New School Learning Curve

The first days as an Assistant Professor is filled with adrenaline-laced excitement. The anxiousness and eagerness to get to work has you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. New faculty orientation consumes the first days while you are mentally creating prioritizing your checklist: obtaining your institution login information, your new email address, signing up for your parking pass, meeting with your Department Chair and checking out your new office. Your faculty identification card, office layout, computer setup and business card ordering will happen in a few days. The focus is settling into this career path — making that context switch from your previous status as a graduate student, postdoc or other technical professional to an academic.

The first days as an Associate Professor at a new institution is a seemingly echo of your first days as an Assistant Professor. The adrenaline excitement is replaced with  an excited calm. Prior academic work experience makes that aforementioned checklist unnecessary. The systems integration of your credentials and generation of your new affiliation occurs at the pace of the institution. Your inaugural year teaching, research and service expectations are far more reasonable. The academic life can be summed up by solving the Tower of Hanoi puzzle.

Towers of Hanoi Description
The puzzle traditionally has 3 pegs: starting peg, spare peg and destination peg. The starting peg has a user-specified number of disks with the disks stacked from smallest to largest (largest disk at the base of the peg). The object of the puzzle is to systematically move all the disks from the starting peg to the destination peg, but a larger disk can not be placed on top of a smaller disk. The key to solving this puzzle is understanding that the functionality of the pegs alters as you are moving the disks, e.g., when moving a disk, the starting peg operates as the spare peg, the spare peg operates as the destination peg and destination peg operates as the starting peg.

But here's the rub for any new faculty hire:

1. You don't know the number of disks
2. You don't know the number of pegs
3. You don't know which is the starting peg, spare peg and destination peg.

Initially, you can safely assume there are 3 pegs and 9 disks. For the purposes of this example, the disks are stacked service activities at the top, then teaching and lastly research activities at the bottom.

Disk 1: Institution Collegiality
Disk 2: External Collegiality
Disk 3: Course Preparation
Disk 4: Course Modification and Development
Disk 5: Research Team Building
Disk 6: Publications
Disk 7: Conference Attendance
Disk 8: External Grant Writing
Disk 9: Funded Award Management

Disk 1 &2: Institution and external collegiality — The variety and plethora of academic service-related activities has the potential to consume your days (and nights). Be purposeful of which departmental, college-wide and technical program committees you are a member.

Disk 3: Course Preparation — A class lecture is like Showtime at the Apollo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showtime_at_the_Apollo). Depending on your temperament and talent, you select how you will engage students in the course material via a series of slide decks, problem-based learning techniques, flipped classroom or another method altogether. Each class, you are on stage and the students tell you by their (lack of) questions, body language, (lack of) enthusiasm, etc if your teaching approach has resonated. If you instruct a course that tends to interest students, kudos -- course prep becomes a bit easier. Otherwise, I suggest you invest quality time to determine how to relate the material to your student body. Any course can be exciting when the proper care is given to the learning experience. A teacher's excitement about the materials helps fuel a student's deeper curiosity about the course content.

Disk 4: Course Modification and Development — Course material can become stale and outdated. The fundamental course topics can be presented in new ways, new assessment mechanisms can be devised, your prior experience with the course could render you to change the order of course topics. Course evolution through revision or developing a new course is a necessary activity of any faculty member. By evolving your course, you increase your likelihood of students’ remaining engaged in your courses year after year.

Disk 5: Research Team Building — The talent and aptitude to mentor students in research activity is the hallmark of a great research advisor.  Honestly, experience is the best teacher. You have to learn the balance of motivation and criticism, students' temperament and abilities, work effort and work product. I suggest The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth and Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath as good starting points.

Disk 6: Publications — The frequency and quality of your conference papers, journal articles, book chapters and books are common academic metric in assessing a faculty member's national and international influence. The summer months are a great opportunity to complete scholarly work due to the lack of a required teaching responsibility. The co-authorship with fellow colleagues and students is strongly encouraged, in some academic environments, a necessity.

