Summary of RFAC Activities Fall 2019 to Fall 2020
RFAC members: Jeff Young (chair), Carrie Bruce, David Joyner, Jun Shirako, Tim Trent, Jeff Valdez
The 2019-2020 CoC research faculty advisory committee (RFAC) looked into several items of interest for the CoC research faculty community.
Professional development of the RF community
Work continued on initiatives related to gap funding, service funding, and RF spotlight programs. Progress on these initiatives was somewhat delayed by COVID-19, but the RFAC plans to continue work on each of these initiatives in future terms.
Carrie Bruce hosted a well-attended promotion event (22 attendees) on March 5th, 2020 with representatives from IPAT, the institute and CoC HR in attendance. This event provided attendees with a first look at the new “Promote” tool used for the RPT process going forward as well as presentations by Michelle Meadors on the promotion process and time for Q&A from the attendees.
The RFAC professional development fund provided a grant for one recipient to attend a conference outside of Georgia Tech before travel was curtailed in Spring 2020.
Improving outreach to the RF community
Two members of the RFAC, Carrie Bruce and Jeff Young, continued their service on the faculty senate and shared updates with the wider RF community as part of this role. Jeff Young was appointed to the new CoC Dean’s Advisory Committee and continues to serve in this role and provide feedback from the research faculty to the dean and this group in a focused fashion. Jeff also helped facilitate a new introduction and meeting session with the new SCS chair, Dr. Vivek Sarkar, and the RFAC plans to help promote these meetings with other new chair hires in the college.
RFAC held several coffee hours for outreach and community building around initiatives like gap funding and service funding before COVID-19 restrictions made it tough to meet in person. While there has been a break in meet-ups, summer 2020 has brought the introduction of a new MS Teams forum for all CoC RF to use as a discussion platform and “virtual coffee hours”. These virtual events will continue in Fall 2020, and the RFAC plans to promote other opportunities to communicate and collaborate in a safe fashion.