Letter From The President: Let’s Become the Voice of Engineering Education

Faculty and policymakers should be asking, “What does ASEE think?”

By Don P. Giddens

ASEE is a complex organization with many stakeholders, all pursuing our common objective of educating the very best engineers and engineering technologists in the world. Over the years, the scope of our activities has grown and diversified in a number of ways:

• Our Society is at the forefront of developing and disseminating innovations in how people learn engineering and engineering technology, as evidenced by the success of the Journal of Engineering Education, Prism, and other publications.
• We are deeply committed to research, not only to contribute to the growth of knowledge and its application but also to infuse curricula with the latest knowledge.
• We are engaged in public policies affecting education, research, innovation, and competitiveness.
• Geographically, we are expanding our interest beyond the United States, since engineering today is practiced in a global economy and our students (and faculty) must be prepared for this new reality.
• ASEE has entered robustly into the area of STEM education, reaching out to the K-12 population and addressing diversity and pipeline issues.
• Aware that innovation is essential to economic well-being, we seek to enhance relationships between engineering and industry and understand the changing needs of the corporate world.
• ASEE has increasingly participated in projects related to engineering education that also generate income, such as managing fellowships for federal agencies.

As a dean, I became painfully aware of the negative impact of the recent recession on faculty workloads and, in turn, on the quality of education. Still, some in our national leadership seem to recognize that engineering will be essential to economic recovery, innovation, and economic health going forward. Let’s hope that recent statements emphasizing STEM education, energy, and manufacturing initiatives will not turn out to be empty words.

If the glass is indeed half-full, ASEE is well-positioned to benefit, accelerating the momentum generated by past leadership. While the last year has been busy and challenging, society finances have been stabilized, ASEE headquarters has been reorganized to be more effective, and our corporate sponsors have stayed the course. Volunteer leaders on the Board of Directors and, in the councils, zones, and divisions are exceptionally strong. And our membership remains active and engaged, as evidenced by the record attendance at the 2011 Annual Meeting.

Our new executive director, Norman Fortenberry, brings an energy level that will set a high bar for us all. He and a great staff will be busy this year setting and reaching new operational goals, including increasing membership, strengthening the financial base, and improving services.

There are a few strategic things I would like to work on as ASEE president. If I could sum up a long-range objective, it might be with the phrase “What does ASEE think?” By this, I mean that I’d like to see our organization move into such a strong and well-recognized position in areas related to engineering education that when issues and opportunities arise, people and other organizations ask, “What does ASEE think?”

What are some examples?

We do not do well in attracting members among faculty at research-intensive universities. Understandably, many faculty place the highest priority on conferences in their technical field, not on educational conferences. Are there ways that ASEE can add value to the R-1 university faculty career path, such as tutorial programs on grant-writing, on balancing teaching, research and service at early career stages, and on time management? Do young faculty ask, “What does ASEE think?” when they ponder their career paths?

Our interactions with the federal government could be expanded and strengthened in selected areas. ASEE has targeted projects supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and other agencies that are largely initiated by our staff. When the National Academy of Engineering, NSF, the Department of Education, and other influential agencies have questions or issues that relate to engineering education, do they ask, “What does ASEE think?”

When professional societies, such as IEEE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Society of Civil Engineers, develop policies for their membership or for participation in accreditation discussions, do they ask, “What does ASEE think?”

There are a number of strategies that we can employ, virtually all of which require being proactive rather than reactive.

One is to ensure that our communications and marketing clearly reflect the values we hold. If you peruse various ASEE-related websites, do you see images that attractively reflect engineering and engineers? Do you see “people” and “things” that relate to engineering and technology, or just words? Is it easy to tell from all our websites that we are committed to diversity? Some of our publications convey messages very well, but I’d like to begin a review of all our communications materials with the idea of projecting an image that emphasizes our core values.

Another strategy is to leverage our assets better. We have strong councils, for example, and there are a number of collaborative programs between councils. I hope to be able to encourage many more collaborative programs and projects that take advantage of our strengths across the Society, targeted at strategic objectives, such as K-14, diversity, and public policy. We all believe in multidisciplinary principles, and we can perhaps be more purposeful in practicing them.

Financially, we should reach beyond cultivating and servicing sponsors and consider what philanthropic opportunities could be pursued more aggressively.

I’m very optimistic as I begin what I know will be a very short and enjoyable year as ASEE president. Together we can truly accomplish much. As we do so, we must remember that the people we most affect as engineering and engineering technology educators are our students, and we must take pleasure in contributing to their successes.

Thank you all for your commitment to ASEE. I look forward to working for you and with you in the coming year.

Don P. Giddens is president of ASEE.

A STANDOUT IN CLASS AND ONLINE

Teaching award winner makes the most of multiple platforms.

Despite 24 years of teaching, Autar Kaw still gets “butterflies” of excitement on the first day of class. “Something about teaching just makes me very happy,” says the University of South Florida mechanical engineering professor. And it shows. Department Chairman Rajiv Dubey recalls watching with envy as Kaw riveted the attention of 50-plus students, lacing a technical lecture with anecdotes and relevant jokes and inviting responses via clickers: “His enthusiasm and energy could be felt throughout the whole hour.”

Yet classroom technique is just one of the ways Kaw, 51, has of “profoundly influencing students,” words used by ASEE in giving him the 2011 National Outstanding Teaching Award. Since 2002, he has led students and partners at other colleges in developing online platforms to teach numerical methods to an expanding audience of YouTube viewers (1 million views as of July) and distance learners in the United States, Canada, South America, and Asia.

