S.12-152
SFU
OI'HCI- ()]• THE VICl'-PRI-SIDENT,ACADEMIC AND PROVOST
University Drive, Burnaby, BC
Canada V5A 1S6
TKI.: 778.782.3925
FAX: 778.782.5876
vpacad@sfu.ca
\v\v\v.sfu.ca/vpacademic
MEMORANDUM
attention
Senate
date
September 26,2012
from
Jon Driver, Vice-President, Academic and
pages
1/1
Provost, and Chair, SCUP
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: External Review Update for the Cognitive Science
Program (SCUP 12-35)
RE:
end.
c: G. Myers
SIMON PHASER UNIVERSITY
ENGAGING THE WORLD
At its September 19, 2012 meeting SCUP reviewed the External Revie>!v Update Report for the
Cognitive Science Program within the Faculty of Arts and Social ScienceVTlie report is attached for the
information of Senate.
SFU
MEMORANDUM
OFFICE OF THF VICF-PRFSIDFNT, ACADFMIC AND PROVOST
University Drive, Burnaby, BC
Canada V5A 1S6
TKL: 778.782.4636
FAX: 778.782.5876
SCUP 12-35
www.sfu.ca/vpacademic
ATTENTION
Jon Driver, Chaix, SCUP
from
Gord Myers, Associate Vice-President,
Academic and Associate Provost
S. DiPaola and J. Craig
External Review Update for the Cognitive Science Program
date
September 11, 2012
pages 1/1
cc
RE:
The External Review of the Cognitive Science Program was undertaken in April 2008. According to the
procedures established by
SCUP, the Program is required to submit an update describing its progress in
implementing Senate's recommendations, which were derived from the External Review report, in the
fourth year following the start
of the External Review process. Please find attached this update, together
with a copy of the recommendations approved by Senate for action.
Based on this midterm report, my assessment is that the Cognitive Science Program has made substantial
progress toward implementing Senate's recommendations, within the constraints imposed by its budget.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
ENGAGING THE WORLD
SFU
MEMORANDUM
COGNITIVKSCIJ-NCK PROGRAM
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Robert C Brown 8115
TEL 778.782.7199 /7127
sdipaola@sfu.ca
8888 University Drive, Burnaby,BC
www.sfu.ca/cognitivc-sciencc
Canada V5A 1S6
Attn:
Glynn Nicholls
Director, Academic Planning and Budgeting
From:
Steve DiPaola
Director, Cognitive Science Program
Cc:
John Craig
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Re:
External Review Update report from the Cognitive Science Program
Date:
June 29, 2012
In April 2008, Cognitive Science Program underwent its last External Review and we now offer the following Update regarding
Senate approved recommendations approved in February 2009.
1. Undergraduate Programmes:
a.
Undergraduate curriculum:
The interdisciplinary program offers students the opportunity to combine particular
PSYC, LING, CMPT, MACM and PHIL courses that offer the basis for, or are related to the study of cognitive
science. Then to give
orientation, context and depth in cognitive science, we currently have 4 COGS courses
which are required by our degree seeking students and are also widely taken by students from across campus.
Though there is the will to develop additional courses that will support Cognitive Science students and students
outside the Program in a coherent and meaningful exploration of the field, with budget and hiring freezes over
the last few years, we do not, as yet, have the faculty (new additional or CRC) or funding (faculty/Limited term,
sessional/TA funding) to add new COGS courses. However, registration in our current courses has remained
strong and we've increased space in our challenging
COGS 100 intro and breadth course, for example, from 195
students in 2008/9 per year to 338 students in 2011/12 (increase of 42%). Eachsection has always filled and had
a waitlist before the registration period is complete. Overall our registration in all COGS courses together
(without Co-op) has increased steadily from 2008/9 to 2011/12 so that this year we are teaching 80% more
students than 3 years ago.
In the meantime, perception/vision, an area steering committee faculty flagged in 2008, is included in the COGS100
curriculum currently. In addition, regarding perception/vision or psycholinguistics, our COGS 300 Special Topics
in CognitiveScience course is available to all Steering Committee and Associate Member faculty to offer topics
addressing these areas in depth. We encourage any faculty member interested in developing a topic course in all
relevant areas, as their expertise and availability allows. COGS300 Special Topics courses offered since 2008
have been:
i.
