Annual Report
Submitted by Lester A. Gerhardt, Chair
The Engineering Research Council met in Washington in September, 1996, in Virginia in February, 1997, and in Milwaukee in June, 1997. The Board and Executive Committee have been in regular contact via e-mail, telephone, and fax. The highlights of the Engineering Research Council accomplishments this year include:
1) The completion and approval of the ERC bylaws.
2) A completely revised ERC membership list (this is due almost solely to the efforts of Jean Humphries). This revised list was supplied to ASEE and was used for the mailings for our Forum arid Workshop. This list has also been placed on a listserve on the ERC homepage, so it can be addressed by the Board and Executive Committee.
3) The development and completion of an ERC homepage with the associated listserve mentioned above, a "chat room" in which various members can correspond with each other, a complete listing of the Board and Directors, bylaws, items of current interest, etc. It can be directly reached at http://web.egr.msu.edu/ASEE/ or alternatively via the ASEE homepage. (Here the majority of credit should go to Nick Altiero who did most of this development.)
4) Based on ERC initiation, the ERC has now been assured of future representation on and involvement with the ASEE award procedure for the two annual research awards. Nominees were submitted to Lyle Feisel.
5) A series of articles on research was begun in the December, 1996, issue of PRISM, and are a regular feature. The first article was on "Why University Research?" Other 1997 articles were on "The Business of University Research," "Planning Research Directions," "Capitalizing in Intellectual Property," "Rules & Regulations," and "Reputation and Research." We have received many encouraging and positive responses back on these articles to date. They are also posted on the ERC homepage after they appear in PRISM.
6) ERC sessions for the June 1997 Annual Meeting were developed and offered. The primarily responsible person here is Charlie Dalton.
7) The biggest ERC meeting of the year was the 1997 Summit, Workshop and Forum, held February 23-25.
Engineering researchers from universities throughout the United States gathered in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Crystal City, Virginia, to verbalize, strategize, theorize, and fraternize at the Engineering Research Council's summit, workshop, and forum on academic research. The four-day event, held in February, attracted 108 associate deans and speakers from 31 states, including representatives from more than half of the top-25 U.S. research universities.
The program kicked off with a four-hour summit, a new addition to the meeting, conceived by Lester Gerhardt, ERC chair, which allowed open discussion and debate on university research issues. Topics raised by the attendees included:
- establishing a correlation between teaching quality and faculty research activity
- faculty research load and distribution
- the effect of the changing pattern of university activities from basic and applied research to product development and technology transfer
- promotion and tenure issues
- programs and initiatives to promote undergraduate activities in research.
- a vision for university research
- the impact of cost-sharing on university research
- pursuit of patents and licensing as alternate income streams
- increasing the engineering profession's role in establishing public policy
The summit was so enthusiastically received that organizers have decided to hold another summit at next year's meeting.
The workshop portion of the meeting, headed by Bill Isler, associate engineering dean at North Carolina State University, focused on developing effective research partnerships, particularly between industry and the university. New and updated rules and governmental regulations regarding the conduct of university research as well as special topics such as patents and licensing, rights and royalties, electronic processing of proposals, and dissemination of information were also covered.
At the end of the workshop, Allan Bromley, Yale University engineering dean and former science advisory to President Bush, spoke to a packed house on the role of the university and university research in the next millennium. His talk reinforced many of the points that participants made during the summit discussions.
During the two-day forum that followed, attendees heard firsthand reports from a variety of key government funding agencies regarding university research, their prognosis for the future directions of their programs, and their budgetary status. Organized and chaired by John Fillo, associate dean of research and external affairs at State University of New York at Binghamton, the forum also featured speakers Elbert Marsh, acting assistant director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate, and representatives from the directorate's various divisions, who spoke on their university research budgets. Representatives from other NSF directorates gave similar presentations.
Other agencies included the Department of Defense, including the research arms of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Advanced Research Projects Agency; the National Institute of Health; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Department of Energy.
Industry speakers included representatives from the Electric Power Research Institute and the Semiconductor Research Consortium. Don Giddens, engineering dean and Johns Hopkins University, was the banquet speaker and spoke on "Engineering Education for an Increasing Technological World."
As a followup to the forum, the Engineering Research Council is developing a "white paper" that summarizes the main topics of concern and offers recommendations. The paper will be presented to the community, the government, and those in public policy.
For more information on the meeting see the ERC homepage at web.egr.msu.edu/ASEE/
Overall, we feel there has been a great deal of progress, above and beyond the formulation of sessions for the Annual Meeting and the Workshop and Forum which have been traditional roles for ERC. We all hope that enthusiasm of all the participants will radiate to the newly established/verified membership, and we are optimistic about engaging a larger audience for the work of the Engineering Research Council and the ASEE in the area of research.
Finally, it is planned to meet with the Engineering Deans Council in the future to explore cooperative areas of interest. I plan to contact Ernie Smerdon to set up a firm date on this based on past informal discussions we have had.
