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Fall 2007 Meeting Minutes

 

Attendees

Tom Dalpiaz
Jim Peters
Bill Feth
Andy Creque
Gary Bunch
David Filicky
Jim Eckman
Rod Snyder
Jim Block
Dave Tschantz
Ming Zhang
Steve Cloud
Jim Stadelman
Dave Perramy

U of A Faculty

Kaye Bogue
Dr. Alex De Abreu-Garcia
Dr. John Welch
Dean George Haritose
David Day
Deanna Dunn

Unable to Attend

Michael Farhat
Jay Ruhe
Paul Raptis
Harry Skeen
Tom Frey
Sue Robert
Mark Grospitch

 

Meeting Highlights:

  1. Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Advisory Council assembled at approximately 12:00 PM in The University of Akron Martin Center.
  2. Brief opening remarks were provided by Council Vice Chairman David Filicky as Council Chairman Tom Frey was out of the country and unable to attend this meeting.
  3. Update on co-op by Deanna Dunn.
    1. Deanna provided the Council with valuable information concerning the recently completed 2007 Engineering and Career Fair as well as data on the Class of 2007. This information included graduate salary summaries and a class list from the summer session 2007 with a breakdown of all the engineering disciplines.
    2. Deanna noted that she has received a lot of positive feedback regarding this year’s career fair.
  4. Each individual attendee introduced themselves to the group.
    5.
  5. The four new members in attendance, Gary Bunch, Jim Block, Bill Feth and Steve Cloud were welcomed by the attendees.
    6.
  6. Dean Haritos provided an update on the College of Engineering.
    1. Dean Haritos distributed student demographics from the fall of 2007. This handout was prepared by University Admissions.
    2. Information pertinent to the College of Engineering was extracted from the University data and was presented to the Council.
    3. There was a slight decrease in the College of Engineering enrollment in 2004 but the College of Engineering enrollment has increased ever since.
    4. There was an overall increase of 25% in the undergraduate student enrollment for the College of Engineering between the fall of 2004 and the fall of 2007.
    5. Additional statistics were provided on gender, ethnicity, graduation rates, retention rates, graduate student enrollment and graduate student statistics by both gender and ethnicity.
  7. Dr. Alex provided an update on “Challenge X”.
    1. Dr. Alex introduced the electrical team leader, Mr. Joe Bisbing, EE.
    2. Joe provided a general overview of the program, goals of the program and the architecture of the University of Akron’s hybrid design.
    3. The lessons learned from the 3-year project as well as the challenges of the 4th year were presented.
    4. In general, the 4th year will include refinements to the hybrid design and public relations events.
    5. The car was then observed by all interested council members.
  8. Dr. Welch provided an update on ABET accreditation and preparation for interviews.
    1. Dr. Welch reviewed the refinement and achievement agenda for the ECE Advisory Council for the fall of 2007.
    2. This included education objectives (EO) refinements and a discussion regarding whether the EO’s can be improved.
    3. Dr. Welch requested guidance from the Council on salary metric adjustments to compensate for regional differences. The Council will need to address this request.
    4. Program Outcome (PO) refinements were then discussed as well as PO achievements.
    5. A copy of the complete refinement and achievement agenda as provided by Dr. Welch is attached
  9. Group Photo
    1. In addition to a group photo, individual photos were taken of each new Council Member.
  10. The state of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department was provided by Dr. Alex.
    1. Dr. Alex thanked the Advisory Council for their continued support.
    2. Enrollment and faculty needs, scholarships, success stories since the April 2007 Advisory Council meeting, Senior design projects and suggested ECE Advisory Council tasks were discussed.
    3. Both undergraduate and graduate enrollment continue to increase but the number of ECE faculty remains unchanged at 15.
    4. The student to faculty ratio (SFR) has increased from 22.2 to 26. This is the highest ECE SFR in the state. The state average is currently 14.
    5. Additional ECE faculty have been requested and have been included in the 2007 – 2008 College of Engineering budget. A total of 3 new ECE faculty have been requested in the areas of Sensors, Alternative Energy Systems, and Computer Engineering.
    6. After the meeting, Dr. Alex notified the Advisory Council that 5 of the 9 College of Engineering positions requested by Dean Haritos had been approved. One of these five positions was allocated to the ECE Department.
    7. Numerous success stories were discussed by Dr. Alex including a visit from Governor Ted Stickland on August 13, 2007.
    8. A list of the 2007 – 2008 Senior Design projects was presented. The Advisory Council will provide review of these design projects at our April, 2008 meeting.
    9. Dr. Alex presented the Advisory Council with 13 suggestions in areas that would be beneficial to the ECE Department.
      1. AC can send a letter to prospective high school students every year. This joint statement from the council can be mailed to every student before they visit with us. Some of you may be already participating in University-organized recruiting activities – highly appreciated by all!
      2. AC can send a letter to undecided COE students highlighting ECE opportunities and challenges.
      3. AC members may take turns giving a one-hour lecture to freshmen every semester. The Tools/Project Seminar courses are probably the ideal venue for this activity.
      4. AC has always provided us excellent feedback on ABET accreditation - continue to help us in this endeavor!
      5. Create opportunities for the faculty to visit companies and highlight their research. This activity should be conducted in a structured and planned manner.
