MSE Graduate Student Board

This handbook has been put together by the department and GSB to provide up to date important information to students. It includes general and degree requirements, funding and other benefits, as well as other information such as safety, housing, and parking. 

The qualifying exam occurs before the end of your second year as a PhD Graduate student in MSE. The exam begins in August and ends in September. It consists of two parts: a written document and a oral examination conducted by a committee of four Professors. The late spring and summer before the exams are the best time to start studying. GSB (the Graduate Student Board for MSE) usually hosts practice qualifications to practice the oral component in front of a group of your peers. GSB also provides more resources in the form of a UVA Canvas page. Most importantly the exam is taken without ANY outside help.

1) Establish your committee

a) Your Research advisor

b) One UVA faculty member from outside the MSE department

c) Three other committee members, typically from the MSE department, or one external topical expert

i. If you get an external member, they will need to supply their resume/CV.

d)  One person needs to be assigned to be the chair of your committee (NOT YOUR ADVISOR). They will introduce you, and will run the Zoom meeting. 

2) Get your committee approved (administrative staff can assist)

a. Find form at: under Forms, Doctoral Advisory Committee

3) Agree on a time and format (in person/virtual) with your committee for your presentation

4) If you need a room, work with MSE administrative staff and your advisor (currently Tonya Renyolds or Bryana Amador) to schedule a room

5) 2 Weeks in Advance: Email the graduate student coordinator or MSE administrative staff (currently Bryana Amador)  with the title of your talk, your committee members, location/Zoom link and an abstract. Example below

6) 1 week in Advance: Make sure the announcement is sent out

7) 1 day in Advance: A reminder announcement should be sent out

EXAMPLE EMAIL

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

PhD Proposal Presentation

YOUR NAME

To:                          All Interested Faculty, Students, and Research Scientists

Announcing:        PhD Proposal Presentation by Your Name

Date:                      

Time:                      

Location:               

Committee:          Person 1 (chair), Person 2, Person 3, Person 4, Elizabeth Opila

Your Title

ABSTRACT

Authored by: Katie Detwiler

October 15, 2021

IMPORTANT:

THESE ARE NOT REQUIREMENTS. THEY ARE MEANT ONLY TO SERVE AS GUIDE. THE EXACT FORM OF YOUR PROPOSAL SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY YOU AND YOUR ADVISOR. 

A. Objectives

The objective of the PhD research proposal is to provide an early opportunity for the PhD thesis committee, research advisor, and PhD candidate to review the proposed research for the purposes of ensuring that:

1. A scientific/engineering question has been identified which will advance the state of knowledge
2. Appropriate techniques are identified to address the research questioN
3. An appropriate depth and breadth of scientific/engineering rigor will be explored
4. The amount of research proposed can be completed to enable successful PhD completion five years from entering the program (four if entering with a Master’s degree)

B. Timeline

1. The proposal should be completed within six months from successful completion of the PhD qualifying exam.  The timeline entails:
2. PhD candidate and research advisor identify members of the thesis committee and ensure they are available at the planned date of the proposal presentation
   • The thesis committee is typically composed of five members including
     • the research advisor
     • one UVA SEAS faculty member from outside the MSE department
     • three other committee members, typically from the MSE department, or one external topical expert
3. Proposal document (Part C below) is provided to the committee one week before proposal presentation
4. Proposal presentation and examination is described in Part D below
5. If the proposal is not completed within six months of successful completion of the PhD qualifying exam, the graduate student coordinator contacts both the PhD candidate and the research advisor to establish a date for the proposal and to identify/remedy any significant issues that prevent successful completion of the PhD research proposal within one year of successful completion of the PhD qualifying exam

C. Document

1. The proposal document should contain:
   • A concise statement of the scientific/engineering question and the current state of knowledge from a review of the literature
   • Preliminary work completed towards the PhD dissertation demonstrating success of research approach
   • Proposed research planned for completion of PhD dissertation
   • A timeline for completion of research objectives and defense
2. The proposal document shall be double spaced and approximately thirty pages (similar to typical proposals faculty submit to funding agencies, e.g. 15 pages single spaced).

