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What does a Prof do?

Being a University Professor Skip Poehlman Associate Professor Computing & Software Department McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario Cayuga Secondary School, Cayuga, Ontario March 10, 2005. What does a Prof do?. Three main things --. Teaching Duties – for me (this year).

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What does a Prof do?

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  1. Being a University ProfessorSkip PoehlmanAssociate ProfessorComputing & Software DepartmentMcMaster UniversityHamilton, OntarioCayuga Secondary School,Cayuga, OntarioMarch 10, 2005

  2. What does a Prof do? • Three main things --

  3. Teaching Duties – for me (this year) • Specifically, I lecture in two courses per term • Term I • Design of Visual Programming Environments • To level III students in B.Sc.(CS) and B.Eng.(SE) programme • Distributed Networking Systems • To Level IV students in B.Sc.(CS) • Term II • Design of Computer Human Interfaces • To level IV students in B.Eng.(SE) programme • Knowledge-Based Problem Solving • To graduate students in Master's and Ph.D. programmes in CS and SE.

  4. Teaching Duties – Time Involvement 1 • On average, each course takes about 3 hours per week of student contact (in class time) • Generally, for every hour of class contact, there are 3 hours of preparation • Very few courses remain static in content – every year, new material needs to be added or changed • Some courses have 3 hour lab sessions • Usually there are TAs (teaching assistants) who are graduate students that help with delivering the material to students

  5. Teaching Duties – Time Involvement 2 • The previous times assume the courses / labs / tutorials are already written. • It requires about a 10:1 time effort to create a new course from scratch, so when you are a brand new professor, you are spending nearly ALL your time creating new courses for the first years. • How and what is presented is entirely in my hands – subject to general content that must conform to the program (degree) curriculum.

  6. Teaching Duties – Department Wide 1 • Undergraduate Degrees offered: • Bachelor of Science in Computer Science • Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering • Undergraduate Programmes • Take about 4 to 5 years to complete. • Requires about 40 to 50 courses to take, overall. • In CS, this means courses in programming (coding & languages), hardware parts(architecture), software parts (e.g. database, OS), interconnection (nets & WWW) and mathematics (algorithms and data structures). • May be done as CS major, or CS & Math or CS and Economics, etc.

  7. Teaching Duties – Department Wide 2 • Graduate (really post-graduate) Degrees offered (Master's Level): • Master of Science in Computer Science • Master of Applied Science in Software Engineering • Master of Engineering in Software Engineering • General comments at the Master's level • Takes about 2 years to complete and 5-7 courses • Must create and defend a Master's thesis based on research (more later about research) of some topic in CS (or SE).

  8. Teaching Duties – Department Wide 3 • Graduate (really post-graduate) Degrees offered (Doctoral Level): • Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science • Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering • General comments at the Doctoral level • Both take about 4 to 6 years to complete • Require 4 courses be completed in an area of research • Major effort necessary to finish and defend a thesis involving new studies (or research – see later);sometimes this is called the dissertation.

  9. Administrative Duties -- 1 • Generally composed of being members of committees • Committees are required at three levels within the University • Departmental level • Computing and Software, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc. • Faculty level • Science, Engineering, Social Sciences, Humanities, Business, etc. • University level

  10. Administrative Duties -- 2 • Committee Examples • Departmental • Appointments – hiring new profs. • Promotion – who gets moved up in career path • Curriculum – courses necessary and their contents • Library – what books, journals, magazines to acquire • Faculty • Planning – where new efforts should go (new Dept.?) • Curriculum – mainly for common year I • University • Budget – funding new facilities, salaries of staff • Planning – vision of future, buildings, roads, access, etc. • Facilities – operation, rules & regs., planning, budget(maybe),etc.

  11. My Administrative Duties • This year • Department • Curriculum • Computing facilities, Chair • Faculty • Science computing facilities • University • Nuclear Reactor Operational Control Committee

  12. Research Aspects -- 1 • How much effort, direction, and student numbers are solely under the control of the Prof to determine! • This is like being self-employed BUT I still get a salary from the University! • Performance of any person's research programme is determined by • How many publications are written per year • How many conferences are attended • How many students are graduated

  13. Research Aspects -- 2 • So what does a Prof get for being GOOD at research? • ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, personally! • However, good researchers get grant money to perform more research and/or may work under corporate research contracts to create something a company needs for money. • What good is the money, if the Prof cannot use it personally? • Used to pay graduate students money to live (½ from research & ½ from TA duties) while doing research [more money = more graduates] • Used to pay page charges to get publications printed in journals [more graduates = more publications] • Used to pay for more computers, software, maintenance, supplies, etc.[better facilities = attract better graduates so easier to publish more] • Moral of the Story: PUBLISH OR PERISH!

  14. Research Aspects -- 3 • WORK, WORK, WORK! • So why do I do this? • I like helping students discover things (teaching is good) • NOTE: profs do not need to go to teacher's college. • I like being part of creating learning strategies(administration of curriculum, for instance, is good) • I like investigating how things work and being able to follow ANY direction of discovery that suits me • This is like having the fun of managing your own company and establishing directions of investigations and work BUThaving your salary paid by someone else!!!! (i.e. not tied to the company and its success – no bankruptcy possible) • In other words, I can be as active in research as I like! • Some profs have few students but travel the world to conferences • Some profs have lots of students & large research labs to investigate things • Some profs like to simply use a pencil and paper to do research in an office

  15. Comments about the Job -- 1 • How do you get here? • After high school, go to University for four years to get a Bachelor degree – B.Sc., B.Eng., B.A., etc. • After graduating , go back to University for two years to get a Master's degree and then four more for a Doctor of Philosophy, OR do 5-6 years and get a Ph.D. directly • Finally spend several years as a PDF = post doctoral fellow to try teaching and research together under an experienced prof. • Look for a job at a University as a faculty member.

  16. Comments about the Job -- 2 • Career Paths: Once a Prof, always a Prof? • You can stay as a prof and do what I do OR • You can be promoted to be a Department Chair (head) – I have done this but was not happy about it. • You can be promoted from there to be a Dean of a Faculty: e.g. Dean of Engineering, Dean of Science. • You can be promoted to be Associate Dean (under the academic Dean above) which means focussing on students and their problems in getting a degree in the Faculty from any of the Departments therein.

  17. Comments about the Job -- 3 • Career paths – continued • If you are really good: you can be promoted to Vice-President (Academic) which is really the top job in academia, others are VP (Administration) which runs the University as a business, VP(External Relations) which looks into research contracts, corporate relations, international funding agreements, etc. • Generally President of the University is a political appointment; the position is used to get money (donations), lobby the government for more funds, etc. and not suitable for an academic prof.!

  18. CONCLUSION • Being a Prof is good IF • EDUCATIONALLY • You like teaching students from all over the world. • ADMINISTRATIVELY • You like being part of an organizing team to help run an academic department and create operational structures within it. • RESEARCHINGLY(sic) • You like having your cake (research programme director) and eating it too (salaried by University) with respect to doing investigative research into how things work.

  19. REFERENCES • This document is available on the WWW at • http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~skip/css10mar05.ppt OR • http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~skip/css10mar05.pdf • My research group maintains a WWW site at • http://www.acsg.mcmaster.ca/group/index.html • My own web site is located at • http://www.cas.mcmaster.ca/~skip/wfsp.htm AND thanks for the opportunity to talk to you!

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