Disk 7: Conference Attendance — Conference registration, attendance and paper presentation are required for publication. The conference talks help keep you current in your field's advances. While the time and cost of conferences can be expensive (see previous post), it is a cornerstone of your branding activities. The reputation for contributing good work to the field and presenting it well will only help in bringing opportunities knocking.

Disk 8: External Grant Writing — When responding to a grant proposal solicitation, the act of actually writing the project objectives, anticipated outcomes, evaluation and assessment plan is a time-intensive, idea-articulation scholarly exercise. The proposal operations can be an added stressor that consists of working with your institution's office of sponsored programs for internal grant submission approval. The coordination of the proposal document, supplemental materials, and colleague collaborations. Grant writing and proposal submission has a high work-effort yielding a low conversion to a funded award, but if awarded, external awards are highly valued in the academic realm.

Disk 9: Funded Award Management — Do your work and do it well.

With great power come great responsibility. ~Voltaire

A funded grant gives the awardees a newfound elevated social currency (aka power) amongst his/her colleagues.  The spotlight turns in your direction to revel in your successes and witness any mishaps. Don't let the award excitement overshadow the necessary work in properly accomplishing the project outcomes.

Graduate Life Realities

Welcome to graduate school. The pursuit of a graduate degree is an intellectual professional and personal growth experience requiring assertiveness, tenacity, patience and innovation. The job description is simple: to deepen your major discipline knowledge and strive to become a subject-matter expert (SME) in one of the sub-disciplines. The goal is also simple: graduate, e.g., successfully complete a series of specialized courses in your chosen area of interest in your major discipline, conduct affiliated research in this specialized area and showcase these research findings in a written document (and possibly orally as well). The path to the goal is, by no means, a straight road -- it is dictated by factors within and outside of your control such as your personality, your prior knowledge and expertise in your field, your research advisor, your research topic, and your graduate institution's degree program.

Graduate student status comes with it a few realities some graduate students don't realize until it's late in their graduate degree program.

1. You are no longer a college student. Many graduate students act like college students who don't want to grow up. You are a grown up now, sorry. You and only you are responsible and accountable for successful completion of your graduate studies. Your research advisor can assist in guiding your research. The degree program's graduate coordinator can assist in navigating some of your graduate school's policies and operating procedures. Your graduate school and graduate degree program's websites are intended to outline major milestones. The quicker you switch that bit in your brain the more enjoyable this growth experience may be. What's your reasons and objectives in attending graduate school?
2. Graduate school is not an extension of your undergraduate studies. Yes, this tip is a re-statement of the first tip, but it needs to be emphasized. College is about making you a well-rounded college-educated citizen in about 8 semesters. Graduate studies is about your SME training. This training can be as long or as short as allowable by your institution's degree program. For MS, it's 3-4 semesters, for PhD, it's 4-6 years (typically). You have this time to complete appropriate coursework, conduct novel research, summer intern and/or co-op within your research interest areas and secure full-time employment. The number of semesters/years is irrelevant since completing your graduate studies happens when (and only when) the predetermined milestones are accomplished successfully. 
3. You are not the only smart person in the room. The minimum cumulative GPA for most graduate degree program admissions is 3.0. In a small number of special cases, an applicant can be admitted with a lower GPA (2.8 - 3.0) under a probationary period, usually contingent upon the receiving a ‘B’ or better in the first semester in the graduate program. In many cases, the incoming graduate student GPA from their undergraduate studies is at least 3.2. So, great and good grades in graduate school is the expected norm. The graduate coursework is the easy part since you are most familiar with it.
4. Take a research methods course ASAP. Research methods focuses on the how and why the empirical study and/or experimental evaluation should be done. The how and why are an open-ended process with no single right answer. This open-endedness can be very uncomfortable to many students, who may strive on structure. To some extend, you must throw structure out the window. You will discover that research requires several verification and validation approaches. Your research setup and implementation assumptions must be clearly defined. What are you trying to prove through these experiments and does your experimental design support your research hypothesis?
5. Once is never enough. Many graduate students think that performing a task once, e.g., reading related literature, conduct an experiment, etc., is sufficient. Nope. For each scholarly article in a related literature review, you can expect to read/skim/review the paper at least three times to comprehend the contents and determine if or how it is related to your own research. Experiment testing requires a certain number of iterations based on common best practices in your sub-discipline to ensure statistical significance of your results.
6. The learning curve is wide and deep. You have learned so much in a short amount of time. This immersive experience has exposed and broadened your understanding within your discipline. Your tendency will be to include all of your research activity into your final graduate research manuscript. You want to show how much work you have done to prove evidence of your worthiness to receive the graduate degree. However, every course topic, paper you read, experiment you design and implement or any other work product is not relevant to your MS Thesis and/or PhD Dissertation. Your final graduate research manuscript is not a record of your learning experience, it's a comprehensive synthesis of the research. 

