2017 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Erick Jones
Larissa Sazama
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11/03/2017
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30
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Dr. Erick Jones, George and Elizabeth Pickett Endowed Professor at the University of Texas Arlington, presents on "NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Internship Programs". For more information, please visit http://matc.unl.edu/education/scholars-program2017.php.
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- [00:00:00.965]Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and get started.
- [00:00:03.453]And what I was hoping to do today, one of the challenges
- [00:00:06.169]we have with doing a graduate education recruitment
- [00:00:09.373]event is we sometimes miss the subtlety that you are
- [00:00:12.689]an engineer and when you go to graduate school you will
- [00:00:15.673]be doing engineering.
- [00:00:18.126]Dr. Perez referred to that, but one of the challenges
- [00:00:20.999]you have when you talk about graduate recruitment,
- [00:00:23.357]we make it seem all nice and fuzzy, write your statement,
- [00:00:25.481]do your GRE.
- [00:00:28.277]But ultimately you're gonna add to the field,
- [00:00:31.534]and that's one of the most important things.
- [00:00:33.856]So even though I'm gonna talk about fellowships and
- [00:00:36.053]I'm gonna get into the blocking and tackling of how to
- [00:00:39.287]strategically apply for the largest fellowship
- [00:00:41.551]in the country, one of the things that I want to talk
- [00:00:42.550]about is that, and you should see it demonstrated
- [00:00:46.399]from a professor, is that we are part of the solution
- [00:00:50.062]and we are engineers that actually have to touch the world.
- [00:00:53.796]So one of the things that I did, I just got back
- [00:00:55.716]from India.
- [00:00:56.892]I was in India for 12 days, I did two Ted talks,
- [00:00:59.382]one in Mumbai and one in Bangalore and there were 800
- [00:01:03.518]students and then the second one was 1,200 and we
- [00:01:06.609]stream-casted across the country.
- [00:01:08.409]One of the challenges is that if we, if we talk and
- [00:01:12.828]we say a good game we say, "You guys should be engineers,
- [00:01:15.457]"come to graduate school and become a better engineer
- [00:01:17.958]"or a more scientific engineer," that I think we have
- [00:01:20.631]to demonstrate it.
- [00:01:21.828]So today I want to make sure the first part of my talk
- [00:01:23.706]was a little bit more about engineering and where
- [00:01:26.732]the world's going and the second part will get into
- [00:01:28.858]application of some of the things that we've been
- [00:01:31.337]talking about.
- [00:01:32.533]So the title is the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- [00:01:34.353]and the Next Generation of Students.
- [00:01:37.749]So a little bit about myself, one of the things,
- [00:01:40.203]the question we get all the time about graduate education is
- [00:01:42.869]"Should I go to graduate school right after under graduate?"
- [00:01:46.808]I didn't.
- [00:01:48.673]But I will tell you, there's some benefits for you guys
- [00:01:50.746]doing it differently than the way I did it.
- [00:01:53.697]'Cause the world has changed.
- [00:01:55.900]And so a little bit about me, I have a research lab.
- [00:01:58.488]My research lab, this year I have 12 students,
- [00:02:01.056]two post-docs, two visiting scientists.
- [00:02:04.903]And what I don't want to belittle is that you are gonna
- [00:02:09.623]be joining a fraternity.
- [00:02:11.709]You'll be joining a group and you'll be doing some
- [00:02:14.346]good things that are important as far as engineering,
- [00:02:19.423]as far as science, as far as the activities you want
- [00:02:21.727]to participate in.
- [00:02:23.124]I don't want to sugar coat and say that it's easy.
- [00:02:24.922]I think I get a little concerned because we want to
- [00:02:27.814]encourage blacks and Latinos and American-Indian,
- [00:02:31.940]but we have to be careful.
- [00:02:33.426]We still are gonna be acceptable,
- [00:02:35.667]we still are gonna be held to the standards that are
- [00:02:38.492]required by the field.
- [00:02:39.493]One of the centers I ran is the SAVNT Center,
- [00:02:41.539]which is Security Advance (mumbles) Nano Technology.
- [00:02:43.727]I hate nanotechnology.
- [00:02:47.112]But as Dr. Perez mentions, as you get more specific
- [00:02:50.491]and more successful in your career, people will ask
- [00:02:53.190]you to do things.
- [00:02:54.349]This was the Homeland Security center that I had to do
- [00:02:56.196]in Dallas and some of the technologies seen at DFW
- [00:02:58.652]airport I have patents on them.
- [00:03:00.779]Didn't do it because I wanted to do it,
- [00:03:02.379]I did it because I thought it was important.
- [00:03:04.545]So I don't know what happened to that,
- [00:03:06.605]but the four questions we have about the fourth
- [00:03:10.021]industrial revolution--
- [00:03:11.284]I know, zigzag.
- [00:03:12.582]Is that where are the fundamental difference between
- [00:03:16.065]the information age and the fourth industrial revolution?
- [00:03:17.820]How does the internet of things change big data?
- [00:03:21.855]How did we get to self driving cars?
- [00:03:24.147]And what does this mean for the next generation of students?
- [00:03:27.220]Unfortunately I don't have an hour to do a Ted talk,
- [00:03:29.617]so I'm only gonna focus on some parts of this, right?
- [00:03:31.873]What a lot of our faculty don't realize is that we're
- [00:03:34.477]actually in the fourth industrial revolution.
- [00:03:37.075]And if a faculty member tells you we're in information age,
- [00:03:38.930]they missed it.
