Academic Trax

In Episode 25, Bryony and Jon banter about the process of getting tenure, writing your package, and why it takes sooooo long. Along the way, we get sidetracked with pretentious diplomas and scroll through our Slack feed for interesting tidbits. Jon screws up the meaning of subjective and objective, which surely means he's ready to be a tenured professor. Lastly, there is foreshadowing for the next episode. (We are posting this out of order because this is fresh and recent. Episodes 23 & 24 have been recorded and will be online shortly!) Let us know what you think. The podcast can be contacted at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. Bryony can be reached via her website, or on twitter @BryonyDuPont. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes & Google Play

In Episode 22, Kyle and Jon banter about the time honored tradition of complaining about space (or lack thereof) in academia. We discuss potential remedies, none of which are good, but at least we are trying to provide solutions.  Let us know what you think. The podcast can be contacted at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. Kyle can be reached via his website, email, or on twitter @KyleNiemeyer. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes & Google Play

In Episode 21, Kyle and Jon discuss research publishing and software standards for research publishing. The discussion then meanders into open source publishing versus e-print publishing and presubmissions for peer review. Jon and Kyle then banter about adding editorial oversight to so-called "Xiv" publishing sites. Some of the sites we discuss are the engrXiv, the Journal of Open Engineering (TJOE), and the Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS). Let us know what you think. The podcast can be at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. Kyle can be reached via his website, email, or on twitter @KyleNiemeyer. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes & Google Play

In Episode 19, Bryony and Kyle join Jon to discuss research over the summer and a look-ahead to the coming semester. Tangents ensue! Bryony is available via her research website, email, or on twitter @BryonyDuPont. Kyle can be reached via his website, email, or on twitter @KyleNiemeyer. Let us know what you think. The podcast can be at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes.

In Episode 19, Bryony DuPont, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University, guest hosts with Jon to discuss NSF CAREER proposals, which both just submitted. We get sidetracked (in a good way!) discussing outreach and STEM encouragement for K-12 girls. We also share our likes and dislikes for the CAREER proposal. Bryony is available via her research website, email, or on twitter @bryony_dupont. Let us know what you think. The podcast can be at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 18, Kyle Niemeyer, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University, joins Jon again to discuss the graduate student union at OSU. We delve into more labor relations and how the administration rules impact academia. Kyle shares how OSU cannot really hire postdocs and discusses some items that are part of the student collective bargaining agreement. Kyle's research website can be found here and he is also on twitter @kyleniemeyer.   Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 16, guest host Bryony DuPont, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering from Oregon State University, joins Jon for a conversation about teaching engineering design classes and the start to an academic career. We get pretty deep into curriculum design and ensuring students have equal access to resources. Bryony is active on twitter @Bryony_DuPont, her OSU website is here, and her research website is here. (Sorry for the issues with the audio; we were a bit laggy.) Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 16, the GEARS Duo banters about the intersection of academia, labor law, and the new overtime rules. We discuss whether minimum wage laws should apply to undergraduate students and/or should be impacted by the so-called "Fight for 15". We also discuss how the new overtime rules and pay lines affect university positions for postdocs.   Some useful links are: Department of Labor's Overtime Rule Guidance for Higher Education  Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 15, Kyle Niemeyer, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University, joins Jon to discuss his research, being a trailing spouse, and his initial thoughts on academia. Kyle's research website can be found here and he is also on twitter @kyleniemeyer.   Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 14, the GEARS Duo banters about academic burnout, why it happens, how you can move past it, and its impact on academic. We also discuss how academic could be structured differently to prevent burnout, the role mentorship plays in burnout, and why almost all tenure track faculty experience burnout.     Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 13, The GEARS Duo banters about mentorship and its role in academia. We discuss the purpose of mentors, who is responsible for finding them, departmental responsibility for providing good mentorship. We also open up about some of our experiences with good and bad mentorship and how we thing mentorship can be better fostered within departments.    Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. If you like Academic Trax, please leave us a comment on our website and also on iTunes. 

