Letter from the President
Reflections on Successes and Future Improvements
The year has been challenging, but we’ve achieved some victories.
By Adrienne Minerick
Dear ASEE colleagues,
One of the most valuable tools I’ve discovered in my career is that of reflection. This is my last column and is intended to be a retrospective on my term as ASEE President. To be honest, this has not been an easy year. At the outset, I optimistically envisioned projects with lofty goals connecting with you, regular communication, and a profound rethinking of engineering culture to incorporate analysis of the overlapping systems interacting with the engineered product.
This year, like many of you, I’ve struggled with burnout (https://bit.ly/3lBzihy) and have talked myself back from the precipice of quitting academia (https://bit.ly/3PEeCmI). It turns out that I’m not even close to qualifying for retirement at my institution. However, each time I’ve reached that point of overwhelm, I’ve reflected back on a Tomorrow’s Professor article (https://stanford.io/3MoQTFb) that has provided perspective and coping strategies so many times over the years. This year, it helped me focus on the goal of exiting the President’s role leaving ASEE a little better than when I entered. It is with this frame of mind that I am pleased to relay the progress that our ASEE team has made, which translates into improved membership experiences for you.
This Year’s Successes
I am most proud that ASEE is prioritizing scholarly avenues for members. It has been invigorating working with the Scholarly Publications Committee chairs, Nadia Kellam and Cindy Finelli, as well as Board members to chart a path forward that broadly includes all forms of scholarly transfer of information (for example, peer-reviewed publications, intellectual property, multimedia, video, and podcasts). Your approval of a Vice President of Scholarship position on the Board will ensure lasting impact, as will the new staff member at ASEE HQ focused on supporting existing journals, forming new journals, and implementing the new VP of Scholarship’s vision.
We’ve also made progress on visibility for professional-track engineering and engineering technology faculty. ASEE’s Director of Institutional Research & Analytics, Joe Roy, has led data collection for these positions so that they can be included in ASEE’s industry-leading compilation of college statistics and national trends, Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology (https://bit.ly/3yEM1I1).
Our team continues to engage in mid- and long-range planning toward a growth mindset with fiscally nimble and strategic investments that innovatively connect members around engineering education. It is our top priority to retain existing members and recruit new ones.
ASEE has been undergoing a shift from a fairly steady, incremental evolution of services for members to a more nimble and responsive organization. ASEE Learning is one example of this (the overarching Professional Services sector is led by Chief Academic Officer Jacqueline El-Sayed). The small and efficient Education and Career Development team is winning grants that enable the delivery for members of just-in-time resources such as the DELTA New Faculty Institute, DELTA Future Faculty Institute, Master Class on Effective Teaching, and Essentials of Effective Proposal Preparation. A full listing of this rich content is available at https://learning.asee.org.
Areas for Continued Improvement
At the other end of the spectrum are those initiatives that I wish had turned out much better. The most prominent for our members has been the IT infrastructure transition. We know we live in a complicated world and as such appreciate when the complicated is organized into simple and efficient workflows. The complexity of individual software applications overlaid with the challenges of integrating multiple platforms became painfully apparent when we launched the new site for abstract submission. I’d like to extend a humble apology for a rocky abstract, draft paper, and final paper submission process.
This has been a steep learning curve for our team and may be a valuable illustrative example of the importance of the culture (what we say and how we do things) that we impart as we educate our students. While founding and serving as dean of the new College of Computing at Michigan Tech, I learned that computing fields tend to have a weak spot similar to those in engineering—namely faculty and students demonstrate greater comfort focusing on distinctly defined specifications and less comfort with squishier parameters.
In the context of ASEE’s infrastructure transition, we had a team selected for their technical expertise mapping assets in one platform to assets in a second platform, but not for expertise listening to users on the intuitive workflow and usability of the interface. Just as engineering without context yields less than robust solutions, web and database integration without centering the user experience yields frustrating software platforms. We have managed this challenge by taking steps to centralize feedback from users so that usability—not code—governs task targets and prioritizations.
You Make the Difference
Changing culture isn’t easy! You can help with our infrastructure transition by attending and providing feedback in the IT focus groups at the Annual Conference.
Changing culture within a hardworking team is challenging, and I’ve also learned that trying to organize a team and envision a strategy to direct evolution of engineering culture is daunting. Our goal is to incorporate systems-level analyses into our engineering curriculum and practice in a manner that prioritizes complementary and overlapping knowledge from the natural, digital, and social worlds in which our engineered solutions must function. As part of this effort to redesign engineering culture and practices, we will be hosting Engineering Culture Roundtable discussions each day of the Annual Conference. Please join us!