- [00:03:41.022]Information age started in 1960.
- [00:03:43.942]Bill Gates is old, Steve Jobs is dead.
- [00:03:47.369]We are not in the information age.
- [00:03:49.924]We're in the third dimension.
- [00:03:51.877]These are the ages we've had; the industrial revolution,
- [00:03:54.911]the second industrial revolution, the third,
- [00:03:57.820]and we are not in the information age.
- [00:03:59.855]And as we talk about this, you have to prepare yourself
- [00:04:02.644]for the next age and how you're gonna be employed.
- [00:04:05.469]So part of graduate student is not sit back and the
- [00:04:08.396]professor teaches you thing.
- [00:04:10.351]It's the new world, if you don't create your own
- [00:04:13.249]graduate education experience, you will not be
- [00:04:15.790]employable.
- [00:04:17.686]Dr. Perez just said that, you didn't hear the subtleties.
- [00:04:20.160]You can't just go to graduate school and hope that
- [00:04:23.383]what you learn is gonna be correct and that you're
- [00:04:26.197]gonna be employable.
- [00:04:27.472]You have to keep up with the next set of things.
- [00:04:30.507]You guys know the third dimension, right?
- [00:04:32.505]3D printing, right? You've heard it.
- [00:04:34.637]Uber.
- [00:04:35.970]I mean, Uber's self-driving car.
- [00:04:37.716]I was in Mumbai, they were asking me how the heck are
- [00:04:39.610]we gonna have self-driving cars?
- [00:04:41.088]I said well you've got to have rules and regulations first.
- [00:04:42.837]'Cause cows walking down the middle of the road,
- [00:04:45.488]that's kind of hard to have an algorithm.
- [00:04:47.595]But the idea that you guys are seeing, my daughter,
- [00:04:52.871]I'll give you an example, my daughter four years ago
- [00:04:54.602]when she was nine years old we did a drone.
- [00:04:56.462]We were looking at the neighbors yard and some neighbor
- [00:04:58.742]shot it down from Texas, they shot it with a gun,
- [00:05:01.592]they shot it down.
- [00:05:03.276]And I got in trouble with the Home Owners Association.
- [00:05:05.122]They're like, "You can't do that."
- [00:05:07.000]Four years later we created a drone program in
- [00:05:10.272]graduate level said we have a graduate certificate for it,
- [00:05:12.426]automated guided vehicles.
- [00:05:14.104]I told my graduate students if they take that certification
- [00:05:15.886]I will kick them out of my lab.
- [00:05:18.232]If my nine year daughter can do it then I don't think
- [00:05:20.425]you should be doing it in graduate school,
- [00:05:21.805]you should already know how to do it.
- [00:05:23.476]Do you understand what I'm saying to you guys?
- [00:05:26.118]You can go and coast in graduate school like you did
- [00:05:28.067]in undergrad and you will have no value to the world.
- [00:05:31.613]And so I'll say this, the fourth industrial revolution,
- [00:05:34.052]this is where the jobs are going.
- [00:05:36.873]This is where it's going.
- [00:05:38.359]But what people don't talk about is infrastructure.
- [00:05:40.472]We have less engineers thinking about smart infrastructure,
- [00:05:43.303]smart devices, we have everybody doing healthcare.
- [00:05:47.004]Unfortunately I don't think this is gonna hold up.
- [00:05:50.332]I think we're gonna have an infrastructure problem
- [00:05:52.007]in the next 10 years.
- [00:05:53.188]And you guys are civil engineers.
- [00:05:54.997]Let me say this, funding will go towards infrastructure.
- [00:05:58.671]In fact, I can't tell you I just got something this morning,
- [00:06:00.776]there's gonna be some federal funding towards it.
- [00:06:04.058]So if someone asks me, "Dr. Jones, you represent diversity,
- [00:06:06.732]"black male diversity," honestly I've got five books.
- [00:06:09.446]They don't say black male diversity, right?
- [00:06:12.667]They say they're in my field, I'm the best in my friggin'
- [00:06:15.885]world at what I do.
- [00:06:17.876]And I do it as an engineer and as a scientist.
- [00:06:21.118]And the truth is, if I don't start with that bar then
- [00:06:23.320]none of my students will hit it.
- [00:06:25.811]And it's an opportunity to be an underrepresented
- [00:06:29.168]minority that represents that, but if I don't start with
- [00:06:31.388]that bar I won't hit it.
- [00:06:33.376]Today I'm asking you to think about hitting the bar.
- [00:06:35.324]So what does that mean for next generation of students?
- [00:06:39.024]Well these are the three things that I think are
- [00:06:42.272]gonna happen.
- [00:06:43.418]And I'm giving you some words that some of the faculty
- [00:06:45.055]haven't heard yet.
- [00:06:46.055]But I get to see these in Washington, I get to see these
- [00:06:47.849]in different rooms.
- [00:06:49.834]The 14 Grand Challenges of the world.
- [00:06:52.984]This is where we're asking PhDs and scientists,
- [00:06:56.362]when they get ready to think about taking on graduate
- [00:06:58.557]education at graduate school we hope the masters can
- [00:07:00.982]tap it so when they go into industry they can support it,
- [00:07:03.479]but we hope the PhDs embrace the fact that our
- [00:07:06.701]great grandkids will not have food.
- [00:07:08.963]We're gonna be on Battlestar Galactica.
- [00:07:11.217]The planet is dying.
- [00:07:12.965]I'm saying this to you guys 'cause you know what?
