Letter from the President
Global Problem-solving Attracts the Best and Brightest
Grand Challenges offer a chance to reshape engineering education.
By Louis A. Martin-Vega
I am delighted to be writing you as ASEE’s President and honored that you have entrusted me with the leadership of our 123-year-old organization.
I am fortunate to be starting my presidency at a time when our finances are getting back on solid footing. Those of you at the Annual Conference heard the applause that then President Joe Rencis received when he announced that ASEE is debt free and projecting positive yearly budgets. This did not happen, of course, without a lot of hard work, commitment, and sacrifice from numerous quarters. I am particularly grateful for the support of members of the Engineering Deans Council and Engineering Technology Council, who agreed to increased institutional dues levels. ASEE headquarters has reorganized both staff and physical office space to make cuts on the expenditure side.
I have been involved with engineering and engineering education for nearly 40 years. It was when my family moved to Puerto Rico after my father retired from the Air Force when I was in high school that I can say my life as an “engineer” began. As a young man there I saw engineering as an esteemed profession; many government and industrial leaders were engineers. When I moved to the mainland for my graduate studies I saw that the perception of engineering was different—engineers were viewed more narrowly, and were not nearly as esteemed as they were in Latin America, Europe, or Asia.
This inaccurate perception has stitched one important thread of my career, that of ensuring that engineers are viewed as professionals with both breadth and technical depth and are seen as the leaders and creative problem solvers we know them to be.
Because of that, I have been very active in the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges program, launched in 2008 to identify the engineering challenges of the 21st century and present them in accessible concepts to the public. (See the October 2014 Prism cover story, “Millennium Magnet.”) Since then, a number of educational institutions have adopted elements of the Grand Challenges, most notably through the Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP), a combined curricular and extracurricular program with components designed to prepare students to solve these challenges. North Carolina State was one of the first institutions to be involved in the GCSP and was also a founding partner in the Grand Challenges K-12 Partner Program.
The GCSP is an example of a wide-reaching effort that gives ASEE a unique opportunity to reshape the delivery and content of engineering education at all levels. I’m eager to have ASEE take a larger role in facilitating the expansion of the Grand Challenges throughout the Society’s various membership entities (individuals, institutions, councils, etc.). I’m sure we all agree that we will attract the best and brightest students by demonstrating that a career in engineering gives them the tools to solve the world’s problems and help people.
My year as President will also coincide with ASEE’s “Year to Commit to P-12: When Engineering Begins.” Led by the P-12 Strategic Doing Committee, our Pre-College Engineering Education division has a number of activities lined up to allow ASEE and its members to be involved in this influential time in the educational lives of young people. (For further information, see Elizabeth Parry’s article elsewhere in this section.)
As my predecessors have communicated extensively over the previous two years, ASEE is deeply involved in our Strategic Doing process, with a successful Town Hall on this subject at the Annual Conference. We currently have seven teams thinking through how we can keep ASEE relevant as a professional society in a changing landscape. Those teams are: Connecting, Diversity, Globalization, Governing, Innovating, P-12, and Transforming. More details can be found at http://www.asee.org/strategy.
One final bit of good news is that our Annual Conference in June in New Orleans was a huge success, with 4,400 attendees, a record number. We had two great plenary speakers and wonderful exhibits, all while enjoying the great sense of community that exists at the conference. I know that our colleagues involved with putting together the 2017 conference in Columbus, Ohio are already hard at work.
As I said in Prism magazine earlier this year, ASEE is a very special organization that brings together under its broad tent a diverse, passionate, and highly committed membership focused on some of the most important challenges and issues facing our society today. We also have the unique privilege of teaching, mentoring, advising, and motivating a student base in whose hands will lie the solution to many of these challenges. We should all be proud of the role that ASEE, and you its members, have played in inspiring so many to do so much good.
I look forward to a year as President of such an outstanding organization.
Louis A. Martin-Vega is president of ASEE.
Image Courtesy of North Carolina State University
Student Success is Her Reward
2016 Outstanding Teaching Award Winner Mary Verstraete
By Mary Lord
She built the University of Akron’s thriving undergraduate biomedical engineering program from scratch, independently developed better assessment methods that other departments now use to measure student learning, and racked up accolades for teaching topics from biomechanics to résumé writing. But please don’t call Mary Verstraete an “innovator”— a term she considers “highly overused.” Instead, the associate professor of biomedical engineering prefers to focus on improvement. It’s a process she understands from personal experience, having herself endured poor grades while an engineering student.
“I just want to make a difference in someone’s life,” says Dr. V, as she’s affectionately known. By all accounts, she has done so multiple times in her 28 years at Akron. A versatile, sought-after instructor, adviser, and mentor, Verstraete, 56, routinely draws rave evaluations from students like Landon Davis, a 2015 BME grad. He relished her Biomechanics of Human Movement class and the helpful examples of gait-analysis techniques that helped him record and analyze the movement of joints.
The biomedical engineering program she started with just five undergraduates in 1998 currently enrolls 350—half of them female. That balance “is in no small part due to [her] passion to help students discover and achieve their individual goals,” contends BME department chair Brian Davis. Until 2013, Verstraete served as the primary academic adviser for every undergraduate in the department. She helped BME latecomer Sara Beck graduate on time and land her first job. “I personally would not be saving patients’ lives … as an engineer today, if it were not for Dr. Verstraete’s influence on my life,” attests Beck. Verstraete critiques résumés, writes recommendations, and keeps in touch with BME graduates via Facebook. Outside class, she serves on the editorial board of the Society of Women Engineers magazine as well as on the board of Habitat for Humanity of Summit County, and is an avid nature photographer and a golfer.
