March 2005

Welcome to the March issue of Connections, the American Society for Engineering Education's free e-newsletter.

Spotlight On Our Sponsors:

• Autodesk - Higher Education Program
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• NI News - Academic Edition
  http://ni.com/news/
  niacademicnews_archive.htm
  
  
• Professional Publications FE & PE Review
  www.ppi2pass.com
  
  
• Hewlett Packard - Create-A-Calculator Contest!
  www.hp.com/calculators
  
  
• PCC Circuit Boards
  www.pcc-i.com

Autodesk - Higher Education Programs

As the world's leading supplier of PC design software and digital content-creation tools, Autodesk wants to be your partner in preparing your students for future careers. Together we can expand the range of teaching and learning opportunities for you and your students and help build a bridge to their future. To learn more about Autodesk's programs for higher education, visit www.autodesk.com/education.

Keep up with the latest NI academic information through
NI NEWS - Academic Edition

Subscribe online today to receive a complimentary quarterly e-mail newsletter featuring the latest resources for teaching, researching, and learning with LabVIEW.

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Helping You Build Professional Engineers

Professional Publications, Inc. understands that building a successful career takes years of education, experience and growth.

Licensure is the cornerstone of an engineer's career. For over 25 years, PPI has been dedicated to helping you help your students pass the FE and PE exams. We have the resources you need:

• The #1 FE and PE review products.
• The most-visited web site, with exam info, FAQs, Instructor's Corner, and more.
• Exam Cafe (www.ppiexamcafe.com), for online exam practice and assessment tools that are fast, easy, and affordable.
• And now your support for the FE and PE exams can be especially rewarding! Join the new PPI Sales Partner Program (www.ppipartner.com) to earn commissions or discounts just for referring students to PPI books.

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CHALLENGE YOUR STUDENTS TO BE INVENTORS

HP-Scholastic Create-A-Calculator Contest 2005!!
Over $39,000 in Cash Scholarship Awards and Calculators!

Hewlett Packard Company and Scholastic Administrator launched its third annual Create-a-Calculator Contest 2005 on March 1 for Universities and College students. Competing students will offer innovative ideas to complement HP's exciting calculator technology.

Criteria for Winning:
Undergraduates in university and community colleges: CAD designs, formulae, theories, practical/theoretical evidence for how these ideas will work, graphics/screen, design aesthetics/ergonomics, wireless capabilities. Additional criteria information for submissions is posted on the contest websites listed below.

Judging panel: American Society of Engineering Education, Hewlett Packard Company and Scholastic Administr@tor and Teen Network magazines.

Six winners will receive scholarship awards and prizes. Additional prizes awarded to top participating schools, faculty, and runners-up. Visit: www.hp.com/calculators, www.scholasticadministrator.com and ASEE's www.engineeringk12.org for more information. All contest entries must be received by May 31, 2005.

Printed Circuits Corp.
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Design, Manufacturing and Assembly of Printed Circuit Boards

Email: sales@pcc-i.com
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Welcome to the world of K-12 engineering!

Introducing engineering into the K-12 classroom connects science and math concepts to the everyday engineering that surrounds us. TeachEngineering.com helps teachers enhance learning, excite students and stimulate interest in science and math through the use of hands-on engineering. With a fully searchable, digital library of standards-based lesson plans, and a myriad of "Living Laboratories" that bring real-world engineering principles into the classroom, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands-on, inexpensive, and relevant to children's daily lives.

TeachEngineering.com is a joint effort of the University of Colorado, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Duke University, Oregon State University, and the American Society for Engineering Education, and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

Bring the world of engineering into the K-12 classroom with TeachEngineering.com. You don't need knowledge of engineering to use these curricula!

Search TeachEngineering.com's digital library at www.teachengineering.com.

Engineering, Go For It!
2nd Edition - Coming Fall 2005!

ASEE is thrilled to announce the production of the second edition of Engineering, Go For It! The new edition is shaping up to be even bolder, fresher, and more up-to-date with today's rapidly changing technologies. It gives a fuller picture of how engineering and technology shape our lives and more tips on how to get started and succeed in engineering and technology. Opportunities to sponsor custom copies of the second edition featuring your institution's own, four-color promotional content on the back covers, are now available.

Visit www.engineering-goforit.com for sponsorship details for the second edition of Engineering, Go For It!