Offering lessons for seven different engineering majors using four math programs, including MATLAB™, Kaw’s Holistic Numerical Methods (http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu) stress clarity, conciseness, and real-world examples. A description of a flawed fulcrum assembly procedure on a Miami Beach, Fla.-area bridge precedes an explanation of the calculations needed to diagnose and correct the error. Another problem is introduced with, “A mom and pop shop wants to find the number of computers they would have to sell if they want to break even.” The mix of offerings includes a rap video. Designed for the Web, and not mere adaptations from the classroom, the units conclude with multiple choice assessments.

Kaw saw technology’s educational potential in the early 1990s, when he proposed distributing courses via floppy disks, but couldn’t get funding until the first of four National Science Foundation grants in 2001 connected him to an online world hungry to learn. Recognition followed quickly with a 2004 curriculum innovation award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Besides numerical methods, he has developed interactive software for courses in mechanics of composite materials, now used at 51 universities, and computational methods.

Playing to the “cloud” – and crowded classes – hasn’t diminished Kaw’s concern for individual students, as noted in USF exit interviews. Having immigrated from India in part because he thought the United States offered greater social justice, Kaw is attuned to the needs of students who need to work 20 or more hours a week to make ends meet. He insists on counseling any student who scores below 70 on a test, and has organized a textbook exchange on Facebook to cut student costs.

Kaw’s next project attempts to fuse individual needs with the fruits of research comparing the effectiveness of online and classroom learning. The idea is to find out whether a particular student is best served in a classroom or online course, and then to develop individualized plans to ensure success within the chosen setting. Stating his teaching philosophy, Kaw says, “I believe that it is important to mix teaching styles to reach, encourage, and challenge our diverse student population.”

RETENTION SURVEY PLANNED

ASEE plans to run a full-scale Web-based survey of engineering student retention and time to graduation. These data do not currently exist. The survey will be conducted in the spring of 2012, with results to be published later in the year. Michael Gibbons, the Society’s director of data collection and analysis, is the principal investigator. He will be seeking input from engineering deans to make sure the results are useful to educators. A pilot study was conducted in 2010 after ASEE worked with more than 40 institutions and the Engineering Deans Council to develop a data-collection template and guidelines.

ASEE plans to produce charts and tables that include demographic breakdowns and institutional characteristics. Participants will be able to benchmark their schools in relation to others by using a private Web-based tool. The project is funded by a $397,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant.

VANCOUVER HIGHLIGHTS

The 118th Annual ASEE Conference & Exposition, held June 26 to 29 in Vancouver, BC, was one of the most successful in memory, drawing both record attendance and the highest-ever number of paper submissions. Among sessions that riveted members’ attention was the main plenary, at which keynoter Karl A. Smith, of Purdue University, led a discussion on teaching techniques with an international panel of educators, each of whom shared new insights.

The conference was preceded by ASEE’s eighth annual K-12 workshop on engineering education. Presented by Dassault Systèmes, it drew some 200 educators for lively hands-on instruction.

Conference highlights included a festive picnic, with the city’s harbor and surrounding mountains providing a dramatic backdrop, the ASEE Global Pavilion, showcasing the expanding international initiatives of the Society’s corporate partners, and the awards banquet. Details of the awards appear in the following pages. A nightly newsletter, “Conference Connection”, offered a guide to important events and captured each day’s important moments in pictures, such as the ones above. Find more photos at

http://blogs.asee.org/annual2011/

2011 ASEE NATIONAL AND SOCIETY AWARDS

ASEE Fellows Named

The following members received the Fellow grade of membership in recognition of outstanding contributions to engineering or engineering technology education. This distinction was conferred by ASEE’s Board of Directors at the awards banquet held at the ASEE annual conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre
Associate Professor, Industrial Engineering Department
University of Pittsburgh

Susan M. Blanchard
Founding Director and Professor of Bioengineering, U. A. Whitaker School of Engineering
Florida Gulf Coast University

Nancy L. Denton
Professor, Mechanical Engineering Technology Department
Purdue University

Kenneth F. Galloway
Dean, School of Engineering
Vanderbilt University

Ray M. Haynes
Director, STEM Integration
DaVinci Charter High Schools

Leah H. Jamieson
John A. Edwardson Dean, College of Engineering
Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Professor of Engineering Education
Purdue University

Linda Krute
Director of Distance Education Programs, College of Engineering
North Carolina State University

Larry G. Richards
Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
University of Virginia

Carol A. Richardson
Professor Emerita, College of Applied Science and Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology

Ronald H. Rockland
Professor and Chair, Department of Engineering Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Jacquelyn Sullivan
Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, College of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Colorado, Boulder

Krishna Vedula
Special Assistant to the Provost for International Partnerships
Professor and Dean Emeritus, College of Engineering
University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Benjamin Garver Lamme Award

Jean-Lou Chameau, president and professor of civil engineering, environmental science and engineering, and mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, received the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award for his sustained and exemplary leadership in developing and promoting innovative and engaging environments for engineering education. His contributions reflect his vision for creating discovery-based and interdisciplinary contexts for engineering education and research, as well as his ability to remove barriers to success in engineering degree programs and careers in academia. He has demonstrated his leadership skills at highly regarded engineering programs, large and small, where he routinely engaged a diverse talent base to find solutions for the complex challenges facing those institutions.