“My teaching philosophy is based on how I was taught engineering over 30 years ago, not only what was done well and helped me, but also what was done poorly and how much it caused me to struggle,” explains Verstraete. Growing up shy and introverted near Detroit, she went through a rocky period as an undergraduate at Michigan State. Majoring at first in computer science, which seemed “new and culturally edgy,” she grew tired of its lack of interactivity. Switching to electrical engineering, she got dismal grades. “Two weeks into circuits and I had no idea what was going on,” Verstraete now laughs. She ultimately found her sweet spot in engineering mechanics. Approaching a professor whose lecture on the stresses and strain on ligaments and tendons had particularly intrigued her, she found a mentor—and a career. He needed a computer science programmer, so she signed on as his undergraduate researcher. The professor, in turn, helped guide her through to a doctorate in engineering mechanics/biomechanics in 1988. “Biomedical engineering just clicked for me,” she says.
If you want to go into academia, he told her at one point, “you’ve got to know whether you want to teach or not.” Tossing her a book and syllabus, he had her teach a fall class. After a second semester, Verstraete “came to realize I kind of liked this.” Her Ph.D. completed, she accepted an offer from Akron.
For Verstraete, nothing is more rewarding than seeing her students succeed. “College students are still kids, and they need someone to care about them,” she explains. That includes steering some away from career choices that aren’t the right fit. “I’m not going to lie to them,” she says.
One reason Akron’s BME graduates are prized, she says, is that they take general education classes, social sciences, and speech alongside engineering. Her own courses abound with presentations and writing assignments. “The tech skills get you the interview, but they won’t get you the job,” she warns, emphasizing that students must be able to talk, interview, and work with people from different backgrounds. BME’s success also reflects years of talking to employers before focusing on two high-demand tracks—biomechanics and instrumentation. A third track has also been added in biomaterials and tissue engineering.
Mary Lord is deputy editor of Prism.
New Orleans Highlights
This June, 4,400 ASEE conference attendees sweltered along the New Orleans bayou before cooling off in the mile-long conference hall (from top: image #7).
Sunday was a day of learning at the K-12 Workshop, where teachers earned certificates following a series of interactive sessions (#1). On Tuesday, attendees got silly at an innovative session called “Ideas at Play” (#4/5).
A sense of fun, inclusion, and achievement pervaded the conference. At the ASEE INCLUDES booth, attendees painted t-shirts and picked up rainbow badges to celebrate diversity (Executive Director Norman Fortenberry displays his shirt on image #10). Outgoing President Joseph Rencis lauded the student STEM winners at the Monday Plenary, pictured at the top middle. There were also nonhuman participants, as FIRST Robotics (#6) and the two-year model design competition “Robot Parade” (#3) wowed the crowd.
Finally, ASEE bade goodbye to Rencis, now the Immediate Past President, as he passed the gavel to Louis A. Martin-Vega, ASEE’s newest president (#9). We look forward to seeing everyone next year in Columbus, Ohio!
Diversity Committee
LGBTQ Equality in STEM Project Update
By Alexandra Longo
Despite recent civil-rights advances, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) students and faculty still face harassment, discrimination, and chilly classroom climates, particularly in STEM departments. With support from the National Science Foundation, ASEE has an ongoing initiative to promote LGBTQ equality, primarily through STEM-specific Safe Zone workshops. Stephanie Farrell, a professor of chemical engineering at Rowan University, is the principal investigator.
Safe Zone workshops are interactive training sessions that seek to foster greater inclusion in colleges, universities, and other workplaces. Participants develop a deeper awareness and understanding of LGBTQ issues while also learning how to recognize biases, become LGBTQ allies, and effect change in STEM culture. Since 2014, more than 370 individuals have attended Safe Zone workshops held at ASEE’s annual conferences, with roughly 100 participating at this year’s conference in New Orleans. To reach a broader STEM audience, this past spring, ASEE offered two online Level 1 (introductory) Safe Zone workshops. The content was refined by STEM faculty, with input from STEM department staff, students, and scholars of engineering culture through a virtual community of practice.
Response has been extremely positive. The vast majority of workshop participants said they came away with a better understanding of LGBTQ terminology, concepts, and issues. Most also planned to use inclusive language and, where applicable, include diversity statements in their syllabi.
This fall, ASEE plans to launch Level 2 Safe Zone workshops, which will dive deeper into such specifics as transgender issues, micro-aggressions, STEM culture, and discrimination disruption techniques. To learn more about this project and upcoming ASEE Safe Zone workshops, visit diversity.asee.org/LGBTQ.
Alexandra Longo is program manager in Education & Career Development at ASEE.
Meet Your Staff
Minimalist Design, Maximum Energy
By Nathan Kahl
Michelle Bersabal is a junior graphic designer in ASEE’s art and production department whose work can be seen in the pages of this magazine and other prominent ASEE products, such as our “Surmounting the Barriers” and Maker Summit reports.
In describing her approach, she says, “My design philosophy is minimalistic. I’m very by-the-grid, and I love Swiss design. The more white space, the better!”
Bersabal’s background and perspective contributes to the diversity of ASEE’s multi-ethnic staff. Although she was raised in the Washington, D.C., area, her parents hail from the Philippines. Her mother worked as a nanny for an American diplomat, who would eventually move to Liberia, then to Oregon, and then to D.C., with Michelle’s father following close behind the entire time.
