Excellence in Engineering Education

 

National Outstanding Teaching Medal

As an organization, ASEE is committed to the support of faculty scholarship and systems that develop pedagogical expertise. The National Outstanding Teaching Medal was established in 2003 by contributions from ASEE Sections, members, and industrial partners. The award is designed to provide national recognition to an engineering or engineering technology educator for excellence in outstanding classroom performance, contributions to the scholarship of teaching, and participation in ASEE Section meetings and local activities.

The Award: The award recipient receives an engraved commemorative medallion, certificate, and complimentary registration for the ASEE Annual Conference at which the award is presented. An honorarium will be included as a part of the award when funding of the endowment is completed. Each Section award winner will receive a certificate in recognition of his or her teaching excellence at the regional level.

Qualifications: Teachers of any subject included in an ABET accredited engineering or engineering technology curriculum, including faculty teaching parallel courses at two-year or community colleges, are eligible. Those teaching humanities and social studies, mathematics, science, applied science and computing science are also eligible.

Classroom Performance:

  • Possess and be able to communicate broad and accurate subject area knowledge.
  • Possess self-confidence, create a feeling of harmony between self and students, and able to meet difficulties with poise.
  • Possess a sense of proportion, stressing fundamentals and basic underlying truths.
  • Prepare assignments that challenge students, demanding thinking and learning.
  • Demonstrate an intense subject area interest & enthusiasm and enhance the learning process to fully motivate students.
  • Be available for advising and counseling students.
  • Show evidence of outstanding classroom performance using regular course evaluations and individual letters of recommendation from current and former students.

Teaching Scholarship Contributions:

  • Demonstrate effectiveness in course and/or curriculum development.
  • Evidence of laboratory or other facility development.
  • Development or authorship of instructional material or a text that enhances the student learning process.
  • Publication of original work, through any medium including presentations at professional meetings, that enhances the engineering education process or adds value to teaching methodology literature.
  • Service as a mentor to other teaching faculty or participation in the development and delivery of seminars and workshops focused on improvements to teacher classroom effectiveness.
  • Teach a minimum of two semester or three quarter classroom or laboratory courses per year.

ASEE and Local Participation:

  • Possess a strong record of activity in ASEE or the educational activities of another professional society.
  • Be an ASEE member with a record of participation in Section meetings. (A minimum participation is attending the Section meeting at which the Section award is presented; and making a presentation at that meeting (or the following Section meeting) to share some element of his/her success as a teacher).
  • Provide a commitment statement to attend the ASEE Annual Meeting if selected to receive the National Outstanding Teaching Medal.

Nomination Process: The National Outstanding Teaching Medal recipient is selected from the winners (past and present) of one of the twelve Section Outstanding Teaching Awards. Section leaders are responsible for submitting nominations to ASEE HQ. All ASEE members are urged to recognize outstanding teaching by submitting nominations to their regional section leadership. The nominee and nominee's institution may need to participate in the submittal process. The nomination is to be submitted by January 15 to ASEE HQ. The nomination package consists of the following:

  • ASEE Awards Cover page.
  • Fifty word citation suitable for reading at the annual award ceremony.
  • Documentation related to the award criteria consisting of no more than 4 pages. (Other personal vita/information will be disregarded).
  • Candidate's statement (no more than 500 words) regarding their teaching philosophy.
  • Three letters of recommendation from students or past students.
  • Three letters of recommendation from faculty, administration, or industry peers.
  • Candidate's commitment statement to attend the ASEE Annual Meeting if selected to receive the National Outstanding Teaching Medal.

The award selection committee will use a similar schedule and follow the same general guidelines prescribed by the ASEE awards process. The Selection Committee may recommend that highly qualified candidates be automatically re-nominated for the following year. Re-nominated candidates will be allowed to update their nomination package.

Past Award Winners

Benjamin Garver Lamme Award

Benjamin Garver Lamme (1864-1924) spent most of his life working for the Westinghouse Electric Company as an inventor and a developer of electrical machinery. He pioneered the design of rotary converters, developed direct current railway motors and produced the first commercially successful induction motor. His keen interest in the training of young engineers resulted in the development of a design school at Westinghouse. A further result of his interest was the endowment of the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award, which is given to encourage good technical teaching in order to advance the engineering profession.

The Benjamin Garver Lamme Award is bestowed upon a distinguished engineering educator for contributions to the art of teaching, contributions to research and technical literature and achievements that contribute to the advancement of the profession of engineering college administration.

The Award: The Lamme Trust Fund, established in 1928 in memory of Benjamin Garver Lamme, provides the funds for the award, which consists of a gold medal and certificate.

Qualifications: Representing the best in engineering education administration, the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award is bestowed upon a recipient who demonstrates the following qualities:

  • Excellence in teaching and ability to inspire students to high levels of accomplishment.
  • Improvement of engineering education through contributions of research, books or technical articles that have a lasting influence on engineering education.
  • Administration of engineering schools that has led to definite and recognized improvements in the art of engineering education.
  • Participation in the work of engineering and educational societies that has led to the improvement of engineering education.
  • Achievements outside the field of teaching, such as personal professional development in industry, consulting work, inventions, government service, and so on. (Such achievements will be considered secondary in importance in selecting the recipient.)

Renomination: All nominations will be carried over for at least one year following the initial submission. Pertinent updated nomination information should be submitted by the nominator. Specific requests for updating will be made for cases in the top quarter of the previous year's ballot. Other resubmissions are the responsibility of the nominator

Past Award Winners

Fred Merryfield Design Award

As a practicing environmentalist and spokesperson for environmental protection before most people had even heard the term, as an engineering educator who always insisted on high standards, as an expert engineer and consultant known internationally in the area of water and waste engineering, and as a citizen dedicated to service, Fred Merryfield (1900-1977) was a progressive and an imaginative pioneer.

Fred Merryfield invested 35 years as a teacher and researcher at Oregon State University in the areas of water, sewerage, hydropower systems and engineering contracts and specifications. During this same period he, along with three of his students, founded the international consulting firm of CH2M Hill. Later, Merryfield motivated his students at OSU to measure river pollution and report on it to the Oregon State Board of Health. In support of his students' efforts, Merryfield encouraged and prodded the health authorities, eventually being credited as the primary force in cleaning up the Willamette River and other estuaries in Oregon.

Established in 1981 by CH2M Hill in memory of Fred Merryfield, this award recognizes an engineering educator for excellence in teaching of engineering design and acknowledges other significant contributions related to engineering design teaching.

The Award: The award recipient receives a $2,500 honorarium, a $500 stipend for travel to the ASEE Annual Conference and a commemorative plaque. In addition, the awardee's institutional department receives an award of $500.

Qualifications: Creativity and demonstrated excellence in the teaching of engineering design characterize the recipients of the Merryfield Award. Therefore, the award maintains the following qualifications:

  • Demonstrated excellence in teaching engineering design and ability to inspire students to high levels of accomplishment.
  • Improvement in the resources and methodology for teaching engineering design. Evidence of such achievement would include published articles, textbooks, courses or curricula, laboratory development, case studies and other innovations.
  • Improvement of engineering design teaching through encouragement of colleagues; cooperation with industry and appropriate emphasis on societal concerns, professionalism and ethics.
  • Participation in the work of at least one professional/technical society to improve the teaching of engineering design.

Past Award Winners

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