Report on the NSF CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop Held on November 13-14, 2004, Anaheim, CA

1. Report on the NSF CAREER Proposal Writing Workshop Held on November 13-14, 2004, Anaheim, CA Z.J. Pei Dept of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 66506

2. Quick Facts about the Workshop • Four NSF programs sponsored • Three NSF program directors attended • Five recent CAREER awardees presented • 19 assistant professors participated • Mock panel meetings reviewed 9 proposals

3. Sponsoring NSF programs • Manufacturing Machines and Equipment (MME), Program Director: Dr. George Hazelrigg • Materials Processing and Manufacturing (MPM), Program Director: Dr. Jian Cao • NanoManufacturing (NM), Program Director: Kevin Lyons • Engineering Design (ED), Program Director: Dr. Delcie Durham

4. Attending NSF Programs Directors • Dr. George Hazelrigg, Manufacturing Machines and Equipment (MME), DMII • Dr. Jian Cao, Materials Processing and Manufacturing (MPM), DMII • Dr. Linda Blevins, Combustion and Plasma Systems (a sub-element of the Thermal Systems Program), Chemical and Transport Systems (CTS) Division

5. Workshop Organizers • Dr. Jian Cao, Program director, National Science Foundation • Dr. Mark Lewis, University of Michigan, 2002 CAREER and PECASE Awardee • Dr. Z.J. Pei, Kansas State University, 2004 CAREER Awardee • Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei, North Carolina State University, 2003 CAREER Awardee • Dr. Tony Schmitz, University of Florida, 2003 CAREER Awardee • Dr. Teresa Wu, Arizona State University, 2003 CAREER Awardee

6. Main Activities at the Workshop • NSF Program directors present NSF CAREER proposal guidelines • CAREER awardees present their stories • NSF Program directors describe procedures for a typical CAREER proposal panel meeting • Mock panel review • Brainstorm a list of DOs and DON’Ts for writing successful CAREER proposals

7. More Information Available http://www.ksu.edu/career/

8. Examples of DOs • Attend NSF grantee’s conference • Know people in your field, and more importantly, make sure they know you • Talk to people at conferences…maybe even use them • Have your proposal read by others • Have a layperson read the intro • Know your audience (Various backgrounds; Some will read closely…some may not) • Make sure that your idea FITS well in that program

9. Examples of DOs • Be brave, propose significant jumps in the state-of-the-art • Be ambitious (it is a 5 year plan!) • Focus on one problem area allowing for a more cohesive proposal • Show that you have already had some success • Present your previous experiences, and the quality of it • Use all of the resources at your disposal

10. Examples of DOs • Present your knowledge of what has been done on the field and what has not • Show that you have sufficient access to the necessary resources • Tell a compelling story, lead the reviewers down your path • Ensure that those not familiar with your research area can follow your story

11. Examples of DOs • Find where your passion is (for educational component) • You need to talk about course development but also need to add something • Use assessment metrics for both research and education goals

12. Examples of DON’Ts • Don’t write a technical paper • Don’t make the reviewers search for answers to these questions • Don’t force reviewers to read between the lines • Don’t use “we” • Don’t abuse acronyms • Don’t repeat an entire paragraph • Don’t use too many out-of-date references

13. Examples of DON’Ts • Don’t depend on others (in collaboration, your work should be the driver) • Don’t be too broad • Don’t propose a center/institute

14. Workshop Evaluations 1

15. Workshop Evaluations 2

16. Workshop Evaluations 3

17. Most Helpful Activities • The panel reviews were very helpful. I learned a lot. • The mock panel review. • Mock study is quite helpful. • Mock panel review. • Mock panel. • Review/panel process. • Panel review. • Mock panel review. • Review panels. • Panel discussions and presentations. • Access to example proposals are very (extremely) helpful. • Reading the proposals, grading proposals. Panel discussions.

18. Most Helpful Activities • Presentations by program directors in attendance. Presentations by previous career awardees. • Overall presentation by especially CAREER awardees experiences. • Presentations were excellent. • Awardee history. • The awardee’s story, and experience in the whole process of career proposal writing. • Successful stories. • Listening to CAREER awardees stories (initial failure or success). • Personal experiences of past winners.

19. Most Helpful Activities • Meeting with program directors. • Interactions between program directors and participants were very helpful. • NSF directors. • Interactions with program director. Advise on how to construct proposal. • Chatting with program managers. • Program directors expertise. • George Hazelrigg was great.

20. Most Helpful Activities • The limited number of workshop attendees. Facilitated better interactions. • The size of the workshop (20 people) was a strength. Allowed personal interaction. • the size (# of participants, # of presenters) of the workshop is effective, allows active participation, interaction with NSF directors and answers to individual questions. • Networking dinner.

21. Most Helpful Activities • Summarize DOs and DON’Ts list. • Presentation on “DOs and DON’Ts.”

22. Possible Future WorkshopMay 24, 2005Columbia University, New York(in conjunction with NAMRC) Pending the approval from NSF

23. For Your Attention