2008: COGS 300:ST-Perceptual Cognition (B. Fisher, SIAT)
ii.
2010: COGS 300: ST -Intelligent Agents (F. Popwowich, CS)
iii.
2011: COGS 300: ST -Metacreation: Endowing Machines with Creative Behaviour (P. Pasquier, SIAT)
iv.
2012: COGS 300: ST-Language, Music and Cognition (N. Hedberg, CogSci/Ling)
b.
Opportunities for undergraduate research:
We continue to provide strong opportunities for undergraduates to
be involved with cognitive science research both through the Cognitive Science Laband with other
labs/Associate Member faculty. We also offer students the opportunity to take
COGS 300 STas Research
Project. Undergrads workingas COGS 300 students, as volunteers and as paid RAs and NSERC grant recipients
with the Cognitive Science Laband with Associate Member faculty in their labs, are authors and in some cases
lead authors on papers presented at conferences and published in journals. The percentage of our
undergraduates who do volunteer and paid research is quite substantial and one of our great successes. Each
year we honour our best undergraduate cognitive science researcher graduatingwitha Cognitive Science major
or minor with a convocation award. Our undergraduate RAs and research projects are many, hence we illustrate
the strength of the work by listing a selection of recent peer reviewed papers:
Some Research Papers with UG:
1. Kimberly Meier, workingwith Dr. Mark Blair. Undergraduate as lead author at CogSci 2011:
Meier, K., Blair, M.R., (2011). Beyond probability gain: Information access strategies in
category. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
engaging the world
http://csiarchive.coesci.rpi.edu/Proceedines/2011/papers/0322/index.html
2. Michael Fryworking with Dr. PaulTupper. Undergraduate co-author on paper to be
published in
The Sonority Controversy,
http://people.math.sfu.ca/~tupper/PUBLICATIONS/tupper fry sonority.pdf
3. Lihan Chen working with Dr. Mark Blair. Authored seven papers including:
Lihan Chen, Mark R. Blair, Kim M. Meier, & Marcus R.
Watson (2012) Temporal Characteristics
of Information Access in Categorization Tasks. Northwest Cognition and Memory
(NOWCAM), Vancouver, BC.
Blair, M.R., Walshe, C, Barnes, J.I.,Chen, L (in press). Rethinking the role of error in attentional
learnine. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
4.
Faris Chebib and Allison Smith (a CogSci and an affiliate CogScidepartment undergrad) doing
undergraduate research with the Cogs Director DiPaola, did strong research via Cogs300
culminating in a paper:
DiPaola, S, Smith A, (2012) "FormalizingAn Interconnected Syntax ForPicasso's Creative
Process In Producing Guernica", Proceedings of Conceptual Structure, Discourse and
Language.
2. Graduate Programmes
a.
Pursuing the establishment of a Master's programme:
We planned, implemented and had passed in our
Cognitive Science Steering Committee an NOI for an MSc in Cognitive Science. That NOI was presented to the
FASS FacultyGraduate Committee and was passed, October 21,2010. It has stalled recently given the current
freeze on new graduates as well as general funding concerns. In general, an MSc (atypical for FASS) has received
enthusiastic response from the Deanwho has been supportive to find ways to move ahead with the plan.The
NOI and planwas recently discussed with the Deanof GraduateStudies who was also supportive of the plan.
More work needs to be done to find funding and agree on graduate intake.
3. Faculty
a.
CRC Search:
After many disappointments and near hiresthe search for a CRC in CognitiveScience was closed this
January. Some of our challengesincluded matchingthe benefits successful senior candidates had at their current
institutions, and a serious health issue that lead to one of our successful candidates withdrawing after accepting
the offer. The consequence of not havingthis position at SFU and within the Program is far reachingfor our unit
as in addition to being a valuable member of the cognitivescience community at
SFU and internationally,we had
expectedthe CRC faculty memberto play a major role inthe developmentandsubjectarea emphasisof the
graduate program. However, we will pursuethe addition of juniorfacultywith regard to teaching and research
contribution for both the graduate program and furtherdevelopment of the undergraduate curriculum.
b.