- [00:07:15.394]You're the most socially responsible generation.
- [00:07:18.831]Our generation wasn't responsible, I still got a Mercedes
- [00:07:21.093]and it burns a heck of a lot of gas.
- [00:07:23.397]My kid, what's that YouGo, whatever car?
- [00:07:26.916]You plug it in?
- [00:07:28.337]I still haven't got past that.
- [00:07:30.016]I've been waiting for Mercedes 20 years.
- [00:07:32.184]But the truth is, we have to think about social
- [00:07:35.666]responsibility, electric cars, these things.
- [00:07:38.463]I'm from Houston, Texas, I saw the PV group, right?
- [00:07:41.390]My mother-in-law would not leave third world Texas.
- [00:07:45.503]So the boat had to go get here.
- [00:07:47.309]So when I had to go to Mumbai two weeks later
- [00:07:51.214]after having to have two rental properties and my
- [00:07:53.762]mother-in-laws house, having to pull up carpet and cut
- [00:07:56.056]the sheet rock because you know you got mold.
- [00:07:58.245]And then I went to Mumbai and they had the same problem.
- [00:08:01.059]The question I have to ask is why doesn't society
- [00:08:04.455]believe the news reports?
- [00:08:07.201](mumbles) left a week ago.
- [00:08:09.014]She could've stayed in the big house in Houston.
- [00:08:11.265]She's like, "I aint going, I don't trust the news report."
- [00:08:13.886]What that means is society does not believe in
- [00:08:16.582]engineering anymore.
- [00:08:18.193]They think we're some quacks.
- [00:08:20.210]And weather man is just somebody that just talks, right?
- [00:08:22.763]Am I saying this to you guys?
- [00:08:25.287]Are you understanding what I'm saying?
- [00:08:26.984]I said truly we need the human capital in engineering
- [00:08:30.853]to want to bring the engineering back,
- [00:08:33.320]I say some say bring the sexy back,
- [00:08:34.736]but we've got to bring the credibility back.
- [00:08:37.399]And you can't do it if you're trying to hide and
- [00:08:39.315]trying to half be an engineer.
- [00:08:41.188]So let me tell you, I want every one of you in graduate
- [00:08:43.522]school, but I want every one of you committed to
- [00:08:45.577]graduate school.
- [00:08:47.102]'Cause it's not just the PhDs that do all the work,
- [00:08:49.101]the masters get hired into companies that do the
- [00:08:50.781]investment.
- [00:08:53.323]So there's a thing called convergence.
- [00:08:55.793]And what it means is that we have to be teams when we
- [00:09:01.177]actually solve these problems.
- [00:09:03.083]The truth is the failure wasn't just with the
- [00:09:05.002]weather man, it was with the category five houses that
- [00:09:08.279]were designed for category two.
- [00:09:10.683]It was for the dam system that broke,
- [00:09:12.442]it was for the road system wasn't high enough 'cause
- [00:09:14.082]it flooded.
- [00:09:15.172]We had a whole bunch of people that couldn't get past
- [00:09:17.181]their discipline, couldn't get past working together,
- [00:09:20.025]to not solve a problem.
- [00:09:21.586]Hurricanes aren't new.
- [00:09:23.454]I think before I was born they were around, right?
- [00:09:25.886]God dang it, how can we keep having this happen?
- [00:09:28.220]Right? Okay.
- [00:09:30.154]So I'm gonna get off that, but what I'll tell you is--
- [00:09:32.313](laughter)
- [00:09:33.672]You should see the passion in your research.
- [00:09:35.768]One thing I'll say, global diversity drives local
- [00:09:38.961]economies.
- [00:09:40.767]What color is that baby?
- [00:09:47.519]I don't care.
- [00:09:49.109]If it's your kid you want them to have a better life,
- [00:09:50.921]would you agree?
- [00:09:52.485]If it's your kid you want a better life, don't you?
- [00:09:54.977]I got some coverage of NACME and they're like,
- [00:09:58.887]"Oh you support diversity."
- [00:10:00.534]And I was like, "Man, they make me look like a clown."
- [00:10:02.802]But the reality is when I think about diversity this is
- [00:10:05.158]a thing that I put up globally.
- [00:10:08.305]What program do I like?
- [00:10:09.367]I came back, "Dr. (mumbles) are you coming?"
- [00:10:11.071]"Yeah, I'm coming."
- [00:10:11.983]"You sure you're coming?"
- [00:10:13.120]"I'm busy," "you sure you're coming?"
- [00:10:14.918]I said I believe so much in this program and this is
- [00:10:17.263]the future that I'm gonna come.
- [00:10:20.334]I'm gonna be loud, I'm gonna try to sneak out,
- [00:10:22.537]be on my text, I'm still part of the current
- [00:10:26.191]administration, I've got to put disclaimers out,
- [00:10:29.045]but the reality is I believe in you guys.
- [00:10:31.852]But I'm not gonna come here if ya'll gonna half ass it.
- [00:10:34.574]We put this program together five years ago and I'm
- [00:10:38.266]passionate about this program.
- [00:10:40.541]So I also would tell you this, you are not always fighting
- [00:10:44.181]the white folks.
- [00:10:45.713]I'm gonna say it again, I heard the white folks
- [00:10:47.374]discussion.
- [00:10:48.376]It is a global economy, we have eastern Indian,
- [00:10:51.826]we have Chinese, we have African, we have Nigerian--
- [00:10:55.251]Part of Africa.
- [00:10:56.827]I'm looking at you, I saw you.