Like many children of immigrants, during her early years Michelle identified more with her American upbringing than with her roots. That changed as she got older. “In college I joined a Filipino-American association and made a lot of friends. There I learned about our culture and how it impacted us and our upbringing.” One cultural element she never embraced was the cooking, but she’s happy leaving it to her boyfriend to make pots of delectable pancit palabok.
Michelle was a self-described tomboy as a child, playing sports and welcoming the “roughing it” of frequent camping trips with her family. She very much enjoys the outdoors today and can frequently be found on one of the region’s trails (when she’s not riding roller coasters in the summer). She plays soccer year-round and recently finished a softball season with a team that had less-than-stellar results. (“We went 3-and-approximately 30.”)
She didn’t realize she could make money doing art until she was in college, she recalls.
Working at ASEE, Michelle particularly enjoys the rapport she has with fellow Art staffers Nico Nittoli and Francis Igot. Further, she notes the recent transition to telecommuting four days a week has been smooth and productive and frees up time she would have spent getting to and from the office.
In addition to her design work, you’ve probably seen pictures Michelle has taken. As the official photographer at the ASEE Annual Conference, she covers a lot of ground. In fact, in New Orleans, Michelle walked about 50 miles over the course of five days. Stop her and say “Hi” next year in Columbus . . . if you can find her when she’s not hustling to the next photo shoot.
2016 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 at the awards ceremony during ASEE’s annual conference in New Orleans.
Wayne T. Davis
Professor and Dean
College of Engineering
University of Tennessee
John K. Estell
Professor
Computer Engineering and Computer Science
Ohio Northern University
Ronald E. Land
Associate Professor
Engineering Technology
Pennsylvania State University, New Kensington
Teresa L. Larkin
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
American University
Thomas A. Lenox
Executive Vice President Emeritus
American Society of Civil Engineers
John B. Ochs
Professor
Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics
Lehigh University
Elizabeth A. Parry
Coordinator of STEM Partnership Development
North Carolina State University
Michael J. Prince
Professor
Chemical Engineering
Bucknell University
Donna Reese
Department Head and Professor
Computer Science and Engineering
Mississippi State University
Donna M. Riley
Professor
Engineering Education
Virginia Tech
Catherine Skokan
Associate Professor Emerita
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Colorado School of Mines
Benjamin Garver Lamme Award
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.
David Munson is the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was recognized as a concerned and dedicated educator whose efforts make a tremendous difference in the development of excellent engineers. An electrical engineer, Munson has made seminal contributions in signal processing that have led to breakthroughs in synthetic aperture radar applications and computed tomography. He is co-founder of InstaRecon, Inc., which is commercializing fast algorithms for image formation in computer tomography, and a co-author of the Infinity Project textbook on the digital world, which has been used in hundreds of high schools nationwide.
Munson received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and M.S., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University. Prior to Michigan, he was on the electrical and computer engineering faculty at the University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a past president of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, founding editor in chief of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, and co-founder of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.
In addition to multiple teaching awards and other honors, Munson received the Society Award of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and an IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He has been a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and a Texas Instruments Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rice University. He served on the ASEE Engineering Deans Council Executive Board and the Public Policy Committee.
ASEE Lifetime Achievement Award
The ASEE Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have retired or who are near the end of their professional careers for sustained contributions to education in the fields of engineering and/or engineering technology. The contributions may be in teaching, education, research, administration or educational programs, professional service, or any combination thereof.
The award was established through the efforts of the ASEE Lifetime Achievement Award Steering Committee and funded by an endowment created for this award by the contributions of ASEE Life Members and like-minded, Not-Yet-Life Member Fellows.
Russell Pimmel is a professor emeritus at the University of Alabama and a retired program director in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation. He was recognized for excelling in all areas of faculty endeavor and as a leader in engineering education research and development over the past 20 years. His scholarly contributions have been extensive, with publications in both his technical area and in engineering education. Throughout his long and varied career, he has served as a mentor to countless students and faculty colleagues, helping them to become better engineers, teachers, and researchers. His leadership at the National Science Foundation helped to establish a community of engineering education scholars that will positively impact engineering programs far into the future.
Pimmel has held faculty positions at Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Missouri at Columbia, as well as industrial positions at Emerson Electric, Battelle Northwest Laboratory, and McDonnell-Douglas. As a faculty member, he taught courses in electrical, computer and biomedical engineering, supervised M.S. and Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows, managed research projects funded by NSF, the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations, published in technical and education areas, served as a department head, and provided faculty development workshops and continuing education courses.
Pimmel’s recent research interests focus on collaborative learning and faculty development with a special emphasis on virtual approaches. His three degrees are in electrical engineering with a B.S. from St. Louis University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University.
Frederick J. Berger Award
The Frederick J. Berger Award, established in 1990 by the late Frederick J. Berger, 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.
Niaz Latif, dean of the College of Technology at Purdue University Northwest, is recognized for his commitment and passion for engineering technology education and the profession throughout his career as a faculty member, as an administrator of engineering technology programs at three institutions, and as an individual who breathes engineering technology. As an educator, he has developed new engineering technology programs in several emerging areas of engineering technology, including a B.S. program in mechatronics engineering technology, a minor in biotechnology, and M.S. programs in modeling, simulation and visualization, and technology. As dean, he obtained ABET accreditation for all programs in his college and led his faculty to record accolades for scholarship, measured both in engagement with industry and in federal grants.