As the eighth president of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Chameau has led one of the world’s pre-eminent centers of instruction and research in engineering and science since September 2006. Caltech is recognized for the high caliber of its students and its outstanding faculty, including several Nobel laureates. Caltech also operates several renowned off-campus facilities, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the Palomar Observatory.

Chameau is committed to fostering the institute’s unique values, as well as promoting a multidisciplinary approach to research and education. He encourages the development of programs with an impact on society, in fields such as energy, medical science, and the environment. He also places great emphasis on improving students’ educational experiences, increasing the diversity of the community, and advancing entrepreneurial and international opportunities for faculty and students. He is a strong proponent of the institute’s taking a leadership role in sustainability. Chameau is also committed to diversifying Caltech’s resources and making the institute as effective in administration as it is innovative in science.

Chameau received his graduate education in civil engineering at Stanford University. In 1980, he joined the civil engineering faculty at Purdue University, where he ultimately became head of the geotechnical engineering program. Moving to Georgia Tech in 1991, he was named director of the school of civil and environmental engineering. He was president of Golder Associates Inc., an international geotechnical consulting company, from 1994 to 1995, after which he returned to Georgia Tech as Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and vice provost for research. He was named dean of its college of engineering, the largest in the country, in 1997, and became provost in 2001.

Chameau currently serves on the boards of directors of MTS Systems Corp., Internet2, the Academic Research Council of Singapore, the Council on Competitiveness, the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, and Safran. He also serves on the Advisory Committee of InterWest Partners. His technical interests include sustainable technology, environmental geotechnology, fuzzy sets, soil dynamics, earthquake engineering, and liquefaction of soils. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, ASCE’s Arthur Casagrande Award, the Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award from the Society of Women Engineers, and the Prix Nessim Habif from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the French Académie des Technologies.

The Benjamin Garver Lamme Award, established in 1928, recognizes excellence in teaching, contributions to research and technical literature, and achievements that advance the profession of engineering college administration.

Donald E. Marlowe Award

Richard K. Miller, president of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, received the Donald E. Marlowe Award for pioneering leadership of new models of engineering education that respond to changing societal need and student motivations, particularly as the first president of an innovative new engineering college.

Miller became Olin College’s president as well as its first employee in 1999. He also holds an appointment as professor of mechanical engineering.  He served as dean of the college of engineering at the University of Iowa from 1992-1999, and spent the previous 17 years on the engineering faculties of the University of Southern California (where he was associate dean for academic affairs) and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Miller’s research interests are in structural dynamics and nonlinear mechanics with application to earthquake engineering and spacecraft structural design. He is author or co-author of about 100 reviewed journal articles and other technical publications. He has been a consultant on spacecraft structural design to several aerospace companies, and to NASA. He has served as chair of the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Advisory Committee and served on several advisory committees for the National Academy of Engineering, Harvard University, and other institutions. In addition, he has served as a short-term consultant to the World Bank on the establishment of new academic institutions. Miller has won five teaching awards at two universities and received the Legacy award from the college of engineering at the University of Iowa for making “exceptional historical contributions toward advancing the College in teaching, research, or service.” He is a member of the Board of Directors of Stanley Consultants Inc. and serves on the Boards of Trustees of Babson and Olin Colleges. A member of ASEE, he is also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi. Miller earned his B.S. degree in aerospace engineering in 1971 from the University of California, Davis, where he received the 2002 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award. In 1972, he earned his M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, and in 1976 he earned his Ph.D. in applied mechanics from Caltech.

The Donald E. Marlowe Award for distinguished education administration recognizes an individual administrator who has made significant ongoing contributions to education for engineering and engineering technology by unusually effective national leadership and example beyond accepted tradition. Recipients of this award have demonstrated an understanding and responsiveness to societal and technological change through creative and dedicated administrative skill and leadership.

Frederick J. Berger Award

Carol Q. Richardson, professor emerita at the College of Applied Science and Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), received the Frederick J. Berger Award for her 30 years of leadership in engineering technology. One of a handful of women leaders in the field, she has made dramatic improvements in curricula and laboratories, winning numerous grants in laboratory development. Over the years, she took a very active role in administration, serving as chair, vice dean, and dean. She has served in many roles in many professional societies, including ASEE in numerous ways.

At RIT, Richardson designed and proposed the Bachelor of Science program in Telecommunications Engineering Technology, which was the first ABET-accredited program of its kind in 1993. In 2000, she led the team that developed the Master of Science degree in Telecommunication Engineering Technology. In 1994, she became chair of the department of electrical, computer, and telecommunications engineering technology and was appointed vice dean of the college of applied science and technology and Paul A. Miller Professor in 2005. She served as interim dean of the college of applied science and technology from 2006 to 2008 and returned to teaching in 2009. She had a 10-year career as a design engineer at Collins Radio Co. and General Electric before joining RIT.

Richardson has been active in professional engineering organizations throughout her career at RIT. She served on the ASEE Executive Committee and Board of Directors as vice president, Professional Interest Councils. She is a past chair of the ASEE Engineering Technology Division; past program chair for the ASEE Women in Engineering Division; past chair of the executive committee of the Conference on Industry and Education Collaboration; a former director of both the Engineering Technology Leadership Institute and Engineering Technology Council; and is currently an ABET commissioner. She will be chair of the Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET next year. She has also been active in Rochester, N.Y.-area professional engineering and community organizations.