For more details tips on conducting yourself with your research advisor, see the Setting Expectations post. 

Letter to the Postdoc

Originally posted on August 29, 2008 by PHD Comics

Postdoc status is a viable option for many newly-minted PhDs; however, you should be more aware of the job description, the employer's expectations, your responsibilities and what you plan to accomplish as a postdoc. 

The Job Description
It can be summed up in one word: TEMPORARY.

The Postdoctoral Associate/Researcher is wedged between the full-time graduate student classification and the full-time permanent employee classification. You are no longer a graduate student. Your conference travel scholarship eligibility is now nil. When you say you are a postdoc, the question wheel triad always includes: "when does your postdoc end?", "what do you want to do next?" and "where are you focusing your permanent employment search?" Ugh, in most cases, you don't know, but the questions still come. Also, you are not in a permanent employee in the faculty, industry or government ranks. You notice that your influence and impact factor within your postdoc position's organization is low at best. Plus, your direct supervisor is a permanent employee, who tends to be referred to as your postdoc mentor and serves as a pseudo-research advisor. On the bright side, a postdoc provides you 1-2 years time to close the graduate student life book and start the next book -- whatever your career ambition.

Job details

1. Perform specific contributions on aspects of your postdoc advisor’s research agenda
2. Submit and publish technical research papers
3. Learn grantsmanship
4. Attend professional development workshops and activities
5. [optional] Assist in managing the research projects of your postdoc mentor’s graduate students
6. [optional] Serving as the instructor or co-instructor

Goals and outcomes
In understanding this job description, you probably realize that it’s advantageous to be strategic in your postdoc appointment. You need to figure out your next professional step and obtain full-time permanent employment. I followed the academic life so I can only speak to it. The suggestions I provide  is geared toward successful tenure-track position attainment. Regardless, the postdoc life can serve as a preview of what may be in your future.

Build your technical and support network by connecting with postdoctoral-centric organizations, such as the National Postdoctoral Association or discipline-specific postdoctoral events. For example, there is the Academic Career Workshop for URMs in computing. I was mostly unaware of organizations and resources as a postdoc. I wish I paid more attention. Don’t be like me.

Research
Be productive. Shoot for quantity AND quality.

If you are fortunate to gain grant writing experience as a senior  graduate student, soak it all up. If not, a postdoc is a great opportunity to get started. Step 1 - request an NSF/NIH/DoD/etc ID and create your NSF/NIH/DoD/etc Biography.

Teaching 
If you are seeking an academic teaching position, do, Otherwise don't do.

Service
Don’t do it! DON’T DO IT!

Job Hunting
Computing Research Association - Job Announcements.
Chronicles of Higher Education - Job Search.

Your faculty position application includes cover letter, CV, research agenda, teaching statements, professional references and scholarly publication samples. When submitting your faculty position applications, you may want to provide your professional references draft letters of recommendation. As you write, you should strongly consider how the role of gender influences your word choices, phrases and statements. You can read J. Madera, M. Hebl and R. Martin's research entitled “Gender and Letters of Recommendation for Academia: Agentic and Communal Differences”.  Communal terms center on helping others (kindness, nurturance) while agentic terms center on influencing others (assertiveness, initiating tasks). Their studies resulted in two major conclusions “women were described as more communal and less agentic than men (Study 1) and (b) that communal characteristics have a negative relationship with hiring decisions in academia that are based on letters of recommendation (Study 2)” using a psychology department’s tenure-track faculty search.

