The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association                                                                          September  2018

Letter from the Editor
Badri Roysam,
University of Houston
Dear ECEDHA Members, Industry Partners, and Colleagues,

A special welcome goes out to all newly appointed ECE department heads. ECEDHA is here to serve you. Traditional new-employee orientation events typically run by Human Resources (HR) and Faculty Affairs offices focus on employee benefits, payroll, parking, and local living. A new Department Head needs much more than orientation - he/she need an "onboarding" process that also conveys the unwritten rules, processes, issues, and mechanisms of the department. 

ECE in the News
ECEDHA Branding Initiative Materials: Available Now!

Over the past year, ECEDHA has been working on an ambitious rebranding project with Tailfin Marketing to raise the visibility of the field of ECE to prospective students and the general public.

Attendees of the 2018 ECEDHA Annual Conference this past March received a first glimpse of the work to date, via presentations from the talented team at Tailfin Marketing, Greg Abel and Tracy Clark.   As discussed during the meeting, w e have made great strides to present research findings, creative concepts, and an implementation plan and marketing toolkit that can be utilized by all member institutions.

Please visit the below link to access all materials.  Feel free to reach out to the ECEDHA team with any questions.
Mingyan Liu Named New Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Michigan

Mingyan Liu,
University of Michigan
Mingyan Liu, professor and entrepreneur specializing in communication networks and predictive analytics, has been named the Peter and Evelyn Fuss Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), effective September 1, 2018. ECE is one of two divisions in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

"Mingyan's wide range of academic experiences and achievements will be invaluable," said Alec D. Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. "I look forward to her innovative and inclusive leadership."

Prof. Liu conducts research in the broad area of communication networks. Her most recent research activities involve wireless, mobile, ad hoc, and sensor networks; online learning; modeling and mining of large scale Internet measurement data; incentive mechanisms for cyber security; and connected vehicle technologies.

Liu will become the 15th chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan, which offered its first program in electrical engineering in 1889. While the discipline has evolved tremendously, its focus still incorporates both physical science and information science, making it an extremely broad discipline, says Liu.

"Electrical and computer engineering as a discipline has been tremendously successful over the past decades both in terms of pushing the frontiers of fundamental research and shaping our daily lives," Liu stated. "We are truly the Engineering of Everything."
 
"Flipping" the Signals and Systems Classroom


Ruminating leads to an "aha" moment
During my sabbatical in 2015-2016, I had the time to dig through an overflowing email inbox. I read some backlogged Tomorrow's Professor posts. I watched some webinars that during a regular semester I probably would not have. I read other articles that were "good for me," but not pressing. Many of these were on teaching methods, and a few of them were on this new "flipped classroom" method. The other benefit of the sabbatical (in addition to the time to work with colleagues overseas on research projects) was I had the time to reflect and let my thoughts wander.

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Special Announcements
2018-2019 Membership Kits have Shipped!

Renew your membership today to continue receiving ECEDHA membership benefits, including:
  • The opportunity to participate in the ECEDHA Annual Survey, a valuable tool in benchmarking your organization in lab and office space, faculty and department head salaries, research budgets, student retention, graduation rates, and much more.
  • The opportunity to attend the 2019 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo
  • Complimentary job posting service via the ECEDHA website
  • Complimentary registration for ECEDHA's ECE Webinars
  • And much more!
Looking for your membership packet?  Pl ease contact Megan Bekolay at  mbekolay@ecedha.org  or 312.559.3724
ECEDHA 2018-2019 Election Results

The 2018-2019 Election has officially concluded. We are pleased to announce the results of our election for Secretary-Treasurer.

ECEDHA welcomes the following officers to the ECEDHA Board of Directors:


Ashfaq Khokhar
Secretary-Treasurer
Iowa State University

Nurgun Erdol
Member-at-Large
Florida Atlantic University

Truong Nguyen
Member-at-Large
University of California, San Diego

Congratulations to our new officers. We look forward to a continued strong leadership for the association.  
Robi Polikar Honored at ECEDHA 2018

Robi Polikar of Rowan University was honored with the Innovative Program Award at the 2018 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo in Monterey, California this past March.

The award is given to individuals or departments that have created, implemented, and sustained the implementation of a successful innovative program and possibly assisted in the implementation of that program at other institutions. A successful program is one that has stood the test of time and has produced measurable improvements in the quality of the electrical and computer education received by a significant number of students at one or more institutions.

Several components of the Engineering Clinics Program at Rowan University have attracted the attention of peers across the U.S . The foremost is the continuous design experience from freshmen year till senior  year, creating a healthy student-student mentorship experience that helps in improving academic performance  in other areas as well. It also serves as a great pipeline for graduate program at Rowan and other  universities.

The impact of the Engineering Clinics Program at Rowan University is impossible to  overstate. In just 20 years since the Engineering programs started at Rowan - with the Engineering Clinics as their  hallmark - both the college and the institution made remarkable progress: in 20 short years, the institution transitioned  from a small commuter based regional college to a comprehensive research university.


