10/11/2005 1 Encouraging the study of computer science at a research university. Michael J. Pazzani...

10/11/2005

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Encouraging the study of computer science at a research university.

Michael J. PazzaniVice President for Research and

Graduate and Professional EducationPazzani@rutgers.edu

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Rutgers Freshman Seminars• Rutgers

– Faculty: 2700 – Undergraduates: 37,000– Graduate and Professional: 13,000 – AAU Research University– Douglass college, residential college for women

• Rutgers Freshman Seminar– One Credit course One hour a week– Introduce students to research early in education– Get to know a real professor

• My Seminar: Internet Personalization– Taught at Douglass to broaden participation– Hopefully, more interesting than finding prime numbers

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Personalized Restaurant Recommendation

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Class Exercise: Pizza

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Is this creepy?

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Field trip to Google: Free Food & Met Larry Page

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Motivate Research Problems:Common Sense

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Why attend a research university?Education where new knowledge created

• How many hours a week does a Rutgers Professor teach?

• What do Rutgers Professors do when they aren’t teaching?

• How much does a Ph.D. student in computer science pay Rutgers a year?

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Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

• “I'm teaching 5 classes this term, advising 2 doctoral students, and I'm the faculty lifeguard.” – Dr. Jules Hilbert

University of Illinois at Chicago

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Results

• All students passed exit test on universities and research

• One female student enrolled in a CS class

• VP of Research– Encouraged professors to talk to freshman and

sophomores about graduate school costs.

– Provided $3000 to each faculty member that taught a freshman seminar to hire a student over the summer to participate in research instead of work at Starbucks.