External funding has helped Richardson advance many of her major initiatives. She received grants from the National Science Foundation, Hewlett Packard Foundation, REDCOM Laboratories Inc., and the International Communication Association to fund development of the laboratory for the telecommunications programs. Richardson also received an NSF grant to study equity issues in technical programs, an issue she has advanced through institute service and professional associations. She was the principal investigator of a successful Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarships program awarded by NSF in the fall of 2004, which provided scholarships for transfer students in engineering technology and engineering programs at RIT. She has regularly presented papers on these activities at ASEE conferences since 1992.

Richardson has a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y.

The Frederick J. Berger Award recognizes and encourages excellence in engineering technology education. It is presented to both an individual and a school or department for demonstrating outstanding leadership in curriculum, techniques, or administration in engineering technology education.

Chester F. Carlson Award

M. Granger Morgan, Lord Chair Professor in Engineering, professor and department chair of Engineering and Public Policy, and University Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, received the Chester F. Carlson Award for his innovation in engineering education through the design, implementation, and nurturing of the department of engineering and public policy. EPP, the first department of its kind in the nation, produces graduate and undergraduate engineers who are competent and comfortable working at the boundary of engineering and society on real-world complex problems through interdisciplinary and systematic methodologies. Morgan is particularly recognized for the conception, implementation, and leadership of the graduate program and faculty for 33 years.

Besides EPP, Morgan holds academic appointments in the department of electrical and computer engineering and in the H. John Heinz III college. His research addresses problems in science, technology, and public policy with a particular focus on energy, environmental systems, climate change, and risk analysis. Much of his work has involved the development and demonstration of methods to characterize and treat uncertainty in quantitative policy analysis.

At CMU, Morgan directs the National Science Foundation’s Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making and codirects, with Lester Lave, the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He serves as chair of the Scientific and Technical Council for the International Risk Governance Council. In the recent past, he served as chair of the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as chair of the Advisory Council of the Electric Power Research Institute.

Morgan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Society for Risk Analysis. He holds a B.A. from Harvard College (1963) where he concentrated in physics, an M.S. in astronomy and space science from Cornell University (1965), and a Ph.D. from the department of applied physics and information sciences at the University of California at San Diego (1969).

The Chester F. Carlson Award, sponsored by the Xerox Corp., recognizes an individual innovator in engineering education, who, by motivation and ability to extend beyond the accepted tradition, has made a significant contribution to the profession.

Isadore T. Davis Award

Dharmaraj Veeramani, Robert Ratner Chair Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, received the Isadore T. Davis Award for his leadership in helping industry adapt to new information technologies – such as computer-integrated manufacturing, electronic commerce, and radio-frequency identification (RFID) – and for serving as a role model, source of inspiration, and resource for several generations of engineering students seeking greater exposure to real-world problems.

Veeramani holds joint appointments in the college of engineering and the school of business. Over the past 19 years, he has been devoted to the development and leadership of substantial and novel collaborative partnerships between the university and Wisconsin businesses.These university-industry partnerships have made a profound and lasting impact on engineering education, research and technology transfer, and industry outreach. Veeramani’s accomplishments are multifaceted. He is internationally recognized in his roles as an educator and researcher and as founder-director of one of the world’s leading consortia.

Through his expertise in industrial engineering, information technology, and operations management, and his commitment to university-industry collaboration, Veeramani has developed and successfully disseminated leading-edge strategies and practices for computer-integrated manufacturing and e-business. In the mid-’90s, just as the earliest online retail dot-com businesses came into existence, Veeramani recognized the game-changing implications of e-business technologies and practices. His efforts in 1998 led to the creation of the UW E-Business Consortium. This initiative is Wisconsin’s leading university-industry partnership (with more than 70 world-class companies), helping industry gain competitive advantage through collaborative learning of e-business strategies and best practices. In 2002, Veeramani formed the campuswide UW E-Business Institute focusing on research and industrywide outreach to catalyze innovation and economic growth through university-industry collaboration. The impact of the activities conducted under his direction in the UW E-Business Consortium and UW E-Business Institute has been significant and far reaching across the state.

Veeramani was awarded the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award (1997) and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Ralph E. Cross Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (1997). In 1998, he was chosen by University of Wisconsin-Madison students to be the first recipient of the Alpha Pi Mu (Industrial Engineering Honor Society) Outstanding Undergraduate Industrial Engineering Professor Award. His efforts and contributions to foster university-industry collaboration have also been recognized by former Wisconsin Governors Tommy Thompson, Scott McCallum, and Jim Doyle.

The Isadore T. Davis Award celebrates the spirit and leadership of individuals who make a mark in the collaborative efforts of engineering or engineering technology education with industry toward the improvement of partnerships or collaborations. The award promotes collaborations and partnerships between engineering or engineering technology education and industry to improve learning, scholarship, and engagement practices within the engineering education community. The award was jointly established and endowed by ASEE’s Corporate Member Council, Engineering Deans Council, Engineering Technology Council, Engineering Research Council, and Division of College-Industry Partnerships.

DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award

Richard A. Tapia, University Professor and Maxfield and Oshman Professor in Engineering at Rice University, received the DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award for his national leadership in increasing women and underrepresented minority (URM) participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). His exemplary program for graduate recruiting and retention of URMs in STEM has not only tripled the number of URM Ph.D.s in these areas at Rice University but has also been successfully replicated at other universities. On a national level, he has successfully promoted diversity in STEM through numerous leadership positions on advisory boards and committees, as well as through outreach. Due to his efforts, Rice University has received national recognition for its educational outreach programs, and the Rice Computational and Applied Mathematics Department has become a national leader in producing women and underrepresented minority Ph.D.’s in the mathematical sciences.

