IT Steering Committee Meeting Feb 17 2017

IT Steering Committee meeting Feb 17 2017 Carol Will, Jerry Schoen, Patricia Galvis-Assmus, Michelle Trim, BJ Roche, Patience Hartley, Graham Gal, Maria Toyofuku, Traci Hess, Nikki Stoia.

Double Dipping issue: University policy of limiting double dipping to 2 requirements is currently on hold.

IT Minor rule about limiting students to taking no more than 2 courses within their major to count towards the minor was discusses. There was some discussion of whether a 2-course maximum should be applied towards the student’s major, or towards the student’s department.

The committee voted to approve this policy: A maximum of 2 courses within the Major rubric can be used towards completion of the IT Minor. This policy will be enforced for students enrolling in the minor for the Fall 2017and later semesters. 7 in favor, 2 abstentions, 1 opposed.

For current students who may be in something of a gray area with respect to this vs. current policy, Patience will build a list of what courses these students have vs. their requirements. She’ll forward to Patricia, who will analyze how big a problem it is, and will make executive decisions on how to deal with each student.

Summit & Career Networking Event Summit is on March 24, 9 AM – 3 PM at Campus Center Auditorium. https://www.umass.edu/itprogram/ict2014 A Career Networking event will take place March 23, Cape Cod Lounge. Several UMass alums & businesses will converse with groups of students in a round-robin.

Summit: Target audience for summit includes faculty, administrators, staff and students from the 5 colleges. In addition, we’re reaching out to Springfield Tech CC and several local high schools.

We broke down presentations into 3 categories; - Tech fair exhibits (mostly exhibiting hardware, related digital technologies). A major focus of this will be an array of 3D printers, milling machines etc. brought by Technology Education Concepts, Inc. - Tech fair presentations – displaying/discussing work/projects of 5 college faculty and students. - Talks, panel discussions. To be given as plenary talk, unless we get so many proposals, we may decide to hold some concurrently.

Agenda is being developed; we will have talks & panels interspersed with free time periods to visit tech fair booths.

At this point our greatest needs for the summit are: 1) build up the list of speakers and tech fair presenters so we have good participation from all 5 colleges, from as many departments as possible; 2) market this well, to assure good attendance. Including department-specific outreach.

A spreadsheet showing proposed/committed talks & presentations, suggested topics & presenters, has been distributed. It keeps getting updated – Jerry will post on Google Drive, invite SCom members to share. Suggestions for other presenters:

Maria mentioned FTL labs. Spinoff of UM faculty projects. They do VR, etc? Jerry will follow up.

Nikki met with Kelsey Hall, Assistive Technology. Kelsey is very interested. Jerry will send an email with “Nikki Said you’d like to present at our summit …” Subject line.

For the News noise fake news panel (we’re considering a different name). Carol will ask Kate Freedman if she has suggestions for other 5 College librarians, faculty & departmental contacts? And while we’re asking, ask about any of them doing any digital projects that might work for the summit.

Maker panel: Ludmilla Pavlova, Charlie Schweik and some others have expressed interest in participating. We’re having a meeting on Feb 22, 9:30 AM FAC 445 to discuss further. Jerry Sent around an invite to this meeting.

Jerry will contact David McLaughlin about this panel. He’s written on maker spaces and “Inclusivity in Engineering Education with LGBTQA Outreach” Mention “Nikki said … “ in subject line.

Maria suggests avoiding the use of the term Makerspace. We’ll discuss this as part of the meeting next Wednesday.

Jerry will meet Maria Friday 2/24 to discuss speaker recruitment & outreach to 5 Colleges.

Patience will follow up with TreAndrea Russworm, to recruit her to talk about her work on blended learning, using video games in her courses, teaching about their impact on culture, etc.

Jerry will contact Amy Alcadonna …. Lighting & Theatre… Use the “Nikki Said.. “ tagline.

Jerry & Patience will work with UM departments to get the summit listed on their departmental calendars .

Nikki will check with contacts in Agawam to recruit a high school program to present their robotics work at the tech fair.

Everyone please reach out to your departments and colleagues to encourage submission of talks & presentations, and attendance at summit.