Latif, who also is executive director of the Commercialization and Manufacturing Excellence Center at Purdue University Northwest, has served ASEE and the Engineering Technology Division (ETD) in various capacities. He was a director of the Engineering Technology Council as well as the 2003 ETD program chair for the Conference on Industry Education Collaboration. He also has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Engineering Technology (2002-2007), including as editor-in-chief (2005-2007), and as director and secretary of the Engineering Technology Leadership Institute’s executive board. He currently is a member of ASEE’s diversity committee.
A former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Cincinnati Section and ASME Region V Operating Board from 1997 to 1999, Latif has served as a program evaluator for Mechanical Engineering Technology and Manufacturing Engineering Technology under the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of ABET and as a commissioner of the ETAC. Currently, he is a commissioner of ABET’s Applied Science Accreditation Commission.
Latif earned his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a M.S. from South Dakota State University, both in agricultural engineering. He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. His publications include articles related to academic program development and assessment of engineering technology programs.
Isadore T. Davis Award
The Isadore T. Davis Award for Excellence in Collaboration of Engineering Education and Industry 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. The award celebrates the spirit and leadership of individuals who make a mark in improving partnerships or collaborations between engineering or engineering technology education and industry, and is intended to foster learning, scholarship, and engagement practices within the engineering education community.
Ramesh K. Agarwal is the William Palm Professor of Engineering in the department of mechanical engineering and materials science at Washington University in St. Louis. A pioneer in initiating and sustaining collaboration between engineering education and industry, he was recognized for establishing several highly successful multi-university/industry consortia for aerospace and mechanical engineering education and research, and for involving industry in innovative curriculum development and design projects in aerospace and mechanical engineering. In addition, he has promoted collaboration through ASEE’s College Industry Partnership Division and ABET, as well as through such groups as the Industry/University/Government Roundtable for Enhancement of Engineering Education and the Kansas Industry/University/Government Engineering Education Consortium.
From 1994 to 2001, Agarwal was the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor and executive director of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. From 1978 to 1994, he was the program director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. Agarwal received a Ph.D. in aeronautical sciences from Stanford University in 1975, a M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1969, and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1968.
Agarwal has worked in various areas of computational science and engineering for the past 40 years, including computational fluid dynamics, computational acoustics and electromagnetics, computational materials science and manufacturing, and multidisciplinary design and optimization. He has also been working in the area of renewable and clean energy, including wind, solar, and biomass, as well as carbon capture, utilization, and storage. The author or co-author of over 500 publications as well as the recipient of many awards for his research contributions, Agarwal has given plenary, keynote, and invited lectures at various conferences in more than 60 countries. He continues to serve on many academic, government, and industrial advisory committees, and is a Fellow of 18 societies, including ASEE, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Royal Aeronautical Society.
DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award
The DuPont Minorities in Engineering Award honors an engineering educator for exceptional achievement in increasing participation and retention of minorities and women in engineering.
Bruce A. Lindvall is assistant dean for graduate studies in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, where he also has chaired the Science and Engineering Committee for Multicultural Affairs (SECMA). SECMA is committed to recruiting, admitting, retaining, and graduating more underrepresented minority students in the STEM fields. He was recognized for his innovative, award‐winning work to recruit outstanding students from female and underrepresented minority populations, for his generous commitment of time in mentoring students toward graduation, for his ongoing work to build a multigenerational climate of diversity at McCormick, and for his service to national organizations in support of diversity.
Lindvall works closely with the graduate school to ensure a diverse graduate student body. He assists with the Summer Research Opportunity Program, Introduction to Graduate Education at Northwestern, and other diversity initiatives. In 2016 he received the Penny Warren Service Award from the Black Graduate Student Association for his efforts in increasing diversity and improving academic life for students of color at Northwestern. For the past eight years he has served on a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) panel at the National Science Foundation. Each year he attends meetings of the National Society of Black Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and currently serves on the executive board of GEM, a consortium of companies and universities whose goal is to place more underrepresented minority students in STEM graduate programs. Enrollment of underrepresented minority Ph.D. students in engineering at Northwestern has increased from 36 to 78 during his tenure as assistant dean.
Lindvall also has worked for the College Board, the University of Kansas, and Purdue University in a variety of administrative roles that have revolved around admissions in higher education. He holds a B.S. in mathematics, a M.S. in guidance and counseling, and a Ph.D. in educational administration, all from Purdue University.
John L. Imhoff Global Excellence Award for Industrial Engineering Education
An engineering educator for more than 50 years, John L. Imhoff thrived on the global impact potential of the industrial engineering discipline. His vision encompassed the undergraduate, graduate, and teaching levels. He believed that global sharing through educational channels would lead to greater cooperation and understanding. He was very committed to students within the classroom and was passionate about professional student organizations as well as faculty involvement within those organizations. He encouraged students to travel abroad on work/study programs and encouraged faculty to bring in speakers who had worked abroad to share their experiences.
Edward A. Pohl is department head and holder of the 21st Century Professorship in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas, where he also serves as director of the Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics (CIHL) and co-director of the emerging Institute for Advanced Data Analytics. He was recognized for creativity and innovation in providing global education experiences to students by: taking an interdisciplinary team of engineering students to India and teaching a summer course in situ on global competition and innovation; developing cooperative educational opportunities in Mexico for U.S. students; working with industry to give capstone senior design teams opportunities to solve design problems in Mexico; developing an elective course for undergraduates on global engineering and innovation; leading and expanding online programs for persons living abroad to obtain master’s degrees in engineering or operations management; and providing study abroad experiences for 50 American students.
