Home > IGERT (2008-2014) > Achievements

Achievements

Major institutional achievements

  • The creation of the Maryland Language Science Center is an important institutional achievement of the $3M investment from the NSF
  • The LSC promotes a model of interdisciplinary graduate education created through the IGERT program
  • The IGERT program has served as a catalyst for strengthening the language science community at UMD
  • The university has set language science as a key strategic goal.

Broad and sustained participation

  • 51 students from 9 departments pursued the full IGERT program from 2008-15
  • 24 students have graduated, all on time. Retention rate for the program is 94%
  • 31 faculty are actively contributing to the program, as mentors, course instructors, workshop leaders, research team leaders, rotation supervisors
  • 14 new language science faculty have been hired since 2008; the inter-disciplinary community played a key role in recruiting them.

Excellent job placements! Out of our 24 graduates so far:

  • 5 students secured tenure track positions
  • 15 students have post-doc or visiting professor positions in academia
  • 2 are in government, 1 in industry, and 1 in medical school

Interdisciplinary training:

  • 14 interdisciplinary seminars were offered in the 2009-2014 period
  • all students take, on average, 5 courses outside of their own department
  • 35 students are/have been active in research outside of their own department
  • 21 of our 24 graduates participated in research rotations outside of their home departments.
  • 9 of our 24 graduates published articles outside of their main area of research

Strong and effective outreach efforts:

  • An aggregate number of over 2300 participants from UMD, local high schools, and the local community took part in language science activities over the 2008-2014 period
  • Language Science Day: faculty and students share information about interdisciplinary language science research at UMD; the event has involved over 160 participants each year since 2009
  • High school outreach: UMD hosts around 200 high school students each year who learn about language science via two interactive academic lectures and 10 different lab demonstrations from our PhD students
  • The Neuro, Cognitive and Language Sciences group at Maryland Day reaches over 500 members of the community per year