Assistant or Associate Professor - Bellingham, United States - Western Washington University

Description

Position Title Assistant or Associate Professor - Computer Science, Robotics
About the University Western Washington University, with over 16,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community with an urban population of approximately 115,000 people, overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western is the highest-ranking public, master's-granting university in the Pacific Northwest, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education based on innovative scholarship and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents.
About the Department The Computer Science Department has 19 tenured or tenure-track faculty, 15 non-tenure track instructors, and serves approximately 500 majors or pre-majors. The department offers an ABET-accredited B.S. in computer science, an M.S. degree, and B.S. degrees in Data Science and Cybersecurity, as well as a CS Education B.A. degree. The department has a strong history of research collaboration with other disciplines across campus such as Anthropology, Linguistics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Physics, among others, as well as collaborations with regional tech partners such as the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL). Collaborations with the Washington Autonomous Vehicle Cluster (WAV-C), and with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), provide additional opportunities for faculty whose specialty is robotics. Faculty-mentored research projects are a hallmark of CS at WWU, which the department and college support in numerous ways, including by funding student and faculty travel to academic conferences to present their co-authored publications.
ADEI efforts: The Computer Science Department is committed to cultivating equitable and diverse learning and work environments to fulfill Western's strategic goals of Advancing Inclusive Success, Increasing Washington Impact, and Enhancing Academic Excellence. The department's on-going efforts include faculty involvement in workshops on inclusive pedagogy and educational research on student success, among others.

Work Life Balance: The department supports a genuine balance between teaching and scholarship, and between life and work. Standards for tenure and promotion are designed with this commitment in mind. Faculty have reasonable yearly teaching loads, which enables them to pursue their scholarship interests via mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students. Above all, high quality engaged instruction is highly valued.

Department Growth: As part of the university's commitment to cultivate expansion in critical disciplines, Kaiser Borsari Hall is being built to increase capacity in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering. The 20,000 square foot facility will house state-of-the-art teaching classrooms, new faculty offices, a showcase robotics lab, as well as student project spaces. The new building will add to the existing footprint of CS at Western, and is slated to open in January 2025.

Student culture: The department has a long history and culture of student engagement in faculty-mentored research that is supported by the College. The extent and success of student research is evidenced by several alumni each year proceeding to PhD programs at top institutions. Our undergraduate and graduate students land careers at a wide range of destinations, from top tech companies to startups, to national labs.

Visit our department web page at for more information.

About the Position The Computer Science Department at Western Washington University (WWU) invites applications for a tenure-track position beginning 16 September 2024 at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. All areas of specialization will be considered, but the department is particularly seeking candidates with research expertise and teaching interests in robotics. To facilitate the development of a research program that involves both undergraduate and graduate students, start-up funds suitable to purchase research grade robots such as Spot from Boston Dynamics will be available, as well as funds for several 6 DOF articulated arms for curricular use.
Required Qualifications
An earned PhD at time of application, or ABD at time of application, in Computer Science or a closely related field. If ABD, all degree requirements must be completed by June 15th of the first year of employment (e.g., for a September 2024 start date, all degree requirements must be completed by June 15, 2025).

Record of or potential for, and commitment to high quality and inclusive teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

A record of high-quality scholarship in computer science.

Ability to develop a research program that involves undergraduate and/or graduate M.S. students.

Commitment to teach and engage in curricular development at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

For appointment at the tenure-track Associate Professor level (without tenure), demonstrated significant research and evidence of successful teaching commensurate with standards for promotion to associate professor in the department, college and university.

Preferred Qualifications
Scholarly interest and expertise in robotics.

Commitment to seek external funding.

Salary

Commensurate with experience and qualifications. Anticipated starting salary range for assistant professor appointment, tenure-track is generally between $99,000-$103,000, with placement within the position's salary range being based on qualifications and professional experience. For an associate professor appointment, tenure-track, anticipated starting range is $109,000-$112,000. The entire salary range for the assistant professor position is $99,000-$105,000, and for the associate professor position is $109,000 - $125,000, with the upper end of the salary range typically being achieved through collectively bargained salary adjustments which include a 10% salary increase accompanying tenure. Relocation assistance may be available per University guidelines. Salary and Start-up funds are to be determined upon being offered the position.