Pohl has participated and led several reliability-, risk-, and supply chain-related research efforts. Before coming to Arkansas, he spent 21 years in the United States Air Force, where he held a variety of engineering, operations analysis, and academic positions. His assignments included serving as deputy director of the Operations Research Center at the United States Military Academy, operations analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he performed independent cost schedule, performance, and risk assessments on major DoD acquisition programs, and munitions logistics manager at the Air Force Operational Test Center. He holds a Ph.D. in systems and industrial engineering from the University of Arizona, and three M.S. degrees—in systems engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, in reliability engineering from the University of Arizona, and in engineering management from the University of Dayton. He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from Boston University. His primary research interests are in risk, reliability, engineering optimization, healthcare, and supply chain risk analysis, decision making, and quality. Pohl has published more than 45 peer-reviewed journal articles and 50 conference papers, and has given more than 100 presentations at national and international conferences. He is an associate editor of the IEEE Transaction on Reliability, the Journal of Risk and Reliability, and the Journal of Military Operations Research. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium, and is a Fellow of IIE and SRE, a senior member of IEEE and ASQ, and a member of INCOSE, INFORMS, ASEE, ASEM, and AHRMM.
Sharon A. Keillor Award
The Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education recognizes and honors outstanding women engineering educators.
Karen C. Davis is a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computing systems at the University of Cincinnati. She was recognized for demonstrating innovation and excellence in many facets of engineering education, developing courses ranging from freshman experiences through capstone design. Recently, she flipped courses and achieved notable success in student performance. She also helped found an ACM-W chapter that has embraced K-12 outreach, led an NSF grant to bring 21 undergraduate students into STEM classrooms to relate engineering experiences, and established a graduate certificate in data science.
Davis has published more than 50 papers, most of which are co-authored with her students. Her research interests include database design, query processing and optimization, data warehousing, and engineering/computing education. She has advised 92 students completing 50 senior projects and supervised 50 M.Eng., M.S., and Ph.D. graduates. Davis also serves as the adviser for student chapters of the Association for Computing Machinery Committee on Women in Computing (ACM-W), Theta Tau (a co-ed engineering fraternity), and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Graduate Students Association (EECS GSA).
Davis’s research contributions have been recognized through invitations to serve as program chair for the ACM Data Warehousing and Online Analytical Processing Workshop (DOLAP) as well as the Symposium on Conceptual Modeling Education (with ER 2016), as a committee member for numerous international conferences (including ER, DaWaK, and TLAD), as a guest editor, and as an invited delegate to international research symposia. At the University of Cincinnati, she received both the Dean’s Faculty Excellence Award and the College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Master Educator Award in 2016. She is currently serving as an interim executive board member for the Teradata University Network.
Davis received a B.S. degree in computer science from Loyola University, New Orleans in 1985 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette in 1987 and 1990, respectively.
James H. McGraw Award
The James H. McGraw Award is presented for outstanding contributions to engineering technology education. Established by the McGraw-Hill Book Company in 1950 in honor of the “dean of industrial publishers,” the award is now co-sponsored by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, the ASEE Engineering Technology Council, and the ASEE Engineering Technology Division.
Carol Richardson, an ASEE Fellow and 2011 recipient of the Frederick J. Berger Award, is a professor emerita of electrical, computer, and telecommunications engineering technology at Rochester Institute of Technoloy. She was recognized for demonstrating national leadership over many years of promoting engineering technology programs in the professional engineering organizations of ASEE, ABET, and IEEE, and for creating additional career opportunities in the field of engineering for graduates of engineering technology programs.
Richardson, who led curriculum development for undergraduate and graduate programs in telecommunications engineering technology, obtained funding for the associated laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology. She also served as an engineering technology department chair for 10 years and the interim dean of the college for two years. An active ASEE member, she served on the executive board as vice president of the five professional interest councils. In addition, 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 for the ASEE Conference on Industry and Education Collaboration; and a former director of both the Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI) and Engineering Technology Council. In 2012 Richardson became the first ABET representative to the Engineering Technology National Forum (ETNF), a strategic initiative to help engineering technology programs enhance their abilities to provide applied engineering talent for the future workforce. She also has been a member of the ASEE committee that plans the ETLI conference and ETNF for the past three years.
An ABET Fellow, Richardson led an initiative as chair of its Technology Accreditation Committee that resulted in changing the committee’s name to the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) and revising the scope of engineering technology in the ABET Accreditation Policy Manual. The revision has allowed construction management and other programs that lack engineering technology in their titles to become accredited by ETAC. Richardson, who earned her B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming and M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Union College in Schenectady, New York, also has been an active member of IEEE, receiving its Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award in 2013.
National Engineering Economy Teaching Excellence Award
The National Engineering Economy Teaching Excellence Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated classroom teaching excellence and teaching scholarship in engineering economy.
Ted Eschenbach, who began teaching at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 1975 after receiving his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Stanford University, was recognized as an innovator in engineering economy education. He introduced, for example, spreadsheets, clickers, and online homework. The senior co-author of the market-leading Engineering Economic Analysis, he also is the author of several other texts and has won multiple best paper awards for his engineering economy work.
Eschenbach has taught at the Naval Postgraduate School (1987) and the University of Missouri, Rolla (1988–1990), and been a guest lecturer at many universities, including St. Cloud State, the University of Alabama, Huntsville, Texas Tech, the University of Arkansas, and Iowa State. He has taught nearly 90 sections of courses on the time value of money—including short courses for NASA, Boeing in Saudi Arabia, and China’s Southwest Petroleum Institute. Since becoming an emeritus professor in 1998, Eschenbach has often taught at UAA. He taught an online class in engineering economy for the University of Louisville in spring 2016.
