Assessing the performance of the CREWES Project: 1989-2005

Jeffrey Blair Thurston, Robert R. Stewart, I. Louise Forgues

We define an output metric for The CREWES Project that reflects our goal of educating students and engaging in geophysical research. To measure this, we assign weights to each of the elements we consider best reflect progress towards these. Graduates are weighted most heavily, field surveys and awards are the next most important indicators, followed by refereed papers and patents, and finally by research reports, software modules and conference presentations and citations of published work. We attempt to measure productivity by normalizing this output measure by personnel and by inflation adjusted revenue.

Over the project's 17-years revenue, personnel, and output have all steadily increased. Annualized increases in revenue and output are respectively 4.7% and 5.6%. The slightly slower growth in output is attributed to decreased financial support from the university. During this time, the number of people contributing to the project (faculty, staff, and students) has roughly tripled.