Understanding Interdisciplinarity, Integrating Areas

First, we want to say thank you all for being a part of our blog, and one thing we are going to do to better facilitate dialogue for all of us is to post our initial conversation no later than Friday for you all to respond to, and offer more responses during the week on our part. This week, we are going to talk about Integration.


Ada on Interdisciplinarity and Integration:

I think the things I've enjoyed the most in my academic career have been projects that integrated two or more of my fields of study. My minor is Computer Science (before switching to IDS I was a computer science major) and my two other fields of study are Letters & Modern Languages and Behavioral & Social Sciences. Let me give you some examples of how I've integrated different areas:

* Modern Languages and Social Sciences


This one's pretty easy - - I'm very interested in linguistic anthropology; I'm actually taking a class on it right now (ANT 3610). I love studying how people speak, why they speak the way they do, how language reflects culture, and how culture is formed by language.

* Computer Science and Modern Languages


Natural Language Processing is a particular interest of mine, and something I'd like to pursue if I ever decide to attempt any graduate computer science work. The idea behind this is basically using computers to understand or generate human languages. In particular, I'd like to pursue research in computer processing of sign language; a lot of this involves Computer Vision, which is something I've been learning about at work for the past year.



I haven't really found a way to academically integrate computer science and social sciences, though depending on how you look at it you might say I work in all these different fields on a daily basis: I work at the UCF Computer Vision Lab, which is a pretty fascinating environment to me, not only as a computer scientist but as an anthropologist. For one thing, I'm one of only two females working in an otherwise male lab. (Really, it's an overwhelmingly male-dominated field to begin with.) We're also a very culturally diverse lab; a couple of us were born in the United States, but most of the people I work with come from other places, like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. Throw in the fact that I help proofread papers and give lessons in English pretty frequently (very few of my coworkers are native English speakers) and you could say I integrate _all_ of my fields at work! =) Arguably, though, a lot of what I'm talking about here is multidisciplinary, not interdisciplinary.



Joseph on Interdisciplinarity and Integration:

Thanks Ada for such a great post. I have to say that integration for me is quite simple for the most part. I have a minor in Mathematics and have one area of concentration is Physical Sciences, such as Astronomy and Physics, and the Physics classes I have taken are all Calculus-based, so I did not have to do much on my own, but I am grateful because the integration actually gives me a deeper understanding of the material. My other area of concentration is the Social and Behavioral Sciences. One thing I am contemplating working on is the Psychology of Mathematics, and by this I mean how we feel towards Math itself, from an early age to us as adults. It seems that at an early age you will either have a liking for Mathematics, or (more likely) a rather strong distaste for it, and this leads to many people not studying it. I really feel that Mathematics is quite important and hope this research of my own disproves my hunch that a lot of people just do not like Math. I hope that you all do! I love it!

Here are some questions to ponder this week:

How have or haven't you integrated your areas and minor?

Why do you believe integration of your areas and minor are important in terms of professional, academic, and/or personal development?

How do you believe your areas and minor can be better integrated?

E-Portfolio

The e-Portfolio here at UCF is a tool that can be used to supplement your scholarly pursuits and your professional pursuits. It is basically an online representation of you that a University, employer, or other entity can access to get a brief (or not so brief) idea of who you are and what you are about. You can also demonstrate some of your work and awards you may have received. It definitely is an asset to have.

Joseph on the e-Portfolio:

On some of my resumes, I have put the address to my e-Portfolio from here at UCF. So far, I have mainly used it to be as online resume and a short biography about me, but I am definitely aware of how valuable it can be because a paper resume, or just an online resume, is quite impersonal, and your e-portfolio allows you to put a face to your resume. Some employers see hundreds of resumes, so anything you can do to make yours stand out is best. So, please take this opportunity to consider how you are going to make your e-Portfolio work for you and answer these questions at the end of Ada's post on this blog.

