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New Robotics Program in development - need Faculty — Parallax Forums

New Robotics Program in development - need Faculty

edited 2006-06-13 23:23 in Learn with BlocklyProp
Hey all!

If you are interested in exploring a potential teaching relationship in an Artificial Life and/or Robotics program with a small private college that hosts on campus and online programs, please read on and post a reply or contact me at UAT. I am also interested in any advice you all might have on good places to find faculty to help develop these programs.

The University of Advancing Technology (UAT) is a small private college dedicated to advancing technology both in practice and in theory. We are unique because we have created, and continually nurture, a community of students and staff-self-styled geeks, many of them-whose personal and professional lives revolve around technology. Over one thousand strong, their intelligence, talents and interests are vast, helping us to stand apart in academia as a place for those who are disenfranchised by ordinary institutions of higher learning. At our campus in Tempe, Arizona, we serve our student body by fostering knowledge creation and academic excellence in an environment that embraces the richness and diversity of modern technology.

We teach students how technology has shaped the world so that they may be part of its evolution. While many colleges that offer a technology education approach their students with visions of high salaries and professional certification as enrollment incentives, we maintain that well-educated graduates may create whatever future they wish on their own merit. We believe that the complex relationship between knowledge and technological innovation will create a better world. Our students agree.

UAT's standards for student achievement are high. To help students focus on the complex relationship between technology and society, we place great emphasis on the humanities as a vital component of a balanced education. Our portfolio development system compels students to produce works that demonstrate mastery within their discipline and an ability to work in a team environment. Students are also required to hone their writing skills in writing intensive classes while actively pursuing their professional development through an internship requirement. UAT also incorporates multifaceted thinking disciplines across our curriculums.

We have three centers of research. UAT's knowledge creation and program development innovations originate in our Center for Technology Studies (CTS); CTS aids the University in proclaiming its institutional mission and values to the greater public. Our Center for Institutional Research (CIR) seeks to assess, refine and develop our best practices and to share them with the broader educational and academic community. Our Center for Learning Excellence (CLE) ensures that UAT's approach to technology learning is both distinctive and constantly evolving; one of the most important outcomes of the CLE was the Hyperlearning model developed in 1995. Our Hyperlearning model-which has been adopted by over 20 colleges-evolved into Year-Round Balanced Learning, or YRBL, in 2003. YRBL blends educational "global best practices" with original research and development. YRBL foresees an evolution of student learning techniques and tools, and is designed to improve knowledge retention and deep-learning; in addition, it allows for remarkably flexible scheduling and accelerated student completion. UAT original research enables students to earn degrees in less than three years, customize their curriculum around their interests, gain a deeper understanding of technology, and apply their theoretical knowledge and practical skills to creating complex works and ideas representative of their discipline.

UAT faculty members are many things beyond just credential-holders: among them are IT professionals, artists, designers, editors, published scholars and North America's first and only Professor of Thinking. Our faculty members have published numerous books and papers on a wide variety of topics, including network security and information assurance, video game programming, thinking and child development, creativity and many other topics.

UAT promotes student innovation through its curriculum. Past UAT student projects include progressive video games, such as "Asylum" and "Seas of Venus," as well as several short local award winning films and multimedia art projects. Current student projects include a war-driving mission to determine the security of wireless networks in the greater Phoenix area, a partnered research project on detecting and decrypting steganography on the Internet and the development of the multiplayer game, "COR." Because of these innovations, UAT students experience
coursework as an undergraduate that is equivalent to the graduate work offered at other universities.

We believe that the continuing academic and philosophical evolution of UAT, based on our core beliefs and institutional mission, will ensure that, ultimately, UAT's reputation will always rest on the careers and endeavors of its alumni and faculty, as well as the university's own displays of technological know-how. For the 2007-9 academic catalog, UAT has added two majors to the catalog which may be relevant to your industry. These majors are Artificial Life Programming and Robotics & Micro-Robotics. Preliminary goals for these two majors are as follows.

Goals of the Artificial Life Program include:
* Creating A-Life programming in game and system security application.
* Developing programs modeling real life organisms and situations.
* Developing algorithms, strategies and methodologies using the latest technologies in neural networks, machine learning, statistical modeling, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence to support model generation for computationally intelligent software components.
* Prototyping and optimizing algorithms in a software language.

Goals of the Robotics and Micro-robotics program include:
* Studying transformation of data from binary bits to physical motion.
* Innovating new ways of designing and building small devices that perform specific tasks based on environmental information (heat, motion, specific data triggers, light, sound, etc).
* Analyzing integrated circuits, machine level programming, wireless technology, sensor programming, 3D modeling, and component assembly.

UAT is seeking full time, part time and online faculty to help develop and deliver these majors.

Thank you for your time!

Rebecca Whitehead
Dean of Academic Affairs
rebecca@uat.edu

Comments

  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,395
    edited 2006-06-13 01:14
    Hello Parallax Educators:

    Parallax instructors·likely have the skills to pursue some of the positions Rebecca is describing at UAT as a result of being involved with robotics, electronics and maybe product development.·When Rebecca first contacted us about·these opportunities I·identified a few instructors·to get her started,·but there are many more in our customer base whom we've never met. Therefore,·I requested that she make the post on these forums so we could cast a wider net. As I think about our educator customer base many people come to mind.

    What impresses me the most about their search is that·UAT appears to lack internal bureaucracy and·promotion of·instructor autonomy. Autonomy is something·most of us·value highly·along with·salary and doing a job we enjoy.

    I'll be refreshing this link periodically to keep it near the top of the Stamps in Class thread. If you think you may be interested in a postion at UAT, I highly encourage you to contact Rebecca.

    Sincerely,

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2006-06-13 01:34
    I find it amazing that nowhere in that advertisement was it mentioned where in the country UAT was situated. Should we want to join, where would we have to move to?

    Seems to me geographic location is one of the big three criteria of any new job, the other two being money and what the job actually is.
  • Russ FergusonRuss Ferguson Posts: 206
    edited 2006-06-13 01:43
    The second paragraph mentions - "At our campus in Tempe, Arizona"... Maybe commuting would be a posibility·if two of the options are money and money. smile.gif
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,395
    edited 2006-06-13 05:17
    Allan,

    I concur entirely. I don't know if remote employment is an option in this case. In this case you'd need to like desert living.

    Ken Gracey
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2006-06-13 13:25
    D'oh! I missed it entirely. Thanks for the heads up.
  • edited 2006-06-13 15:24
    Hey all,

    We are looking for full time, which would require relocation to Tempe and we do offer a relocation allowance, BUT we are ALSO looking for part time and online faculty. A part time, online faculty member can be anywhere in the nation and still be a part of the UAT community. I currently have faculty in California, Missouri, Colorado, Washington state, Washington DC, and Virginia. Hope this helps clarify.

    Thanks for your response posts!

    Rebecca
  • bennettdanbennettdan Posts: 614
    edited 2006-06-13 23:23
    Please email me at bennettdan@bellsouth.net
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