from presentations that give attendees insight into examples of potentially transformative research and how CAREER played a critical role in shaping the field. The workshop's broader impact is underscored by a convenient location; Drexel's campus is based in Philadelphia, is easily accessible by all forms of transportation and, within a 300-mile radius of the city, there are more than 100 Ph.D.-granting universities.