      6. Raised funds and “in kind” help are always needed for senior design projects. Hands-on, project-based approach to learning is expensive! If the council can identify possible resources we will knock on their doors.
      7. Establish “The ECE Advisory Council Scholarship.” The ECE Advisory Council can help us establish this scholarship through their companies or the local IEEE chapter. (Several AC members have already set up / made scholarship contributions – we appreciate that!)
      8. The Council can establish its own “Best Teacher Award.”
      9. Graduate Fellowships and Assistantships are always needed.
      10. Lab equipment is always needed. General purpose measurement / actuation equipment is more desirable as they allow students to design experiments using these tools.
      11. AC can identify interest in investing into ECE research laboratories. In return for their investments (in-kind and/or monetary), a lab can be named after a company or individual. Presently the college has 66 labs, four more labs are planned for the new Student Design Center, and several more for WCSSE.
      12. AC can establish an ECE endowed chair position. (This action requires a fund raising effort at the level of $1.5M-$2.0M.) COE Development Officers stand ready to help us in this endeavor.
      13. AC may wish to hold meetings via the internet or via conference calls and take input from across the country.
    10. Lastly, Dr. Alex presented information regarding Scholarships for the College of Engineering between 2003 and 2008. In general, this data shows an increase in the number of scholarships awarded between 2003 and 2008 and in general, a similar increase in the number of scholarships awarded between the individual departments except for the Civil Engineering Department that has far outstripped the other College of Engineering Departments in the availability of scholarships.
  11. ECE Advisory Council Fund as presented by Kay Bogue.
    1. Kay presented the ECE Advisory County Fund proposal. A copy of this proposal is attached.
    2. In general, this proposal details the creation of the subcommittee of the ECE Advisory Council to review scholarship applications and present to the ECE Advisory Council for approval at the Spring 2008 Advisory Council meeting. Scholarships would then be awarded to students in the Fall 2008, Spring 2009 semesters.
    3. In general, the Advisory Council seemed extremely interested in this proposal and will determine the best method for the Council to address this proposal.
  12. An overview of the Advisory Council Subcommittees were provided for the new members.
    1. Dave Tschantz provided an overview of the ABET subcommittee that includes the following:
      1. Support of the ABET process.
      2. Work with Dr. Welch and Dr. Alex
      3. Work with employer/employee surveys
    2. An overview of the Marketing Subcommittee presented by Tom Dalpiaz.
      1. The Marketing Committee has asked to be reassigned to another subcommittee, possibly the new scholarship subcommittee.
    3. An overview of the Program Development and Enhancement Committee was presented by Jim Stadleman.
      1. The main focus of this subcommittee is to analyze the ECE course offerings versus other institutions versus industry needs.
      2. The subcommittee has been recently redirected to assist students in the interview process.
      3. Both directives are currently being pursued by the program subcommittee.
    4. An overview of the Research Committee was presented by Jim Peters.
      1. The original focus of the Research Committee was to assist and aid the University in their research needs.
      2. Part of this mission was to understand the faculty’s abilities.
      3. There has been some difficulty with conflicting visions amongst faculty members.
      4. Jim believes that this committee should be revisited in the future and possibly redirected in the short term to one of the additional proposed tasks presented earlier by Dr. Alex.
  13. Presentation of additional committee reports:
    1. ABET subcommittee report was presented Dr. John Welch
      1. Bomb threat interrupted meeting
      2. Preparation for Fall ABET visit
        1. Documentation submitted – Alex to send copy to Advisory Council Members
        2. ABET visit to be 10/21 – 10/23
        3. Advisory Council input will probably be Monday, 10/22
        4. First report that week with responses back and forth through semester
      3. Objectives and Outcomes
        1. Keep in front of students in the “Tools for Engineering” course.
        2. Incorporation into course syllabus
        3. Poster on bulletin board to be done
      4. ABET Website
        1. Concept of ABET website for posting of all appropriate information
        2. Could be used for senior design projects
        3. Being designed for electrical and computer engineering department
    2. Programming subcommittee report as presented by Jim Stadelman
    3. Research subcommittee report as presented by Jim Peters
      1. Subcommittee has meet with prominent researchers in the ECE Department.
      2. New member, Gary Bunch, sat in on the Research subcommittee meeting prior to this presentation.
      3. In general, it is obvious that the ECE Staff is understaffed and overworked.
    4. Marketing subcommittee report as presented by Tom Dalpiaz.
      1. Steve Cloud has volunteered to take over as Marketing subcommittee chair.
    5. Discussed possible combination of Marketing and Research subcommittees to form the Scholarship subcommittee.
  14. Schedule of the Spring Advisory Council Meeting. The Spring Advisory Council Meeting will be held on the 2nd Monday of April which is April 14, 2008.
  15. It was noted that the Faraday Dinner will be held on Friday, April 25, 2008.
  16. Meeting concluded at approximately 5:00 PM

Respectfully submitted,
James J. Eckman - Secretary
ECE Advisory Council Web Page address: http://www.ecgf.uakron.edu/~elec/advisory_council.html