Let's assume your application is well-received by at least one faculty search committee. You make it to the on-campus interview. Please consider interviewing your potential bosses (Department Heach/Chair, Dean, Provost, etc) and colleagues (fellow departmental junior and senior faculty) as they are interviewing you. Here are some starter questions and comments:

• How do assistant professors in the departments acquire graduate students? Is there a partnership between the department and some schools? What are the recruiting efforts?
• How long has the Department Head/Chair been is his/her current position? What is the Department Head/Chair's vision for the department? Most likely, he/she will not be in that position when you are seeking promotion and tenure in 5-6 years.
• How are teaching assistantships distributed? Does the Department Head/Chair or Division/College/School Dean allocate them? How does this process operate? For instance, the Dean of the College allocates number of TA position to each department based on faculty contact hours and the Department Head assigns these TAs to the faculty who are instructing those courses. Note: contact hours are some combination of class size and number of times the faculty is in front of the students. If you teach smaller classes, you will not be awarded a TA position.
• Is there a maximum number of trips you can take in one semester? Are there location restrictions e.g. domestic only?
• Comment: Google the Department Head/Chair to find out if he/she was an internal or external hire? This may indicate the department culture of mostly internal/external department-level administration.
• Comment: Investigate the research collaborations within the department. Who are publishing papers together? What are their respective faculty ranks? It helps to know who are collegial and who are not to junior faculty. Ditto for external funding activities.
• Comment: Identify which undergraduate classes at that institution are required for any student (grad or undergrad) to assist you in your research objectives? Ask specific questions about course topics (if you can speak directly with the faculty member who teaches the course, that would be optimal).
• Comment: Make no assumptions about what students know. Students may remember the term but have not used/implemented that concept.

To the Aspiring Black Female Scientist

Brandeis Marshall's childhood desk aka "study depot"

This week, Kyla's article listing 73 Black Female Scientists has ignited a conversation about Black women in STEM and our (lack of) visibility within the science community. Well, I received a question from an almost 4th grader, who I'll call Cali. How sweet and awesome is that?!? She asked for advice on how to become a Black female scientist and I'm sure she's not alone in her inquiry. This is for all the Cali's...
 


Dear Cali:

I was very happy to receive your email. Thanks for asking your question. The 73 of us have had our own path to scientist-status. First and most importantly, you should have good grades. Then, you should attend and graduated from college. I also strongly suggest that you consider pursing an advanced degree in your chosen discipline. Education can only help you achieve your goals. Be smart, confident and have a positive personality. Beyond that, let me share a few pointers. 

Reading. I love reading. If you love reading, then you would love learning everything from the mathematics and science to language and arts subjects. My summer vacations were spent reading fun books, such as the Sweet Valley High series, in addition to the summer reading books. I read everywhere. I used my at-home desk as my study depot that housed some of my fun books and school supplies. I encourage you to make your own "study depot" and read some fun books. 

Extracurricular Activities. To excel in any field, you dedicate your time and energies to learning your craft. It takes focus and balance. I love music and took dance lessons during elementary and junior high school. I also enjoyed sports - volleyball, basketball and track & field. I still enjoy dancing and watching basketball. Extracurricular activities help you stay active and healthy. They also build your teamwork skills, which you will use science project teams. I hope you have at least one non-STEM activity that you find fun and enjoyable.  

Next Steps. Science is a big field including biology, chemistry, computing, engineering, mathematics, technology and physics. You can exposing yourself to these different types of science so you can find the ones you like and the ones you don't. There are 1-day events to week-long summer camps for all K-12 grade levels. Check your local colleges for these events and camps. These programs usually have a cost for participation, but could have scholarships or discounted cost options available. Here's few examples to get you started:

• 1-day events: Black Girls Code
• 1-week programs: Purdue University Summer Camps for Kids, Spelman Imagine Computer & Information Science (ICIS) Summer Camps

Dream big, be positive and you will do some great things. 