- [00:10:59.370](laughter)
- [00:11:00.784]We are in a global economy.
- [00:11:03.952]We are in a global--
- [00:11:05.689]Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, we got Puerto Rico, right?
- [00:11:08.742]The engineer is the most ethical player in the world.
- [00:11:13.867]Engineering ethics.
- [00:11:14.915]When you take the P exam it's ethics.
- [00:11:16.602]We have to be beyond our color.
- [00:11:18.827]We have to design, not because it's a black bridge,
- [00:11:21.010]it's not a white bridge, it's not a black road,
- [00:11:23.633]it's a road.
- [00:11:25.198]Do you understand what I'm saying to you guys?
- [00:11:26.694]And you have to work together globally.
- [00:11:29.075]In fact, your diverse background gives you more power.
- [00:11:33.506]I have programs in Mexico, Brazil, India.
- [00:11:37.481]Hell they love me.
- [00:11:38.882]They say, "Wow, this is bad road, I live in the ghetto."
- [00:11:42.371]Well at least you ain't pull a pistol out this week.
- [00:11:45.384]My diverse background--
- [00:11:46.965]That's a third world country, I say hallelujah.
- [00:11:49.045]India's a little bit worse than Mexico but it depends
- [00:11:51.940]on what street.
- [00:11:53.411]But if I go to third world, (mumbles),
- [00:11:56.524]people pulling pistols on me.
- [00:11:58.810]Your diverse background makes you stronger, not weaker.
- [00:12:01.233]I'm tired of all this, "Somebody holding me back."
- [00:12:03.568]Are you serious? No.
- [00:12:06.240]You are already getting an engineering degree.
- [00:12:08.799]I'm sorry, I need to get motivated, I need to get motivated.
- [00:12:11.424]This was when I was in Mexico and I used to race
- [00:12:14.854]all the cats up that.
- [00:12:16.111]It's called Pyramid de Sol.
- [00:12:17.450]And I'm not gonna do Spanish today 'cause I make
- [00:12:20.633]everybody nervous.
- [00:12:21.920]Even the people that are Latino 'cause their grandparents
- [00:12:24.408]speak Spanish, but they don't.
- [00:12:25.525]That's another story.
- [00:12:27.330]But when we used to race up that hill,
- [00:12:29.655]I was trained for a whole year and I'd say if a students
- [00:12:32.426]beats me up that pyramid I'd give them $100.
- [00:12:36.029]So all the ex-baseball players, football,
- [00:12:38.284]they all thought they could beat me,
- [00:12:39.960]but they didn't know what was coming, right?
- [00:12:41.474]So I beat everybody up the hill then people had their
- [00:12:44.254]stomach hurt, somebody throws up, all that good stuff.
- [00:12:48.101]But what we would do is when somebody couldn't get up
- [00:12:50.230]the hill, Big Moe, Big Moe was about 300 when we went
- [00:12:53.121]down to Mexico, he's Indian actual.
- [00:12:55.767]He looks Latino, he's eastern Indian.
- [00:12:58.419]And he couldn't make it.
- [00:13:00.095]We all went down and carried him up to the pyramid,
- [00:13:01.876]'cause you know what?
- [00:13:03.512]We were there.
- [00:13:04.748]If we couldn't all get up that pyramid we couldn't
- [00:13:06.209]be successful.
- [00:13:07.799]I still kept the 100 bucks, but the point I make
- [00:13:11.112]to you guys is that engineering is the most ethical field.
- [00:13:15.498]You can't design and exclude people,
- [00:13:18.828]you have to design for inclusiveness.
- [00:13:21.151]These are my first group of PhD and I look at Dwight
- [00:13:25.002]came from (mumbles) and Clark, right?
- [00:13:27.522]No he came from Clark, and then we had Maurice, he's PV,
- [00:13:30.646]we got--
- [00:13:33.533]Dang it, Katherine, she's Tennessee State.
- [00:13:37.024]Only one I could do was eastern shore 'cause they're
- [00:13:38.629]booshie in the easy coast.
- [00:13:40.190](laughter)
- [00:13:41.631]But you see where the programs came from, right?
- [00:13:44.825]During graduate school they hated me.
- [00:13:47.580]I would say, "This paper, I can't believe you wrote this
- [00:13:49.225]"and embarrassed me."
- [00:13:50.864]But they all graduated, all 17.
- [00:13:52.918]And they weren't all black, but the fact is that
- [00:13:55.882]they all believed in the journey.
- [00:13:58.102]You didn't come here to be half way (mumbles) into
- [00:14:00.663]graduate school.
- [00:14:01.898]You're going to graduate school and you take it and you
- [00:14:03.351]make the world better.
- [00:14:05.072]So look at this pipeline.
- [00:14:07.024]Dr. Perez answered the question about Switzerland.
- [00:14:09.714]Do you know in most countries they don't let you
- [00:14:11.864]go to high school?
- [00:14:13.137]You got test into sixth grade.
- [00:14:16.591]Then you've got to test into ninth grade.
- [00:14:18.313]You see all these tests and you wonder why they exist,
- [00:14:20.728]'cause America, even though you fail,
- [00:14:22.600]they're still gonna let you in.
- [00:14:24.979]Do you know it's a privilege to go to college?
- [00:14:28.206]Someone said student loan debt, I say student loan debt
- [00:14:30.266]exists because people knew the value of it.
- [00:14:32.541]But if you're gonna go in there and buy a Mercedes
- [00:14:34.341]with student loan debt then don't go.
