Overview

This document serves as my Faculty Development Plan (FDP) as suggested by section 3.1.5 of the BYU “Policy on Faculty Rank and Status”. This development plan will discuss my goals for succeeding in each of the three criteria used to evaluate faculty at BYU (Citizenship, Teaching, and Scholarship). For each of these three areas, I will include a personal assessment of my strengths and weaknesses, measurable goals for my three year performance review, and a detailed plan to achieve these goals.

Teaching

Personal Assessment
It is difficult for me to assess my teaching abilities – I have only recently completed teaching my first course and have had no prior professional teaching experience. However, I have identified a number of areas in which I can improve by soliciting feedback from students and performing a personal evaluation of this course. I have identified three areas in which I need to improve my teaching: clearly specify student expectations, involve students during class lectures, and provide a more positive examination experience.

Although I have only taught one course, I found the teaching experience surprisingly enjoyable. Interacting with students that are trying to learn the course material was positive and mutually enjoyable. I look forward to additional teaching assignments in our department.

Teaching Goals
I have identified several teaching goals based on feedback from my first course and the current needs of our department. These goals are:

• Tasks:
• Develop a clear course syllabus for a new Graduate Synthesis course taught in Winter 2000
• Collaborate on curriculum changes for ECEN 320/225
• Skills
• Provide more interactive class lectures
• Create well written examinations

Teaching Plan
Based on suggestions received from colleagues and discussions in the faculty development series, I plan on achieving my teaching goals by completing the following activities:

Complete a class development project for Graduate Synthesis Course
Participants in the faculty development series are encouraged to take part in a course development project. This project is used to help structure the planning of a course taught by new faculty. By participating in this project for a new graduate synthesis course taught in Winter of 2000, I will have an opportunity to provide more structure to my course plans and receive feedback on my plans from other faculty members. I expect the following outcomes from the class development project:

• Clearly Defined Course Syllabus (involving peer review)
• Participation in at least one teacher training session
• Interactive lecture activities planned throughout course

Employ the services of Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT)
I plan on using the services of Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT) to provide mid-semester feedback on my teaching and course organization for the ECEN 220 course taught this Fall. Specifically, I will ask the student consultants to solicit anonymous feedback from students and provide candid feedback by observing class lectures.

Attend Teaching Seminar
To improve my examination writing skills, I plan on attending at least one teaching seminar during 1999. I intend to continuously improve my teaching skills by attending these seminars, soliciting advice from colleagues and obtaining feedback from students.

Department Resources
I have found the department to be very supportive of teaching activities and expect that the department will be willing to support the cost of most incidental resources needed to complete my teaching goals. The development of the ECEN 320 course, however, will require additional resources from the department. Modifying the ECEN 220 course into the junior level 320 course will require substantial effort: new labs need to be created, new design tools need to be prepared, course TAs will need training, and additional lectures must be prepared. In order to accomplish this goal, assistance from student TAs will be essential. I suggest that the department hire a qualified student to help design and prepare these materials during the semester before this course is first taught.


Citizenship

Personal Assessment
It is difficult for me to assess my Citizenship within the university this early in my career, but I do feel a responsibility and general desire to strengthen my department, collaborate with faculty in other departments, and further the mission of the university. For the first four months of my career, I have actively participated in department affairs and have agreed to serve on the department graduate committee. Perhaps my biggest weakness in this area is saying ‘yes’ to too many people and accepting too many responsibilities. I will need to choose and participate in my citizenship activities carefully.

Citizenship Goals
I have chosen the following specific goals for my citizenship activities for the next three years:

• Actively Participate in Graduate Committee

My current committee assignment within the department is membership on the graduate committee. Although I will not lead the activities of this committee, I plan on actively participating with the other faculty members. Aside from my routine activities on this committee, I would like to pursue the following issues: involve the computer engineering faculty in graduate study issues, improve/refine the graduate curriculum for computer engineering, and take an active part in recruiting qualified graduate students.

• Build Relationships with Colleagues in the Computer Science department

The computer science department performs research and teaches subjects that relate to many of the subjects and research topics of interest to the Computer Engineering program. Both departments could benefit from more collaboration and interaction between faculty members. I would like to encourage such interaction by getting to know faculty members of the department, identify collaborative activities, and encourage more cross-department activities. I plan on achieving this goal by attending group lunches bi-weekly, attending department seminars, and inviting faculty to our department seminars.


Scholarship

Personal Assessment
Although my scholarship track record is not yet proven, I am confident that I have the ability and motivation needed to succeed scholastically. Based on the publications and research as a graduate student, I feel confident that I can write and publish my research activities. However, I have not actively published scholastic material since my graduate school research. It is essential that I begin writing soon and acquire the momentum needed to perform scholarly research and produce peer-reviewed publications.

