Letter from the President
Influence in Higher Education and at the Capitol
With new reports, conferences, and a government-relations team, ASEE expands its reach.
By Louis A. Martin-Vega
I hope you have all had a pleasant start to 2018, though I know for many of us it meant enduring a deep, nationwide chill.
By the time you read this, the ASEE Board of Directors will have held its winter meeting in Washington, D.C. (and I have the challenge of writing this before that meeting). A significant portion of this meeting will be spent considering the proposed Board reorganization, a topic that I first addressed in my September letter in Prism and that you’ve been reminded of over the past year. The purpose of the proposal is to allow the Board to focus on strategic issues, making us streamlined and more efficient.
We are not making any changes without first taking the time to hear from you. We will review the comments and votes on the reorganization page of the ASEE site. For some time now nearly all discussions of the Board have started with this question: How do we improve ASEE to best meet the needs of our members? I hope this was apparent as part of our Strategic Doing process (which in part led us to this reorganization proposal), with our various Town Hall and Meet the Board events at the Annual Conference, and during the past two years, when we’ve sent ASEE staff and Board leadership to numerous constituent meetings.
You will hear from me later this spring with more details on the status of the Board reorganization.
I would be remiss if at this point I did not take the time to encourage you to vote in the Board elections. If you missed the ballot in the January Prism, go online to the Board of Directors section of the ASEE site at https://www.asee.org/about-us/the-organization/our-board-of-directors and click on the 2018 elections link on the left-hand side. We have two outstanding candidates for president-elect, both of whom I’ve known for some time, and I can confidently say our Society will be under great leadership, regardless of who wins. But please make your voice heard.
Another way that ASEE has been considering your concerns is through our new engagement with Lewis-Burke Associates, a government relations firm. For some time ASEE has been active and engaged on policy issues, from representation on various coalitions, to exhibits on Capitol Hill, to the Deans’ Public Policy Colloquium. The work with Lewis-Burke has significantly increased our presence in the policy world. Its experts continuously update ASEE staff on pieces of relevant legislation, meet with members of Congress and their staffs to represent the position of ASEE’s members on various issues, and have provided guidance to our Engineering Technology Council and participated in that Council’s annual event, ETLI, among many other items. ASEE has perhaps never been more active in representing your interests regarding the health and well-being of higher education than at the present.
Speaking of engaging the community, I’m pleased to let you know we recently published the Phase II and Phase III reports of the Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering project. (You can read them at this link: https://www.asee.org/member-resources/reports.) If we embrace the outcomes of this project, largely informed by engineering educators, we have the opportunity to change significantly our colleges and the student experience. TUEE hopes to identify the critical components of engineering curricula, pedagogy, and educational culture necessary to support the education of engineers over the next several decades. The project seeks to catalyze change by building consensus within our community on a shared vision of the future of engineering education. Phase II was centered on students, and Phase III focused on producing more female engineers. (Phase I, previously published, was about industry’s needs.) I hope you take the time to read and consider the reports. Phase IV will be published later this year.
Lastly, I need to put in a plug for the CoNECD (pronounced “connected”) Conference, about which I’m very excited, April 29 to May 2 in the D.C. area. This meeting will provide a forum for exploring current research and practices to enhance diversity and inclusion of all underrepresented populations in the engineering and computing professions, addressing gender identity and expression, race and ethnicity, disability, veterans, LGBTQ+ communities, first-generation students, and socioeconomic status. It continues the momentum we’ve built in making diversity a front-and-center issue.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. It has been an honor for me, now at the half-way point in my presidency, to serve you. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to get out and talk to many of you, some for the first time. I look forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City, where we will begin a year of celebrating 125 Years at the Heart of Engineering Education.
Bevlee Watford is President of ASEE.
Career Advancement
First GEM-ASEE Showcase
By Mary Lord
Engineering Ph.D. students and postdocs typically conduct cutting-edge research and have many possible career pathways—in academia, industry, and government. However, it often can be hard to access professional development or connect with mentors and potential sponsors who could help inform their choices. That’s particularly true for women and other underrepresented groups in engineering.
In an effort to bridge this opportunity gap while promoting greater inclusion and diversity in STEM higher education, ASEE partnered with the National GEM Consortium to hold a first-of-its-kind Doctoral Engineering Research Showcase in Washington, D.C., on January 22 and 23. The event, which drew 130 doctoral students, postdocs, and new faculty members from around the country as well as 22 exhibitors from universities and federal agencies, was supported by generous grants from the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Vanderbilt University. The GEM-ASEE Showcase kicked off with a talk by James E. Hubbard, Jr., professor and director of the Morpheus Lab and Center for Adaptive Aerospace Technology at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, about lessons learned from more than 35 years of mentoring Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows. “Feed each other’s curiosity. You don’t need people to tell you what you can and cannot do,” he said, noting that he grew up in the Jim Crow South and thus “I know what it’s like to be told no.” His advice, as reported in a tweet from Jeremy A. Magruder-Waisome, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida, where she earned a Ph.D. in civil and coastal engineering last year: “Yield only to the laws of physics.”