Annual Report
Submitted by Lester A. Gerhardt, Chair
The Engineering Research Council met in Washington in September, 1996, in Virginia in February, 1997, and in Milwaukee in June, 1997. The Board and Executive Committee have been in regular contact via e-mail, telephone, and fax. The highlights of the Engineering Research Council accomplishments this year include:
1) The completion and approval of the ERC bylaws.
2) A completely revised ERC membership list (this is due almost solely to the efforts of Jean Humphries). This revised list was supplied to ASEE and was used for the mailings for our Forum arid Workshop. This list has also been placed on a listserve on the ERC homepage, so it can be addressed by the Board and Executive Committee.
3) The development and completion of an ERC homepage with the associated listserve mentioned above, a "chat room" in which various members can correspond with each other, a complete listing of the Board and Directors, bylaws, items of current interest, etc. It can be directly reached at http://web.egr.msu.edu/ASEE/ or alternatively via the ASEE homepage. (Here the majority of credit should go to Nick Altiero who did most of this development.)
4) Based on ERC initiation, the ERC has now been assured of future representation on and involvement with the ASEE award procedure for the two annual research awards. Nominees were submitted to Lyle Feisel.
5) A series of articles on research was begun in the December, 1996, issue of PRISM, and are a regular feature. The first article was on "Why University Research?" Other 1997 articles were on "The Business of University Research," "Planning Research Directions," "Capitalizing in Intellectual Property," "Rules & Regulations," and "Reputation and Research." We have received many encouraging and positive responses back on these articles to date. They are also posted on the ERC homepage after they appear in PRISM.
6) ERC sessions for the June 1997 Annual Meeting were developed and offered. The primarily responsible person here is Charlie Dalton.
7) The biggest ERC meeting of the year was the 1997 Summit, Workshop and Forum, held February 23-25.
Engineering researchers from universities throughout the United States gathered in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Crystal City, Virginia, to verbalize, strategize, theorize, and fraternize at the Engineering Research Council's summit, workshop, and forum on academic research. The four-day event, held in February, attracted 108 associate deans and speakers from 31 states, including representatives from more than half of the top-25 U.S. research universities.
The program kicked off with a four-hour summit, a new addition to the meeting, conceived by Lester Gerhardt, ERC chair, which allowed open discussion and debate on university research issues. Topics raised by the attendees included:
- establishing a correlation between teaching quality and faculty research activity
- faculty research load and distribution
- the effect of the changing pattern of university activities from basic and applied research to product development and technology transfer
- promotion and tenure issues
- programs and initiatives to promote undergraduate activities in research.
- a vision for university research
- the impact of cost-sharing on university research
- pursuit of patents and licensing as alternate income streams
- increasing the engineering profession's role in establishing public policy
The summit was so enthusiastically received that organizers have decided to hold another summit at next year's meeting.
The workshop portion of the meeting, headed by Bill Isler, associate engineering dean at North Carolina State University, focused on developing effective research partnerships, particularly between industry and the university. New and updated rules and governmental regulations regarding the conduct of university research as well as special topics such as patents and licensing, rights and royalties, electronic processing of proposals, and dissemination of information were also covered.
At the end of the workshop, Allan Bromley, Yale University engineering dean and former science advisory to President Bush, spoke to a packed house on the role of the university and university research in the next millennium. His talk reinforced many of the points that participants made during the summit discussions.
During the two-day forum that followed, attendees heard firsthand reports from a variety of key government funding agencies regarding university research, their prognosis for the future directions of their programs, and their budgetary status. Organized and chaired by John Fillo, associate dean of research and external affairs at State University of New York at Binghamton, the forum also featured speakers Elbert Marsh, acting assistant director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate, and representatives from the directorate's various divisions, who spoke on their university research budgets. Representatives from other NSF directorates gave similar presentations.
Other agencies included the Department of Defense, including the research arms of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Advanced Research Projects Agency; the National Institute of Health; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Department of Energy.
Industry speakers included representatives from the Electric Power Research Institute and the Semiconductor Research Consortium. Don Giddens, engineering dean and Johns Hopkins University, was the banquet speaker and spoke on "Engineering Education for an Increasing Technological World."
As a followup to the forum, the Engineering Research Council is developing a "white paper" that summarizes the main topics of concern and offers recommendations. The paper will be presented to the community, the government, and those in public policy.
For more information on the meeting see the ERC homepage at web.egr.msu.edu/ASEE/
Overall, we feel there has been a great deal of progress, above and beyond the formulation of sessions for the Annual Meeting and the Workshop and Forum which have been traditional roles for ERC. We all hope that enthusiasm of all the participants will radiate to the newly established/verified membership, and we are optimistic about engaging a larger audience for the work of the Engineering Research Council and the ASEE in the area of research.
Finally, it is planned to meet with the Engineering Deans Council in the future to explore cooperative areas of interest. I plan to contact Ernie Smerdon to set up a firm date on this based on past informal discussions we have had.
