Board Profile
Daniel Sayre
Industry Partner
A son and nephew of chemical engineers, Dan Sayre “went bad” in college, he jokes, and majored in history. He lacked the engineer’s problem-solving instinct and inclination to tinker, preferring topics like the Bolsheviks’ rise to power in Russia. But his career since graduating from Yale in 1985 has brought him about as close to engineering education as a non-engineer can get. Now executive marketing manager at John Wiley & Sons, he’s an “evangelist” among engineering and computer science instructors for the educational publisher, which traces its links with ASEE to the Society’s founding at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. “The role I’m in now serves the engineering community and the education community. Those are two engines of progress,” he says.
When not traveling to demonstrate educational materials and technology, he telecommutes via Adobe Connect to Wiley’s Hoboken, New Jersey, headquarters from his home in coastal Kennebunk, Maine. There, after workdays in the roiling textbook industry, he enjoys navigating the “chop on the water” atop a paddleboard.
As chair of the Corporate Member Council (CMC), Sayre represents more than 120 corporate and non-academic institution members on ASEE’s Board of Directors. He collaborated in the CMC’s signature Attributes of a Global Engineer project, a multi-year series of surveys, workshops, and focus groups that refined 20 technical, professional, personal, interpersonal, and cross-cultural skills and characteristics needed for global success. In Sayre’s view, these attributes can be incorporated into undergraduate teaching without adding courses or diluting existing ones.
A new CMC challenge is to expand active corporate participation in ASEE beyond vendors to include large employers – “creating a value proposition for companies that employ graduates” – possibly through career fairs or student competitions that bring companies together with engineering juniors and seniors, Sayre says. Undergraduates don’t currently have much of a presence at the annual conference, he notes. ASEE might help firms retain newly hired engineers, he suggests. There’s some “chop on the water” in that respect: Millennials are said to be “bailing on their first employer more than ever before.” This issue is the focus of CMC’s next collaboration among academic and industry representatives.
Meet Your Staff
‘It’s a Crazy Life, but I Love It’
By Nathan Kahl
Lisa Prandy liked working at ASEE so much the first time (in the early 2000s, while in graduate school), she decided to come back. She’s been membership director since September 2013, succeeding her former boss, Dwight Wardell, who retired.
Lisa was born and raised in the D.C. area. She’s the daughter of a southern mother and a retired U.S. Park Police officer and U.S. Army veteran. Lisa went to nearby Hood College and Johns Hopkins University. Having family close by is handy for Lisa’s three kids: Caiden, 3; Kaia, 6; and Zoie, 9. Finding a balance in managing such a household is a challenge for her and husband Charles. “Sometimes he’s taking one somewhere and I’m going another direction. It’s a crazy life, but I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way,” she says.
Managing her husband’s time can be a challenge too. In addition to his day job as an investigative paralegal for a healthcare company, he has churned out five novels in the suspense/mystery genre (think James Patterson). His fan base is picking up steam and he has a new book set to launch in a few months. With over 50,000 downloads, each book does a little better than the last, she’s happy to report. Lisa reads each one and tries to give feedback where she can. “One time he was describing what was happening to this woman’s make-up as she was crying, and I told him, ‘You have this all wrong.’”
She describes herself as artsy and creative – perhaps too much so. “One time my husband painted our kitchen and I just didn’t like the color at all, so after he went to work I took the day off and painted the entire kitchen. When he got home, it was a different color,” she says with her infectious laugh and bright smile.
Those who meet Lisa would swear she was born to be in front of a camera, which is exactly the path she was on in her early years. As a child she did television PSAs with McGruff the Crime Dog. Her father was the president of a police-community initiative, and that was her in. “I even did commercials with the Redskins . . . but that was back when they were good.”
Lisa says her favorite part of the job is working with ASEE members. “Our members are very passionate about education and engineering – you see that in how they volunteer and get involved. They are very committed.” Lisa’s membership staff is rounded out with longtime employees Tim Manicom and Tonya Tucker. As of this writing, she has not repainted their offices . . . yet.
ASEE Supports Global Day of the Engineer
By Jennifer Pocock
Call it a late Valentine’s present: On February 24, 2016, the world will unite in its love for all things engineering.
The first annual Global Day of the Engineer will celebrate the accomplishments of engineers from all over, encouraging educators to engage students in engineering activities and share their innovations. The day falls smack in the middle of Engineers Week, which runs from February 21-27 and is celebrating its 65th anniversary. This year’s theme is “Engineers Make a World of Difference.” The Global Day of the Engineer will encourage every student to become a global thinker – someone who can work collaboratively with diverse groups to solve major world issues.
Students, educators, engineers, and parents will celebrate with group humanitarian engineering activities like Seismic Shake-Up! in which groups try to build earthquake-proof structures and test them on a shake table. These activities have been translated into five different languages–Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian–to promote cross-cultural participation. DiscoverE is encouraging anyone who can to participate, including libraries and museums–anyone who organizes a public gathering. It asks that spaces spotlight local engineers and innovations.
“The ASEE International Advisory Committee IAC is excited to see this initiative and encourages participation in this important event,” says Catherine Skokan, an ASEE board member and IAC chair.
Engineers Week was launched in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers. It includes a full roster of activities and events for all ages. Organizers say it is “dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers.” DiscoverE, the new name of the Engineers Week Foundation, reaches out especially to female students on Girl Day, February 25, and has activities for all ages on Family Day, February 27.
There are several competitions, such as a young professional New Faces Pro award for engineers under 30, an Educator Award for teachers in grades 6-12, and a New Faces College award for emerging talent in their third through fifth years of college. These come with cash prizes and are designed to recognize emerging talent–and the educators who encourage students to enter the engineering pipeline.
Though it’s the newest day of the Engineering Week, Global Engineering Day will add to the conversation – in multiple languages.
2 ASEE Members Honored for Teaching
Two engineering faculty members, with over 50 years of ASEE membership between them, were honored as State Professors of the Year in a November 19 ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Craig Thompson, who retired in May as a professor of earth science and engineering at Western Wyoming Community College, and Y.A. Liu, Alumni Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering at Virginia Tech, won the awards for their respective states.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching administer the highly selective program. This year’s ceremony was sponsored, in part, by ASEE. According to the program’s website: “The U.S. Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country — those who excel in teaching and positively influence the lives and careers of students. Sponsored by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.”
Learning From and Advancing the Maker Movement
By Stacie LeSure Gregory
The Maker Movement, 40 million – and counting – U.S. adult designers, hackers, artisans, tinkerers, and inventors, has gained national recognition as having the potential to transform STEM education along with the economy. Welcoming participants to the first-ever White House Maker Faire in 2014, President Obama noted that “today’s DIY is tomorrow’s ‘Made in America,’” and hoped “every company, every college, every community, every citizen joins us as we lift up makers and builders and doers across the country.”
Optimistic about the potential impact makers can have on innovation, the American Society for Engineering Education responded to this call to action by hosting a Maker Summit in early November with support from the National Science Foundation. The two-day event brought enthusiastic and passionate attendees to the Washington, D.C., area to forge connections across different segments of the Maker Movement. Goals included envisioning the future of making for the engineering and education communities, and identifying how maker spaces can be designed to broaden participation and foster inclusiveness in STEM fields. Interactive sessions fostered collaborative discussions on the relationship between formal and informal learning; teaching and learning in K-12 and undergraduate STEM education; diversity and inclusion; and innovative products, technologies, and processes to support making and creating.
ASEE plans to release a report on the summit’s vision and outcomes in early 2016.
Stacie LeSure Gregory is a postdoctoral fellow in ASEE’s Education and Career Development department.