Tapia was born in Los Angeles to parents who emigrated from Mexico when they were children, seeking educational opportunities. He was the first in his family to attend college, earning his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tapia was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1992) for his seminal work in interior point methods. He was the first recipient of the A. Nico Habermann Award from the Computing Research Association (1994) for outstanding contributions in aiding members of underrepresented groups within the computing community. He received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Bill Clinton (1996). He was also appointed by President Clinton to the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation (1996). Tapia is a recipient of the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997). A lecture series honoring Tapia and African-American mathematician David Blackwell, was established at Cornell University (2000). The Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing honors his many contributions to diversity (2001). He received the Hispanic Engineer of the Year Award from Hispanic Engineer Magazine (1996) and was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference Hall of Fame (1997). Hispanic Engineer & Informational Technology Magazine also selected him as one of the 50 most important Hispanics in Technology and Business for 2004. That same year, Tapia was inducted into the Texas Science Hall of Fame.

Tapia has been named one of the 20 most influential leaders in minority math education by the National Research Council. He is listed as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine (2008). He has been named “Professor of the Year” by the Association of Hispanic School Administrators, Houston Independent School District, Houston, Texas. In 2005, Tapia was elected to the Board of Directors for TAMEST, comprising the Texas members of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. In 2009, he received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Math and Science.

The DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award honors an engineering educator for exceptional achievement in increasing participation and retention of minorities and women in engineering. Endowed by the DuPont Co., this award is intended to recognize the importance of student diversity by ethnicity and gender in science, engineering, and technology.

Clement J. Freund Award

Helen C. Oloroso, assistant dean and director of the Walter P. Murphy Cooperative Education Program in the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, is recognized by the Clement J. Freund Award for successfully directing cooperative education programs at four higher education institutions. Over her career, she was elected as head of both national cooperative education organizations and currently serves as a member of the governing boards of both the National Commission for Cooperative Education and the World Association for Cooperative Education.

Oloroso’s career in the field of cooperative education has spanned the past 30 years and four distinctly different institutions of higher education. She joined the field in late 1980 as a coordinator of a newly developed co-op program at Harry S Truman College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. By 1981, she became the director, leading that program for the next nine years. In 1990, she joined the associate vice chancellor’s team at the University of Illinois at Chicago, overseeing the development and management of co-op programs in engineering, business, applied health, and arts and sciences. In 1993, Oloroso moved from the University of Illinois at Chicago to Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) to become director of the IIT Career Development Center.

In her current capacity, she serves as director of the McCormick Office of Career Development and as an assistant dean in Northwestern University’s engineering school. At the time she joined Northwestern as director of the co-op program in 2001, the program served an average of 325 students per year. Once a mandatory program, it has been one of the signature features of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science since the program’s founding in 1939. Under her leadership, the Walter P. Murphy Cooperative Engineering Education Program has been augmented by the Engineering Internship Program, Engineering Projects in Service Learning, and Engineering Research Experience. There are now over 800 students participating in work-integrated learning programs at McCormick.

Oloroso’s professional activities have included leadership positions in the Illinois Association for Cooperative Education and Internships, the Midwest Cooperative Education and Internship Association (MCEIA), the U.S. Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA), the World Association for Cooperative Education, and the ASEE Cooperative and Experiential Education Division. She has chaired conferences and committees, including the CEIA Legislative Affairs committee during the 1992 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, presenting testimony both in the field and in the U.S. Senate. She has also been a reader of federal grants for the U.S. Department of Education.

Oloroso holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Loyola University and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Chicago. Past awards include the Julia Beveridge Award (IIT, 1999), the Dean Herman Schneider Award (CEIA, 2003), and the E. Sam Sovilla Educator of the Year Award (MCEIA, 2007).

The Clement J. Freund Award honors an individual in business, industry, government, or education who has made a significant positive impact on cooperative education programs in engineering and engineering technology.

Sharon A. Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education

Sheryl Sorby, a professor in the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department at Michigan Technological University, is recognized by the Sharon Keillor Award as an innovator in undergraduate engineering education. Over two decades, she has conducted significant research in gender differences in 3-D spatial skills, led the design and implementation of a first-year engineering program, and laid groundwork for a new Service Systems Engineering program at Michigan Tech. She has been PI/co-PI for nearly $7 million in educational funding, primarily from the National Science Foundation. She continues to work for engineering education reform, both in leading efforts in her department to revamp the curriculum to prepare students for the grand challenges of the coming century and in contributing to national efforts.

Besides her professorship, Sorby is director of the Engineering Education and Innovation Research Group at Michigan Tech. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering, an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, all from Michigan Tech. Upon completion of her Ph.D. in 1991, she was appointed assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, the only woman faculty member in the department at the time. She obtained tenure in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2002, based primarily on her achievements in engineering education research. Her research has been focused on improving the success of engineering students by helping them improve their 3-D spatial visualization skills. To date, she has received more than $1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation for her work in developing 3-D spatial skills for women engineering students and also for students, primarily girls, at the middle school level. Her research in the area of spatial skills development was recognized by WEPAN through the Betty Vetter Award for research on women in engineering in 2004.