Above (from left to right):  John Janowiak, ECEDHA Executive Director, Robi Polikar, Rowan University, and Radha Poovendran, University of Washington
Intel Corporation Wins ECEDHA Industry Award

Intel Corporation was honored with the Industry Award at the 2018 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECE xpo  in Monterey, California. Vincent Hu, Vice President of the Programmable Solutions Customer Experience Group at Intel, was on hand to accept the award.

This award is given to company(s) or individual(s) in companies in recognition of seminal contributions to engineering education-especially in the ECE disciplines-that go well beyond typical industry-university relations. The selection is based primarily on a qualitative evaluation of the educational contributions as described on the nomination form to recognize and encourage effective engagement in engineering education by industry representatives.

Altera, now part of Intel, has a two pronged University Program aimed at supporting research as well as teaching in Electrical and Computer Engineering disciplines. In the research realm, Altera supports research by providing FPGA boards, software and I.P., and monetary funding. In the teaching realm, Altera support innovative teaching by providing FPGA boards, software and I.P., tutorials, and fully developed laboratory exercises, and associated solutions.


Above (from left to right):  John Janowiak, ECEDHA Executive Director, Vincent Hu, Intel Corporation, and Ashfaq Khokhar, Iowa State University
Now Accepting Nominations for the 2018 ECEDHA Awards!

ECEDHA is now accepting nominations for its 2018 Awards. Nominations are due by October 26, 2018 and will be presented at the ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo in March. View more details.

Outstanding Leadership and Service Award
  
Innovative Program Award

Diversity Award

Industry Award
Sponsored Article
Texas Instruments 
Capacitive Touch and MSP Microcontrollers
A brief intro to capacitive touch and MSP's capacitive touch solutions
By: Pradhyum Ramkumar, Product Marketing Engineer, MSP Microcontrollers, TI

Capacitive buttons, sliders, wheels and proximity (BSWP), also known as mechanical button replacement (MBR) is a human machine interface technology using capacitive-sensing techniques. Capacitive BSWP uses touch-sensing electrodes that can be built into an existing PCB allowing for different shapes and sizes, thinner and more elegant designs without added cost. As the electrodes are not mechanical and mounted under plastic, glass or metal overlays, they are more reliable and easy to maintain.



Conference Corner
Corporate Features
ECE Insights

ECE Insights offer in-depth interviews with leading industry executives.

Featured ECE Insights:


Hayne Shumate
Vice President, Internet Business
Mouser Electronics

How is Mouser responding to increasing support for STEM education?

In This Issue
Calendar of Events
October 12-13, 2018
Southwest Regional Meeting
Texas Tech - Lubbock, TX
October 14-15, 2018
CHECE Meeting
École de Technologie Supérieure - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
October 25-26, 2018
Southeast Regional Meeting
University of Florida - Gainesville, FL
November 9-10, 2018
Western Regional Meeting
University of Washington - Seattle, WA
November 9-10, 2018
Northeast Regional Meeting
Northeastern University - Boston, MA
March 22-26, 2019
ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECE xpo
Hilton Tucson El Conquistador - Tucson, AZ
On Demand Webinar
Rethinking Electronics Fundamentals
Sponsored by National Instruments
On Demand Webinar
Sponsored by Keysight Technologies
ECEDHA Member and Partner News
National Science Foundation:  E mployment Opportunity for a Program Director Position

The Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS), within the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation, announces a nationwide search for senior-level engineering researcher to fill an open Program Director position in the Electronics, Photonics, and Magnetic Devices (EPMD) area.

The Division is looking to fill the position by September 30, 2018.

>> Learn more
International Forum on Engineering Education and Industry Practice (IEEI)

Date: September 24-25, 2018
Location: Beijing, China

The First International Engineering Education Innovation Forum will be convened at the renowned Tsinghua University in Beijing China.  The mandate of the Forum is to develop innovative and practical strategies for responding to the immense educational challenges posed by emerging technological movements such as cyberphysical systems, IoT, Industry 4.0, machine intelligence, and artificial intelligence.

>> Learn more

>> Register
USNC-URSI: Call for Papers

The 2019 USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting will be held January 9-12, 2019 in Boulder, Colorado and is hosted by the United States National Committee (USNC) for the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). 

The deadline for Submission of Abstracts/Summaries is Monday, September 17th, 2018.

>> Call for Papers

>> Learn more

>> Register
National Renewable Energy Laboratory: ESIF Visiting Scholars User Call

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has recently announced its Visiting Scholars User Call.  The Visiting Scholars User Call allows faculty and students to conduct research in state-of-the-art laboratories in the Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF). The ESIF contains a collection of interconnected laboratories that can accommodate megawatt-scale R&D at full power. By immersing visiting researchers into the ESIF ecosystem, the hope is that they will carry valuable insights and new capabilities back to their home institutions.

Applications for the ESIF Visiting Scholars User Call are accepted throughout the year. Meritorious applications will be granted on a rolling basis. More information and application requirements can be found at the link below.

>> Learn more

At the ECE Source, we strive to cover topics that are relevant and timely to ECE  department heads.  We welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions of topics t o cover in our next issue.  Thank you.