[media-credit name=’SUNDEEP MALLADI/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]A group of higher-education scholars met Thursday to discuss new ways to integrate various academic disciplines at the University of Wisconsin.

Focusing on the so-called "Cluster Hiring Initiative," the second annual UW Conference on Interdisciplinary Cluster Hiring Case Study took place yesterday at the Pyle Center, and will continue today.

According to UW graduate student and conference organizer Andrew Epstein, the cluster initiative works to integrate academic areas that are normally considered separate departments.

"The Cluster Hiring Initiative was initiated in 1998 to encourage interdisciplinary research," Epstein said. "Teaching outreach and collaboration across campus, across departments, across schools and colleges, and across the major disciplines: natural sciences, social sciences and humanities."

Through funding from UW, the state, the University Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, 147 additional staff members were hired in 49 different areas to focus on interdisciplinary topics, Epstein said.

New academic "clusters" include biomedical engineering, genomics and agroecology.

Historically, Epstein said, academic topics have fallen into one specific discipline, but added universities must respond to the changing face of academia.

"The culture of academia has been driven by the various cultures and agendas of the disciplines that are generally structured into departments," Epstein said. "But more recently, the nature of the problems that researchers are now tackling are … transcending these boundaries."

Though he acknowledged it might be difficult for institutions to break down those traditional boundaries, Epstein said the cluster hiring initiative was designed to do just that.

Epstein added the Cluster Hiring Initiative is increasing student opportunities on campus.

"There are a large number of new courses that have been created by these clusters," Epstein said. "[And] there is a lot of external funding that has been brought in by these clusters to support undergraduate and graduate student research."

One of those new programs is on energy analysis and policy, taught by UW engineering and physics professor Paul Wilson.

"For a number of years, the program has been supported primarily by a single lecturer," Wilson said. "Now with the cluster factor coming to campus, the courses in the program are getting all the input from this diverse set of interdisciplinary researchers who are now becoming the lecturers for those courses."

Wilson added that combining specialties from different areas helps strengthen overall productiveness.

"We all can come together and have this departure from our technical focus," Wilson said. "That really has an integrated element and helps us look at this integrated system and look at the integrated approaches."

UW Vice Provost for Faculty and Staff Laurie Beth Clark said UW was at the forefront of developing interdisciplinary hiring practices, and the model has been imitated across the country.

Epstein added that a changing society would force changes in the way students learn and professors teach.

"We're much more entrepreneurial then previous generations," Epstein said. "So I believe that the student body more and more demands more interdisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching."

The conference continues today and features a keynote address by professor Thanassis Rikakis from Arizona State University. Events also include feedback from UW clusters to evaluate their future effectiveness, Clark said.