Ada on the e-Portfolio:

I'll admit, I haven't heavily utilized my e-Portfolio outside of my IDS classes. I felt it wasn't the best way to market my work in my field, so I have other portfolios I use when actually seeking work. The e-Portfolio did, however, give me a chance to review and organize my academic progress and accomplishments at UCF. My work in IDS included a lot of assessment of what I've done so far in my college career and outlining my plans for the future, and this is certainly all appropriate for an e-Portfolio; it does a good job of showing my personal and academic development. It can also demonstrate interdisciplinarity by highlighting projects I've done that incorporate my different disciplines, like game development or language processing. I will probably be more likely to utilize the e-Portfolio when I'm applying for a more programming-oriented job, because it will allow me to actually show a reviewer the work I've done (source code, executables, presentations). Right now, however, my basic resumé and my art portfolio (hosted on other sites) have been more useful to me for actually getting work than anything else.

-----

Questions for you:

How will your e-Portfolio demonstrate your interdisciplinarity?
What is the audience / purpose you're thinking of using?
How would you envision your e-Portfolio looking like? What would you like to stand out?

Joseph's Introduction:

I never would have thought that I would start out an introduction by saying I am a Christian, but I guess I have now. Usually that is something that most people try to disclose at a much later date when everyone is okay with who you are. But now, when asked “Who are you?”, I am more than proud to state that as who I am first.

Next, I am a happily married man that is looking forward towards graduating this December. I am just hoping that I can get into a career that will allow me to contribute to the household. My wife and I are looking for a house right now, and we are looking ahead to start our lives together after college.

Next, I would like to mention that I am a senior at UCF. Originally I chose UCF as where I wanted to go to college for three main reasons. One, UCF was giving me the most money of any college in Florida. Two, I wanted to be far enough away from home that I wasn’t expected to come home every weekend but I wanted to be close enough that I could go home to Destin, FL whenever I wanted. Three, my best friend had moved to Orlando our senior year of high school and UCF just happened to be where he moved. Additionally, I was a Mechanical Engineering major when I came to UCF and UCF had great credentials for the program.

But, as I discovered that being on my own for the first time was quite liberating, I neglected my studies somewhat, and bounced through a couple of majors, and eventually ended up with a ton of classes finished but no degree. The Interdisciplinary Studies degree allowed me to combine all the education I received here at UCF into one degree, and now I plan to highlight that when I am looking for a career. By the way, I love Family Guy, The Office, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

-----

Ada's Introduction:

Hi! I'm Ada, and I was previously a computer science major, but I changed to Interdisciplinary Studies earlier this year. My minor is Computer Science, and my areas of study are Letters & Modern Languages and Behavioral & Social Sciences. I'm something like a fifth or sixth year senior, but I'll finally be graduating this fall. =) I chose UCF for a number of reasons: It was local and affordable, most of the rest of my family went here (so I was pretty familiar with the campus already), and I knew it had a great computer science program. However, computer science is no longer my major focus. I've been running a small art business for the last couple years, and my post-graduation goal is to turn this business into a full-time career. Changing majors to IDS served a dual purpose: it allowed me to pursue other academic interests than computer science (like anthropology and linguistics, both of which are major passions of mine) and it allowed me to graduate much more quickly than I could have if I stuck exclusively with computer science. I will most likely continue taking classes after graduation (perhaps getting a certification in Technical Writing or Gender Studies) but I would like to devote myself to my business full-time starting next year.

When I try to explain Interdisciplinary Studies, I summarize it by saying that I have a minor and two other areas of study, and part of my education is to learn to integrate these disciplines together. Most people understand it pretty well from that; if I get a blank stare, THEN I try telling them that it's basically a double major.

I think advantages of an interdisciplinary education include, obviously, a richer, more well-rounded education as well as exposure to new ways of thinking, like an engineering major being forced to endure liberal arts people. ;) Disadvantages might include only skimming the surface of some subjects instead of delving deeply into them like you would if you were majoring in them. (For example, I'm studying both language and behavioral sciences, but I'm only now beginning to study linguistic anthropology.)

-----

Questions for you:

Who are you? What are your areas / minors? What year are you?
How do you explain IDS to others?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of an interdisciplinary education?