Engineering education

Electrical Apparatus, Sep 2005 by Hoff, Joseph

Professor promoting pragmatism wins award

New engineering students have to know how to handle the equipment used in the real world of industry, solve complex problems, and work well with others. Aware of such demands, Kevin Kornegay, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has formed an alliance between industry and academia for the benefit of his students.

For his efforts, Kornegay, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, received the Janice Lumpkin Educator of the Year Award for 2005 from the National Society of Black Engineers.

The award is given annually in March to a faculty member committed to advancing education in engineering, science, and mathematics.

In 2000, Kornegay founded the Cornell University Broadband Communications Research Laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y., where students work on designing and testing RF IC's such as transceivers in cellular phones and other wireless devices. They can work with state-of-the-art, production-line-quality equipment such as an RF IC test system donated by Agilent Technologies and an RF/microwave eight-inch semiautomatic wafer probe station, courtesy of Cascade Microtech.

The convergence of engineering and medicine

A team of engineering students and faculty have developed a solution for anesthesiologists at the Ohio State Medical Center. Sriram Seshadri and roughly ten students of engineering professor Furrukh Khan helped develop a software system to track patient vital signs, medication, and status, easing the responsibilities of the anesthesiologists that the team spent so long observing.

The collaborative team, co-directed by Khan and Dr. Michael Howie, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology, also included doctors, nurses, and staff from the College of Medicine and the Medical Center. Together, they developed OR-Eye, a software system that enables physicians to view the patients' vital signs during surgery, allowing real-time collaboration and research as well as testing opportunities.

BioMolecular modeling lab nears seventh anniversary

The Milwaukee School of Engineering's Center for BioMolecular Modeling, which uses rapid prototyping technologies to produce accurate physical models of molecular structures, is approaching its seventh anniversary at the university. Made exclusively at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the models are used in research labs as "thinking tools" and in science classrooms, ranging from the middle school to the college level.

Soon after its inception, the Center for BioMolecular Modeling spawned 3D Molecular Designs, a for-profit company that is commercializing some of the innovations that have resulted from the center's work. Examples include the company's Water and DNA Discovery Kits, which are marketed to the education community by 3DMD. All products also are available for teachers to borrow from the MSOE Lending Library.

Lecture series on internal standards

Working with Don Purcell of the Center for Global Standards and Analysis, the International Electrotechnical Commission has developed lectures for familiarizing electrical engineering students with the subject of internal standards.

The lectures give engineers a general overview of international standardization and basic knowledge of the commission's activities.

Available in the form of PowerPoint files, the lectures are being distributed free of charge to engineering schools around the world. These are the first in a planned series of presentations designed for use in higher education.

For more information, see www.iec.ch.

Funds for pre-college engineering education

The IEEE Board of Directors has approved $98,000 in funding for a center for Pre-College Engineering Education, an outreach organization designed to encourage students to study engineering in college.

The center's activities include the development of a Web site for school counselors, students, teachers, and parents with links to a searchable database containing information about careers. The center also plans to work to expand the IEEE Teacher InService Program to all regions of the institute.

The program offers lessons to pre-college teachers on technical subjects such as motors, switches, and simple machines. section volunteers present the lessons, which can be tailored by volunteers from other regions to fit their needs.

Chancellor pushes student diversity

Denice Denton, who serves as chancellor of the University of California at Santa Cruz, is devoted to creating equal opportunities for all students. According to her IEEE profile, she says her position as the university's top administrator "is a platform that allows you to push agendas, make statements, and provide leadership, not just within your organization but also on a broader range."

Since her days as a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Denton has aimed to bring in more people from underrepresented groups -such as women and racial as well as ethnic minorities-into engineering.

She previously served as dean at the University of Washington, where she worked with IBM Corp. and other companies to encourage students from a nearby school attended by Native Americans, migrant workers, and Latinos to pursue an engineering education.