Kovach’s Leadership in CCE’s Road to Student Success

By Alex Keimig

With a background in industrial engineering, research focus on process improvement and organizational problem solving, and black belt certification in innovation engineering, Jamison “Jami” Kovach, PMI Houston Endowed Professor in Project Management and Associate Dean for Student Success and Undergraduate Support Services in the Cullen College of Engineering, sees opportunities for innovation wherever she goes.

“I bring that innovation engineering mindset to this work, too,” she says. “I have a very firm definition of innovation that is rooted in my training: innovation is creating things that are meaningfully unique. Something can be new and unique and different, but if it doesn't solve any problems, nobody’s going to bite.”

It’s an efficient way of thinking that guides all areas of her work. Her close collaboration with Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs and Distance Learning Jagannatha “JR” Rao, whom she considers an invaluable advisor, centers on continually finding new ways to support Cullen undergraduate students throughout their time at the college.

“‘Student success’ is about supporting our students in achieving their goals: graduating on time, passing their courses, getting the tutoring help and support they need, and feeling like they are part of the community within the Cullen College of Engineering. Graduation rates, passing rates, spirit building — those are a lot of what I'm focused on right now, especially with UH’s goal of becoming one of the top 50 public universities [in the country].”

Students testing out project in new makerspace.

Support Smarter, Not Harder

Kovach cites the implementation of the Pathway Professor role, expanding PROMES (Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies) and other tutoring resources, and Create@UH as “some of [the college’s] biggest initiatives” in pursuit of student success.

“When a student chooses Cullen College of Engineering, it becomes our responsibility to help that student be successful,” she says.

For example, Pathway Professors “have been specifically identified for their high level of teaching ability and their outstanding performance as instructors“ in some of Cullen’s most challenging courses and are recognized as the “best of the best”.

“We’re also expanding PROMES,” Kovach adds. “PROMES Workshops are a great way for students to access peer mentoring and tutoring support on a regular basis. They run in conjunction with classes, and even early on, faculty have shared that those students who participated in PROMES did better in their courses. This Fall, we'll have a big push for more students to enroll in PROMES sections as well as to find more peer tutors to support them.”

In addition to college-specific resources, Kovach is collaborating with university-level programs like LAUNCH (Learning Advancements for Undergraduate Cougars of Houston) and the remote peer tutoring program, Knack.

“Whereas PROMES is semester-long and enrollment-based, these other programs are… better suited to discrete or drop-in tutoring needs,” Kovach adds. “It’s not just about having more resources. Our goal is to be smart about the resources we have within the college and outside of it. Instead of just hiring a ton of tutors, let’s see what the University is able to provide, and then let’s use our college-level resources to fill in some of the gaps we might find or to supplement those more challenging courses.”

“This is also a particular need for our Technology Division programs, because several of them are located fully at the Sugar Land instructional site. We need to make sure that students there feel supported in the same manner as our students on the central campus.”

Some specialized college-level resources, however, just can’t be beat; that’s the case with Kovach’s newly established Create@UH program in support of curricular-based design activities for all undergraduate engineering majors.

Create@UH is all about increasing and enhancing design resources: opening more multidisciplinary labs and makerspaces for students to work on curricular-based design projects, working to bring in more funding and industry support for these student design projects, and proudly showcasing their work. Kovach describes it as “one of the biggest initiatives” her office has undertaken recently.

For example, Capstone Design is a “culminating, project-based course” serving as the “pinnacle of the academic experience” for undergraduate students at the Cullen College of Engineering. Many other courses, however, still incorporate physical design elements prior to a student’s senior year to prepare them for such a large academic and practical undertaking.

“We‘re working on acquiring more equipment so that students have all of the tools they need to succeed in fabricating the physical elements of their design projects,” says Kovach. “I worked closely with design faculty leaders to put together a portfolio that advancement and corporate relations can show potential sponsors what the senior Capstone Design experience is all about and how they can get involved. They can see that there is huge value in contributing funding to these projects: they’re getting a fresh perspective from our students about how to solve their design problem, and at the same time, those students are getting invaluable industry guidance and professional learning experiences. We have multiple sponsorship levels: some organizations may provide general funding, whereas others might want to fund a particular project, and others still might want to fund a particular project while getting involved with mentoring and support for participating student teams.”

Looking to the Future

“I don’t go into anything thinking that I know everything,” Kovach affirms. “I’m here to partner with people, to build relationships, and to see other people be successful.”

In fact, Kovach’s methods for designing and innovating programming options are inherently cooperative. Each step toward a potential new solution incorporates input from multiple sources — faculty members, students, and more – before a plan can be considered complete.

“We put concerted thought into planning what we’ll try next based on what we know today. Then, when we try that next new idea, we see how it works and we learn from it. This is a constant cycle not of trial and error, but of thoughtful planning, acting, and studying.”

It may take time for the fruits of Kovach’s labor to mature, but her dedication to the undergraduate students at the Cullen College of Engineering has undoubtedly already begun shaping the future of innovation here in Houston and around the world.

“I’m really excited about the future and about what we can achieve,” she says.