Achievement

The IGERT students alongside a number of graduate students in engineering and the sciences took an IGERT-specific short course entitled "Academic, government, and industrial careers." The course featured multiple guest speakers from industry, government laboratories and academia (from different engineering and science departments). The goal of this short course is to prepare Ph.D students in engineering and the sciences for careers in academia, industry or government laboratories.

In the course, we examined how universities work, how to prepare for and secure a faculty position, what young faculty members are expected to do, how they can become successful, and what Ph.D students can do to make themselves attractive in the marketplace. Differences and similarities in how to prepare for and how to be successful in academia, in industry and in government were highlighted.