Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum: A Case Study Evan Weaver Chair, Computer Studies Seneca CDOG 2010, May 18

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Environment: 1500 students 7 programs (diplomas, degrees, grad cert), degrees since full-time profs, 20 adjunct Central Office of Research and Innovation (ORI)

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Challenges: Research not part of base funding No culture of research, applied research No accessible grants Collective agreement Professors’ interests

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum History Pre-2004: Research internally funded Research barely funded Done out of professor’s interest E.g. install Linux lab in local HS

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum History More recently: Externally funded projects with industry partners, sourced through central ORI Small, single-project grants Little linkage between projects

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum History And then… A project unintentionally connected us with another industry partner (Mozilla) Professor and partner hit it off, students delivered their part New partner funded more…

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum History …and then… Tied projects into some courses More partners and more faculty got interested More students got involved More grants became available…

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum History …and now… Special expertise is recognized More stable funding is available Partners seek us out Industry knows us

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Lucky? Area is “open source” Gives students opportunity to work on world class software Industry values “free” work Philosophy and IP licenses are academia friendly

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Made our own luck? Open source projects need expertise, reject timewasters Expertise is very hard to develop Trust takes time to develop Granting agencies didn’t understand open source

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Making our luck… Our programs already had strong technical component Our professor convinced Mozilla to pay for his release time Our programs had flexibility of “Professional Options” – no need to change core curriculum

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Making our luck… Repurposed OSS (symposium for college teachers) to FSOSS (industry symposium) Chased money down many blind alleys (continuing) Insinuated OS work into other projects (e.g. Canvas3D)

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Making our luck… Leaned on professors to take part Rejected a lot of offers that did not include money Had to manage professor burnout Had to manage partners’ expectations

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Defining Applied Research in the college context: Not basic research Novel application of whatever it is you do Benefit to external stakeholder Done primarily by students with faculty supervision

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Benefits of Applied Research to the program: External stakeholder gives perspective Faculty and students are pushed Gaps in curriculum exposed (and hopefully filled) Value of program is promoted

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Benefits of Applied Research to the student: Real-world experience more challenging than most co-op opportunities Work one-on-one with prof and stakeholder Chance to build a reputation

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Benefits of Applied Research to the external stakeholder: Grant funding Inexpensive expertise Source of HQP after project Chance to influence education to produce MHQP

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Tips Be patient, success takes longer than you think Talk to anyone, make arrangements with few Pursue all leads for funding Align with energetic professors

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Tips Use central services Look for linkages between research and curriculum Don’t work for free Don’t sell out Build expertise, build a reputation

Juggling Research, Partnerships and Curriculum Tips Learn from failed grant applications When in doubt, consider student perspective Manage burnout proactively Make academic limitations clear