In Episode 12, Guest Host @doc_becca joins us for a discussion about the intersection of social media, science, and academia. Along the way, we discuss #SFNBanter, the tweetup started by Becca, proposals and NIH, prospects on tenure, and the Tenure Track Aggregator. Also, Becca provides some tips on handling students and social media interactions.    Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears

In Episode 11, the GEARS duo banters about travel and conferences. We discuss how travel impacts the teaching schedule and the importance for junior faculty to be present at conferences. We take a left turn for a bit and discuss how parallel session conferences are horrible and give acute examples as to why. Lastly, we also share some tips on how to survive traveling and end with some travel horror stories.  Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profge

Welcome to the Academic Trax, where two junior faculty members provide expert advice on topics beyond their expertise! In Episode 10, the GEARS duo banters about their ideal graduate student. They discuss particulars of graduate student applications that give useful (or completely useless) information about the student in question. Joshua also has a strong message for poorly motivated graduate students, while Jon gets jaded about the whole process at times.  (Note: there is a bit of lag at times and it was difficult to fix during editing. Thanks for understanding.) Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgear

Welcome to the Academic Trax, where two junior faculty members provide expert advice on topics beyond their expertise! In Episode 9, the GEARS duo banters about the how they decided to pursue academia. Along the way, we get side tracked and discuss our PhD research and how we review other tenure track applications. It is quite possible we never really answered the question at hand and we will need to address it again in the future.   Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears.

In this episode, the GEARS duo banters about the new Texas law that allows for concealed handgun permit holders to carry their weapons into university buildings and classrooms. A civilized discussion ensues about our experiences with guns and our thoughts on the merits of the law and the 2nd Amendment, the pros and cons of the law for students and faculty, and the impact for academia in general. We also discuss how this law may impact poaching of faculty from public schools and does it present an insurance risk for the university. Below are some links to resources discussed during the course of the episode. Try to make it to the end of the episode where there are specific instructions for any listener who makes it!  Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears. Resource Links: https://campuscarry.utexas.edu/ http://qz.com/626520/new-gun-laws-on-us-colleges-are-great-news-for-potential-sexual-predators/?nc

In this episode, the GEARS duo banters about getting into graduate school and whether it is better for the student to get into graduate school (and fail) or be preemptively denied by admissions committees (because of the chance they might fail). Topics include: differences between our own institutions and departments for graduate admissions, the impact of financial decisions on graduate admissions, support mechanisms at the graduate level, and the brand of the institution. Along the way, we have a role-reversal and it is now Jon asking the same question a million times in a row.   Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears.  

In this episode, the GEARS duo banters about proposals, the proposal writing process, and ways in which proposals get returned without review. After listening, you will realize that Joshua likes to ask the same question repeatedly, while Jon is a complete cynical jackass. Topics include: NSF rules and guidelines, proposals vs auxiliary documents, the proposal process, writing for reviewers, the proposal process, returns without review, the proposal process, NSF hypothesis statements, the proposal process, making figures, and the proposal process again. ;-) Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears.  

In this episode, the GEARS duo banters about solving academia's publishing problem. We discuss the future of academic publishing, the effects of the need to publish, open access versus paywalls, for-profit publishers, self-archiving, and self publishing. We also take a stab at hypothesizing how self publishing would affect your tenure review and what do universities do with all of those metrics that they collect?. Our answers may shock you! (See, there was some science in the discussion... we had a hypothesis.) Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears.  

In this episode, the GEARS duo banters about their first time... teaching. We discuss our teaching philosophy, which translates to Joshua being creative while Jon is just a pain in the ass. Topics include: the first year teaching, initial preparation for your class, and help from other faculty members, who’s responsible for learning, how to put the onus on students, and professionalism. Let us know what you think. We can be reached at www.academictrax.com or via email at academictrax@gmail.com. Jon can be reached on twitter @profgears.