SWE - Winter 2009 - (Page 58) ENGINEERING WORLD will involve 14 Cornell faculty members along with scientists at Oregon State University, Howard University, Bowdoin College, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Conservation Fund. Many of today’s problems in ecology and conservation involve juggling large numbers of variables, often to find the optimum way to balance them. Some are so complex, the researchers say, that they will require new advances in computer science. Dr. Gomes and her team hope to create a new field of computational sustainability, analogous to computational biology, that will stimulate new developments in the computer science areas of constraint optimization, dynamical systems, and machine learning. The institute already has several interdisciplinary research projects underway, including: Wildlife corridors for grizzly bears: Optimizing the design of ing grounds: Conserving and buffering valuable fish stocks and marine biodiversity with a computer model to decide the optimal number of nofish zones, their location, size, and the number of years they should be open or closed to fishing Pastoral systems in East Africa: Better understanding how the interaction between precipitation and forage resources, the location of water wells, the dynamics of groundwater stock, and the possibility of fencing and rotating livestock to different pastures influence poverty, food security, and environmental stress in Africa CORNELL UNIVERSITY Everything we do in biofuels changes everything else. Computer models can project the results of each change into the future. land corridors for grizzlies that now live in three separate areas in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana to find a viable route while reducing the cost of land acquisition Biofuels: Developing models to transition to an ethanol economy, taking into account the needs of households, landowners, ethanol producers, gasoline refiners, and food producers Bird conservation: Preserving bird habitats and designing bird corridors by analyzing hemispheric-scale bird migrations involving literally billions of birds Rotational management of fish- Why High-Tech, Mid-Level Women Face the Biggest Barriers Women at the middle level of their high-tech careers are extremely valuable to their organizations, but new research indicates that this seems to be the very point at which they face the greatest barriers to advancement. According to “Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for MidLevel Women in Technology,” 29 percent of women are planning to leave their mid-level positions at high-tech companies in the next 12 months and pursue alternative options. The study, conducted by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology in conjunction with the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University, is available at www.anitaborg.org/news/research/. Faculty Positions in Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Department of Mechanical Engineering seeks outstanding candidates for tenuretrack faculty positions in the following fields to begin July 1, 2009 or thereafter: Dynamical Systems and Controls Energy Solid Mechanics Broadly in Mechanical Engineering Applicants should hold an earned Ph.D. in mechanical engineering or a closely related field by the beginning of the appointment. Faculty duties include teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, research, and supervision of student research. We seek candidates who will provide inspiration and leadership in research and actively contribute to core mechanical engineering undergraduate and graduate level teaching. New faculty hires are expected to have a research focus in one of the disciplinary fields listed above, or broadly in mechanical engineering. Applicants must have demonstrated: (1) outstanding research strength; (2) a strong disciplinary background; (3) strong experimental and/or theoretical skills; and (4) the potential ability to synthesize new devices and systems by working across disciplinary boundaries. Appointment would be at the assistant or untenured associate professor level. In exceptional cases, a senior faculty appointment may be possible. Applicants should send a curriculum vita, a research statement, a teaching statement, and copies of not more than three publications. They should also arrange for four individuals to submit letters of recommendation on their behalf. This information must be entered electronically at the following site: http://search-meche.mit.edu/. Submission of applications before January 31, 2009 is strongly encouraged; full consideration will be given to applications submitted by February 28, 2009. Please refer to the web address for detailed description of each position. MIT is an equal-opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women and underrepresented minorities are especially encouraged to apply. The study provides an in-depth look into the barriers to retention and advancement of technical women and provides solid recommendations to high-tech companies on how to overcome those barriers. It examines technical women at mid-level ranking because it is a critical juncture for both women on the technical ladder — a complex set of gender barriers converge at this point — and the high-tech firms that employ them. The study found that some of these barriers to advancement include: Women are more likely than men to perceive the workplace as a competitive culture and do not believe the corporate culture is a meritocracy. 58 SWE WINTER 2009 http://www.anitaborg.org/news/research/ http://search-meche.mit.edu/
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.