Chair of the USUCGER Education Committee:
Dr. Andrea Welker, PE
Associate Professor
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Villanova University
800 Lancaster Avenue
Villanova, PA 19085
Phone: 610-519-4959
Fax: 610-519-6754
email: andrea.welker@villanova.edu
Organization
and Plan of Action
The goals of the USUCGER
education committee as determined at the 4th USUCGER meeting in
Atlanta are designed to assist faculty in teaching and outreach.
These include:
1. Information on teaching modules to assist faculty.
2. Course content and recommended textbooks. (Are we teaching what
is expected / needed? Course content – What are the fundamentals
that should be covered at a minimum? What are additional topics
we should cover in the UG curriculum?)
3. Information about additional training for faculty members.
4. Tools to help assess our laboratories (are our equipment/testing
methods up-to-date, accurate, meaningful to practice).
5. Information regarding outreach activities to increase participation
of under-represented groups and to improve the image of geotechnical
engineering. This includes K-12 and outreach activities by university
students.
Organization
The committee
will operate under the direction of a chair elected by the USUCGER
membership for a two-year term. The committee convened for the first
time at the 4th Workshop in Atlanta under the guidance of David
Elton. At the meeting Beena Sukumaran was elected chair. Beena is
associate professor of civil engineering at Rowan University. She
will be advised by two faculty, Shoba Bhatia of Syracuse University
and Andrea Welker of Villanova University.
The committee proposes
to operate via permanent subcommittees designed to address ongoing
operations relevant to the mission and goals, and via temporary
task forces designed to address short-term specific issues not falling
within the operation of an existing subcommittee, e.g., organizing
sessions for specific conferences and workshops.
Four subcommittees are
proposed at this time to address the four goals of the committee
listed above: a course content sub-committee to be chaired by Grigg
Mullin, Virginia Military Institute, educational modules sub-committee
to be chaired by Mary Roth, Lafayette College, laboratory sub-committee
chaired by Kevin Sutterer, Rose Hulman and an outreach subcommittee
to be chaired by Sara Lacy, TERC.
Terms
of reference for the Education Committee for USUCGER
-
Be
a Standing Committee chaired by a member of USUCGER.
-
Consist
of two advisors and ten sub-committee members at a maximum. The
Board shall determine their period of service.
-
Be
responsible to the Board for all matters concerning the education
of geotechnical engineering.
-
Acquaint
itself with modern methods and technologies of instruction and
dissemination of knowledge and act as a source of advice on these
matters.
-
Act
as a source of information on teaching tools and educational modules
that will assist geotechnical faculty.
-
Act
as a source of information on recommended course content for undergraduate
geotechnical engineering courses.
-
Undertake
to provide copies of typical syllabi for undergraduate geotechnical
engineering courses.
-
Undertake
to provide information regarding suitable outreach activities
for K-12.
-
Undertake
to provide information regarding suitable outreach activities
for university students that enhance their professional development
as well as serve the community.
-
Promote
the holding of discussions on educational subjects at conferences
that have a large attendance of geotechnical engineering faculty.
-
Enhance
the visibility of USUCGER members by supporting suitable applicants
for national education awards.
-
Meet
when the opportunity presents itself such as at scientific meetings
and maintain contact on a regular basis.
-
Maintain
contact with members and committees of other relevant organizations,
especially the Geo-Institute.
-
Keep
records of all of its meetings, the activities it arranges and
/or sponsors and reports requested on all such activities.
-
Advertise
its activities through the USUCGER website.
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