2025 USUCGER Early Career Workshop for Geotechnical Faculty; Atlanta, Georgia; October 2025

This award is to support participants to attend the third United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) Early Career Workshop that will be held in October 2025 in collaboration with the Geosystems Engineering faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. The workshop will be a 1.5-day event focused on issues that are impactful for the initiation of an academic career in today’s rapidly changing research and teaching environment with an academic context significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the advent and prevalence of artificial intelligence across university campuses. This workshop will bring together the newest generation of geotechnical engineering faculty to: 1) Facilitate research collaborations through formal presentations and informal discussions; 2) Identify best practices in research and teaching, with special attention to artificial intelligence in the laboratory and in the classroom; 3) Facilitate entrepreneurial thinking through sessions on research commercialization and technology transfer; 4) Facilitate mentoring, work-life balance, and human connection in a post COVID academic world; The format of the workshop is designed to broaden perspective and widen access to new ways of thinking for early-career faculty as they embark on an academic career path. The workshop will focus on practical best methods that researchers and teachers can take back to their home institutions to help build the most solid foundation for a productive and innovative career. Outcomes of the workshop will include a post-workshop report hosted on a dedicated website managed by USUCGER, as well as the creation of a monthly “Office Hour with the Program Director” which will allow junior faculty to sign up for small group mentoring sessions with the CMMI program director. It is anticipated there will be 10 one-hour sessions of 6-8 junior faculty who will be able to ask questions about a range of topics pertaining to researching with NSF and life as a junior faculty member. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.