These are the duties of the Program Chair of the Chemical Engineering Division of ASEE. This document should be updated by the incoming Division Chair and shared with the newly appointed Program Chair. It provides information and timelines on activities that the Program Chair should follow. Further information on ASEE and general society or conference programmatic issues should be obtained from ASEE Headquarters Staff.
The Program Chair is typically appointed at least one year, and preferably two years prior to the ASEE Annual Meeting that they will be responsible for programming. This document shows how the program chair is active before the conference at which they will be in charge of programming.
Detailed List of Duties/Timeline
The exact timeline will depend on the ASEE conference. Please verify with ASEE all Program Chair responsibilities (in the past, there has been a “Program Chair Kit” available on the ASEE web site). Here is a rough outline of the duties (roughly in chronological order):
- At the previous ASEE conference
- Call for Papers
- Abstract Submission Deadline
- AIChE Annual Meeting
- Abstract Decision Deadline
- Session Requests Deadline
- Draft Paper Deadline
- Draft Decision Deadline
- Draft Revision Deadline
- Final Paper Decision Deadline
- Preparing the Program
- Best Paper Reviews
- 2-3 Weeks Prior to the Conference
- At the Conference
At the previous ASEE conference
- Attend ASEE meeting (including Executive Committee Meeting & Business Meeting)
- At the meetings, ask for input on next year’s Call for Papers (what kinds of topics should be emphasized, should there be any special workshops/sessions, etc.)
- Find a local arrangements chair (for banquet and other event planning) committed for following year
Call for Papers (Summer/Fall before Program)
- Update the Call for Papers for the Division. ASEE should send instructions for how to post it to their website. The Call for Papers should also be sent through the Division Newsletter email.
- Send out reminder (via
the Division Chair) to members, reminding them to submit abstracts and workshop
proposals
- Workshop proposals will have a separate timeline from abstracts and papers. The program chair submits any workshop proposals sponsored by the Division following the process laid out by ASEE.
- Request volunteers to review abstracts and papers. The paper management system should have a tool to contact past reviewers.
- Before the abstract submission deadline, send out 2nd reminder (via the Division Chair) to members, reminding them to submit abstracts and workshop proposals, and to request volunteers to review abstracts and papers.
Abstract Submission Deadline
- Local arrangements chair should start finding options for banquet locations and discuss them with Program Chair, Division Chair, and Chair-Elect. Also discuss with the local arrangements chair whether you want any other local events (e.g., a unit ops tour of a local university).
- Make sure you have enough paper reviewers, and assign papers to reviewers ASAP after the due date.
- Each abstract should be reviewed by 3-4 people
- Send an email to all reviewers:
- Request that abstract reviewers complete their reviews at least a week before the abstract decision deadline (when you will have to choose whether to accept or reject abstracts). A week will give you time to fill any reviewing gaps and make decisions on each abstract.
- Include a link to the paper management system
AIChE Annual Meeting (November)
- Attend ASEE ChE Division Executive Committee Meeting at AIChE Annual Meeting to give update
Abstract Decision Deadline
- 2 weeks before the abstract decision deadline, send out reminders to reviewers to complete their reviews
- 1 week before the abstract decision deadline, fill any “gaps” in the reviews (i.e., unresponsive reviewers) by assigning papers with <3 reviews to other reviewers
- As soon as a paper’s reviews are complete, you can make a decision about whether to accept or reject the abstract (and provide any comments you wish to the authors).
- Work-in-Progress papers need to indicate that they are WIP in their title. You will likely need to remind some authors of this throughout the process.
- Note that abstracts can be transferred to other divisions if they would be more appropriate elsewhere (this is rarely done).
- Once all decisions have been made, send an email to all accepted authors including the following information:
- Draft paper deadline
- Reminder that draft papers must be blinded (no identifying information)
- Link to the ASEE Author’s Kit
- Link to paper management system
- Potentially send an email to rejected authors telling them of the decision.
Session Requests Deadline
- Local arrangements should work with Program Chair, Chair, and Chair-Elect to choose a final location for the banquet and work on getting the contract signed (ASEE may want to be the signee on the contract / provide credit card info)
- For all sessions, ASEE will need an estimated attendance at each (~70 for technical sessions and banquet, 20 for the Executive Committee meeting, ~60 for the Business Meeting).
- Some sessions (e.g., banquet) may require a ticket price
- Banquet dinner has historically been $65 (may depend on funds available, restaurant charges)
- Workshops may need to cover AV costs and any food provided
- Sessions that do not need to be requested:
- Technical sessions (these will be auto-assigned based on the number of papers submitted)
- Poster session (one will be auto-assigned)
- Sessions that need to be requested (early in the process, all you need are times, estimated attendance, and draft names/descriptions – the names/descriptions/etc. can be updated later):
- Executive Committee Meeting (day before Business Meeting)
- Business Meeting
- Open Mic
- Banquet
- Other social events (e.g., board games, unit ops tour)
Draft Paper Deadline
- ~1 week before the deadline, send a reminder to accepted authors to submit their draft papers (should be blinded, formatted according to the Author’s Kit)
- ASAP after the deadline, assign at least 3 reviewers per paper. Give them a deadline of 2-3 weeks before the draft decision deadline to give you time to process everything before making a decision.
- Any time after the draft papers have been submitted, start drafting technical session titles and descriptions – it is helpful to start arranging papers into preliminary categories, although you shouldn’t assign them to sessions until you have the finalized list of papers.
