Jennifer Johnson,
ASEE Today Section Editor/Writer

With the theme of "Engineers: Turning Ideas Into Reality," National Engineers Week 2000 will be held on February 20-26. National Engineers Week is designed to increase public awareness and appreciation of technology and the engineering profession. It offers a variety of opportunities to learn about engineering and technology, how they affect the world, and how they have shaped the 20th century.

During National Engineers Week, local communities will recognize their engineers for professional and community service with special awards. At the national level, the National Academy of Engineering presents the Draper Prize, the "Nobel Prize" of engineering, on February 22.

At www.eweek.org , information can be found on engineering achievements, engineers of note, contests, and student activity ideas. It also provides links to National Engineers Week programs in all communities.

Northern Arizona University Receives Boeing Award

The College of Engineering and Technology at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff has been selected to receive the 1999 Boeing Outstanding Educator Award. Team members and the university will share a $50,000 award. The Boeing award recognizes educators who have made extraordinary contributions to improving undergraduate engineering education.

Competing individuals or teams are graded on improvements they have made to the educational process that enhance the skills of graduating engineering students. Competitors must also provide evidence that their work has a long-term, pervasive impact on engineering education, and they must demonstrate the extent to which educational improvements have become institutionalized. The NAU team was recognized for implementing a four-year sequence of classes called "Design4Practice" that provides students with hands-on learning and professional skills for engineering careers.

Launched in 1994, "Design4Practice" is a required sequence of classes for all engineering students that ensures collaboration among civil, electrical, environmental, computer science, and mechanical engineering disciplines. It is designed so that the courses become technically more difficult and complex as the student progresses.

Individuals and teams from 22 schools were nominated for the 1999 Boeing Outstanding Educator Award. The field was narrowed to three finalists, with each visited by the judging team from Boeing for an examination of their work. Besides NAU, the other finalists were teams from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Iowa State University.

ISU Engineering Students Win National Award

Iowa State University (ISU) received the 1999 National Association of Engineering Student Councils' Most Outstanding Engineering Week Award in a competition held in October at the national conference at the University of South Floridain Tampa. This award recognized ISU students' efforts in displaying the most informative and productive fall 1999 Engineers' Week; the ISU E-Week was held September19-25, 1999. Fifty-four colleges and universities from the U.S. and Canada participated in the annual event.

The students recognized are: Sarah Fetter, Mark Dollard, Erin Schweiger, Chad Augustine, Brad Matt, Ryan Christenson, Sarah Kueter, Paul Whitson, Shannon Binns, Richard Kerslake, Cara Fast, and Ashish Shah.

ISU E-Week organizers sponsored educational seminars where guest speakers from industry focused on students' professional development, including resume writing and evaluating benefits packages. Campus visits were arranged for more than 450 high school students and their parents and two high school scholarships were awarded. Social activities included golf, basketball and disc golf tournaments, a kick-off picnic, and a carnival.

26th Engineering Technology Leadership Institute

The 26th Engineering Technology Leadership Institute (ETLI) will be held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, October 21-24, 2000. The theme will be "Academic Leadership and Academic Management and Faculty Development." ETLI executive council members for the year 2000 are: Michael T. O'Hair (Chair), Richard M. Alexander (Secretary), Bradley Jenkins, Niaz Latif, Albert L. McHenry, and Paul J. Wilder.

For more information, please contact Don K. Gentry, Dean, School of Technology, Purdue University, telephone (765) 494-2552, or e-mail dkgentry@tech.purdue.edu.

This is the second of four installments of section news. Each installment is designed to publicize ASEE activities at the grassroots level.

Southeastern Section

The 2000 ASEE Southeastern Section annual meeting, April 2-4, promises to be one of the best in the section's history. Hosted by Virginia Tech, the conference will be held at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, a vintage 1882 hotel completely restored to its rich, 19th century elegance.

The general theme of the meeting is "The Challenge of Engineering Education: What Works and What Doesn't." The administrative, instructional, and research units are sponsoring sessions, and the eight technical divisions (civil engineering, computer engineering and technology, electrical engineering, engineering design graphics, engineering technology, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and software engineering) have discipline-specific sessions planned. Sunday afternoon workshops will be offered, and the awards banquet will be held on the Virginia Tech campus.

Online reservations, as well as more program details, are available on the Southeastern Section Web site at: www.offcampus.eng.clemson.edu/asee-se.

 

North Central Section

With an increase in section membership, the North Central Section is moving forward with its goal of serving engineering educators residing within the section's geographical boundaries.

The Spring 2000 conference will be hosted by Michigan State University from March 31 to April 1, with the theme "Engineering Education in the New Millennium." The annual spring conference provides opportunities for the membership to get together and exchange information and ideas on engineering teaching methodologies, research, relationships with industry, and community service. Past conferences have included presentations from neighboring sections.

Part of the section's success with technical activities is due to the willingness of local institutions to help. As an example, executive committee members' travel and lodging expenses are paid for by the members' schools. The support from the dean of engineering at Western Michigan University for the section newsletter is another example of the cooperation provided by section institutions.