Yours in STEM,
Dr. Marshall

#GradingJail

Teaching and student learning can become hefty part of the college professor life. Instructors must consider what are the students’ prior knowledge, students’ expectations, reasonable course topic presentation order, course assessment mechanisms and degree program’s learning outcomes. 

End of term grading (EOT #GradingJail) includes, but not limited to: the duration between end of classes and when term grades are due. It's one of the academic stressors. First, there is a short amount of time to score the last assignment, final project deliverable and/or final-term exam. Second, students seem to all of a sudden know my name, email and office location by end of the term in an effort to meet with me about their performance, or lack thereof, in the course. Third, the non-teaching responsibilities mound as internal and external reports are due to various levels of the institution's administration. But the #GradingJail stressor can be managed. The one and only rule I have to share is protect yourself from the potential disgruntled students and grade appeals. 

Course Syllabus
EOT #GradingJail starts at the beginning of the semester. Here's a highlight reel of my course policies:

• Assignments are due on a <date> at <time>. Any assignment will be penalized 25% of the original possible score if it is turned in within 24 hours of the due date and time.  It will be graded based upon 50% of the original possible score if it is turned within 24 to 48 hours of the original due date/time.  No assignment will be accepted later than that.
• Graded exams and quizzes will not be returned. To review a graded exam or quiz, the student must make an appointment with the instructor. 
• To discuss a grade-related matter, the student must make an appointment with the instructor. The instructor will not discuss any grade-related matter over email or in the presence of other students, unless it’s concerning a team project. 
• A student has one week to inquire and submit an appeal about his/her score after it is posted to Blackboard. After one week, the score will be final. The GTA (graduate teaching assistant) or I will send an announcement via Blackboard when scores are posted. Note: The one week appeal period helps circumvent student EOT point haggling. 
• Life is not True/False or Multiple Choice so neither are any assignments in this course.  In other words, no T/F or MC questions.

Instructor Feedback 
Providing feedback, especially in a timely fashion, is important for student learning. However, students attempt to garner favor at every turn so being savvy to their tactics is must. Hold them accountable and be accountable. Be consistent and tough but fair in your grading. Be prepared to easily (and frequently) answer 5 of 6 information gathering questions concerning your coursework feedback policies.  

• Q1: Who provides the feedback? 
• A1. Instructor and/or GTA
• Q2: What are the feedback avenues? 
• A2. Assessment mechanisms can include homework assignments, labs, exams, in-class exercises, course project deliverables and peer reviews. 
• Q3: When will the student receive feedback?  
• A3. Digitally through comments on graded homework and lab assignments. Face-to-face conversations during lecture, office hours and scheduled appointments 
• Q4: Where will the student receive feedback? 
• A4. For the online submitted assignments, Blackboard or another course management system. For written submitted coursework, comments are hand-written on the coursework so the student must see the instructor to view these comments. 
• Q5: How will the feedback be given to the student? 
• A5. Typed, written and orally. I strongly suggest that instructors devise an evaluation/grading rubric for each assignment. When students argue for points, and they will, you reference your grading rubric. I am in favor of using a matrix-style rubric. The rows are the instructor-defined evaluation criteria and the columns are labelled no evidence, does not meet expectations, meets expectations and exceeds expectations. Then, the instructor can assign the point structure as appropriate. The release of the grading rubric to the students is at the instructor's discretion. 

Academic Integrity and Dishonesty 
As required by every institution, instructors are to include the student plagiarism policy to their course syllabus. My years as a GTA and instructor has taught me the following. Those who plagiarize know exactly what they chose to do. Most of those who plagiarize then expect grace and mercy. I give them none. I suggest you do the same. 

We mark the end of another term. Spring 2014 is put to bed. Congratulations, you survived it. 


