Boiler plate for 2014RCS/ITRS proposals

Please modify this as you see fit so that we don’t end up submitting several proposals that describe Tech and COES in the same way.

LouisianaTechUniversity: LouisianaTechUniversity (LA Tech) is located in the north-central part of the state of Louisiana in Ruston (pop. 25,000 approx). Established in 1894, LA Tech is a selective admissions university awarding bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The total student enrollment in Fall 2014is 11,271. The University offers doctoral programs in nine areas,[1] and isclassified as a “Doctoral II” institution by the Louisiana Board of Regents. The total value of active research grants at Louisiana Tech has averaged$60Mover the last five years. The University’s research expenditures for 2012-13 were $28M, and has averaged $24M for the past five years. In January 2011, the Carnegie Foundation elevated LA Tech to “Research University/High Activity” (RU/H) classification.

LA Tech is one of the six research institutions that form the backbone of the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI), a $50M investment in the State’s IT infrastructure. LONI provides LA Tech researchers with high-speed access to about 6 TFLOPS[2] of computing power locally, and about 85 TFLOPS through the high-speed and high-bandwidth (40 Gbps) connections provided by LONI.

In September 2014, for the fourth consecutive year, LA Tech was ranked in the Tier One, i.e., among the “200 Best Colleges and Universities” by US News & World Report, making it one of only three institutions in Louisiana (after LSU and Tulane) to be ranked in the top tier. According to Payscale.com’s 2014-15 College Salary Report, graduates from Louisiana Tech University earn higher median early career salaries and mid-career salaries than graduates from any other university in Louisiana,and was recently recognized by Money Magazine as one of the best college values in the nation, according to the publication’s 2014 Best Colleges list.

College of Engineering & Science: The total enrollment in the College of Engineering & Science (COES) in Fall 2014 is 2,640out of which 420 are graduate students, including 131 doctoral students. COES offersfour PhD programs: (a) Biomedical Engineering, (b) Computational Analysis and Modeling, (c) Engineering, and (d) Molecular Sciences and Nanotechnology. The total enrollment in the PhD programs has exceeded 130 for the last six years. The total value of active research grants within COES has averaged $40M over the past five years, and research expenditures over the same period has averaged $16 M.

Some other pointers:

Don’t forget to brag about your own research center, especially if the center facilities are vital for your research. However, don’t just copy the web page blurbs. Be specific about what capabilities are important for you and how much of those capabilities are available at the various research centers on campus. If you are not sure about something (whether we have an instrument, or whether you will be able to access something), please ask me.

RCS Institutional commitments: Talk about your start-up package including reduced teaching, graduate student support, etc. As I pointed out during our meeting, our crazy calendar confuses most reviewers. It is best to not talk about “x% release time” in the text of the proposal (but that is how it is calculated in the budget). Also, our quarter calendar in which we grant semester hours is misunderstood widely. I recommend that you say something like “The teaching load of the PI will be one course per term (note that I didn’t say “quarter”) for the duration of this project” or “The PI’s teaching load will be n semester credit hours per year for the duration of this project.”

If your start-up package includes supplies, lab-access fees, etc., mention them.

If your project involves computation, you should say something like “Up to 50,000 SU’s of LONI computer time is available within 24 hours upon request. Larger allocations are available through a simple proposal process reviewed by a statewide committee four times a year.”

[1] For those “enquiring minds”: Business Administration (DBA), Counseling Psychology (PhD), I/O Psychology (PhD), Education Leadership (EdD), Audiology (AuD), Biomedical Engineering (PhD), Computational Analysis and Modeling (PhD), Engineering (PhD), and Molecular Sciences and Nanotechnology (PhD).

[2]TFLOPS or TeraFLOPS = Trillions of FLoating point Operatios Per Second.