Industry Mentors

This position on the committee is intended to give the student an opportunity to interact with industry while at the same time stimulate dialog between the faculty and industry representatives.

• An industry mentor is absolutely required in all PhD committees (no exceptions).
• The mentor can be from industry, a non-profit, or government but not another academic entity (on or off campus).
• The mentor is expected to serve as a full committee member, except he/she does not vote on student passing issues, but does participate in all committee meetings (open and closed). As with the faculty appointments to graduate committees, formal committee meeting participation via phone and email communication modes will frowned upon.
• The same interaction and meeting attendance levels are expected of the industry mentor inclusive of physical attendance and student interaction.
• The selection is done by the student’s major professor nominates a mentor to the departmental graduate coordinator which forwards the nominee to the program coordinator upon which they both have to approve this appointment.