- [00:14:36.352]'Cause you don't care about the degree,
- [00:14:38.089]you care about your Mercedes.
- [00:14:39.509]I'm talking to people, ya'll know I'm talking to you.
- [00:14:41.220]You can't help your momma if you're in college.
- [00:14:43.122]You need to graduate and then help your mom.
- [00:14:45.681]They pay for you through their blood, sweat, and tears
- [00:14:48.914]to go to college.
- [00:14:50.042]You owe it to them to finish.
- [00:14:52.798]Go get a bull job and then talk about I don't know,
- [00:14:55.248]"I couldn't go to grad school and have opportunity."
- [00:14:58.200]No, you have opportunity.
- [00:14:59.642]You need to go home tonight and have a gut check.
- [00:15:04.325]Alright, by buddy James L. More III he owns the
- [00:15:07.000]Bell Center at Ohio State.
- [00:15:09.653]He's a senior vice (mumbles) Ohio State so I always
- [00:15:12.390]give him a hard time about it.
- [00:15:13.910]He's also chief diversity officer.
- [00:15:15.710]I stole some of his slides.
- [00:15:18.142]And what we talk about is why do (mumbles)
- [00:15:21.117]opportunities in education?
- [00:15:23.037]It starts with interest, opportunities, resources.
- [00:15:26.385]But what I said to him the corollary to this is
- [00:15:28.653]preparation.
- [00:15:30.549]You don't do the GRE you don't get into grad school
- [00:15:32.645]and you shouldn't be there.
- [00:15:33.815]You could take the GRE five times and wait two more years
- [00:15:35.741]and take it five more times.
- [00:15:37.778]I don't want to hear about no GRE score too low,
- [00:15:40.002]I don't want to hear that.
- [00:15:41.813]Now, again, I'm the mean professor that's not telling
- [00:15:43.791]you how warm and fuzzy graduate school is.
- [00:15:46.587]But I'm telling you you owe it to yourself,
- [00:15:48.608]'cause you know what?
- [00:15:49.885]In the next decade you need a masters degree or you
- [00:15:51.423]won't get a job.
- [00:15:52.956]There's not, I don't think it's an option.
- [00:15:55.301]The PhD, I think, is a lifelong commitment,
- [00:15:57.663]but the masters you need one.
- [00:15:59.846]It's not, "Oh I need to think about grad school."
- [00:16:01.742]No, you need to go.
- [00:16:03.437]Okay now I've got to do what I'm supposed to do.
- [00:16:07.721]You came for the science foundation fellowship program.
- [00:16:10.659](laughter)
- [00:16:12.892]So I have to have a disclaimer 'cause I had to actually
- [00:16:15.853]take off my federal badge because if I wanted to talk
- [00:16:18.909]to you about what I just talked to you about I couldn't
- [00:16:21.340]do that 'cause that was what?
- [00:16:23.324]Does not represent the science foundation's information.
- [00:16:26.705]So I had to do that 'cause the last two years I came,
- [00:16:30.140]I was real nice, I was a federal employee and I still am,
- [00:16:33.453]but I wanted you guys to hear that from me.
- [00:16:36.256]'Cause again my name's on the logo and Perkins always
- [00:16:40.870]gets you, but my name is on the program and I need to
- [00:16:44.388]make sure that my heart is in the program.
- [00:16:47.188]Is that fair?
- [00:16:48.710]Okay now, the National Science Foundation has the most
- [00:16:51.283]prestigious fellowship in the world.
- [00:16:54.956]And not only does winning the fellowship give you money,
- [00:16:57.200]it actually opens doors.
- [00:17:00.072]And what I'll tell you is that this is the fellowship
- [00:17:02.463]that if you get you could go from your school to Harvard,
- [00:17:06.589]MIT, Stanford, they could turn you down from going
- [00:17:08.736]to Stanford.
- [00:17:09.769]You win the fellowship, guess what?
- [00:17:11.518]They accept you to Stanford.
- [00:17:13.069]There's a three year wait list to go to Stanford
- [00:17:14.642]PhD program.
- [00:17:15.941]You win the fellowship, guess what?
- [00:17:17.474]Not only are you going, you're going for free.
- [00:17:19.726]So it is not just a fellowship, it's the access through
- [00:17:24.274]the fellowship.
- [00:17:25.650]It is also the most competitive fellowship in the country.
- [00:17:27.418]Some would say even if you lose you can get the
- [00:17:30.919]other fellowships.
- [00:17:32.425]So I'm gonna take you what I think is the best way to
- [00:17:34.647]approach winning it and you should write it even if
- [00:17:36.690]you lose because you know what?
- [00:17:38.492]It'll help you determine your graduate education journey.
- [00:17:42.909]So first thing is I want to tell you what a fellowship is
- [00:17:46.555]and what a traineeship is.
- [00:17:48.840]Universities have fellowships and traineeships.
- [00:17:51.317]Traineeships are designed to be in-house and they're
- [00:17:54.512]within the university.
- [00:17:56.275]Fellowships are nationally competitive grants.
- [00:17:59.447]If you want the access you've got to win.
- [00:18:02.376]The traineeships, a lot of schools will give you things
- [00:18:05.087]because they want you here and they value you as
- [00:18:07.386]the things that you're contributing.
- [00:18:09.640]The fellowship means that you can compete with anybody
- [00:18:11.776]in the world.
- [00:18:13.776]So, again, my goal is not to only encourage you to
- [00:18:16.726]get the money, it's to challenge yourself to see how
- [00:18:19.269]well you compete.