In addition to her work in developing 3-D spatial skills, Sorby has contributed to improving engineering education in various other ways. She was co-principal investigator on a grant from NSF that brought first-year engineering to Michigan Tech. Through this grant, the college also established its award-winning Enterprise program, where students learn firsthand about professional life and entrepreneurship. She was PI on a grant that established the Master of Science in Applied Science Education, whereby in-service math and science teachers earn a graduate degree through the completion of a 12-credit engineering core. She was also PI on a grant to establish a new program in Service Systems Engineering at Michigan Tech. She served as department chair of engineering fundamentals and associate dean of engineering at Michigan Tech. For nearly three years, Sorby served as a program officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF. Through her service at NSF, she gained a national perspective on innovation in engineering education. She has been active in ASEE since 1992 and served as chair of the engineering design graphics division in 2002-03. She currently serves as an associate editor of Advances in Engineering Education, ASEE’s online journal.

The Sharon A. Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education recognizes and honors outstanding women engineering educators.

James H. McGraw Award

Thomas M. Hall, who recently retired as professor and head of the department of engineering technology at Northwestern State University (NSU) of Louisiana, received the James H. McGraw Award for his exemplary 15-year teaching and administrative career. He also recently retired from the United States Army following a 26-year career that saw him rise to the rank of colonel and provided excellent preparation for his engineering technology education career. He has been a tireless leader, teacher, and scholar on his campus, with industry, and with the Louisiana Department of Education. He has built on his accomplishments in Louisiana to become a national leader in engineering technology education, working through ASEE, ABET, and IEEE.

Hall began teaching electronics engineering technology at NSU in 1995. As department head, he was responsible for the initial accreditation of the Electronics Engineering Technology program and the creation of Louisiana’s first Industrial Engineering Technology program. In 2008, he created a concentration in Biomedical Engineering Technology and started the effort to institute Project Lead the Way (PLTW) in Louisiana. In one year, PLTW grew from one active program in the state to 29 middle school and high school programs located in 20 parishes. In addition, NSU was designated the PLTW Affiliate University for Louisiana.

Within ASEE, Hall served on the ASEE Board of Directors as vice president for institutional councils. He was director and chair of the ASEE Engineering Technology Council; subscriptions editor, production editor, and financial editor of the Journal of Engineering Technology; and program chair of the ASEE Engineering Technology Division for the Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration. He served as a member of the Executive Board of the national honor society of Tau Alpha Pi.

He is a senior member of IEEE, chaired the IEEE Committee on Technology Accreditation Activities, and is a program evaluator for ABET. In 2011, he was selected by IEEE to serve on the Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET. As chair of the National Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Department Heads Association, he started an effort that has created a nationally normed assessment for EET programs.

Hall earned a B.S. in Engineering from the United States Military Academy (1969). He received an M.B.A. from the University of Utah (1977), where he was named a Dean’s Scholar (top 2%) and was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honor society. Subsequently, he earned an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering (1980) and the Engineer degree (1981) from Stanford University. He completed a Doctor of Education degree at NSU (1999) and was awarded the NSU Excellence in Teaching Award (2003).

The James H. McGraw Award is sponsored by the ASEE Engineering Technology Council and is presented for outstanding contributions to engineering technology education. Established in 1950, the award is funded by the Glencoe Division of MacMillan/McGraw-Hill.

Fred Merryfield Design Award

Timothy W. Simpson, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Pennsylvania State University, received the Fred Merryfield Design Award for his extraordinary leadership in engineering design. As director of the Learning Factory, he created the nation’s largest college-wide, industry-sponsored senior capstone design program. He led two multiuniversity initiatives to cyberenable product dissection activities to help more than 7,500 students at nine universities gain insight into engineering design. His National Science Foundation Design Workshops Series has engaged over 300 faculty and designers in a national dialogue on interdisciplinary design education, and his product family and platform design research has influenced over 300 practitioners at more than 30 international companies.

Simpson holds affiliate appointments in engineering design and the college of information sciences and technology. As head of the Learning Factory, he coordinates over 120 industry-sponsored senior capstone design projects each year for nearly 600 students in 10 different engineering departments. He teaches courses on product family design, concurrent engineering, mechanical systems design, and product dissection, and also serves as director of the product realization minor in the College of Engineering. His research interests include product family and product platform design, mass customization, multidisciplinary design optimization, and trade space exploration. He has coauthored more than 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications to date, and is lead editor of the book Product Platform and Product Family Design: Methods and Applications. He has received over $13 million in funding to support his research from the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, Department of Energy, and Federal Transit Administration, among others, and he has collaborated on projects with a variety of companies, including Black & Decker, Boeing, Bosch, Electrolux, Flowserve, GE Transportation, General Motors, Innovation Factory, LG Electronics, United Technologies Research Center, and Whirlpool.

He is a recipient of the NSF Career Award, the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, and the Outstanding Service Award from the AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Technical Committee. He has also received the President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration at Penn State, and is the only faculty member in the college of engineering to have won the Penn State Engineering Society’s Premier and Outstanding Research and Teaching Awards. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He has served on the ASME Design Automation Executive Committee, and is the past chair of the AIAA MDO Technical Committee. He is an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design and a department editor for IIE Transactions: Design and Manufacturing. Simpson is also on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Engineering Design and Engineering Optimization. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.

The Fred Merryfield Design Award, established in 1981 by CH2M Hill, recognizes an engineering educator for excellence in teaching of engineering design and acknowledges other significant contributions related to engineering design teaching.

