Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) Workforce Development Open Forum Report
This is a summary of the Pervasive Technology Institute’s first open forum on workforce development (WFD) held November 2, 2021. In total, there were 29 attendees from the PTI Executive Director’s Office, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Research Technologies, eLearning Research & Practice Lab, National Center for Genome Analysis Support, and Cyberinfrastructure Integration Research Center.
The forum began with the PTI Executive Office sharing information about current PTI initiatives. The floor was then opened for a brainstorming exercise on Google Jamboard, an online “sticky note” application which facilitates anonymous sharing of ideas. The open-ended questions yielded thoughtful responses and some resulting discussion that highlighted participants’ enthusiasm for moving forward with WFD activities.
Overall, the forum was successful in terms of participation in the event and active generation of ideas. Some of the ideas were general in terms of applying to UITS-wide areas; however, there were several poignant actionable themes. First is a need to create and organize information resources, particularly as regards workforce development including student/employee onboarding and professional development opportunities. Second is a need for leadership buy-in for workforce development activities. Third is the realization that there are many successful WFD opportunities, both within IU and national facing, which PTI could use as examples for how to move forward.
Lightly edited responses to the Jamboard questions are below, loosely grouped into themes for each question.