A classroom innovator, Eschenbach continues to develop educational approaches to improve the learning of engineering economy, He started including spreadsheets in his engineering economy courses in the early 1980s. These were applied in his Cases in Engineering Economy. His 17 ASEE presentations on engineering economy include a session on spreadsheets in 1992. He started using clickers in 1988 when they were highly experimental and has authored or co-authored a number of conference papers and presentations that demonstrate their value in the classroom—in particular for the time value of money. More recently, he has become a strong supporter of online homework, which he first used in his finance classes. This is also where he developed a visual approach to using spreadsheet annuity functions and financial calculators, one of the significant enhancements to the 12th edition of the market-leading text, Donald Newnan’s Engineering Economic Analysis.
Eschenbach’s influence extends far beyond Alaska. His 18 editions of four titles, including Engineering Economy, Applying Theory to Practice, have sold over 125,000 copies. The time value of money is the subject of nearly half of his 48 journal articles, chapters, and solutions manuals. He is also the founding editor emeritus of Engineering Management Journal and a frequent contributor to The Engineering Economist, winning a Grant Award for Best Article. His numerous ASEE awards include a PIC 1 Best Paper, two Engineering Economy Division Best Papers, and the Bernard R. Sarchet Award. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management and IIE, where he received the Wellington Award from the Engineering Economy Division in 2007.
William Elgin Wickenden Award
The William Elgin Wickenden Award is sponsored by the Journal of Engineering Education’s editorial review board. It recognizes the author(s) of the best paper published in the Journal of Engineering Education, ASEE’s scholarly research publication.
Debra M. Friedrichsen, Benjamin U. Sherrett, Edith S. Gummer, Audrey B. Champagne, and Milo D. Koretsky received the 2016 William Elgin Wickenden Award in recognition of their article, “Feedback on Professional Skills as Enculturation into Communities of Practice,” which was published in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Engineering Education.
Debra (Gilbuena) Friedrichsen owns a consulting company where she works with small and start-up companies providing engineering and business strategy consulting. She received her Ph.D. from Oregon State University in chemical engineering with a dissertation focused on engineering education. She also has an M.B.A., M.S., and five years of industrial experience, including a position in sensor development, an area in which she holds a patent. An active member of ASEE’s Women in Engineering Division, Friedrichsen currently serves as its webmaster. In addition, she serves on the ASEE Diversity Committee and in the local chapter of the Society of Women Engineers. Her research interests include multiple efforts in engineering education, including feedback, professional skills, and propagation of educational innovations. She recently co-authored a book, Designing Educational Innovations for Sustained Adoption: A How-to Guide for Education Developers Who Want to Increase the Impact of Their Work, and is currently caring for her newborn baby girl.
Ben Sherrett studied expert and novice problem-solving processes in the context of a real-world engineering task in process development as a graduate student at Oregon State University. His research was aimed at identifying expert solution strategies in order to inform engineering educators. Since graduation, he has worked in the product design industry as a mechanical engineer and plans to return to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.
Edith Gummer is director of education research at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she oversees the development and implementation of research and policy initiatives that focus on strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship in education. She also is the co-author of a new book on data literacy for K-12 educators. Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, she was a program officer in the research and learning division of the National Science Foundation’s education and human resources directorate. In that capacity, she served as the lead program officer for the Discovery Research K-12 program that provided funding for the development, testing, and implementation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics resources, models, and tools in preK-12 educational settings. A former senior research scientist in the evaluation research program at WestEd, Gummer earned her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Purdue University, M.S. degrees in science teaching and in biology, both from the State University of New York at Albany, and a B.A. in biology from Indiana University.
Audrey B. Champagne is Professor Emerita at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where she was a professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice in the School of Education and in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. Champagne is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and held membership in the American Chemical Society, the American Educational Research Association, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). She was president of NARST in 1997 and received the association’s Distinguished Researcher award in 2002. Champagne has done cognitive research on students’ understanding of physics and developed computer-based instructional programs for physics and base-10 numeration. Champagne was active in the development of National Science Education Standards by the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, and has been actively involved in U.S. and international activities in the assessment of science. Currently, Champagne is a courtesy faculty member at Oregon State University.
Milo Koretsky is a professor of chemical engineering and Fellow of the Center for Lifelong STEM Education Research at Oregon State University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, San Diego, and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, all in chemical engineering. He currently has research activity in several areas related to engineering education. He is broadly interested in integrating technology into effective educational practices and identifying barriers to widespread use by faculty, as well as in promoting the use of higher-level thinking in disciplinary practice. Toward this end, his group has developed innovative tools, including the AIChE Concept Warehouse, the industrially situated virtual labs, and the concept-based, interactive virtual labs. His research interests particularly focus on what prevents students from being able to integrate and extend the knowledge developed in specific courses in the core curriculum to the more complex, authentic problems and projects they face as professionals.
ASEE Annual Conference Best Paper Awards
(For papers that were presented at the 2015 ASEE Annual Conference)
This award recognizes high-quality papers that are presented at the ASEE Annual Conference. The award-winning papers were presented at the Annual Conference the previous year. One outstanding conference paper is selected from the four ASEE Zones. The Zone Best Paper Award consists of $1,000. Six outstanding conference papers are selected: one from each of the five ASEE Professional Interest Councils (PICs) and one overall conference paper. The award consists of $1,000 for each PlC paper and $3,000 for the best conference paper.