D. Presentation and follow-up

1. A forty minute presentation will be made which addresses the same four points outlined for the proposal document in Section C
2. The proposal presentation and examination is open to all interested parties
3. Each committee member asks 15 to 20 minutes of questions based on the proposal document and presentation to  ensure the objectives stated in Section A can be met
4. The committee provides advice to the PhD candidate for successful completion of the dissertation
5. The PhD candidate is strongly encouraged to meet with their committee informally through the course of the completion of their dissertation for continued advice

Authored by: Dr. Elizabeth Opila

May 15, 2017

Section 1 - The name of the organization shall be the Graduate Student Board (GSB) of the Materials Science Engineering Department at UVA.

Section 2 - The primary purpose of the Graduate Student Board is to coordinate and oversee outreach, departmental activities, and student life in the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Engineering Physics (EP) graduate programs at the University of Virginia (UVA). Members of the GSB promote good morale within the department and university as well as exemplify the UVA’s core values of honor, integrity, trust, and respect.

Section 1 - Eligibility for Membership: Students may be eligible for Graduate Student Board membership after completion of their first semester at UVA. Members may include any student currently enrolled as a graduate student in MSE or EP programs. Members may serve as long as they wish with no maximum term length. Members of the Board of Directors shall be elected from the membership of GSB; the duties and term periods for the Board of Directors are defined in Article IV.

Section 2 - Rights of Members: GSB meetings allow for a safe space for members to share their thoughts and opinions without fear of administrator or advisor repercussions. Members may introduce new discussion topics and concerns during GSB meetings that they wish to discuss, even if they are outside of the predetermined agenda. Commentary and questioning sections are an integral part of every GSB meeting.

Section 3 - Resignation and Termination: Members of GSB, including board members, who no longer wish to actively participate in GSB’s mission, are permitted to cease involvement at any time by giving a letter of resignation to the Board of Directors. Board members are expected to fulfill their duties for the entirety of the term they were elected for. However, a board member who wishes to resign may not run for the same position on the board in any future elections throughout their duration as a member of GSB. Exceptions will be made if the individual garners a unanimous vote in favor of nomination to the position by the membership of GSB.

Any member of GSB may be terminated pending a two-thirds majority vote by the members of GSB in favor of termination. A member may be eligible for termination if they are found not to adhere to the goals and mission of GSB as defined in this document. All terminations must be approved by the Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Furthermore, members who are terminated may be reported to the UVA Honor Committee pending violations of the UVA Honor Code.

Board of Directors members may be impeached from their position on the Board if they are found not to be performing their duties as defined in Article IV. However, impeachment does not necessitate termination from GSB. Board members who are impeached but not terminated will serve a probationary period of two consecutive terms during which they cannot be nominated for any position on the Board of Directors.

Section 1 – Regular Meetings: The GSB should meet twice per semester to discuss department events, concerns, and further the overall GSB mission. Additional meetings may occur based on the willingness of the Board to meet. The next meeting date should be determined at the conclusion of each meeting.

Section 2 – Special Meetings: When necessary, special meetings may be called by the Executive Chair in response to extreme events in the department or UVA community that warrant a GSB response on behalf of the greater MSE/EP graduate student body. This allows the GSB to make a quick and agile response to current events.

Section 3 – Attendance of meetings: Adequate notice must be given to all GSB members before meetings. Meeting notice communications must be sent out at least one week prior to the proposed meeting date. Members of the Board of Directors are expected to attend all regular meetings. The Executive Chair may excuse members on a case by case basis if necessary. GSB members must attend at least one of the regular meetings per semester.

Section 1- Board Positions and Duties: The Board of Directors shall be responsible for maintaining the wellbeing and values of GSB. Board members are expected to accept and complete assignments as agreed and avoid conflicts of interest when appropriate. The duties of each board position are defined below. In addition, members of the Board of Directors must adhere to all the policies and procedures defined for members throughout this document.

