ASEE TODAY
PRESIDENT'S LETTER
Professional Development Is Key
A year-long debate has begun on scholarly innovation.
By J.P. Mohsen
Greetings from Louisville, Kentucky - home of the 2010 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition. It is an honor and a privilege to be your host in my hometown during the year of my presidency, and I hope to see many of you in Louisville next summer. I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to lead this great organization. Due to the considerable accomplishments of those who have come before me, we, all of us, now have an immediate opportunity to help shape the future of engineering and technology education in the United States and abroad.
ASEE is taking the lead role in transforming engineering education throughout the world by helping to create a culture of scholarly innovation. A year-long debate will take place at every section and zone meeting; online with our domestic and global partners; within various ASEE councils and professional divisions; and amongst a broad base of stakeholders, including department chairs and other engineering professional societies. The coming months can truly become "The Year of Excitement," if we all participate in the exchange of ideas, discussion, and outreach that have been planned.
Building upon the Socratic Dialogue that took place during the 2006 ASEE Annual Conference in Chicago and the subsequent Year of Dialogue, a two-phase project was launched in fall 2007, supported by the National Science Foundation. Entitled "Creating a Culture for Scholarly and Systematic Innovation in Engineering Education," this project is led by Leah Jamieson, dean of engineering at Purdue University, and Jack Lohmann, vice provost at Georgia Tech. CCSSIEE's Phase 1 report was distributed online prior to the 2009 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Austin. On June 16, after highlights from this report were presented in the Plenary Session in Austin, the entire audience engaged in a lively discussion about its important points. All members in attendance were encouraged to share their views and to submit written comments for further consideration by the project team. The process of collecting more input continues as we enter Phase 2 of CCSSIEE. The project team will seek advice and ideas on the recommendations and suggested actions through broad-based and targeted outreach. I strongly encourage you to join this process and let your voice be heard, as our success will depend upon the valuable input we receive from all our constituent groups. You can access the CCSSIEE project Web page on the ASEE website at www.asee.org/ccssiee. Results of the outreach activities will be incorporated into the final report, to be published in June 2010.
The CCSSIE project is only valuable, however, if its recommendations are successfully carried out. To that end, my major initiative this year is to begin implementing the Faculty Development recommendations of the Phase 1 report. Already, I have formed a task force to investigate the creation of a formal, nationally recognized professional development program for engineering and engineering technology educators, with the title SPEED: Strengthening the Performance of Engineering and Technology Education across Disciplines. The SPEED initiative was presented during the Austin conference, and its proposed details were widely discussed during various council meetings. Based on the feedback received, the task force has focused on seeking external funding for a pilot program of the SPEED initiative. Key members of the task force include Don Visco of Tennessee Tech; Tris Utschig and Dirk Schaefer, both of Georgia Tech; Michael Prince of Bucknell University; and Norman Fortenberry of the National Academy of Engineering. Several other ASEE members are involved as consultants to the project.
During the coming year, I will also work with the ASEE Board of Directors and staff to implement the recommendations of the Diversity Task Force, which was commissioned last year by then President Sarah Rajala and chaired by Bev Watford of Virginia Tech. We will begin taking immediate action on the recommendations once the final report is made to the Board next January.
I will also focus on expanding ASEE's international activities. Our outreach to the global engineering education community is an important part of our mission to create a culture of engineering and technology education innovation within the United States. Ultimately, what we learn and gain from other cultures can help make us a stronger society.
Though the tasks are many and diverse, the message is simple: During the upcoming year, I will focus on supporting a broad-based discussion of the CCSSIEE Culture of Innovation report; lead efforts to begin a systematic faculty development process through the SPEED initiative; begin implementing the Diversity Task Force recommendations; and help sustain and expand our global outreach. Incidentally, I would also like to work toward replacing SmoothPaper with a much more user-friendly alternative.
The coming year truly promises to be an exciting one for ASEE and all its members, and I invite you to join us on this journey. Until next time, be well and remember, I can always be reached at jpm@louisville.edu.
J.P. Mohsen, president of ASEE, is a professor and chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Louisville.
Asee's publication department is proud to announce that in 2009, Prism secured a total of 18 awards from the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), The Communicator, Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX), the Association of Educational Publishers, and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHERS (AEP)
- "Worlds Apart," Cover Design
- "Tale of Two Campuses," Editorial
- "Some Disassembly Required," Photography
AWARDS FOR PUBLICATION EXCELLENCE (APEX)
- "Grief, Grit, and Grace," Grand Award for Writing
- "Frontline Innovators," Cover
- "Some Disassembly Required," Design & Layout
- "Tale of Two Campuses," Magazine & Journal Writing
- "While Supplies Last," Scientific & Environmental Writing
- "Tech Slump," Infographics
- "Double Whammy," Photography
Awards of Excellence
THE COMMUNICATOR AWARDS
- April 2008 Entire Magazine
- Summer 2008 Entire Magazine
- October 2008 Entire Magazine
- November 2008 Entire Magazine
- "Green Tide," Cover Design
- "Frontline Innovators," Cover Design
- "Intensive Care," Cover Design
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (AAUP)
- "Premium Prices," Finalist for the Iris Molotsky Award
The 116th Annual ASEE Conference & Exposition drew more than 3,000 attendees to Austin from June 14 to 17. The Society's flagship event opened with a BBQ picnic, presented by National Instruments, featuring local fare and a lively country band.
In a change this year, the Main Plenary occurred in two parts. The first, sponsored by Lockheed Martin and Dassault Systèmes, featured Carl B. Mack, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers, and Gu Binglin, president of Tsinghua University in Beijing. The second, sponsored by the MathWorks, presented "Engineering Education Innovation - A New Paradigm" by Leah H. Jamieson, dean of engineering at Purdue University, and Jack Lohmann, vice provost at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
An illustrated nightly e-newsletter, Conference Connection, captured important moments, including a race by autonomous robots built and programmed by students from two-year colleges.