Best Zone Paper
Presented to:
Roy Myose
Wichita State University
Syed Raza
Wichita State University
Klaus Hoffman
Wichita State University
Armin Ghoddoussi
Wichita State University
Paper: “Correlating Engineering Statics Student Performance with Scores of a Test over Prerequisite Material Involving Problem Solving”
Best Paper – PIC I
Presented to:
Milo Koretsky
Oregon State University
Samuel Alexander Mihelic
Oregon State University
Margot A. Vigeant
Bucknell University
Katharyn E. K. Nottis
Bucknell University
Michael J. Prince
Bucknell University
Paper: “Comparing Pedagogical Strategies for Inquiry-based Learning Tasks in a Flipped Classroom”
Best Paper – PIC II
Presented to:
Kathryn Jablokow
Pennsylvania State University
Wesley Teerlink
Pennsylvania State University
Seda Yilmaz
Iowa University
Shanna R. Daly
University of Michigan
Eli M. Silk
Rutgers University
Paper: “The Impact of Teaming and Cognitive Style on Student Perceptions of Design Ideation Outcomes”
Best Paper – PIC III
Presented to:
Nathan E. Canney
Seattle University
Angela R. Bielefeldt
University of Colorado
Mikhail Russu
Paper: “Which Courses Influence Engineering Students’ Views of Social Responsibility?”
Best Paper – PIC IV
Presented to:
Quintana Clark
Purdue University, West Lafayette
Alejandra J. Magana
Purdue University, West Lafayette
Paper: “Hybrid Learning Styles”
Best Paper – PIC V
Presented to:
Mark Angolia
East Carolina University
Leslie Pagliari
East Carolina University
James Kirby
Eastern Kentucky University School of Business
Paper: “The Path from Industry Professional to Assistant Professor”
Best Conference Paper
Presented to:
Nathan E. Canney
Seattle University
Angela R. Bielefeldt
University of Colorado
Mikhail Russu
Paper: “Which Courses Influence Engineering Students’ Views of Social Responsibility?”
2017 ASEE Annual Conference
Columbus, Ohio
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 allow 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 for authors:
September 6, 2016: System opens for submission of abstracts.
October 16, 2016: All abstracts must be submitted.
February 5, 2017: All draft papers must be submitted.
March 19, 2017: Requested revisions to blind drafts must be uploaded.
April 9, 2017: Deadline for authors to register and accept copyright.
April 30, 2017: Deadline for authors to upload final papers with all blind indicators removed; submit all bio and author information; and select who will present. No paper changes will be accepted after this date.
Abstracts 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. https://www.asee.org/conferences-and-events/conferences/annual-conference/2017/papers-management/call-for-papers
Eugene DeLoatch, 2002-03 ASEE President, Retires
Eugene M. DeLoatch, founding dean of engineering at Morgan State University and the first African-American president of ASEE, has retired after more than 50 years in academe.
In DeLoatch’s 32 years as dean, Morgan State’s Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. School of Engineering grew to rank “among the nation’s top producers of black engineers,” the university’s president, David Wilson, said in a tribute. Named for a prominent Baltimorean and longtime lobbyist for the NAACP, the school boasts a dozen research centers, graduate programs leading to a doctorate and two master’s degrees, and collaborative programs with the School of Architecture and Planning.
President Obama hailed DeLoatch’s career achievements in a letter. “By breaking through barriers and expanding possibility, you’ve set a powerful example,” Obama wrote. “Through your endeavors to shape a future that reflects our diversity as a Nation—one in which all our young people have the chance to pursue their passion in any field of study—you’ve helped bring about progress, now and for generations to come.”
DeLoatch joined Morgan State after more than 20 years at Howard University, the last nine as electrical engineering department chair. He became an educator “wanting to expose as many young people to a field little known, as I see it, in the African-American community—a very critical field for the progress of this nation,” as he told Black Engineer magazine.
He was an early advocate of the position, now widely accepted among policymakers, that expansion of opportunities for minorities in science and engineering is key to strengthening America’s technical workforce. In a 1989 article in New Directions, DeLoatch placed the small percentage of black and Hispanic scientists and engineers in historical context, noting that minorities failed to benefit from the 1862 Morrill Act, which established land grant universities and led to a nationwide surge in engineering education. “Access to engineering education for blacks was practically non-existent prior to the establishment of an engineering program at Howard University in 1910,” he wrote.
A 1959 graduate of Tougaloo College and Lafayette College, DeLoatch earned a master’s in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the Polytechnic University of Brooklyn.
Prior to becoming ASEE president-elect in 2001, he served on the engineering deans’ Public Policy Committee, as vice president for public affairs, member of the Journal of Engineering Education editorial board, and chair of the College-Industry Partnership Division. Outside of ASEE, he co-founded the Annual Black Engineer of the Year Program and chaired the Council of Deans of Engineering of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Image Courtesy of Eugene DeLoatch
Year to Commit to P-12: WhEn Engineering Begins
Priming the STEM Pipeline
To grow America’s engineering workforce, start young—with preschool.
By Elizabeth A. Parry
If you attended ASEE’s annual conference in New Orleans this summer, you may have spotted balloons and volunteers greeting people at the entrance to the exhibit hall to kick off an exciting initiative focused on engineering education from preschool through 12th grade. Welcome to Commit to P-12: When Engineering Begins, the theme for the Board of Directors’ Year of Impact.
P-12 engineering is a hot topic in education circles, largely because of the national drive to prepare more students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Workforce and economic reports identify a compelling need to produce many more two- and four-year STEM graduates, particularly in engineering and engineering technology. However, engineering is not a “core content” area like math, science, social studies, and English, and so rarely is taught as a specific subject—at least not before high school.
