Tending Tomatoes

ASEE Prism, Sep 2005 by Barr, Ronald

ASEE is like a healthy garden that has plenty of room to grow.

OUR HIGHLY successful conference in Portland, Ore., was an important reminder for me of just what a great organization ASEE is and how proud I am to serve as its president, Working in the summer garden-my place to relax and think-it occurred to me that being president is like growing tomatoes. ASEE's successes start out as small seedlings, carefully planted and nurtured, and grow into strong, healthy plants. ASEE presidents pass through the garden from one year to the next, each planting new seedlings and harvesting the fruits of others' work. This is my year to tend to the ASEE garden.

One thing that came across loud and clear in Portland was that we are operating in a global engineering arena. American engineering graduates cannot compete economically with the "commodity engineers" in India and China. American engineering education needs to produce new "hybrid tomatoes," or engineers who are technically competent and who also possess superior talent in creativity, leadership, and communication skills.

Although ASEE is a founding member of ABET, the discipline's accrediting body, it was only this past year that we became a "Lead Society" for the ABET-accreditation process. This means that ASEE will be responsible for selecting visitors to review engineering programs. Much credit for harvesting this "big tomato" goes to our immediate past president, Sherra Kerns. We hope that this new relationship with ABET will enable ASEE faculty members to have a major impact on engineering education reform.

The scholarship of engineering education and research is blossoming. The January 2005 issue of our Journal of Engineering Education introduced a new look and broadened coverage. ASEE members are collaborating with the National Academy of Engineering in its Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education. Can scholarly research in engineering education be the catalyst that drives curriculum reform and leads to its sustainability? We may attempt to answer this question at the 2006 ASEE Conference Plenary session in Chicago.

ASEE is planting seedlings in a brand-new section of our garden, in the K-12 ground, and they have been fast-growing. The Engineering K-12 Center Web site serves as a data reservoir for hundreds of K-12 outreach programs. "Engineering, Go For It!" has sold over 600,000 copies and is in its second printing. Our K-12 constituent committee, with some 400 new members, was awarded Division status at the Portland meeting. And engineering and technology courses are now being offered at the high school level.

There are other ASEE endeavors that will soon be ripe. The initial endowment for the ASEE National Teaching Award is near completion, and the accompanying Lillian Gilbreth medal has been approved by the Board. We are in the initial stages of launching an online journal. Efforts to form an International Federation of Engineering Education Societies with future meetings in Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Singapore, and beyond continue. As I walk through the ASEE garden, I cannot help but observe that our organization is in the best condition I have seen in 25 years, but we can do even better. There are an abundance of tomatoes in our garden. Some will become ripe for picking, and others may still remain green for my successor, President-Elect David Wormley. Each president has but one year to tend to the ASEE garden, and I know it will go quickly. So please join me in making the ASEE garden the best it can be. We will all enjoy the fruits.

Barr is the 111th President of the American Society for Engineering Education.