Executive Chair - The Executive Chair is responsible for organizing and planning the agenda for meetings of GSB and for organizing the weekly department Writing Group meetings with assistance from the Vice Chair and Professional Development Chair. In addition, the Executive Chair oversees all the directives of GSB, presides over meetings, encourages all members to participate in discussion, keeps meetings on task, and ensures that decisions are made in an orderly, timely, and democratic manner. The Executive Chair ensures that at the end of Jump Start, a First-Year Chair is nominated from the incoming cohort, and that the board members of Materials Advantage are aware of their responsibilities within GSB (see the Undergraduate Liaison position).

Vice Chair - The primary duty of the Vice Chair is to assist the Executive Chair. The Vice Chair will preside over meetings when the Executive Chair is absent, when the Executive Chair wants to debate, or when a personal motion about the Executive Chair is made. The Vice Chair will temporarily assume the duties of the Executive Chair if the Executive chair is not present or if the position of Executive Chair becomes vacant. The Vice Chair will assist the Executive Chair and Professional Development Chair with organizing the weekly Writing Group, and assist the Service Chair with maintaining the MSE graduate student food pantry.

Social Chair/Treasurer - The Social Chair is responsible for the primary planning of social events hosted by GSB. As part of their duties, they will be responsible for maintaining the budget and finances of GSB. It is the responsibility of the Social Chair to plan the annual MSE Fall Picnic, and assist the department where needed for the annual MSE Spring Picnic; possible responsibilities for this may include organizing the cornhole tournament, set-up/tear-down, and providing additional lawn games (such as spikeball). Possible social events, in addition to the bi-annual MSE picnics, can include game nights, hikes, and IM teams.

Service Chair - The Service Chair is responsible for the primary planning of all service efforts of GSB as well as coordinating with MSE faculty and staff for larger service initiatives. This includes outreach and open house events occurring at the departmental and engineering school level throughout the year and maintaining the MSE graduate student food pantry, with assistance from the Vice Chair.

Quals Chair - The primary purpose of the Quals Chair is to organize and preside over practice sessions for the oral PhD qualifying exams for MSE students, which specifically includes ensuring each student has a sufficient number of committee members and reserving the rooms. Practice exams are to be held no earlier than the end of the spring semester, but begin no later than the middle of July, and will be held weekly throughout the summer months preceding the PhD qualifying exam. During practice oral exams, the Quals Chair will assume the role of Chairperson of the committee of examiners; this includes maintaining a level of difficulty of questions commensurate with the expectations of the PhD qualifying exam and ensuring that questions remain within the topic being tested. If the Quals Chair is unable to attend a practice qualifying exam, they will ensure that another member of GSB is present to act as the Chairperson.

Liaison to the Chair - The Liaison to the Chair is responsible for discussing student affairs with the Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The Liaison is expected to maintain anonymity of the student or students who wish to alert the Chair of MSE of an issue within the department. It is expected that the Liaison to the Chair anonymously polls the MSE graduate and undergraduate students (such as via a Google Form) on the conditions, environment, and possible improvements to the Department at least once in both the Fall and Spring semesters. Results of these surveys may lead to the calling of a Department Town Hall; it is up to the discretion of the Liaison to the Chair whether MSE faculty and staff are invited to these Town Halls.

Graduate Engineering Student Council (GESC) Representatives - The GESC Representatives are primarily responsible for coordinating and communicating all directives of GESC with GSB. GESC representatives are expected to make decisions on the behalf of GSB while maintaining the values and missions of GSB. The GESC representative will attend the biweekly GESC meetings to serve as a voting member representing the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. 

Webmaster - The Webmaster is primarily responsible for maintaining the web page of GSB. This includes consistently updating content and bulletins to reflect the current status of GSB. This individual will collaborate with the Department webmaster in this role. The position requires either training in drupal with Eric Newsome or the willingness to get trained to use drupal.

