March 27, 2012

ABD Panel

Officers: Ben, Shan, James, Ashley, Adam, Jen, Amira
Attendees: Julissa, Audrey, Beth, Grace

Announcement

Superhero party

  • April 14, Costume party. Come dressed as a hero.

Logo contest

  • Winner to be determined. Entries visible here.

Headshots

  • Amira will take a headshot of you for your website, journal biography, and so on. Suggested donation is $5.

ABD Panel

ABD Panelists: Marc Gentzler, Jessica Ray, Grant Taylor, Liz Lazzara, Dave Schuster, Stephen Surge, Sally Stader

Grant process tips:

  • get comps committee together as early as possible
  • same as the paper
  • review the requirements
  • get your advisor on board
  • full faculty comps decision
  • individual rules
  • Case by case
  • Bother your advisor as much as possible

Grant resources:

  • Training technical group HFES award: faculty member letter of recommendation
  • IST in house grant issue with grant not being PI
  • LIFE for aging research; LINK foundation (simulation company) simulation funding grant
  • Augmented Cognition HFES technical group
  • APA GS (graduate student) letter of recommendation short budget
  • Psi Chi student grant- highly competitive (2 funding cycles)
  • military division APA division 19 grant

How involved is your advisor in the dissertation process?

  • It is very dependent on your topic.
  • Can be done outside the lab
  • Your advisor will help you in forming your committee (consider politics)
  • Have ideas/get your idea approved/is it funded?/Do you want it to be from a funded project?

Attend other defenses to get the typical questions:

  • Hancock- gender differences
  • Mouloua- practical implications
  • Salas- practical applications
  • Summarize your dissertation in an elevator speech.

Outside members outside of UCF they have to have department signed off. If they have served as an outside member before then they will already be listed.

Internships

  • Talk to your advisor for research opportunities
  • Florida Hospital, ARI (7 of them)- you have to stay there a whole year,
  • Lockheed Martin, used to count research hours as an internship
  • ARI: work environment; 1:1 relationship with a PhD , good pay
  • THERE ARE TWO Internship requirements (Credits and Checkmark)

One thing that you wish you knew being ABD…

  • Management: managing yourself and your path and your time: take the initiative!
    “you should be thinking no matter what year you are what will your dissertation topic be?”- what your professor should be telling you
    Do not start your dissertation with a blank slate.

    • Good to have previous writing
      Good to have previous knowledge
      Have a plan in place before you start writing
      Have some hands off funding (funding stipulations may determine the course of your project: what will your committee want?)
      Graduate studies
  • Teresa Dorman: goes through the whole process of your best resources and your document (approval forms etc.)
  • Sabrina
    Don’t try to make your dissertation your magnum opus: get it done and over with
  • Get someone to be their champion: find this person
      • Doing their topic/they know the topic “I really like this… can you help me with this?”
      • To get out faster: to find a motivator, keep your projects isolated
      • It doesn’t have to be reported necessarily to the funding agency (see stipulations on the grants)
      • Your dissertation could be a subsection of a giant project

    Simulator and eye tracker (reliance on technology is not necessarily a good thing especially if you have a time frame)