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Dear Engineering Faculty and PhD Students,<br>
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<div class="">The following email was sent to all the departments. Please contact your department chair and I if you are interested in enrolling in this program. You must have the permission of both your advisor as well as the chair to enroll.</div>
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<div class="">Regards,</div>
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<div class="">Pradeep Sharma</div>
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<div class="">Message to the Departments:</div>
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<div class=""><span class="" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; font-size:10.5pt; orphans:2; widows:2">Dear Department Chairs:</span><br class="">
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">As you know, with Dean Tedesco's encouragement</span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt; color:rgb(31,73,125)"> in 2013</span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">, we had launched the </span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt; color:rgb(31,73,125)">CCE </span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">Future Faculty Program in
our college. Such career developmental programs for Ph.D. students are also in place at many other schools (e.g., Maryland, Florida) and these programs have become noteworthy in helping their Ph.D. graduates seek placements in academia. </span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">Seven
batches have already “graduated” from our program with some notable success. Rachel is compiling some success stories on a dedicated website which will be released soon.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">The new cycle is open for enrollment (Fall 2020). The FFP course that will meet on <span class="">Mondays from 1130 am -1:00 pm—taught by me and</span> occasional guest lecturers. In the Fall semester (and the follow-up
in Spring 2021), the students will learn about what it is like to be a faculty, industry vs academia, how to optimize their doctoral work to be placed in the "right" post-doc or faculty position, give elevator pitches, generate new ideas for research, technical
presentations, the art of communication, networking, writing proposals, art of pedagogy, professional conduct in US institutions etc. </span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt"><b class=""><i class="">W</i></b><b class=""><i class=""><span class="" style="font-weight:normal">e </span>request that you all publicize this program, and from those expressing interest, handpick 3-4 of your best
students to participate</i></b><b class="">. </b>Selection criteria should not be based on GPA or solely technical achievements. Research productivity/potential is a necessary condition but please do give strong weightage to soft skills such as motivation,
maturity etc. If a department does not fill the quota of 3 students, I will be happy consider more from other departments if they have a surplus of high quality volunteers.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">Interested students simply have to register for the 1 credit FFP seminar course </span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt"><span class="" style="font-family:Helvetica; font-size:12px">ENGI 8111, Class Number 25742</span>.
We can only handle a limited number of students so I am seeking your top students who have a high likelihood of succeeding in an academic career—these are not <b class=""><i class="">necessarily</i></b> students with the highest GPa. There is a financial commitment
involved. Each of the selected student is given $ 3000 to participate in conferences and/or other professional development activities. Of this amount, $ 1250 comes from the department chair, $ 1250 from the Dean’s office and $ 500 from the advisor. </span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">By agreement, the 3/4 selected students from each department are given exemption from formally taking the departmental seminar course during the FFP semesters (to avoid a fee/GTF penalty) although they are strongly encouraged
to attend those.</span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt">Best wishes, Pradeep</span><span class="" style="font-size:10.5pt; color:rgb(31,73,125)"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Pradeep Sharma</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">M.D. Anderson Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Professor of Physics</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">University of Houston</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">N207 Engineering Building 1</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Houston, Texas 77204-4006</span><span class="" style="font-size:11pt; font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">email: <a href="mailto:psharma@uh.edu" class="" style="color:purple">psharma@uh.edu</a></span><span class=""></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Phone: <a href="tel:713-743-4502" class="">713-743-4502</a></span><span class=""></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Fax: <a href="tel:713-743-4503" class="">713-743-4503</a></span><span class=""></span></div>
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<span class="" style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif">website: <a href="http://www2.egr.uh.edu/~psharma/index.html" target="_blank" class="" style="color:purple">http://www2.egr.uh.edu/~psharma/index.html</a></span></div>
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