A new and popular feature, the K-12 Pavilion, showcased the work of ASEE corporate partners in attracting and retaining students, and unveiled the new initiatives of ASEE's K-12 Engineering: Go For It platform. The Go Global Pavilion displayed the global initiatives of ASEE corporate partners Autodesk, HP, National Instruments, and Quanser. Both pavilions were presented by Autodesk.
The ASEE National and Society Award Winners and Fellow Member Honorees were chosen by the respective ASEE award selection committees and were approved by the ASEE Awards Policy Committee.
Awardees and Fellow Member Honorees were recognized at the annual Awards Banquet held at the 2009 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition in Austin, TX on June 14 - 17, 2009.
ASEE Award Winners, chosen from amongst their respective geographic sections and professional divisions of ASEE, were also honored at traditional gatherings held during the ASEE Annual Conference or at their annual section and division meetings.
Award Recipients for 2009:
- National Awards
- Fellow Member Honorees
- Annual Conference Best Paper Awards
- Zone and Section Awards
- Professional and Technical Division Awards
- Other Division Awards
These awards recognize high-quality papers selected from among those presented at the Annual Conference the previous year.
Seven 2008 awards were given for outstanding papers: one from each of the five ASEE Professional Interest Councils (PICs), one Best Zone Paper, and one overall conference paper. The award consists of $1,000 for each PlC paper, $1,000 for the best Zone paper, and $3,000 for the best conference paper.
BEST CONFERENCE PAPER
- Presented to: Ashley Ater Kranov, Carl Hauser, Robert Olson, and Laura Girardeau - Washington State University
- Session: 2384
BEST PAPER, PIC I
- Presented to: Robert Niewoehner, Craig Steidle, and Eric Johnson - U.S. Naval Academy
- Paper: "The Loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia: Portaging the Leadership Lessons with a Critical Thinking Model"
- Session: 539
BEST PAPER, PIC II
- Presented to: Steven Zemke and Diane Zemke - Gonzaga University
- Paper: "Structuring Team Learning Tasks to Increase Student Engagement & Collaboration"
- Session: 317
BEST PAPER, PIC III
- Presented to: Arlisa Labrie - Arizona State University
- Paper: "Tinkering Interactions on Freshman Engineering Design Teams"
- Session: 654
BEST PAPER, PIC IV
- Presented to: Ashley Ater Kranov, Carl Hauser, Robert Olson, and Laura Girardeau - Washington State University
- Paper: "A Direct Method for Teaching and Assessing Professional Skills"
- Session: 2384
BEST ZONE PAPER
- Presented to: Bradford G. Singley, Rollin H. Hotchkiss, and Jason K. McDonald, Brigham Young University
- Paper: "Computer-Based Instruction for Engineering Education in the Developing World"
- Session: 1596
When the Lab Rats won five out of six matches at the Vex Robotics World Championship in Dallas last spring, their success held a special meaning for staff at ASEE headquarters. Dominic Thomas, 17, son of Office Services Coordinator Carlos Thomas, was one of three students who designed Superbot, the Baltimore team's entry.
The game requires robots to pick up a polystyrene cube and drop it, like a basketball, through a triangle-shaped shoot. Using Autodesk Inventor, Dominic worked out the Vex robot design on a laptop before it was built, impressing coach and physics teacher Joshua Gabrielse: "This was done like a real engineering project." It contained two innovations, he said: double intake rollers, to scoop up more cubes, and a redesigned claw, using custom parts, to grab and drop the cubes. Nominated by the team, Gabrielse was named teacher of the year at the championship.
Dominic, now a senior at Paul Lawrence Dunbar Senior High School, is a co-captain of this year's robotics team. He is also one of two Dunbar students who competed successfully for a Northrop Grumman scholarship and a summer job at the defense firm's Electronic Systems' site outside Baltimore. There, he worked on a system to control, remotely, robots in Buffalo, N.Y. and Chicago. Hoping to gain acceptance to Johns Hopkins University, Dominic is considering a career as an anesthesiologist.
In June, a group of ASEE leaders visited an elementary school in Jingzhou, China, sponsored by Viking River Cruises. Here, Joseph T. O'Brien, former VP for Finance; Letha Hammon, immediate past chair of the CMC; and Ray Haynes, vice president for finance; talk to young students about the world of engineering.
ALL DIVISIONS ARE 'PUBLISH TO PRESENT'
ASEE has a policy of 'Publish to Present' at its annual conference. All conference papers must be submitted for peer review in order to be presented at the conference and, subsequently, published in the conference proceedings.
The process for the submission of ASEE annual conference papers is as follows: All authors must submit an abstract of their papers, to be reviewed and evaluated. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper draft to be reviewed by theree engineering educators. A draft may be accepted as submitted, accepted with minor changes or major changes, or rejected. Successful review and acceptance of the full paper draft will produce a final paper to be presented at the annual conference. Exceptions to the "Publish to Present" requirement include invited speakers and panels.
All paper abstracts MUST be submitted through the ASEE SmoothPaper system (www.asee.org/smoothpaper) by Oct. 9, 2009. Additional information, including the Author's Kit and the use of SmoothPaper, may be found at http://www.asee.org/conferences/annual/2010/SmoothPaper-FAQs.cfm.
View the 2010 ANNUAL CALLS FOR PAPERS
American Society for Engineering Education
1818 N Street, N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036-2479
Web: www.asee.org
Telephone: (202) 331-3500