- [00:18:21.173]One thing that I'll talk about graduate education,
- [00:18:23.873]people don't realize graduate education was not called
- [00:18:26.496]graduate education in the 50s,
- [00:18:28.527]it was called workforce.
- [00:18:31.213]People would mix, they would say workforce development,
- [00:18:33.212]it's gonna support the workforce.
- [00:18:34.894]Graduate education was created to support the US workforce.
- [00:18:40.076]You know what happened in the 1950s?
- [00:18:42.707]When this stuff was created.
- [00:18:44.226]Nobody wanted to go to grad school in STEM,
- [00:18:46.256]nobody wanted to be an engineer.
- [00:18:48.375]Everybody wanted to just get an engineering degree,
- [00:18:50.877]go get a job, and not do any engineering.
- [00:18:53.286]So they created federal agencies to support STEM.
- [00:18:55.781]Guess what happens, and they say we need domestic
- [00:18:58.620]graduate students.
- [00:19:01.002]It's 2017 guess what nobody wants to do?
- [00:19:05.624]Same thing, right? Same thing, right?
- [00:19:07.943]So, again, my job is to say it's important and the
- [00:19:11.652]talented temp has to prevail.
- [00:19:14.762]You've already proven you can be engineers,
- [00:19:17.060]now it's for you to decide to be even more thorough
- [00:19:19.677]engineer.
- [00:19:22.113]So what are the goals?
- [00:19:24.220]I'll tell you this, these goals have changed 'cause
- [00:19:26.822]broadening participation was not always a goal.
- [00:19:29.181]What's broadening participation mean?
- [00:19:30.707]What's that code word mean?
- [00:19:32.917]Diversity, right.
- [00:19:34.689]They can't use that word anymore, globally.
- [00:19:38.260]Be careful.
- [00:19:39.752]But I think the amount of money that we have--
- [00:19:42.210]She can delete it.
- [00:19:43.420]It's what, 34,000, the 12,000 stipen.
- [00:19:48.041]This is what I need you to wake up 'cause I know
- [00:19:49.978]you're sleeping.
- [00:19:51.451]What you need to wake up on is that this fellowship,
- [00:19:54.610]they will take the $12,000 in lieu of whatever the
- [00:19:57.214]tuition is.
- [00:19:58.992]So if tuition is $80,000 a year, guess what they'll
- [00:20:01.799]take on this fellowship?
- [00:20:04.078]12,000.
- [00:20:05.080]So if you want to go to Harvard and tuition is 80,000
- [00:20:07.321]a semester, it's 160,000 a year, guess what they'll
- [00:20:10.773]take for $160,000?
- [00:20:13.214]12,000.
- [00:20:15.250]Now, if that doesn't mean much to you, that's on you.
- [00:20:20.119]If I didn't explain it well, that's on you.
- [00:20:23.652]But the truth is that some money is created differently
- [00:20:27.057]than others.
- [00:20:28.057]Why would they take that money?
- [00:20:29.399]Because it's the most competitive fellowship in the country.
- [00:20:34.057]Right? Okay.
- [00:20:35.896]So what I will tell you is that there's a solicitation.
- [00:20:39.666]When you get a chance google NSF GRFP, Graduate Research
- [00:20:45.343]Fellowship Program.
- [00:20:46.801]But there's a thing called solicitation.
- [00:20:48.198]Most faculty don't realize this, the rules of the game--
- [00:20:50.841]Anybody play football, sports?
- [00:20:52.595]Who doesn't play sports? Let me put it that way.
- [00:20:54.735]Who's never played a sport in their life.
- [00:20:56.905]You never played a sport in your life?
- [00:20:59.769]There are things called the rules, right?
- [00:21:02.059]There are things called the rules.
- [00:21:04.284]I'm just gonna ignore that.
- [00:21:05.848]There's a thing called the rules, right?
- [00:21:07.862]If you don't know the rules you can't win the game.
- [00:21:10.460]Some people got talent, but they can't play the rules.
- [00:21:12.946]So I would tell faculty, I would tell grant writers,
- [00:21:18.137]the first thing you call up their employee there's
- [00:21:20.500]always a rules.
- [00:21:22.134]"Erick Jones, I'm calling, I didn't win a grant.
- [00:21:25.171]"Why didn't I win that grant?"
- [00:21:26.949]Refer to rule number 35, your name is misspelled.
- [00:21:30.487]And the truth is, in a competitive environment,
- [00:21:34.580]in a competitive environment what happens?
- [00:21:38.046]They want to disqualify you.
- [00:21:39.625]We had 17,000 applications for 1,000 awards.
- [00:21:42.584]Do the math.
- [00:21:45.206]I hope that, the Princeton review guy was here yesterday,
- [00:21:48.244]do the math in your head.
- [00:21:50.239]What do we want to do?
- [00:21:51.629]We want to disqualify a helluva lot of people, right?
- [00:21:53.800]As employees.
- [00:21:55.349]We love everybody.
- [00:21:57.260]So I'm telling you you've got to read the rules.
- [00:21:59.653]If you don't know the rules you can't win.
- [00:22:01.725]You can try to win.
- [00:22:04.208]Here are the fields of study, here are the fields that
- [00:22:06.239]don't study.
- [00:22:07.896]Let me tell you, if you're thinking about the
- [00:22:09.721]fellowship, you can't get your masters and then turn
- [00:22:13.033]around and try to get this fellowship.
- [00:22:15.280]You have to get the fellowship before you go to grad
- [00:22:17.784]school or while you're in grad school.
