Present: Jim Oliver, Chiu-Shui Chan, Julie Dickerson, Steve Herrnstadt, Brian Mennecke, Matt Heying, Pam Shill. Absent: Derrick Parkhurst
The group is meeting weekly this semester. Every other meeting will be research presentations given by
students.
FY 07 Budget Reduction: HCI’s budget was reduced by 10% for this year. Jim is optimistic that the budget situation will improve in the new model.
HCI Retreat Recap: Collaboration, Marketing, and Curriculum were seen as the three main priorities. One of these topics will be on future meeting agendas for further discussion. This will be discussed more in depth at the next meeting.
Survey Results: Results from the survey sent to HCI faculty this summer asking if they would still like to participate in HCI were received from 57 of the 69 faculty members. Four of those that did not respond will be kept on the HCI list because they are mentoring students. The others that did not respond will either be dropped or Jim or Derrick will confirm with them that they no longer want to participate. A list of all faculty and the students that they are mentoring will be placed on the website in the future.
Certificate Courses for Spring 2007: Because of faculty that have left ISU and the rescheduling of the Globalization course, there currently are no electives for off-campus certificate students this spring. Derrick has agreed to offer PSYCH 522. Other suggestions for courses were made. It was decided that an email will go out to faculty asking them to nominate a course for an elective for the certificate. It will be made clear in the email that faculty are compensated for offering courses through distance education. To help HCI replace faculty that were teaching courses in key areas, Jim has contacted Engineering, Business, LAS, and other colleges to let them know that he is available to help them use VRAC/HCI as a recruiting opportunity as they interview potential faculty members.
Eportfolios: More information about the creation and context of eportfolios needs to be determined and given to HCI students, since they are a requirement of the program. A suggestion to create a template website for new students was made. Chiu-Shui volunteered to speak to the students about how to create an eportfolio. This will be discussed more in depth at the next meeting.
Since HCI does not have funding for a redesign, Steve Herrnstadt will offer this as a project to one of his classes.
Suggestion was made to propose either a 1 day seminar or 4-5 luncheon sessions covering foundational
technologies of VR for HCI faculty.
International Opportunities: Chiu-Shui has contacts in China and Taiwan and brought up the suggestion for international partnerships with universities there and even the possibility of creating a joint PhD program with them. Jim has heard of opportunities in Wales and Germany for students. Suggestion was made to collect all international opportunities that are available to HCI students.
Wednesday, October 4 at 9 am in the VRAC Conference Room. Submitted by Pam Shill