Recruitment Chair - The Recruitment Chair is primarily responsible for directives related to the recruitment of new students to the graduate programs of MSE and EP through the faculty recruitment coordinator. This responsibility is delegated by the faculty member overseeing recruitment planning. This is a paid position in which the member(s) selected receives $1,000 in compensation; this compensation is to be distributed per the guidelines in Section 2. Duties of the Recruitment Chair include:

• Graduate student host pairings with recruits
• Calling for volunteers for the recruitment weekend
• Leading the recruitment subcommittees
• Layout the timeline for the subcommittees, faculty and staff to follow
• Sending the post-recruitment survey
• Communication between the subcommittees, faculty, and staff
  • This includes emails, group meetings, individual meetings, and in-person meetings. Coordination of the effort is key for success
• Creating the master schedule in conjunction with staff, where staff leads the effort. (Note: Faculty is responsible for submitting their list of recruits by the deadline the recruitment chair decides on and for “badgering” to keep their peers on schedule.)
• Checking to make sure there are no conflicts between CDE and SEAS recruitment events and DMSE recruitment events

Duties not explicitly listed go to the staff. This includes but is not limited to: setting up meetings between faculty, staff, and recruitment chair, the master schedule, scheduling hotel reservations and flights, catering for Friday & potentially Saturday, putting together a list of students for faculty to review, initial contact with students inviting them to the weekend, fielding questions from recruits, contingency Saturday plan (afternoon/night) for graduate students with weird flights (if weird flight times do occur), car reservations, etc.

The subcommittees consist of graduate student(s) and organize various key activities/features of recruitment weekend. These subcommittees are led by the recruitment chair and act to distribute the work amongst the student body. Subcommittees include but are not limited to: 

• Grounds Tour Subcommittee:
  • The grounds tour subcommittee is in charge of the content and delivery of the grounds tour during recruitment weekend. The tour should accurately and honestly speak about UVAs history especially when concerning Thomas Jefferson’s and the University’s history of slavery.
• Set-up/Teardown/clean-up Subcommittee:
  • Responsible for setting up, tearing down, and cleaning up events before and after the DMSE event has occurred. This includes but is not limited to: the lunch, the reception, the dinner, and the student welcome.
• Packets/Swag Bags/Badges Subcommittee:
  • Responsible for creating and distributing the goody bags, the packets, and the name badges to the recruits (and hosts when applicable).
• Monticello & Winery Scheduling:
  • This subcommittee is responsible for the Monticello and winery scheduling for Saturday night in conjunction with GESC. 
• Lab Tour Subcommittee:
  • The lab tour subcommittee is in charge of organizing the lab tours.
• Transportation:
  • Subcommittee is responsible for organizing the transportation between the airport and the hotel, the walkers to/from the Corner for the Mellow Mushroom event, Friday evening “festivities”, and transportation from the winery to the airport if there are early flights.

Professional Development Chair - The Professional Development (PD) Chair is responsible for organizing student activities relating to professional development. These activities include, but are not limited to: inviting speakers and/or recruiters each semester to talk to the MSE student body about career building, facilitating student participation in NanoDays outreach activities, being a liaison to other student groups in the department (ECS, MRS, CESE, etc.) and other Engineering School events, student groups, and outreach activities. It is required that the PD Chair organize a resume building night in the Fall semester, where graduate students assist undergraduate students with their resumes. Additionally, the PD Chair is asked to collaborate with the Post-Doc Liaison to organize a peer mentorship program within the Department.

International Student Liaison - International Student Liaison will be responsible for representing the interests of international students to GSB. This includes facilitating international student integration into the graduate school community and working with faculty to promote international student interests. The International Student Liaison is in charge of organizing weekly or biweekly MSE departmental coffee breaks with an international student friendly theme (i.e. International Symposium of Small-Talks at MSE, UVA).

Post-Doc Liaison - The Post-Doc Liaison position is elected via an internal vote from the Post-Doctoral Researchers (PDRs) in the MSE department. The Post-Doc Liaison provides representation for PDRs within GSB, and encourages engagement between PDRs, graduate students and undergraduate students. The Post-Doc Liaison relays information from GSB meetings and GSB events to other PDRs in the department and is expected to work with the Professional Development Chair to organize a peer mentorship program.