In closing, I’m excited about ASEE’s future! Thanks to the diligent members of the Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, ASEE has become a leader in driving impact for racial equity, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, etc. via programming and initiatives. We will launch a new Hall of Fame to recognize exemplary members in honor of ASEE’s 130th anniversary in 2023 (look for nomination information in the fall). Division communications and record archiving will be revamped through the ASEE Hub. It’s an exciting time to be part of the ASEE family as we embrace a new era of scholarship and the education of engineers with tools and practices that yield sustainable solutions.
A heartfelt thank you to each of you, as ASEE members, for your role and participation in improving and adapting our profession for a better future.
Adrienne Minerick is President of ASEE.
Norman’s Notes
Adding Member Value
By Norman Fortenberry
Members,
I want to thank you all for your continued membership in ASEE and your contributions to the stronger, more vital, and vigorous organization we are striving to become. In particular, I thank you for your continued patience as we replace the Monolith system with three separate software platforms for our web pages, business platform, and paper management systems. Integrating these systems and replicating the full functionality of Monolith has been more challenging than anticipated, but we continue to make progress. And we believe you will be very pleased with the result. One final piece is still to come. In December 2022, the ASEE Hub will fully replace our current division and council listservs, with increased functionality.
Beyond our technical infrastructure, ASEE Headquarters is expanding our programming to provide greater value to members. By now, you’re familiar with our multi-topic Developing Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow in the Academy (DELTA) workshop series that includes offerings for future, new, and junior faculty as well as new chairs/heads and aspiring deans. We also offer more than 45 webinars and instructor-led courses on other topics. Find out more at https://learning.asee.org.
With support from a variety of funders, we have been able to undertake several new programs.
Fellowships
We’re supporting several new postdoctoral fellowship programs that place postdocs in start-up companies, on campuses, and at naval research sites.
- The Innovative Postdoctoral Entrepreneurial Research Fellowship (I-PERF)
- The Engineering Postdoctoral Fellowships (eFellows)
- The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowships
- The Naval Surface Warfare Center (Indian Head Division) Postdoctoral Fellowships
Learn more about these at https://www.asee.org/education-jobs/FELLOWSHIPS.
Other Sponsored Offerings
- The Kern Foundation is supporting the Archival Publication Authors Workshop for Engineering Educators (APA-ENG) as a suite of activities aimed at increasing the capacity of engineering faculty to produce competitive manuscripts for refereed journals and other publications in the area of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. https://apa-eng.asee.org
- Under the umbrella of its signature Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Framework that seeks to equip engineers with skills, knowledge, and understanding to protect the planet and the life it sustains, the Lemelson Foundation is supporting a program to incentivize faculty to take on and follow through with this EOP work. https://eop-mgp.asee.org
- On behalf of the National Science Foundation, ASEE is hosting community convenings for the foundation’s Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) Division. These include meetings for the NSF Engineering Research Centers program and the Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) program, as well as a virtual workshop for semiconductor researchers in the US and Taiwan. https://ercbiennial.asee.org and https://redmeeting.asee.org
- NSF/EEC is also supporting Defining and Building the Engineering Workforce of the Future, which will convene a think tank of subject-matter experts in a variety of future-focused disciplines to distill the knowledge competencies and skills required for a future-ready engineering ecoystem (FREE) as well as 150 educators to operationalize the learning outcomes. https://free.asee.org
- And NSF supported our efforts to broaden diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering. Initiatives included
- A virtual community of practice (VCP) for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Engineering (LGBTQ+ VCP)
- A grant on Capacity Building for Research at Minority-Serving Institutions (CyBR-MSI) for the NSF Computer and Network Systems Division
- A grant supporting the Engineering Deans Gender Equity (EDGE) initiative, which provides resources for the recruitment, retention, and advancement of engineering faculty who are women. https://edge.asee.org
- Also sponsored by NSF is the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Longitudinal Development (MIDFIELD), which contains undergraduate student record data from 1988–2018. We are exploring integrating this data into our Profiles survey.
- Autodesk is sponsoring a contest for instructors to design lesson plans that inspire students to create social change with Fusion 360. Lesson plans might focus on solving a lack of access to high-speed internet, transportation, or playground equipment—or any other issue that will light up students’ imaginations. www.autodesk.com/education/educators/asee
Norman Fortenberry is the executive director of ASEE.
YIRE Updates and a Look Ahead
By ASEE’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leadership team
ASEE’s Year of Impact on Racial Equity (YIRE) encompasses three pillars focused on engaging engineering and engineering technology students; faculty and administrators in colleges of engineering and engineering technology; and P–12 parents and guardians. As we wind down the year, the Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI) wants to update members on activities associated with each pillar as well as next steps.
