PTF Impacts

D'Arcy Randall's PTF Initiative created a collaboration between the Cockrell School of Engineering and The University Writing Center to create resources and consultant trainings to better support STEM students in technical writing projects and assignments. As a result of the Initiative's work and findings, a number of STEM-specific UWC resources have been created and/or revised, which can be found on the UWC website.

PTF Ashley Castleberry was one of six UT faculty who presented a poster at the 2022 Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition of the American Society for Health-System Pharmacists describing the Pharmacy Practice Lab (PPL) sequence spanning all six semesters of the UTCOP didactic program to consolidate lab components and increase skills development while aligning with and reinforcing curriculum balance.

Dr. Beck made a guest appearance on the Classics media podcast "Movies We Dig" due to her work with "Musings in Greek Literature." On this podcast, hosted by several young Classicists including two graduates of the UT Classics Ph.D. program, Beck discussed the made-for-TV version of Homer's Odyssey starring Armand Assante and Isabelle Rosselini (1997).  

Former PTF chair Stephanie Holmsten co-presented a session on her global virtual exchange initiative at the American Council on Education virtual conference on March 24-25, 2021. With international collaborators from Ecuador and Venezuela, Holmsten discussed their 2019-20 international collaboration between (US)-ESPOL(Ecuador)-UAM (Venezuela), and provided evidence of the COIL model for course design in achieving student outcomes. Their experiences with icebreakers, collaborative projects, and assessment tools were also shared.

Former PTF chair Nina Telang co-presented this paper at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference in March 2021. This paper shares a detailed look into the implementation of a new student initiative focused on promoting student success and well-being.

Read the complete paper here, or find the abstract below.

The Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (KS WELI) held the inaugural Female Founder Pitch Competition in October 2021.

Each year, the PTF Chair-Elect has the opportunity to share recurring Teaching Tips with all faculty at UT. These messages cover a variety of topics, styles, and methodologies, from brief and practical classroom strategies to in-depth conversations with voices from across campus.

This year’s Teaching Tips were written by Chair-Elect Stephanie Seidel Holmsten, from the International Relations and Global Studies program.

Vernita Gordon was a featured presenter at the UT Austin Physics Departmental Colloquium series on December 1, 2021. This series of events features physicists from within and outside of the University, and is open to all UT faculty, students, and staff. Gordon presented on her PTF Initiative, "Being Human in Physics."

Vernita Gordon presented a paper at the 2021 March Meeting of the American Physical Society, an international-scope conference for physics scholars .... The paper was part of a session titled "Physics Education at All Stages,"

D'Arcy Randall gave a virtual presentation about the pilot program developed as part of her PTF Initiative at the College Composition and Communication Regional Conference at the University of Southern California on Dec. 19, 2020.

PTF Fernanda Leite co-authored this article in the Journal of Architectural Engineering. The article examines the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) into an undergraduate Architectural Engineering course, which was a core component of Leite's PTF Initiative.

Read the complete paper here, or find the abstract below.

PTF Fernanda Leite authored the academic text BIM for Design Coordination: A Virtual Design and Construction Guide for Designers, General Contractors, and MEP Subcontractors. Leite's book includes a chapter specifically about teaching Building Information Modeling (BIM) in college courses titled "BIM Teaching Considerations," which is directly related to the work done in her PTF Initiative.

View the chapter here, or read the summary below.

PTF Fernanda Leite co-presented this paper at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Virtual Annual Conference in June 2020.

"ClioVis: Description, Origin, and Uses," a September 2020 article from Not Even Past: the digital magazine of the UT Department of History, was awarded Editor's Choice by the online aggregate Digital Humanities Now. 

On December 10, 2020, Pauline Strong coordinated and led a Difficult Dialogues-style workshop and panelist at the virtual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Strong presented and spoke on a panel alongside other UT Austin colleagues. During this initiative we reached additional faculty through developing a Faculty Learning Community and extensive online Difficult Dialogues resources.

ClioVis, the digital timeline visualization tool created by Erika Bsumek as part of her PTF Initiative, was highlighted in UT Department of History News on May 25, 2020 by Dr. Megan Raby. The article explored the ways that ClioVis and Epoch, an initiative by History faculty Adam Clulow, are being used to create undergraduate research opportunities for UT liberal arts and history students. 

On October 25-26, 2020, Rice University hosted the Grow PoLS Virtual Workshop: Growing Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for the Physics of Living Systems. The purpose of this PoLS (Physics of Living Systems) workshop was to grow the ecosystem of physics by recognizing the systemic barriers that exist in STEM fields at all education and career levels, by building alliances, and by sharing best practices to overcome these systemic barriers.

The International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) is the largest and most prominent international event on virtual exchange, providing a forum for an audience of deans, directors, faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and professionals from institutions around the world interested in technology, international education, and new pedagogies.

Each year, the PTF Chair-Elect has the opportunity to share recurring Teaching Tips with all faculty at UT. These messages cover a variety of topics, styles, and methodologies, from brief and practical classroom strategies to in-depth conversations with voices from across campus.

In September 2020 History faculty Adam Clulow interviewed Erika Bsumek for Not Even Past, the digital magazine of the UT Department of History, to discuss the development, use, and impacts of ClioVis, the digital timeline visualization tool created as part of Bsumek's PTF Initiative. This article is part of a wider series that explored how teachers and students across the History department, the university and world more generally responded in new ways to the unprecedented classroom environment faced in a time of global pandemic. 

Dr. Lindsey Passenger Wieck, faculty at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, reviewed ClioVis for the pedagogy blog Pedagogy Playground: Innovative Teaching in Higher Education in February 2020. The review discusses her experiences with ClioVis during and after a workshop led by Bsumek, and goes on to highlight the features of the tool which she finds most compelling: interactivity, collaboration, ease of use, exportability, and applications outside of coursework. 

The UT System works with internal and external partners to foster critical literacies in students across the P20 continuum.  UT institutions work to cultivate these literacies in students across traditional and emerging academic disciplines, and through partnerships and programs in PK12 schools, communities, and business and industry across Texas.

Former PTF chair Nina Telang co-presented this paper at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Virtual Annual Conference in June 2020.

Before deciding what your career goals are, it’s critical to know what you value most in a job. What gets you out of bed to go to start the day, go to work, and/or live your life? This exercise will help you define and prioritize what drives you. We provide definitions of 8 common "drivers". Once you understand these drivers, you can take the exercise and go through a ranking process to determine which are most important to you (i.e. you’re less likely to compromise on these) and which are less important (i.e. you’re more willing to compromise on these).

Former PTF chair Nina Telang co-presented this paper at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference in June 2019.