Complicating the situation, and also providing an entry point for engineering in the P-12 classroom, is the rollout of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Developed by experts with support from 26 states and led by Achieve, a nonprofit focused on college and career readiness, the NGSS include aspects of engineering design as a part of the application of science content. As a result, organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) are working to bring engineering into P-12 science classrooms.
ASEE’s mission of advancing “innovation, excellence, and access at all levels of education for the engineering profession” positions our organization to meaningfully contribute to the way engineering is presented to students in P-12 schools, including how it is defined. Indeed, many ASEE members have been working in P-12 engineering for nearly two decades. Funded by both agency and foundation programs, ASEE members have conducted research and developed curricula, lessons, and standards for use in and outside of school.
About a dozen years ago, ASEE members working in P-12 engineering successfully lobbied for a new division focused on this particular expertise. The K-12 Division, now known as the Pre-College Engineering Education (PCEE) Division (precollege.asee.org), is one of ASEE’s fastest growing and most active divisions, with more than 730 members committed to “collectively build expertise and capacity in pre-college engineering education knowledge and practice.” A growing body of research now points to the benefits of engineering instruction on learning, success, and persistence for a diverse group of P-12 students.
Recognizing the organizational impact of P-12 engineering on ASEE and its members, the Board of Directors authorized a board-level committee in 2014—the second ever formed. (The first was the diversity committee.) As a founding member and former leader of the PCEE division, I was asked to serve as chair.
The committee, which is composed of members representing divisions and councils most directly involved in P-12, began with a comprehensive evaluation of the state of ASEE members’ involvement in P-12, which then led to the identification of potential opportunities for the organization. In 2015, the ASEE Board approved the team’s strategic plan. Included are proposed changes to ASEE’s mission and vision; an emphasis on promoting and growing the organization’s expertise in high-quality P-12 engineering research and practice; a commitment to seeking partnerships; a focus on inclusiveness in P-20 engineering standards and policy; and an intention to begin a meaningful community-wide dialogue about the equivalent value of engineering education research as part of the process for promotion and tenure.
In addition, the Board approved the committee’s request to begin a focused initiative within and outside of ASEE to promote and expand ASEE’s leadership nationally in engineering education from preschool through Ph.D.
In the coming year, ASEE members will learn more about P-12 engineering and the Society’s current and potential impact there. Our team will seek input and involvement across the organization. We all have a vested interest in growing more, and more diverse, engineers through our research and practice, and we have a responsibility to increase engineering and technological literacy for all. Next year in Columbus, we plan a number of activities to highlight P-12 engineering, including a Columbus Community Family Engineering Night on Saturday, June 24. In the exhibit hall, we will feature a large and interactive area about P-12 engineering research and practice. Want to get involved? Please contact the committee at aseep12committee@gmail.com.
Elizabeth A. Parry is chair of ASEE’s Committee on P-12 Education and coordinator of STEM partnership development at North Carolina State University’s College of Engineering.
Norman’s Notes
New Anniversary Date Looms for Institutional Members
(This is one of a series of quarterly letters to ASEE members from the executive director.)
By Norman Fortenberry
Finances & Society Activities
As we’ve reported in numerous outlets recently, I am happy to let members know that ASEE is in a solid financial position, being debt free and showing positive annual balances. We achieved this, in part, thanks to an increase in institutional dues agreed to by members of the Engineering Deans and Engineering Technology Councils, for which we are sincerely grateful. Headquarters is matching the funds to be generated by our academic institutional members via cuts in our expenditures. So far our institutional retention rate has been solid, but this autumn will be a critical period for gauging full retention, with a shift to an October 1 anniversary date for all institutional members.
Headquarters staff continue to explore innovative revenue streams. In addition, we are exploring collaborations with outside entities to provide services to ASEE members at a revenue-neutral (or slightly revenue-positive) state. These concepts include resurrection of the Global Colloquium, a very successful Chairs Convocation at the Annual Conference, and an investigation of workshops for P12 teachers of engineering.
Board Activities
The ASEE Society Year 2016-2017 will have a special P12 focus. In fact, it has been designated as the year to “Year to Commit to P-12: When Engineering Begins” and the P-12 Committee of the ASEE Board as well as our Pre-College Engineering Education Division have a number of exciting activities planned (see Elizabeth Parry’s article on the previous page for examples).
Founded in 1893, ASEE will turn 125 at the Annual Conference at Salt Lake City in 2018; we are planning to have a year-long celebration, culminating at the Annual in Tampa in 2019. A committee co-chaired by Wally Fowler at UT Austin and former ASEE President Walt Buchannan of Texas A&M will work with headquarters staff to plan various events and recognitions during this time.
The seven teams who have been focused on our Strategic Doing topic have generated a number of ideas to keep ASEE relevant to our members and in a position of leadership in the engineering education community in the coming decades. These ideas will be handed off to ASEE’s Long Range Planning committee, chaired by Jenna Carpenter, engineering dean at Campbell University, for vetting and further consideration. We hope to turn a number of these ideas into actionable items.
We’re still seeig the impacts from our Year of Action on Diversity. One of these is increased consideration of what “inclusion” means for a society that seeks to recognize the rich diversity among our membership. As a result, the Diversity Committee, now chaired by Stephanie Farrell of Rowan University, is thinking through how to best highlight issues and concerns that may exist for populations not yet represented by a division or constituent committee.
Following our record-setting Annual Conference (4,400 attendees) ASEE staff is geared up for another productive year. I hope that all of our members enjoyed a relaxing and rejuvenating summer.
Norman Fortenberry is executive director of ASEE.