Pillar 1: Engineering Design Teams
For this pillar, we challenged the leaders of engineering and engineering technology student organizations, in a 90-Day Equity Challenge, to use the engineering design process to address an equity issue within the local chapter. Participants could choose from one of five equity foci: Culture, Leadership, Member Recruitment & Retention, On-Campus In-Reach, and Community Outreach. Ten teams submitted ideas in response to the request for proposals and at least one representative from each team joined the virtual kickoff that was held on January 17 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). The challenge culminated with a virtual wrap-up on April 18.
Eight teams completed the challenge. Each will receive a $1,000 prize and special recognition at the ASEE Annual Conference in June:
- California State University, Fresno, American Society of Civil Engineers (Outreach)
- The College of New Jersey, National Society of Black Engineers (Recruitment & Retention)
- Grand Valley State University, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Recruitment & Retention)
- University of British Columbia, Bionics Engineers (Recruitment & Retention)
- University of Georgia, Equity Engineers Council (Recruitment & Retention)
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Engineers Without Borders (Outreach)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Culture)
- Utah State University, Society of Women Engineers (Outreach)
Pillar 2: Faculty and Administrators
This pillar of ASEE’s Year of Impact on Racial Equity incorporates five subcommittees committed to action in the following areas: Creating Inclusive Classrooms; Workload, Promotion & Pay; Learning from Existing Recognition Programs; Divesting from White Supremacy Culture; and the Deans’ Challenge. We look forward to providing blog posts and resources on our website about initiatives that are having an impact on improving conditions for BIPOC students, staff, and faculty.
Pillar 3: P–12 Parents and Guardians
This pillar focuses on “increased participation and comfort among Black and Brown K–12 children in pre-college engineering activities which communicate that an engineering career is an option for anyone.” To meet our goal of increasing recruitment and retention of students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds, pillar members developed different forms of communication (e.g., videos, interactive maps, curated resources) so that parents, guardians, and teachers would have broader access to engineering education best practices, engineering programs, and other initiatives.
We are providing race- and gender-matched engineering role models, via images and stories, to the audience of youth plus their teachers, parents, and guardians to actively displace the core assumptions of engineering’s White-centeredness. Similarly, we started conversations about engineering via social media to validate and encourage Black and Brown students to enter the field. We are also working on a video showcase of a day in the life of an engineering student of color. Finally, we developed a national interactive map that can help users identify outreach programs in their area.
Ongoing Work
CDEI plans to share information about all these initiatives on its website and at the 2022 Annual Conference via special sessions, a distinguished lecture, and in our exhibit hall booth. We also expect to report on more progress at the 2023 ASEE Annual Conference. Our presentations will highlight our impact and future plans.
The work of the Year of Impact on Racial Equity has had the express purpose of continuing to keep racial equity front of mind and front of hand. We want to ensure that the momentum that was created in Spring 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd does not wane and return us to the status quo. This requires that we continue to push forward our initiatives both at our own institutions and on the national level. The activities of this year are just some of many examples of ways we have made strides toward racial equity in engineering—but also reminders that our work is not done.
ASEE’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leadership team is Jeremi London, 2021–2022 chair, Virginia Tech; Homero Murzi, 2021–2022 incoming chair, Virginia Tech; and Elizabeth Litzler, 2021–2022 past chair, University of Washington. Contact them at cdeichairs@asee.org.
Learn more at https://diversity.asee.org/deicommittee/yire.
The pieces in the Year of Impact on Racial Equity (YIRE) series in Prism are solicited by the Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and are under the editorial oversight of the Commission. Opinions expressed in the YIRE series are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of ASEE.
Engineering With the Planet in Mind
The industry demand for a workforce trained in environmental sustainability has never been higher, and the need for engineers who can make a positive impact has never been greater. According to a 2022 LinkedIn report, hiring for green skills has grown by almost 40 percent globally—but the supply of talent is not keeping pace.
As engineers design, build, and code our future, they have an extraordinary opportunity to drive inclusive and positive social, environmental, and financial outcomes. Yet engineering can also inadvertently exacerbate pollution, climate change, and health disparities. It is becoming a societal and professional imperative to ensure that engineers are prepared to innovate for a thriving world without contributing to these problems.
ASEE recently partnered with the Lemelson Foundation and its Engineering for One Planet (EOP) initiative to help close this green talent gap by catalyzing curricular changes in engineering through the new EOP Mini-Grant Program. It supports faculty teams in pioneering new teaching and learning approaches that infuse sustainability across engineering curricula. The program integrates justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion—with a particular focus on increasing participation of women and historically marginalized and underrepresented groups as project leaders and including minority-serving institutions as awardees.