Robert G. Quinn Award

Ahmed Rubaai, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at Howard University, received the Robert G. Quinn Award for his outstanding contributions to the development of laboratory curriculum-based hands-on experience through case studies, software, and laboratory hardware on the enhancement of learning in engineering education. He was responsible for developing the curriculum and research program for the electric drives and motion control streams within the Electrical Engineering Program at Howard University. He has contributed significantly to both undergraduate and graduate education and has been actively engaged in the development of innovative teaching techniques.

Rubaai has been an acknowledged educator and leader of curriculum development at Howard University for more than two decades. He is the founder and lead developer of the highly regarded Motion Control and Drives Laboratory, which specializes in experimental research in software and hardware systems and provides students with valuable hands-on and real-world experiences. Rubaai not only designs and constructs the laboratory workstations, but also facilitates a novel educational experience by using experiments he has written and developed himself. The foundation of Rubaai’s success in laboratory innovation and popularity as a teacher is his student-oriented approach. A proponent of innovative versus repetitive thinking, Rubaai stresses originality and creativity with his students. He has steered his many graduate students toward building successful careers in the motion controls field and establishing strong educational programs at their own institutions. For the minority electrical engineering students at Howard University who are bedeviled by the lack of role models in a challenging discipline, Rubaai is their “Dr. Quinn.”

As a leader in engineering education, Rubaai pioneered efforts to develop software packages for undergraduate engineering education. His educational software for computer-aided instruction in power transformer design demonstrates his innovative approach to teaching. This software is firmly established as a standard in power transformer practice-design software among educators and students of power systems, and influenced the development of the commercial educational software now used for this purpose. This innovation earned Rubaai international recognition, and his design is recognized as a model. His computer software has been acquired in such distant places as Indonesia, France, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

Rubaai’s many honors include the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Second Prize Paper Award (2007); ASEE Division of Experimentation and Laboratory Oriented Studies Best Paper Award (2006); IEEE IAS Honorable Mention Prize Paper Award (2002); Howard University Exemplary Teaching Award (2005); ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Distinguished Educator Award (2001); NASA Glenn Software Release Award (2004); and being named Howard’s School of Engineering Professor of the Year (1997 and 1998). He has served as executive board member of the IEEE-IAS (2006-2008); Chair of the IEEE-IAS Manufacturing Systems Development and Applications Department (2006-2008); chair of the IAS Industrial Automation and Control Committee (2000-2002); and chair of the ASEE Division of Experimentation and Laboratory Oriented Studies (2010-2011).

The Robert G. Quinn Award recognizes outstanding contributions in providing and promoting excellence in experimentation and laboratory instruction.

William Elgin Wickenden Award

Gary Lichtenstein, Alexander C. McCormick, Sheri D. Sheppard, and Jini Puma received the 2011 William Elgin Wickenden Award for their article, “Comparing the Undergraduate Experience of Engineers to All Other Majors: Significant Differences are Programmatic,” which was published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Engineering Education.

Gary Lichtenstein is consulting professor in the school of engineering at Stanford University and owner of Quality Evaluation Designs, a firm specializing in education research, evaluation, and policy. He holds a doctorate in education from Stanford University. His intellectual interests include engineering education, mixed-methods research, and community-based research. For many years, he has conducted research and evaluation for K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and nonprofit and government agencies nationwide. Lichtenstein coauthored an article that was awarded the Wickenden Award in 2008. He is also a coauthor of a chapter on undergraduate engineering majors’ motivation, persistence, and retention, forthcoming in the first Handbook of Engineering Education Research (Aditya Johri & Barbara Olds, eds.).

Alexander C. McCormick is an associate professor of education at Indiana University (IU) Bloomington, where he teaches in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. He also directs the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), housed at IU’s Center for Postsecondary Research. His research interests center assessment, accountability, and evidence-based improvement in higher education. Previously, McCormick was a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he led an overhaul of the Foundation’s widely used classification of U.S. colleges and universities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in French from Dartmouth College, and a Ph.D. in education and sociology from Stanford University.

Sheri D. Sheppard, a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University, is the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Consulting Senior Scholar principally responsible for the Preparations for the Professions Program (PPP) engineering study. Results from the study are in the report “Educating Engineers: Designing for the Future of the Field”. In 2003, Sheppard was named co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant to form the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, along with faculty at the University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, and Howard University. She has authored or coauthored over 120 refereed journal and conference papers and two textbooks on basic mechanics, and was a guest editor for a special 2008 issue of the Journal of Engineering Education entitled, “Educating Engineers: Who, What and How?” She has twice before won the Wickenden Award and received the Chester F. Carlson Award in 2004.

Jini Puma is a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, in the School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver. Her research and evaluation interests are in immigrant health, early childhood obesity prevention, community-based participatory research methods, and social determinants of health. She holds a Ph.D. in quantitative research methods from the University of Denver. Prior to joining the RMPRC, she conducted research in early childhood development at the University of Denver.

Sponsored by the Journal of Engineering Education editorial review board, the award recognizes the author(s) of the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education during the previous January- to-October publication cycle.

ASEE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2010 BEST PAPER AWARDS

These awards recognize high-quality papers selected from among those presented at the Annual Conference the previous year. Seven 2010 awards were given for outstanding papers: one from each of the five Professional Interest Councils (PICs), one Best Zone Paper, and one overall best conference paper.

