Executive Director's Message

Our primary goal at ASEE is to provide our members with excellent services.  While we seek to attract new members, we remain committed to retaining our valued members through outstanding membership goods and services.  These include award-winning publications, a popular annual conference and exhibition, and a web site with a wealth of information tailored to the engineering community.

Our membership, last year, passed the landmark of 10,000 Professional Members, and topped 14,000 total members. ASEE’s Annual Conference and Exposition, the largest annual gathering of engineering educators in the world, was well attended in Austin, TX by ASEE members. At the Annual Awards Banquet, the highlight conference event, J.P. Mohsen, Professor and Chair of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, University of Louisville, KY, was inaugurated as ASEE’s 2009-2010 President.

ASEE’s publications continue to provide members with current news and views presented in attractive format. ASEE’s flagship publication, Prism Magazine, last year, won 13 awards for both editorial content and design.  ASEE’s scholarly Journal of Engineering Education, with its heightened focus on research, is now published in partnership with six international engineering societies and distributed to over 8,500 subscribers in 70 countries..  

One of ASEE’s most successful publications is our K-12 magazine, Engineering, Go For It! (eGFI), which has more than 1.2 million copies of all editions in circulation.  A new version of eGFI, with an accompanying interactive web site for middle-school and high-school students, will be published in the fall of 2009. 

Keeping pace with today’s global focus, ASEE’s international activities have expanded.  In October 2009, ASEE’s 8th Global Colloquium will take place in Budapest, Hungary, and in 2010, this international meeting will be held in Singapore.  ASEE also serves as the Secretariat for the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES), and the International Association for Continuing Engineering Education (IACEE).

ASEE’s solid financial footing is aided by the government funded education-related programs that ASEE administers for the federal government. Our current government projects portfolio includes several DOD and NSF programs. By successfully administering such programs, ASEE receives revenue that contributes to enhanced services for our members.  While ASEE is in good financial health, we have not been entirely immune to economic conditions.  Last year’s decline in the stock market led to losses in our endowed award accounts.  However, with careful budgeting and oversight, our financial situation is secure, and a continuing testament to ASEE’s staff/volunteer partnership.  Our cooperative effort serves to promote excellence in engineering and engineering technology education, and we can be proud of the advances achieved.

Frank L. Huband
f.huband@asee.org

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