------------------------------------------------
More On Brandeis Marshall's Teaching Credentials

I have integrated my business intelligence expertise into Purdue's CIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum. With over 250 student enrollments, I have incorporated problem-based learning as a central theme into CNIT 39200 (Enterprise Data Management), CNIT 31500 (Systems Engineering) and designed CNIT 49900 (Data Integration on the Web) an elective undergraduate course, CNIT 58100 (Data Integration on the Web) for graduate students interested in information retrieval and CNIT 62300 (Research Methods in Computing) for MS Thesis graduate students. To expand my teaching strategies, I was awarded Purdue's Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year. In addition, I have participated in graduate research mentorship as a member of 20 committees, 1 of which is a PhD Dissertation committee, chairing 6 MS Theses and co-authored 8 refereed publications with graduate students. I have graduated 5 MS Thesis students to date. 

Email: A Communication Archive Engine

Email is slow according to today's high expectations of immediate response and feedback. However, it is considered the more formal mode of communication, especially for employers. Email etiquette is synonymous with writing a hand-written note and sending it via USPS. To understand and perform the sweet science of emailing, you can purchase any number of books or for free via articles/blogs on the subject, e.g., "The Art of Email Writing" by P. Vassallo. Nevertheless, email writing rules mimic those of letter writing: greeting, body introduction, body content, closing, signature. 

Email writing and responding, circa 2014, is a necessary evil. Admittedly, I have a love-hate relationship with email. I have two big pet peeves. The first irritation is receiving an email indicating that another email is en route in the near-future. I mean, why even bother sending the email in the first place? I just don't get it. I wish the sender would just wait and send me all the information in one email. Or better yet, call me or tell me in a face-to-face conversation. Woah, crazy talk. It sounds too much like right. Let me just move on. The second irritation is the inappropriate use of the "reply all" feature. The situation is all too common: an email with a list of recipients is sent and the recipients respond to all on the original email rather than just the proper individual, e.g. congratulatory notes, e-introductions, etc.

Quick "Reply All" usage tip: do not "reply all" UNLESS one of these conditions holds true: you are sharing common information to a group e.g., reporting up your chain of command (cya/cyoa), you are eliciting a group-email discussion, e.g., when/where to meet, or you are attempting to resolve some sort of small miscommunication. 

Email has unfortunately been used as a replacement for, rather than to augment, face-to-face conversations. Misinterpretation, miscommunication and downright rudeness are the bad effects. Hence, my love-hate relationship with this technological advance. In recent months, many strive to obtain the inbox zero status - an email management effort to have as few (optimally zero) messages in your email inbox. Effective organization of folders and email deletion rules can help achieve the zero inbox. The benefits purported as less clutter, less stress and focusing your attention on important things. I'm marching toward the zero inbox, but I ran into a hiccup on my Apple devices. The Apple folder structure doesn't exist (essentially you must create another mailbox), which is not viewable to the root mailbox. I rely on email deletion rules, Evernote and leveraging my laptop's folder structure. I've reduced my professional email box count from ~2000 to ~1000 messages.

The introduction of other digital communication mediums (messaging, texting, FB inbox, tweeting and all other social media) has rendered email archaic. But I've discovered a revived appreciation for email during this zero inbox experience. Email has one last stand, one significant advantage that those other digital communication mediums. Conversation archiving. I have found myself in situations over the past few months where being able to quickly access (and then forward) the original email or email exchange has circumvented additional emails and stress. I no longer desire the zero inbox instead I strive for periodically identifying and archiving relevant email conversations.

Quick email tip: some individuals are more comfortable using email, rather than face-to-face or phone conversations. When I encounter this situation, I sculpt my email to elicit a response from them, usually by ending my email with a question.   

Here's a few of my email inbox management tricks. To better understand my tricks, I receive email from the following groups as a college professor: my institution's administration, colleagues/peers, graduate students, undergraduate students and prospective graduate students. 

