Professional Development Courses

Hybrid, Tuesdays, 3:30-5:00 p.m., August 21-December 15

This course will explore ethical issues in research, including rigorous and reproducible experimental design; misconduct, plagiarism, and data falsification; data management and ownership; responsibility, and criteria for authorship; peer review of manuscripts and grants; definition and management of conflicts of interest; faculty/graduate student interactions; intellectual property and commercialization; and appropriate design and implementation of research with animals and humans. Each lecture will be followed by student-lead case discussion to illustrate principles addressed in the lecture.

Remote synchronous, Wednesdays, 3:30-5:00 p.m., August 21-October 18

Effective leadership begins with understanding your capacity to influence others positively. This course examines your current leadership style and addresses the relationship of that style to leadership development opportunities including influencing team dynamics, building productive relationships, and managing change as a professional and a leader.

Remote synchronous, Wednesdays, 6:00-7:30 p.m., August 21-October 18

This course focuses on practical project management principles and techniques, demonstrating their effectiveness in the workplace. Key topics include frameworks and methodologies, planning and monitoring projects, risk management, stakeholder management, managing your team, and time and cost management. This course will include group work.

Remote asynchronous, October 23-December 8

This course will teach the basics of financial accounting, including the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows and budgeting. The final presentation will incorporate financial skills and knowledge that can be used to support a future project proposal to business managers in an organization. This course has a required materials fee. See the syllabus and/or the course website for more details.

Remote synchronous, Tuesdays, 12:00-1:30 p.m., October 23-December 8

Business communication is a seven-week course and development series designed to provide Carolina graduate students strategies and tactics for: (1) clearly, concisely, and convincingly communicating their ideas in business settings; and (2) operating with a client (eg, internal, external) focus. Students will explore some of the fundamentals of business writing, including practices for writing common business documents (eg, memoranda, emails) as well as proposals (eg, grants, bids, strategic partnerships) and executive summaries.

Remote synchronous, Mondays, 4:30-6:00 p.m., August 21-October 18

Building effective job search materials and a strong online presence is essential for career success inside and outside the academy. In GRAD 725, you will work with professionals with expertise in all areas of the job search process to develop your brand including LinkedIn profile, resume/CV, cover letters and more. You will identify your job values and job skills and develop a professional development plan. Interactive sessions will provide the setting to develop/refine your job search materials and your career approach. Open to all graduate students in any discipline.

TBA

Team Collaboration is a half-semester course and development series offered through the Graduate School’s CareerWell program to prepare Carolina graduate students to work within multidisciplinary teams and complete real-world projects designed jointly with partnering companies and organizations. This 7-week series will support the ability of Carolina graduate students to develop skills in several areas, gain practical work experience as a part of a cross-disciplinary team, and leverage their disciplinary training and creativity to move ideas.

Remote synchronous, TBA

In this experiential course, students will explore the activities and tools needed to make actual investment decisions for emerging companies. The course is offered in collaboration with Carolina Research Ventures (CRV), which supports companies engaged in commercializing technologies and other assets emanating from the University and UNC Health. Students will learn principles of rigorous and reproducible due diligence and market research; learn key components to the conduct of thorough due diligence on early-stage companies.

In person, Wednesdays, 2:30-4:30 p.m., August 21-October 18

This course provides an overview of the fundamental first steps of technology commercialization, with a specific emphasis on university technology commercialization (aka technology transfer). The course will cover the following topics: Market Assessment, Intellectual Property, Technology Development, Licensing, Commercial Development, and University Startups.

In person, Wednesdays, 2:30-4:30 p.m., October 23-December 8

Prerequisite, GRAD 755. Universities are rich sources of ideas and innovation. As such, they provide the springboard for launching high growth startups. These startups emanate from a variety of university sources, ranging from students with disruptive business models to faculty and graduate students with innovative research discoveries. This course explores the latter: university startups developed as part of the university research engine. The course builds on the concepts of GRAD 755: Fundamentals of Technology Commercialization.

In person, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00-11:50 a.m. or 2:00-2:50 p.m., August 21-December 15

GRAD 810 and 811 are part of the Preparing International Teaching Assistants Program.

GRAD 810 serves as an introduction to teaching skills. The course focuses on cross-cultural communication, English pronunciation, basic teaching skills, and topics necessary for effective interaction in classrooms in the United States.

• GRAD 810 Syllabus sample