One of my strengths that will assist me in my scholarship activities is my ability to collaborate and work with others. Through participation in technical conferences and joint research projects with colleagues at BYU, I have identified several research topics that extend and enhance the work of other groups. My relationships with university colleagues and external collaborators will be instrumental for me to achieve my scholarship goals.

Although I have demonstrated the ability to publish, I have had limited experience writing research proposals and soliciting external funding. Since external funds are essential for successful research in my area of expertise, it will be necessary for me to develop the skills and discipline required to submit, obtain, and manage external research contracts.

During my experience in industry for a year and a half, I identified several topics of interest that I plan on pursuing as a faculty member at BYU. During my early investigation of these topics, I identified several weak areas in my technical background. It will be essential for me to strengthen my technical expertise in these areas if I am to succeed as a researcher in my intended area of research.

Scholarship Goals
Scholarship in the department is judged primarily by the number of peer-reviewed publications authored by a faculty member. Since much of the research involves prototyping, field experiments, and working demonstrations, successful research requires the help of able graduate students. In order to employ graduate students to assist with credible research, external funding is essential. My scholarship goals will be described in two sub-sections: publication goals and funding goals.

Publication Goals
Because of the rapid advancement of research in my area of expertise, it is necessary for me to publish in a wide variety of scholarly forums. Specifically, I plan to submit my research results to the appropriate workshops, symposium, conferences, and technical journals. Although the quality of these forums varies significantly, participation in each of these will allow me to meet and interact with potential collaborators, funding agencies, and reviewers. Specifically, I plan on submitting at least six technical articles each year to the various scholarly forums described above. Of these six, I plan on submitting at least two articles to relevant technical journals.

Funding Goals
As suggested above, external funding is essential for successful scholarship activity in my discipline. Fortunately, I am currently receiving external funding for research activities with Brad Hutchings, a colleague in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Although I have funding available, it is important for me to learn how to obtain funding for my own research activities. I plan on submitting at least two proposals for external research funds during my first three years. From these proposals, I plan on having at least one of them funded by my fourth year at BYU.

Scholarship Plan
The scholarship goals I have made are ambitious (at least for me) and will require considerable effort and careful planning. This section will discuss the specific plans I have made to achieve each of these goals.

Publication Plan
I have made a good start in my research activities and have obtained preliminary results from my research that are publishable in various conferences and journals. I plan on submitting papers based on these results to the following conferences and journals during my first year at BYU:

• Military and Aerospace Applications of PLD's (MAPLD), deadline 6/11/1999
• IEEE Computer, Special Issue on Configurable Computing: Technology and Applications, deadline 8/15/1999
• ACM Symposium on FPGAs, deadline 10/1/1999
• Reconfigurable Architecture Workshop, deadline 10/22/99
• IEEE Conference on FPGAs for Custom Computing Machines, deadline 1/5/2000

The bulk of the writing and research for these proposed submissions will be completed during the Spring and Summer terms. Other publications I plan on targeting during my first three years include: IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems, IEEE Micro, IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design, and IEEE transactions on Circuits and Systems.

Funding Plan
Fortunately, there are many government and private agencies that fund research in my area. During my first three years at BYU, I plan on targeting the following funding opportunities:

• NSF CAREER Award, planned submission: June 2000

NSF offers a generous award for new faculty early in their career. As a new faculty, I intend to submit a proposal for this award next Summer. I will use the coming year to prepare for the proposal by publishing my current work and making appropriate contacts in our research field.

• DARPA (joint funding with collaborator, hopefully become the principal investigator)

DARPA is actively supporting many investigators in my area of research (including my own). It is likely that DARPA will solicit additional proposals in my area of research during the next three years. If I am not committed to other research activities at the time of these proposals, I intend to submit an additional proposal to DARPA. Ideally, I would like to submit a proposal as the principle investigator with other colleagues in the department.

• Other NSF Funding Possibilities

The National Science Foundation offers several awards for research in my area. The relevenat awards offered annually include:

• NSF/CISE/CCR/Design Automation Award
• NSF/CISE/CCR/Computer Systems Architecture Award

Strategies for Scholarly Productivity
My scholarship goals are ambitious – it will be necessary for me to develop new skills and discipline. Specifically, I have set for myself the following personal goals to achieve these skills and discipline:

• Write at least one hour each day (publications and proposals)
• Maintain a list of relevant journals, conferences, and workshops to target for possible publication
• Communicate monthly with collaborators and colleagues at other universities and organizations

Department Resources
Although I currently have funding available for research and travel, it is necessary for me to have a small budget for travel funds to allow me to attend conferences or meetings not associated with my current research funding. A small, marginal travel budget will allow me to continue to meet new people, target new publications, and explore new opportunities unrelated to my current research.

Summary
I am confident that I will achieve the goals outlined in this document and that I will meet the high expectations set by my department. With continued support from colleagues, the department, college, and university, I should have all the help necessary to complete my goals and improve the department and university. I look forward to this challenge and opportunity.





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XXXXXXXXXX




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XXXXXXXXXX, Department Chair