Newfaculty appointments to Cognitive Science:
The need forone or two junior faculty to complete the original
hiring plan of 4 cognitive sciencefaculty, originally in the 4 streamsthe program curriculum is drawn from, now
possibly alsodrawn from any of the additional areas that steeringcommittee faculty are contributing from, is
especially felt given the loss of the CRC position. In light of this, Ihave raised a request forconsideration in
meetings with our Dean regarding this recommendation from the external review.
c.
Encouraging Member departments to hire incognitive science areas:
In the lastfew years, we have seen the hire
of new faculty in both Philosophy and Linguistics. Bothareas interviewedcognitive sciencerelatedcandidates.
Hired in 2009,Holly Andersen, Assistant Professor, Area: Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Cognitive
Science/Psychology. Hired in 2012,Associate Professors AshleyFarriss-Trimble (starts May2013)in Phonology
and Keir Moulton (starts Sept 2012)in Syntax. Moultonaddressesissuesin Language and cognitionand as he
usescontrolled experimental methodologyto obtainrelevant data, hisresearch methodology intersects well
with Cognitive Science. Additionally, Cognitive Sceince related hireshaveoccurred at SIAT including Associate
Member Bernhard Rieke and Philippe Pasquier.
d.
Seeking ways to facilitatethe availability Associate faculty to teach within the Program: -
i.
Renegotiating teaching of associate membersto teach, forexample cogs100,climate haschilled as
budget restraint and hiring freeze impacted partner departments asthey try to covertheir basic
teaching needs within their departments.
ii.
Wherea faculty member from a memberdepartment hastaught COGS 300 forexample, we havebeen
successful in cross-listing COGS 300 with a department course or listing only as as COGS 300 and
waiving cogs prereqs forstudentswithappropriate background to takethe course forcreditinthe
memberdepartment, for example Linguistics. And inthese cases, we have negotiated withthe
academic advisor for students to count the course for credit toward their Linguistics credential
required UD credit.
iii. The program office developed a draft associate membership policy for discussion in 2011 that is before
the steering committee for discussion and feedback. The aim of policy is to formalize a level of
commitment of associate members regarding their service given outside their home department so
that their service can be demonstrated clearly both for both their tenure and promotion committees
and their chairs. This approach should make it easier for departments to recognize the relationship the
faculty member and their areas of research have to the area of cognitive science both within their
departments and contributing to the cognitive science community. This can form the basis of new
discussions in the current environment regarding partnerships to teach cognitive science courses.
4. Research
a.
Facilitating the development ofCognitive Science related labs at SFU:
success of cogsci lab and other cogs
research (Phonology?)
i.
RE Cognitive Science Lab, founded by Dr. Mark Blair and CRC in Cognitive Science, Jeff Pelletier
(Retired, 2009, CRCreplacement search underway from 2009 to 2012). The Program released Dr. Blair
from service for
the year before and current year during his study leave. During that time, he has
continued to develop his work in the Cognitive Science Laband built a very active and productive
research unit. The culture
of the lab isone that supports skill building, exploration and hard work - a
context that provides outstanding experience for undergraduate and graduate student researchers,
and cognitive science related faculty collaboration,
ii.
The Program office initiated and organized a Cognitive Science Faculty Symposium in June 2011, for all
associate member faculty to present their research to each other, build community, explore
opportunities for collaborations, exchange information across disciplines regarding grant funding
opportunities. Faculty continue to build on
the experience building relationships with each other,
iii.
According to the interestof Associate Member faculty, COGS students havebeen involved inworking
successfully with Yue Wang (Neurolinguistics Lab), Philippe Pasquier (Metacreation Lab),Steve DiPaola
(iViz Lab), Mark Blair(Cognitive Science Lab). The results of student research have become part of
published academic papers. Although nothing specific has developed with John Alterete's Phonology
Lab yet, John has introduced PaulTupper (Math) as a COGSassociate member, and teaches our COGS
200 class,
iv.
The Program has continued to encourage faculty whoare doing research inthe widearray of cognitive
science areas to become associate member faculty. Recent associate member faculty since the review
include: Bernhard Rieke, SIAT(iSpace Lab(SpatialCognition)), and PaulTupper, Math Dept.