Undergraduate Liaison - The Undergraduate Liaison position is held collectively by the board members of Materials Advantage. One board member is required to attend each GSB meeting, meaning it does not have to be the same board member each time. However, it is recommended that the attendee be a Third-Year board member. The Undergraduate Liaison provides representation for the undergraduate students in GSB and encourages engagement and collaboration between all students in the department.  The Undergraduate liaison relays information from GSB meetings and events to other undergraduate students in the department and regularly interfaces with MSE’s undergraduate coordinator.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Chair - The Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion chair is responsible for coordinating & organizing student activities relating to diversity and inclusion in the department. They will be responsible for coordinating with the faculty diversity committee to organize these activities. The activities may include but are not limited to: inviting speakers for seminars, helping to organize and encourage student participation in diversity events, and promoting events to the students from other groups focused on diversity and inclusion. 

First-Year Liaison - The First-Year Liaison is a position appointed at the end of Jump Start in the Fall semester, voted on by the cohort of incoming graduate students. This position must be held by a First-Year graduate student, whether they began in the Spring, Summer, or Fall semester of that year. It is the responsibility of the First-Year Liaison to relay information discussed at GSB meetings, GSB sponsored events, and other avenues of involvement within GSB and the Department to their cohort.

Section 2 – Nomination and Election: Nominations for positions on the Board of Directors will be held anonymously from within the membership of GSB. Individuals may nominate themselves for any position on the board; however, an individual may not be nominated for more than two positions. An individual may remove their name from nomination of any position they do not wish to serve. Nominations will be held over a one week period concluding one week prior to elections. Elections will be held during the spring semester, no later than the second week of April. Election dates will be decided by GSB during the January meeting. Elections will be delegated to the general student bodies of MSE and EP by the Graduate Student Coordinator for MSE and EP. The Graduate Student Coordinator will tally the votes and announce the winners of each position of the board.

Section 3 – Term Periods: Each board member will serve a term of one year upon election starting in the fall semester. Upon completion of the term period, board members may be nominated for another position on the board or run for election to the same position. Individuals may serve an elected position on the board for a maximum of two consecutive terms. Exceptions for additional terms can be made pending a unanimous vote in favor of re-election by the entire membership body of GSB.

Section 4 – Vacancies: Any vacancies on the Board of Directors must be filled within two weeks of the creation of the vacancy. Qualified candidates will be recommended by members of GSB and be elected by a majority vote of the general student bodies of MSE and EP. Elected members of a vacancy will conclude the remainder of the term created by the vacancy.

Section 5 – Committee Allocations and Duties: The following four committees will be composed of the aforementioned Board of Director positions: (i) Academic and Professional Development Committee, (ii) Social and Service Committee, and (iii) Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI) Committee. Committee Chairs will be nominated by the Board of Director committee members with at least a two-thirds majority vote after Board of Director elections are concluded. Board Members may not hold more than one Committee Chair position, but Committee Chair positions may be co-chaired if the committee decides with at least a two-thirds majority vote. Each committee will work together to help accomplish the assignments of individual Board Members as defined by their position description (see Section 1) and any additional projects nominated by the Committee, Executive Chair, or Student Body. The Board of Directors will utilize the following Structure of Committees:

These bylaws may be amended when necessary by two-thirds majority of the Board of Directors. Proposed amendments can be submitted by any member of GSB and must be submitted to the Executive Chair to be discussed at meetings of GSB.

Amendment I – No students may run for a position or serve on the Board of Directors while on academic probation. Students who go on academic probation while serving as a member of the Board of Directors will be relieved of their duties on the Board of Directors for the duration of their term. An interim member of the Board of Directors will be chosen by GSB pending a two-thirds majority vote. Students on academic probation will still be allowed to contribute during Regular Meetings of GSB.