I classify email messages into three bins:

• Informational: These messages are meant to keep you in the loop. You must decide if being in the loop is what you want. If so, you can note the information. Regardless, simply delete the email. Disclaimer: Email responses are not warranted. Depending on the email culture, a corresponding acknowledgement message may be considered the proper rules of engagement.
• Discussion: These messages are meant to help minimize miscommunication and misinterpretation of the email recipients. The sharing of ideas and solutions tends to ensue as the different perspectives reveal themselves. In my discipline of computing, we call this sentiment analysis or opinion mining. It's very hard to accomplish through email exchanges. I prefer to handle these situations either face-to-face or over the phone. If a resolution has not been reached, then keep the most recent email, which should include the entire email chain. You avoid information loss and you can delete the other intermediary emails. Disclaimer: email responses are expected but not required.
• Decision: These messages are an attempt to reach a consensus of a group. Most recipients elect to use the Reply All feature in an effort to come to a consensus quicker. In the professional environment, a decision maker is met with either joy or dislike. Joy to those who are indecisive or prefer not to make a decision. Disliked by those who don't agree with the decision rendered. In most cases, it's email polite to state your decision clearly. As with the discussion emails, keep the most recent email, which should include the entire email chain, and delete the rest. Disclaimer: You may not actually care about the topic in which your decision is required. But the decisive trait and making good decisions reveals your potential for future promotions.

Now, go forward and conversation archive! 

Move Over #BigData, Make Room for #DataSecurity

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer and mathematical occupations is expected to have a job growth of 18% over the next 10 years. At the core of many businesses is data, that requires organization, security, mining and analysis. As such, computing disciplines (information technology, computer science and business) include as part of their core curriculum at least one database management systems course. Every spring semester, I teach an advanced database design techniques and physical issues relating to enterprise-wide data management using the “Modern Database Management” by Hoffer et al. as the required course textbook. The course has 3 main foci: 

• Modeling, e.g., entity-relationship diagram, enhanced entity-relationship diagram
• Implementation, e.g., logical and physical database design, database querying 
• Operating logistics e.g., data stewardship, data and database administration

With the onslaught of #BigData, #DataAnalytics, #DataMining and #DataScience mentioned in nearly every computing-related article and conversation, the students (and everyone else) want to know what it is and how it impacts businesses. The Computing Research Association (CRA) Big Data Whitepaper provides a great showcase of the #BigData challenges and opportunities.  The figure below displays the data processing stages (top row) and the interjecting wildcard features (bottom row).

CRA's Big Data Pipeline (http://www.cra.org/ccc/files/docs/init/bigdatawhitepaper.pdf)

#BigData discussions concentrate on the 3Vs (Volume+Variety+Velocity, circa 2001, Gartner Inc.), 4Vs (3Vs+Viability/Veracity, circa 2012) or, now 5Vs (4Vs+Value, circa late 2012/early 2013). So, the heterogeneity, scale, timeliness and human collaboration features from the above figure are covered, but where does that leave privacy? The data conversation must do a better integration of data security/privacy needs and challenges. The emergence of data-centric specializations and degree programs in data analytics, data mining and data science is fueled by the increasing need to train undergraduates and graduate students to be prepared to handle actual businesses data needs. To expose undergraduates to data and database security, an advanced database design course should augment the operating logistics course topic and inject database security overview, granular access control, securing database-to-database communications, and multi-level security in database systems.

Graduate student awareness and training in data and database security/privacy must be tightly coupled education with applied research. Toward this effort, NSF has sponsored the Information Security Research and Education (INSuRE) Collaborative project. INSuRE is to establish a long-lasting Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R) and government coalition in cybersecurity research. This initial partnership includes four successful and mature CAE-Rs and the National Security Agency (NSA) in order to design, develop and test the research network. INSuRE will be a self-organizing, cooperative, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and multi-level research collaborative that can work on both unclassified and classified research problems in the information security domain.

Other domains have data and database security/privacy considerations. Here's just a few:

• Data Security in Transportation: digital cities & smart(@pietromax, @UCLALewisCenter), ride sharing (@uber, @lyft)
• Data Security in Aviation: Timely Data Acquisition for the Aviation Industry
• Data Security in Health: #HCLDR twitter discussions Tues @ 8:30PM, #BlerdChat & #HCHLITSS twitter discussions Thurs. @ 7PM & 8PM, respectively