After a full day of breakout sessions on such practical topics as advancing and managing a research program, innovative teaching strategies that promote learning, professional service opportunities, and maintaining work-life balance—and an afternoon workshop for aspiring engineering faculty called “What’s Research Got to Do With It?” conducted by Morgan State University’s engineering dean emeritus, Eugene DeLoatch—participants gathered for a reception. There, Maryland engineering dean Darryll Pines spoke on the dynamically evolving world of higher education and the fulfilling career of serving students and society as a faculty member.
Day 2 began with advice for overcoming the challenges of a faculty career—such as having to balance research and teaching with little previous training—by Kimberly Jones, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering at Howard University. The Mayflower Hotel ballroom bustled with activity as doctoral students presented their research in poster sessions. Topics ranged from intelligent sight-word tutors for African-American second graders to breast-lesion detection technology, blast mitigation of concrete walls, and microgrids. The showcase concluded with a luncheon and remarks by Lorena Barba, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at George Washington University, entitled “The 7 Things I’d Tell You if I Was Your Mentor.” Among them: “Writing is hard. Do it often.” Also, learn to code.
With women and underrepresented minorities making up roughly half the participants, the initial GEM-ASEE event clearly filled a professional learning need. “It was a fantastic showcase,” concluded Thomas Kwan, an environmental engineering Ph.D. candidate at Yale University who presented his research on controlling supercritical carbon dioxide for bio-products and green reaction pathways. Shaniel Bowen, a University of Pittsburgh engineering doctoral student studying ways to improve surgical procedures for prolapsed pelvic organs, says she found the showcase “very useful” and “definitely” would attend if it were held again.
Christian Greenhill, a Ph.D. candidate in materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan, presented her research on electronic states in two-dimensional semiconductors.
“Learn to code,” advised Lorena Borba, George Washington University associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, at the closing luncheon.
Call for Nominations
The ASEE Nominating Committee, chaired by Most Immediate Past President Louis Martin-Vega, requests member participation in nominating board officers for the 2019 ASEE elections. Officers to be nominated for Society-wide Board positions are: President-Elect; Vice President, Finance; Vice President, External Relations; and Chairs of Professional Interest Councils I, IV, and V.
- All nominees must be individual members or institutional member representatives of ASEE at the time of nomination and must maintain ASEE membership during their term of office. Nominating Committee members are not eligible for nomination. The slate of candidates selected by the committee will not exceed two candidates per office.
- Candidates for President-Elect must be active members who have served or are serving on the Board of Directors. Because ASEE is a Department of Defense contractor, candidates for President-Elect must currently be U.S. citizens. Candidates for Vice President, External Relations shall be limited to those members of the Society who have previously served or currently serve on the Board of Directors. Candidates for Vice President, Finance shall be individual members or institutional member representatives of ASEE.
- Candidates for Chair of the Corporate Member Council and Chair-Elect for Zone II and Zone IV will be nominated and selected by their respective councils and zones, as the ASEE Constitution stipulates.
- Each proposed candidate for a Society-wide office should submit a first-person biographical sketch of fewer than 400 words that documents career contributions, ASEE offices held, awards and recognitions received, and educational background. Include comments on leadership qualities, ability to collaborate with others to achieve objectives, and willingness to serve if elected. Self-nominations are accepted. For nominations for the office of President-Elect, please include a statement summarizing why you think your nominee is a good candidate for the position. A listing of members who meet constitutional eligibility requirements for the offices of President-Elect and Vice President, Member Affairs is available from the executive director’s office at ASEE headquarters.
Nominations will be accepted electronically at l.byers@asee.org. Please include a subject line that begins with the words “2019 Nomination” so that it can be forwarded to the Nominating Committee. Please be assured that your nominations are confidential and will be seen only by the Assistant Board Secretary and Members of the Nominating Committee. The deadline to submit nominations is June 1, 2018.
Nominations postmarked by June 1, 2018, will also be accepted by mail. Please mark the envelope CONFIDENTIAL and address it to Louis Martin-Vega, Chair, ASEE Nominating Committee, ASEE, 1818 N Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036.
If you have any questions, please contact Laura Byers at (202) 350-5762 or l.byers@asee.org.