(Mathematical modeling in Linguistics).
5. Administration
a. The nature of the issues regardingcourse schedulingthat existed at the time of the review have changed since
set meeting patterns were introduced by the scheduling office. The manager keeps in touch with all units
throughout the year. It is understood that some course conflicts willoccur but standardized meeting patterns
has reduced the difficulty in addressing some criticalconflicts.
b. The Program office has a built a strong relationship with Linguistics and meets regularly with the Linguistics
manager regarding class scheduling and reserving seats for Cognitive Science students. They are in touch
regularly with all member department managersto invite their students and faculty to CognitiveScience events
and talks such as the Defining Cognitive Science series,and to discuss individual student cases.The program
offers pre-requisite waivers to students with appropriate background to take COGS courses for credit in their
programareas and cross promotes allcourses of interest to cognitive science students, offered by member
departments as partof our on-going relationship. Interdisciplinary undergraduate programs face challenges
regarding securing space availability for students not declared in majors where required constituent courses are
offered where there is high demand for limited space and departments therefore restrict spacefora varietyof
department specific reasons.
c. Partner department areas linkto the cognitive science program from their websites as we do from ours.
d. The administrative contribution of the Cognitive Science director isacknowledged but the formal negotiation of
administrative and/orteaching
release sinceDirector, Fred Popowich (Computing, FAS) completed histerm, has
depended on the home department and
faculty that the director hascome from. Phil Hanson (Philosophy, FASS)
(one year term)camefrom within FASS, the current Director, Steve DiPaola comesfrom SIAT, FCAT. Going
forward we willdocument the agreements made to date to assist future negotiations.
The Cognitive Science Program continuesto be a stronginoffering valuedinterdisciplinary undergraduate degrees for
undergraduate students and
research opportunities for undergraduate andgraduate students from a varietyof departments
and faculties across campus.
OFFICE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC AND PROVOST
University Drive,Burnaby, BC
TEL: 778.782.6702
gnicholl@sfu.ca
Canada V5A 1S6
www.sfu.ca/vpacadcmic
MEMORANDUM
ATTENTION
Steve DiPaola, Program Director
date
April 30,2012
from
Glynn Nicholls, Director, Academic
pages
1/2
Planning and Budgeting
cc
John Craig, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
External Review Update for the Cognitive Science Program
In 2004 the Senate Committee on University Priorities endorsed procedures for reviewing a department's
progress in implementing the recommendations approved by Senate as a consequence of the previous
external review (which takes place normally once every seven years). The last review ofyour Program
occurred in April 2008. This is to advise you that the External Review Update for the Cognitive Science
Program is due at this time.
On February 2, 2009 Senate approved the following recommendations:
1. Undergraduate Programmes
o
Consider the revision of the undergraduate curriculum with the addition of a
perception/visual cognition course, a psycholinguistics course and the inclusion of
opportunities for undergraduate research.
2. Graduate Programmes
o
Pursue the establishment of a Master's programme.
3. Faculty
o
Continue to search for a CRC chair as advertised.
o
When funding allows, seek from the Dean of Arts & Social Sciences, an additional
appointment in the Programme,
o
Continue to encourage member Departments to hire in Cognitive Science areas when
searching for faculty.
o
Continue to seek ways offacilitating the availability of associated faculty to teach within the
Programme.
4. Research
o
Continue to facilitate the development ofthe Phonology and Cognition laboratory and
increase the involvement of the Spatial Cognition and Interactive Expertise in Natural and
Computational Environments laboratory in training students in perception and cognition.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
engaging the world
5. Administration
o
Formalize the roles and commitments among member units and institute regular meetings to
discuss scheduling and other administrative issues that may arise.
Please provide
a one to two page
progress reportby Friday, May 25, 2012 on the actions that your
Department
has taken in response to the recommendations approved by Senate on February 2, 2009.
Please contact me at 26702, gnicholl(g>sfu.ca or Bal Basi at 27676, bbasi@.sfu.ca if you have any questions
or concerns regarding the external review update process.
Thank you.
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