- [00:22:19.528]Masters time counts.
- [00:22:20.904]You can use the money for masters degrees.
- [00:22:23.061]I'm careful because we have a lot of social--
- [00:22:26.867]I mean life scientists who want to win,
- [00:22:30.047]but you can't write an NIH grant, what they call a K award
- [00:22:33.059]and try to use it for NSF.
- [00:22:34.964]There's a lot of games and so I'm just kind of giving
- [00:22:37.078]you guys some context.
- [00:22:39.171]What you do want to know is there are four competitions.
- [00:22:41.183]Most people don't realize there are four competitions.
- [00:22:44.209]There's the seniors, first year graduate students,
- [00:22:47.721]third year, second year graduate students,
- [00:22:49.814]and people returning from the military service.
- [00:22:51.807]Let me give you example.
- [00:22:54.080]If I'm a senior undergraduate and I'm a second year
- [00:22:57.477]PhD student who should have publications?
- [00:23:03.690]Okay so if you try to have a second year student saying,
- [00:23:07.177]"I ain't got no publication," you ain't gonna win.
- [00:23:10.684]But guess when you're best opportunity to win the grant?
- [00:23:13.767]Senior.
- [00:23:15.152]How many times can you apply?
- [00:23:16.806]Let's say you only can apply two times.
- [00:23:18.815]Actually it's more than that.
- [00:23:20.283]While I was at NSF we changed some rules.
- [00:23:22.861]You know why we changed some rules?
- [00:23:24.743]'Cause I was there.
- [00:23:26.026]Why did I change the rules?
- [00:23:27.536]'Cause I want some of you guys to win.
- [00:23:30.022]What you don't know is that you can apply until you
- [00:23:33.417]go to graduate school.
- [00:23:35.599]You can apply as a senior, say you don't go to college
- [00:23:39.279]right after undergrad, you can apply while you're working.
- [00:23:42.923]You can apply until you win.
- [00:23:45.015]But once you're in graduate school you can only apply
- [00:23:47.294]one time.
- [00:23:49.137]Now I'm teaching you the nuances of the rules.
- [00:23:51.723]You can do what you want to do,
- [00:23:53.792]but if you want to go after the most competitive
- [00:23:56.077]fellowship in the world, you've got to think about
- [00:23:58.642]how to play.
- [00:24:00.624]The other thing is I changed the rules and guess what
- [00:24:03.990]happened last year?
- [00:24:07.408]Diversity happened.
- [00:24:09.489]Oh my God, what happened? Oh my God!
- [00:24:12.618]Now I'm in engineering.
- [00:24:15.202]That's why I can talk about this 'cause I'm no longer
- [00:24:16.876]in that program.
- [00:24:17.961]They didn't kick me out, I just wanted to change.
- [00:24:19.918]But the reality is that it's designed for you guys
- [00:24:23.118]who are thinking about going to graduate school
- [00:24:25.160]to go to graduate school.
- [00:24:26.519]It's been redesigned so that it's not,
- [00:24:28.681]it's something that you should think about and we want
- [00:24:31.005]more people going to graduate school.
- [00:24:33.834]Anyway, the competition, I'm gonna give you broad brush,
- [00:24:39.353]but I expect you just to read this and I've got to
- [00:24:41.368]give Tim his time, is one you've got to have a personal
- [00:24:43.219]statement and you have to have a what?
- [00:24:46.421]That second word says "re" what?
- [00:24:48.480]Research.
- [00:24:50.301]Just because you grew up and you're first gen and
- [00:24:52.861]your (mumbles) and you helped the community,
- [00:24:55.922]you go to YMC on Thursday and you tutor people at night,
- [00:25:00.014]that's great, that's great.
- [00:25:02.721]But what are we trying to get? Engineers.
- [00:25:05.553]You're gonna have to think about the research.
- [00:25:09.127]If you did a REU program at McNair, any of these things,
- [00:25:11.676]you're gonna have to go to some of these professors,
- [00:25:13.813]ask what their research is, you may have to go in
- [00:25:16.714]their lab and work.
- [00:25:18.132]But you have to take it seriously.
- [00:25:19.802]It's just not, hey, I know that some applications
- [00:25:23.099]don't require that, but this requires this.
- [00:25:27.212]And then the three reference letters and we'll talk
- [00:25:29.084]about that in just a second.
- [00:25:30.766]I'm gonna t--
- [00:25:32.962]I can talk all day, these are for your edification
- [00:25:35.064]and I'm gonna blow through them, but you need to read
- [00:25:37.322]them while I'm talking.
- [00:25:38.546]Number one a personal statement is are you doing stuff
- [00:25:41.093]for someone?
- [00:25:42.321]If you get funding, are you gonna reach back and help
- [00:25:44.124]somebody?
- [00:25:45.401]If you say, "I should get it just because my feet were
- [00:25:47.797]"big and people with big feet need help,"
- [00:25:51.114]that's not gonna work.
- [00:25:52.796]What I would tell you, I've seen Caucasians out-minority
- [00:25:57.006]minorities.
- [00:25:58.305]I gotta use a different word 'cause I'm recording.
- [00:26:00.252]I've seen Caucasians go back to the old folks home
- [00:26:03.099]in the ghetto and teach people how to read and write.
- [00:26:05.879]That's helping diverse community.
- [00:26:09.644]You just walking around saying, "I am part of a diverse
- [00:26:12.204]"community," does not contribute to diverse communities.