Best Zone Paper

Presented to: Augusto Macalalag, Debra Brockway, Mercedes McKay, and Elisabeth McGrath – Stevens Institute of Technology
Paper: “Partnership to Improve Student Achievement in Engineering and Science Education: Lessons Learned In Year One”
Session: 1596

Best Paper, PIC I

Presented to: Stephen Ressler, United States Military Academy
Paper: “Assessing the Standards for Assessment: Is it Time to Update Criterion 3?”
Session: 1615

Best Paper, PIC II

Presented to: Nicole Genco, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; Katja Holtta-Otto, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth; and Carolyn Conner Seepersad, University of Texas, Austin
Paper: “An Experimental Investigation of the Innovation Capabilities of Engineering Students”
Session: 2225

Best Paper, PIC III

Presented to: Beverly Jaeger, Susan Freeman, Richard Whalen, and Rebecca Payne – Northeastern University
Paper: “Successful Students: Smart or Tough?”
Session: 1553

Best Paper, PIC IV

Presented to: Nancy Warter-Perez, Jianyu Dong, Eun-Young Kang, Huiping Guo, Mauricio Castillo, Alexander Abramyan, and Keith Moo-Young – California State University, Los Angeles
Paper: “Strengthening the K-20 Engineering Pipeline for Underrepresented Minorities”
Session: 2269

Best Paper, PIC V

Presented to: Donald Visco, Tennessee Technological University; Dirk Schaefer, Georgia Institute of Technology; Tristan Utschig, Georgia Institute of Technology; J. P. Mohsen, University of Louisville; Norman Fortenberry, American Society for Engineering Education (formerly at National Academy of Engineering); Michael Prince, Bucknell University; and Cynthia Finelli, University of Michigan
Paper: “Preparing for Participation in SPEED: An ASEE Initiative for a Nationally Recognized Development Program for Engineering Educators”
Session: 1422

Best Conference Paper

Presented to: Beverly Jaeger, Susan Freeman, Richard Whalen, and Rebecca Payne – Northeastern University
Paper: “Successful Students: Smart or Tough?”
Session: 1553

2012 ASEE ANNUAL CONFERENCE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
JUNE, 10-13, 2012
CALL FOR PAPERS

All Divisions are ‘Publish to Present’

With a few exceptions, 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 three 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.

Here are important dates in the process:

October 7, 2011 – Deadline for abstract submission

December 5, 2011-Jan. 6, 2012 – Period for submission of draft paper

February 25, 2011 – Deadline for accepting, rejecting, or accepting with changes draft papers

March 9-16, 2012 – Deadline for submitting final or revised draft papers

Abstracts for the conference must be submitted via ASEE’s Web-based conference abstract/paper submission system, Monolith.

Go to the conference website to learn more and see the full Call for Papers from each ASEE division.

KAMYAR HAGHIGHI, 1950-2011

Kamyar Haghighi, a distinguished professor of biological and agricultural engineering who went on to become the founding head of the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University, died May 9, 2011, after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). He was 60.
While leading the School of Engineering Education from 2004 to 2010, Haghighi launched the first engineering education Ph.D. program in the United States and created the Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE), which focuses on childhood engineering learning. He also oversaw ABET accreditation of a multidisciplinary engineering undergraduate program and integrated a design-focused first-year engineering program with Purdue’s Ideas to Innovation Learning Laboratory.

Haghighi received ASEE’s Chester F. Carlson Award in 2009. The award is given to an innovator who makes a significant contribution to engineering education while reaching beyond accepted traditions. The same year, he received a Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.

Born in 1950 in Tehran, Haghighi graduated from Pahlavi (now Shiraz) University in 1972 with a B.S. in agricultural engineering. After coming to the United States, he earned his M.S. in agricultural engineering and, in 1979, a dual Ph.D. in applied mechanics and agricultural engineering, both from Michigan State University.

A memorial service was held June 12. Haghighi is survived by his wife, Atossa Rahmanifar, and two daughters, Nina and Shiva Haghighi.

PRISM RECEIVES 20 AWARDS

Prism has won 13 awards for design and illustrations, and seven for editorial content so far in 2011, three more than during the same period last year.

Association of Educational Publishers (AEP)
Distinguished Achievement Award winner:

• “Potent Medicine,” October 2010, Cover design

Distinguished Achievement Award finalists:

• “Predictions, Please” April 2010, Cover design
• “Where Minds Connect” September 2010, Cover design

Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX)

• Grand Award, Writing: “Hammer, Brush, and Sickle, Summer 2010
• Technology & Science Writing: “Under Attack,” December 2010
• Financial and Investment Writing: “Leaping the Barrier,” March 2010
• Education and Training: “Preparing Future Engineers Around the World,” February 2011
• Green Writing: “Their Future Is Green,” April 2010
• Cover: “You Just Got Hook’d,” December 2010
• Illustration and Typography: “Wiring the Revolution,” Jan. 2011
• Design Spread: “Hammer, Brush, and Sickle,” Summer 2010

The Communicator Awards

• Cover Design: “Potent Medicine,” October 2010
• Interior Design: “Catalyst,” September 2010
• Interior Design: “Hype or Hope?” September 2010
• Cover Design: “High Hurdle,” March 2010
• Interior Design: “Leaping the Barrier,” March 2010
• Cover Design: “Predictions, Please,” April 2010
• Interior Design: “’bye the book,” April 2010
• Copy/Writing: “Catalyst,” September 2010
• Copy/Writing: “Raising the Roof,” November 2009

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ASEE’s special rate of 5 cents a day per member – less than 1% of the regular subscription price – depends on our drawing enough subscribers. Don’t miss this opportunity to get White House Bulletin for 5 cents a day, less than 1% of the regular subscriber price. If enough members sign up, you’ll start receiving White House Bulletin in January.

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