Draft Decision Deadline
- ~3 weeks before the decision deadline, send reminders to the reviewers to complete their reviews by a deadline you have set (~2 weeks before the decision deadline)
- ~2 weeks before the decision deadline, fill in any remaining reviewing “gaps” by soliciting volunteers from reviewer pool
- In the week before the decision deadline, make decisions on each paper based on its reviews:
- Accept (without revisions) – send these authors instructions to un-blind and upload a final version that corresponds to the formatting requirements. Won’t be due until the final paper deadline. Remind authors that at leas one author needs to be registered for the conference by the deadline, or the paper will be dropped.
- Request revisions – any reviewers who had requested revisions should automatically get asked to re-review these papers. You may need to email your reviewers to have them check. Revisions are due sooner (usually 1-2 weeks).
- Reject – this is rare, but should be used for any paper that doesn’t meet our standards.
- You may need to suggest that some papers change to posters or Works-in-Progress, or some authors may request changing theirs from full paper to poster/WIP or vice-versa.
- After you’ve made decisions on all papers, send emails to authors asking them to check their paper’s status. Remind them that final papers need to be un-blinded and conform to the formatting requirements in the Author’s Kit. Give them the deadline for revisions and final paper submissions, as well as a link to the paper management system. Remind authors that at least one author needs to be registered for the conference by the final upload deadline, or the paper will be dropped.
Draft Revision Deadline
Once revisions have been submitted, send an email to reviewers that they may need to re-review. Give them a deadline a few days in advance of the final paper decision deadline (to give you time to process the decisions).
Final Paper Decision Deadline
Send a reminder email to reviewers with incomplete reviews ~1 week before the decision deadline (make sure to give yourself time to process the final decisions before the decision deadline)
Preparing the Program
Start working on this ASAP after the final paper upload deadline, and at least a few weeks before the ASEE deadline!
- Finalize session details (names, descriptions, estimated attendance, addresses for off-campus events, etc.)
- Assign papers to sessions. Try to group works-in-progress into postcard sessions, and group the remaining papers by some kind of theme (to the extent possible).
- Send out draft paper schedule to authors and give them a few days to tell you of any potential conflicts.
- Request moderators
- Send them the draft schedule
- It’s helpful to have them fill out a survey asking if they’ve moderated before and which sessions they’d be most interested in (and available to) moderate
- Assign moderators to sessions
- It’s helpful to send the moderators a template email that they can send to their authors to introduce themselves and give the authors instructions for how to prepare their presentation.
- Send another reminder email to authors and moderators to check for any time conflicts! Note that changes can be made after the program is due by emailing ASEE, but it may not be reflected in the printed booklet.
Best Paper Reviews
Start working on this ASAP after final paper decisions are due (same time as preparing the program)!
- You are responsible for helping with 3 award processes:
- PIC I Best Paper Award
- ASEE Best EDI Paper
- ChED Martin Award (Best paper in ChED)
PIC I Best Paper Award
- For the PIC I Best Paper Award, you will need to:
- Select the top ~10-15 papers submitted to the Division
- Recruit reviewers (potential people to ask for help: ChED Directors, Awards Chair, Chair, Chair-Elect, Past Chair). Ideally have each paper reviewed by 2-3 people, and keep track of which papers have been assigned to which reviewers, being careful to avoid conflicts of interest.
- Send them PDFs of the top papers and ask them to fill out a rubric (survey) – the ASEE Best Paper Rubric is fine to use. Also be sure to ask for any additional comments.
- Go through the survey results and identify which paper should be nominated based on scores and comments. Send this nomination to the PIC I Chair.
ASEE Best EDI Paper
- For the Best DEI Paper Award, you will largely work with the ChED DEI representative – they may be able to do a lot of this process:
- Identify which of the finalized papers are DEI-related
- Download PDFs of these and send them to the ChED DEI representative
- A review process similar to the PIC I Best Paper (but with the Best DEI paper rubric) should be performed.
- As long as the DEI representative does not have a conflict of interest with any of the nominated papers, they can run the review process and submit the nomination on behalf of the division. If they do have a conflict of interest, you may need to identify the “winning” DEI paper and submit the nomination for the division.
ChED Martin Award (Best paper in ChED)
- For the Martin Award, you will assist the ChED Awards Chair:
- Identify which papers should be reviewed for the Martin Award and send list of titles/authors, as well as PDFs of the papers to the Awards Chair
- You will work with the Awards Chair and 1-2 other reviewers to review these papers (deadline is the conference itself).
- At the conference, you will need to attend most/all of the Martin Award papers (or at least make sure they’re attended by someone on the reviewing committee).
2-3 Weeks Prior to the Conference
- Put together a Google (or other shareable) calendar of the Program for the Division Newsletter (Conference Edition)
- Prepare slides for the Executive Committee Meeting and the Business Meeting
- Thank yous
- Summary of papers submitted/presented
- Remaining conference highlights
- Prepare a PPT slide with links (QR codes) to the Program calendar, as well as listings of key conference highlights. Send the slide to moderators to present at the start of their sessions.
- Work with local arrangements chair to finalize details for the banquet
At the Conference
- Finally relax and enjoy the program!
- Attend the Division Mixer – potentially have flyers with the calendar QR code(s) available to pass out
- Attend ChE Executive Committee and ChE Business Meeting.
- Attend Martin Award nominee’s presentations
- Select Martin Award winner in conjunction with other judges
- Help find the next Program Chair and Local Arrangements Chair