Newsletters are published biannually in March and September and include information about annual conferences, campus news items, and other items of interest to the section membership. Future projects include locating future annual meeting sites, continuation of award recognition for section members, establishing student chapters throughout the section, and organizing a Web site.

Please contact Sandra A. Yost, chair, at yostsa@udmercy.edu, or Hossein Mousavinezhad, newsletter editor, at h.mousavinezhad@wmich.edu, for more information about the North Central Section.

The Telford Challenge

The London-based Telford Challenge is an engineering partnership devoted to helping eliminate world poverty through the enhanced use of engineering and appropriate technology. It operates through partners in countries throughout the world, encouraging and supporting non-governmental organizations, commercial firms, and engineering institutions in the initiation or extension of programs to employ or develop engineering expertise to contribute to the elimination of poverty.

For more information, see: www.telfordchallenge.org .

 

Conferences

ICEECEE in the Third Millennium
Davos, Switzerland

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the United Engineering Foundation are holding Interdisciplinary Conference on Electrical, Electronics, & Computer Engineering Education in the Third Millennium in Davos, Switzerland, from September 10-15, 2000. The conference will cover topics related to the expected needs for engineering knowledge in the future. More information on the conference can be found at: www.engfnd.org.

Forensics 2000: 2nd Forensic Engineering Congress
San Juan, Puerto Rico

The American Society of Civil Engineers will host "Forensics 2000: The 2nd Forensic Engineering Congress" in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from May 19-23, 2000. The purpose of the conference is to promote technical exchanges between professionals representing private and government sectors, educators, scientists, managers, and students in forensic engineering fields. The presentation topics will include: effects and damage from earthquakes, structural behavior, and preventing building failures. Please see www.asce.org/conferences/forensics/index.html for more details.

ICEE 2001, Oslo

The International Conference on Engineering Education 2001 will be held in Oslo from August 6-10, 2001. Topics of interest will include, but will not be limited to: continuous learning, engineering mathematics, and international collaboration. See www-pors.hit.no/tf/icee01 for more details.

Call for Papers

IV 2000, London

The Computer Animation and Special Effects Film Festival and Symposium at the International Conference on Information Visualization (IV 2000) is seeking original papers and computer-generated animations that deal with a wide variety of topics within this field of graphics. The conference will be held in London at the University of London on July 19-21, 2000.

Papers or extended abstracts are due by February 17. Animations should be received by March 30. For further information on participating at IV 2000, please see: www.graphicslink.demon.co.uk/IV2000/index.htm.

To submit items for the International News section, please send information at least 12 weeks prior to desired publication to ASEE Today, fax (202) 265-8504; e-mail: prism@asee.org. To read about all events listed, see the ASEE Web site at: www.asee.org/international.

Kendall L. Baker is the new president of Ohio Northern University.

Krishan K. Chawla has been appointed chair of the department of materials and mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Lyle Feisel, dean of the T.J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at the State University of New York at Binghamton,has been elected by IEEE as the next vice-president of educational activities.

Raymond B. Landis, dean of California State University's School of Engineering and Technology, received the national Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

Richard P. D'Onofrio received ABET's highest honor, the 1999 Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award.

Paul J. Turinsky has been appointed head of the department of nuclear engineering at North Carolina State University.

Obituaries

William Gould Dow, an ASEE member and electrical engineer, died October 17. Dow was a professor and department chair at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and an emeritus trustee at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan.

Maurice A. Larson, chemical engineering professor and department chair at Iowa State University, died October 1. He co-authored the book, Theory of Particulate Processes and founded the Association for Crystallization Technology.

Advances in Chemical Engineering (Volume 25). Edited by James Wei, Kenneth B. Bischoff, and Morton M. Denn. Academic Press, San Diego, CA; 1999, $160. 

Applications. By J. Reece Roth. Institute of Physics Publishing, Philadelphia, PA; 1999, $45.

Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach (3rd edit.). By Jack Erjavec. Delmar Publishers, Albany, NY; 2000, $78.95.

Basic Environmental Technology: Water Supply, Waste Management, and Pollution Control (3rd edit.). By Jerry A. Nathanson. Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ; 2000, 548 pp., $73.

The Biomedical Engineering Dictionary. By Joseph Bronzino and Michael Newman. Academic Press, San Diego, CA; 1999, $69.95.

Construction Planning for Engineers (McGraw-Hill Series in Construction Engineering and Project Management. By F. H. Griffis and John V. Farr. McGraw-Hill Text, New York, NY; 1999, $86.25.

EIT Mechanical Review (2nd edit.). By Lloyd M. Polentz and Jerry L. Hamelink. Engineering Press, Austin, TX; 1999, 192 pp., $29.95.

Heat and Mass Transfer. By Kurt C. Rolle. Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ; 1999, $78.10.

Laws and Models: Science, Engineering, and Technology. By Carl W. Hall. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL; 1999, $64.95.

Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals (2nd edit.). By Morris M. Mano and Charles R. Kime. Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ; 1999, $95.

Mathematics at Work (4th edit.). By Holbrook L. Horton and Henry H. Ryffel, et al. Industrial Press, New York, NY; 1999, $22.95.