- [00:26:14.780]You going to HBCU or HSI or MSI doesn't mean that
- [00:26:17.447]you did anything, you could've just showed up.
- [00:26:21.069]Other people are trying to actively make an impact.
- [00:26:24.781]So if you aren't doing it you should be tutoring somebody
- [00:26:27.693]if you're a senior in engineering, in mathematics.
- [00:26:31.072]So anyway, I'm bringing that up, I'll get off of that
- [00:26:32.988]topic 'cause people get upset.
- [00:26:35.209]The other idea is relevant research.
- [00:26:38.280]Again, we're trying to judge who are the future
- [00:26:41.278]scientists in the world.
- [00:26:43.643]Okay your research statement, this is example of it
- [00:26:46.684]has to advance knowledge, and again, you need to be
- [00:26:50.216]pushing the professors that you know and ask them
- [00:26:53.342]to do this and teach you and help you.
- [00:26:56.059]You shouldn't walk out the door not knowing what that
- [00:26:58.617]means to advance science.
- [00:27:00.159]What are they doing?
- [00:27:01.309]They're professors, they do it for a living.
- [00:27:03.925]Here is the time frame.
- [00:27:06.838]The competition for engineering is October 27.
- [00:27:10.904]You could try to put together for two weeks,
- [00:27:12.778]but most people spend a whole year trying to put it
- [00:27:14.781]together.
- [00:27:16.192]I'm gonna strongly encourage you, if you are a senior
- [00:27:18.682]to put it in.
- [00:27:20.494]Because, again, that's where we put the investment in
- [00:27:23.243]last couple of years.
- [00:27:26.132]There's a thing called FastLane, your vice president
- [00:27:29.680]of resource will tell you how to do this.
- [00:27:31.878]Now I'm gonna give you something that's gonna make
- [00:27:33.420]you really mad 'cause I've got to get through the end.
- [00:27:36.840]This is all for your edification, I've already told you.
- [00:27:40.729]Okay let me stop right here and then I'll drop the mic.
- [00:27:44.988]Professors are supposed to write your reference
- [00:27:47.800]letters and researchers.
- [00:27:49.264]It's a separate submission of reference letters.
- [00:27:51.823]Most of the under represented minorities get
- [00:27:54.375]disqualified because their professor or their advisor
- [00:27:57.973]did not upload the letter.
- [00:27:59.865]Letters are due November third.
- [00:28:02.220]Don't get somebody that don't like you,
- [00:28:04.124]don't know you, they don't think about you and you
- [00:28:06.323]just showed up and said, "Put me a reference letter."
- [00:28:08.539]The other thing is the reference letter dictates
- [00:28:11.280]you winning.
- [00:28:12.619]And the reference letter has to have intellectual
- [00:28:14.494]merit and broader impacts in it.
- [00:28:16.523]If you're a person go take that same old thing that
- [00:28:18.408]they always write for everybody else you will lose.
- [00:28:20.842]You will lose.
- [00:28:23.427]And here's the toughest part a good question is ask
- [00:28:27.321]the reference writer, "Have you won an NSF grant?"
- [00:28:30.670]And you know what? People are gonna be mad at you.
- [00:28:33.410]Some people, they're gonna look at you crazy and say,
- [00:28:35.262]"Well, it's good enough."
- [00:28:36.827]No, it's not good enough, you won't win.
- [00:28:39.350]And I'm saying that because I'm pushing you to do what?
- [00:28:42.398]Go after graduate education.
- [00:28:44.601]I'm not telling you to say,
- [00:28:46.222]"Well he may get his feelings hurt."
- [00:28:47.800]I don't care about his feelings.
- [00:28:49.857]I need you to change the world.
- [00:28:51.715]I'm gonna be old one day.
- [00:28:53.028]I tell my graduate students I'm so tired of ya'll
- [00:28:54.513]not taking academic positions, taking these six figure jobs.
- [00:28:57.722]I teach people, they get six figures, 180, you take it,
- [00:29:00.331]okay you gotta take it.
- [00:29:02.781]'Cause I teach the best in the world.
- [00:29:06.011]I get about four in academia, but what I'm trying
- [00:29:08.085]to tell you is that you have to be aggressive for
- [00:29:10.273]graduate education and you are the future.
- [00:29:13.596]I'm hoping that one of you guys fix this stuff for me.
- [00:29:15.867]I'm gonna be old one day.
- [00:29:17.424]I want you to say, "Doc, I designed this auto live,
- [00:29:19.696]"you can live forever," Okay, you owe me.
- [00:29:22.278]I taught, you right?
- [00:29:24.231]But the idea, I hope that this encourages you.
- [00:29:26.859]Tim I'm sorry about your time, but I what I want to make
- [00:29:29.327]sure that what you get out of this is one,
- [00:29:31.873]I want you to apply for this competition 'cause I need
- [00:29:34.326]you to push yourself and I also want you,
- [00:29:36.589]don't forget, you are part of a field in engineering
- [00:29:39.557]and that you need to make sure when you write your
- [00:29:42.967]application letters, you write your fellowship letters
- [00:29:45.111]that you're contributing to the field and I know
- [00:29:47.350]you can do a really good job.
- [00:29:48.526]Thank you.
- [00:29:49.659](applause)
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- Tags:
- ntc
- matc
- nebraska transportation center
- mid-america transportation center
- matc scholars program
- scholars program
- graduate school
- erick jones
- university of texas arlington
- uta
- national science foundation
- nsf
- engineering
- graduate research fellowship
- graduate internship program
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