ASEE will support up to 12 teams of engineering educators who pursue new ways to integrate sustainability into their programs. The teams will share ideas and best practices and explore ways to teach core sustainability competencies and literacy in all engineering disciplines. The goal is to generate innovative new curricula that can begin in one engineering classroom and spread within and across schools, while fostering diverse and inclusive learning environments.
Learn more about the ASEE Mini-Grant Program at https://eop-mgp.asee.org.
ASEE Convenes Summit on Future Workforce Needs
By Dora Smith and Dan Sayre
On April 25–26, ASEE’s Corporate Member Council brought together leaders from academia, industry, and government for its Industry 4.0 Workforce Summit. The event built on a previous series of webinars and aimed to collect insights and strategies for educating engineers and skilled technical workers for the coming decades.
Five key themes emerged:
University as a Service (UaaS)
The transformation to Software as a Service (SaaS) revolutionized what and how technology companies serve the market. A similar transition is underway in education. JB Holston of the Greater Washington Partnership, a civic alliance of regional employers, articulated the potential for UaaS—referencing models such as the employer-funded approach of Guild Education. Siemens USA CEO Barbara Humpton envisioned universities of the future serving lifelong learning needs through a membership model. Gregory Washington, president of George Mason University and former engineering dean, made the case that the US has evolved from a national, analog, industrial economy to a global, digital, knowledge economy, and universities must transform how they operate to meet new talent needs.
Diversity Is the Challenge; Diversity Is the Solution
Solving the US talent crisis requires creating pathways to opportunity for women and people of color who have been blocked from STEM careers by social, economic, and cultural barriers. University of the District of Columbia President Ronald Mason pointed to the roots of the talent shortage in wealth inequality, which is strongly correlated to race. Jason Tyszko, of the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, showed how to scale proven talent supply solutions using the Chamber’s Talent Pipeline Management framework. The National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation programs will help drive progress in connecting talent to opportunity, as will new public and private financing structures for education funding and loan forgiveness. Celeste Carter, lead program director of NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program, emphasized the critical role of community colleges in engaging diverse students in technical fields.
Democratize Engineering
NSF’s Acting Deputy Assistant Director of the Engineering Directorate, Don Millard, highlighted how the personalization revolution that has swept through industry is coming for education. Democratizing engineering requires shifting the model from one-to-many to many-to-one, he said. Programs such as NSF’s Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) aim to drive the necessary organizational and cultural change. Lee Lambert, chancellor of Pima Community College, described how PimaFastTrack helps adult learners obtain industry-recognized skills in programs that can be tailored to specific employers. Coursera’s Skills Transformation Advisor Juliana Guaqueta shared research indicating that learners have the greatest interest in jobs such as data scientist and machine learning engineer but lack preparation. New businesses that provide MOOCs or digital credentials may be well positioned to help schools diagnose and remediate these gaps on a more personalized basis.
Adjacencies Are Key
Aligning the right partners is essential to scale and drive success. Adjacencies—within region, industries, and fields of knowledge—are where those partners will be found. Roger Tadajewski, executive director of the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), spotlighted the organization’s student engagement pathway to develop highly skilled, job-ready professionals through programs and certifications across industries. University of Maryland President and former Dean of Engineering Darryll Pines described how the Greater Washington Partnership brought together academia and industry to address the regional talent shortfall through initiatives such as the Capital Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business (CoLAB).
Mentors Are Essential
Relationships are the key to changing systems and cultures, and mentors are needed in many areas. Martin Guay, vice president of business development for Stanley Black & Decker, pointed out that we don’t learn to ride a bike from a book—we learn from experience and each other. His company needs to upskill thousands of workers in the next decade, and he noted that this learning could be peer-to-peer. Ken Ball, dean of engineering at George Mason University, stressed that many faculty could use industry mentors to help better prepare students for the workplace. Chris Carlson, director of university relations at Northrop Grumman, emphasized that models such as the National Society of Black Engineers’ mentoring program Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) increase the diversity of future engineers.
Additional content from the Summit will be posted at https://workforcesummit.asee.org. A synthesis of working group action plans and a post-event publication are forthcoming. Please reach out if you would like to join us.
Dora Smith is senior director for Global Academic Programs at Siemens Digital Industries Software and chair of ASEE’s Corporate Member Council (CMC);
dora.smith@siemens.com. Dan Sayre is president of the technology and content consulting firm New World Associates and past chair of the CMC; dan@newworldassoc.com.