Faculty accountability and faculty workload: A preliminary cost analysis of their relationship as revealed by PhD productivity

General concerns for faculty accountability are examined in the context of faculty workload and costs. Graduating a PhD student is used as the unit for analysis. The unit is compared to instructional productivity. The data came from a 10-year interval at a major graduate university. Six liberal arts departments with a 225-member faculty provide the PhD output and workload information. Work equivalents are determined from institutional and faculty self-reports. Graduating a PhD is found to be equivalent to one-third of a full workload. Implications are given for comparisons between programs within a university and between types of institutions in the larger system of higher education. Concerns also emerge for improved personnel practices with respect to faculty work assignments.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43583/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00991561.pd

Stability and Control Investigations in Early Stages of Aircraft Design

This paper provides an overview of current activities of DLR (German Aerospace Center) with respect to stability and control investigations in the context of early stages of aircraft design. For this purpose, DLR follows an interdisciplinary and multi-level design approach. Using an integration framework in combination with a central data exchange format, largely automated process chains are set up that combine calculation and simulation capabilities of the multitude of disciplines required in early aircraft design. Rather than using empirical relations and assumptions based on experience, the underlying methods applied by the tools are mainly based on physical model representations. The major aim of this design approach is to generate all relevant data needed for stability and control investigations, including aerodynamic damping derivatives and to assemble them within a flight dynamics model. Not only does this approach allow for an early consideration of stability and control characteristics, but it also respects interdisciplinary effects and enables automated design changes. This paper describes the infrastructure used for setting up the described process. It presents disciplinary tools used to calculate engine performance maps, calculate aerodynamic performance maps and structural properties, generate flight dynamics models with associated control laws and to assess aircraft handling qualities. Furthermore, this paper provides application examples of early stability and control considerations, using integrated interdisciplinary process chains. This comprises a handling qualities assessment under uncertainty considerations and vertical tailplane sizing for a blended wing body. In addition, engine and split flap sizing processes for an unmanned combat aerial vehicle are shown. The interdisciplinary design approach presented here, serves to find a well justified early configuration and reduces the risk of later design changes