Department of Biological Sciences

Graduate Programs in EE and MCDB

Annual Committee Meeting Report

Student’s Name
Graduate Program
Dissertation Advisor
Dissertation Coadvisor (if any)
Committee Chair
Committee Member
Committee Member
Outside Committee Member
Date of this meeting
Date of last meeting
Date of last Departmental Seminar
Is this an Overview Meeting?
Date of next meeting

*Recommended when two or more assessment criteria are below expectations

Satisfactory
Category	Outstanding	Above Expectations	Meets Expectations	Below Expectations	Unsatisfactory
Overall assessment
General knowledge
Expertise in area of specialization
Ability to design experiments
Ability to execute experiments
Ability to interpret experimental data
Progress on goals set last meeting
Professional Development since last meeting

Comments on the Research Seminar

Progress on short-term (1-3 month) goals outlined last meeting

Progress on long-term (4-12 month) goals outlined last meeting

Progress on courses, workshops and other academic requirements

Progress on Professional Development

Short-term Goals for the next 1-3 months

Long-term Goals for the next 4-12 months

If setting defense date, what must be accomplished first?

Guidelines

This report must be completed by the Committee Chair. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 1 pm on the day of the student’s research seminar in the EE or MCDB series. The student must have provided the committee with (a) a Student Annual Report form, (b) a 3-5 page report outlining their progress since the last meeting and any changes to their dissertation proposal, (c) if this is to be an Overview Meeting, a Dissertation Prospectus (the format of this must have been agreed on in advance).

The first page should be completed during the meeting. It is recommended that the Specific Comments be completed on computer during the meeting and approved orally by the other committee members at the meeting. If the report is not completed at the meeting this must be achieved within one week and sent via e-mail to the rest of the committee for approval and then forwarded to the student, Cathy Barr, (cbarr@pitt.edu) the DGS and other members of the committee (who must indicate their final approval via return e-mail to Cathy Barr). Do not return a paper copy.

Meeting Attendance

All Departmental members must be present for the meeting, either in person or via Skype. It is recommended that the outside member be present, but this is only officially required if this is an Overview Meeting.

Overview

If this is to be an Overview meeting, the student must have provided a Thesis Prospectus; the student will have discussed the exact nature of this with the committee prior to the meeting. The outside member must be present for an Overview Meeting, unless permission has been granted otherwise by the Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies (forward email from the Dean to the DGS).

Progress on coursework

Comment on how second-year students are preparing for their comprehensive exam, and how senior students are progressing towards completing academic requirements. Students should have an overview meeting by the beginning of the fourth year.

Progress on short-term and long-term research goals

Please discuss explicitly how students have progressed on addressing the short-term and long-term goals established in the last committee meeting.

Progress on professional development

Please discuss how the student is progressing on other aspects of their training, including professional networking, progress in the teaching minor, collaborative research unrelated to their dissertation and so forth. Students could be encouraged to outline their career development plans via MyIDP (http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/).

Short-term and long-term goals for the upcoming year

Please explicitly outline tasks to be accomplished within these time frames. Progress on these activities can be assessed by the committee in the next meeting. These outlines and evaluations form the basis of longitudinal assessment of student performance, which is a critical component of our graduate program’s annual assessment matrix, submitted annually to the Dean.

Scheduling a meeting within 6 months

If students have performed “unsatisfactory” on one or more assessment criteria – or “below expectations” or worse on two or more assessment criteria – then a committee meeting should be scheduled in six months time, rather than a full year. This provides the student with an opportunity to rectify weaknesses that were raised.