Tag: career planning

Because it’s a FAQ: What is the T32?

At Northwestern University, I am a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellow in the Multidisciplinary Training Program in Digital Mental Health, funded by the T32 Institutional Grant at the NIH. Yes, I realize that’s a lot of words, so I will take this blog post to break that down a little bit. This is especially foreign for HCI scholars, where postdocs are mostly funded under project grants.

What is the T?

In the medical sciences, such as Psychology, it seems that additional training after earning a PhD via a postdoc is much more the norm than it is in fields such as HCI (although with the academic job market being what it is, postdocs are just becoming more common across the board). NIH has a number of grants for scholars to apply to at the various stages of their careers. Briefly, these are:

  • Training Grants such as the K and T
  • R
  • P50

They even have a handy infographic of how this breaks down over a career.

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/training/awards

Basically, the grants are set up such that when you graduate with your PhD, you have a T lined up to do for up to 3 years. Then, while working in the T, you are applying to your K. The K then gives additional mentorship and training years as you transition into independent faculty. Finally, as you advance in your career, you are well-set up to apply to larger grants, such as the R01.

The T32, specifically, are training grants that include research activities with mentors, as well as training in grant writing, publishing, and career planning. Teaching is not an expected part of early career training, under these programs.

So, what’s an HCI scholar doing in a T?

As a part of the Multidisciplinary Training Program in Digital Mental Health, I am on an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Not only am I working with two mentors, one from Psychology (David Mohr) and another from HCI (Madhu Reddy), but also with 3 other postdoc trainees.

Two of the postdocs are from fields in Behavioral Health and two of us are HCI-oriented. We are then able to cross-train each other in our respective disciplines. We are also working closely together on projects, often with a Behavioral Health lead and an HCI lead. This gives us a chance to learn enough of another discipline to work on these projects, have some publications in venues appropriate to each field, and widen our breadth of our research.

This training grant is also an opportunity to know our own discipline more deeply by having to teach outsiders some of the nuances and our language. This has been especially enlightening to compare publication cultures, with HCI being a field that values our conference papers as compared to Behavioral Health, which is journal-oriented.

This postdoc fellowship has been a unique experience for me, as an HCI scholar. I am learning how to work on interdisciplinary teams, find common ground, and bridge our scholarly work in order to meet our shared goals.

Rolling chairs in front of a blank projector screen.

UCI Summer Research Symposium 2016

 

Cover of a booklet for the summer research symposium. Has images of students posing in a group and working together to finish an obstacle course.

Cover to the Summer Research Symposium program.

Today was the end of the summer research programs on the UCI campus. This summer I was a mentor to both an incoming PhD student in the Competitive Edge program and an undergraduate student in the SURF program. The summer ended with a wonderful research symposium where half the students presented their work via oral presentations and the other half presented posters. We then had an awards ceremony lunch where everyone was recognized for the great work they did this summer.

A woman giving a presentation at a podium. To her right is a slide projected with the title "Developing a user friendly system to 3D print minecraft creations for autistic children"

SURF Undergraduate, Aminah Tamimi, giving her presentation on 3d printing from Minecraft.

Woman stands next to a podium and a slide that says "Who watches the overwatchers?"

Competitive Edge PhD Student, Amanda Cullen, giving her presentation on Overwatch.

These programs are a really nice way to help students prepare for graduate school. As someone who participated in a similar program (DREU) as an undergrad and in the Competitive Edge program, I can attest to their usefulness.

As a mentor for students in these programs I am also extremely grateful to the programs for the opportunity to give back and be a mentor. As someone who is passionate about increasing diversity in academia and in STEM programs, I am always excited about chances to “do my bit.” In this instance, working with both Aminah and Amanda was a wonderful experience. Not only are they both hardworking students who are going to go great places, but they are generous with me as I felt my way through my role as a peer mentor. I plan on staying in touch with them (especially Amanda since we sit next to each other in lab) as they progress along their careers and continue to be helpful when I can.

A big thanks to everyone who made this summer fun and full of learning!

A flock of birds silhouette against a yellow-orange sky.

Resource List – Advice for Grad Student

I’ve been wandering the net looking for useful information for grad students (particularly those who are working on their dissertation and looking forward to the job market.) So here I will start compiling the useful information and links I have found and update as needed.

If you have your own materials or have links to ones you like, feel free to share in the comments!

Destination Dissertation Book Cover, a briefcase with the title and authors written on it

Book Cover with title and author and a cartoon man in a tie

Large tree in green forest covered in moss

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