November 1, 2016

This month, we featured our new Faculty Fellows, Prof. Shivanthi Anandan from the Department of Biology and Prof. Stefan Rank from Digital Media. During this academic year, these Fellows will be full participants at ExCITe, contributing their knowledge and expertise to our activities here. Each also receives additional resources for pursuing their research agenda.

I announced the Faculty Fellows initiative at our University’s Convocation, the kickoff ceremony to the academic year, in September 2015. We released the application online shortly thereafter and then embarked on a rigorous process to review, interview, and eventually award the Fellowships. It was a lengthy process, and we’re thrilled with how it turned out.

But a significant part of the work to realize the Fellowship occurred even before the announcement, in securing additional resources, defining practical program benefits, and crafting the announcement. This is a process that’s been nearly two years in the making. I emphasize this because new initiatives, much like the creative process itself, require long-term commitment. It’s easy to have a good idea, but turning it into reality, whether it’s a physical design, a performance or recording, or a new class or program, takes time, planning, resources, and follow-through.

Additionally, our initiatives are driven by a commitment to develop new pathways for engaging with ExCITe. The faculty fellowship is one such pathway, as is our annual Seed grant competition in the Spring. We’ve also developed a robust monthly schedule of participation opportunities. Our Third Thursdays at Three (or T3) convenings have been every single month since January 2013. This podcast has been produced monthly since August 2014 and this is our 28th episode. This Fall, we’ve added two additional monthly events. The first, hosted by our App Lab, is Appy Hour on the Second Thursdays. This is a chance for those interested in making new apps to learn more about the process from a practicing developer over some pizza. And the first Friday of each month is Hack-Jam, an informal combination mini Hackathon and musical jam-session. More information on each program is in the suppplemental content for this podcast. We look forward to seeing you at one of these monthly gatherings in the near future!