New and Improved Journal of Engineering Education!

The Journal of Engineering Education is a peer-reviewed international journal published quarterly by the American Society for Engineering Education. It serves as an archival record of the leading scholarly research in engineering education. Visit www.asee.org/publications/jee/ to read it online.

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In this Issue:

I. Science and Technology Briefs

• Sharing the Spoils - A recent court ruling in Australia forces academics to share the rewards of their research with their universities.
• A Simple Solution - A professor at MIT has invented a cheap, effective water filtration system for third world villages.

II. Congressional Hotline

• Visa Welcome Mat Is Back Out
• National Science Foundation Up for a 2.4 Percent Budget Increase in FY 2006

III. Teaching Toolbox

• A Chair in Your Future - Many women overlook the critical job of running a department on their way up the career ladder.
• Head of the Class - Kristi Anseth has, at a relatively early age, built a distinguished career in the burgeoning field of biomaterials.

IV. Feature Articles

• An Engineer First - After leaving his bootprint on the moon, Neil Armstrong returned to what got him there and back: engineering.
• Lights, Camera, Trains - How engineering helped photographer O. Winston Link capture the final days of the steam engine on film.

V. Professional Opportunity

• California State University-Long Beach - Associate Deans, College of
  Engineering

VI. ASEE-administered Fellowship Programs

• NASA Summer Faculty Research Opportunities
• The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship

I. Science and Technology Briefs

SHARING THE SPOILS
AUSTRALIA - It's your brainchild; does your university deserve a share?

The answer, in Australia, is yes. An Australian court has ruled that academics who commercialize the results of their research cannot retain all of the financial benefits. They must split them with the schools paying their salaries and providing them workspace. The decision is an important precedent in Australia, where the sharing of such earnings has often been regarded as a gray area, even if most researchers do split the revenues and may be obliged by agreements to do so. As schools become increasingly self-sufficient in the wake of declining government funding, they are looking at other ways to earn money. Marketing themselves to foreign students is their biggest moneymaker, but they also are seeking their share on earnings from commercialized research. The Victoria University of Technology in Melbourne took two professors to court over earnings from their research. The case concerned computer software and programs the pair created. Legal action began after the academics signed an agreement with a foreign company to develop and patent the software. The university asked the court to decide whether the researchers retained intellectual property rights over their work or merely held such rights in trust for the university. A Melbourne judge ruled that employment terms and university rules were such that the school should benefit from money made from the two researchers' work, but the proportion of earnings they must turn over was not disclosed.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION
"I work where people are drinking sewage," says Susan Murcott, a civil engineer and expert in water filtration systems. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor regularly visits developing countries where drinking water supplies are often filthy and dangerous. There's no shortage of places for her to work: A billion people worldwide are at risk from polluted water. In 1998, Murcott attended a conference on women and water in Nepal, which has a major problem with sewage-contaminated water. Arsenic is a ground-water issue there, too, as it is in many third-world countries. Long-term exposure to arsenic is causing epidemics of cancers and other fatal diseases, according to the World Health Organization. When she got back to MIT, she and her students began working on devising a cheap, effective filtration system that villagers could operate easily. After five years, they came up with the ABF, or arsenic-biosand filter. It's a container the size of a small, two-drawer filing cabinet, and can be manufactured either in plastic or concrete. The bin is filled with gravel, coarse sand, fine sand, and iron nails. Its total cost is $20 to $25. Murcott says it can work indefinitely with only minor maintenance. The sand and gravel work to remove physical pollutants; the iron nails attract and capture the arsenic. The resulting water is so potable it won't upset delicate Western stomachs. And it processes 15 to 30 liters of water an hour, much more than other rudimentary filters. Twenty-five ABFs will be installed in Nepalese villages this year, paid for by a $115,000 grant from the World Bank Development Global Competition. And Murcott is working with business students from MIT's Sloan School of Management to devise a plan to scale up production globally. In a world where so many are at risk from contaminated water supplies, the ABF offers some hope.

Back to the index.

II. Congressional Hotline

Visa Welcome Mat Is Back Out
A new report requested by House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) indicates that the visa processing time for students, scientists and others is 15 days today, down from 67 days a year ago.

Boehlert requested the report, which was done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), as part of an effort by the Science Committee to reduce visa delays for foreign scientists and science students. An earlier report on visas released last February found lengthy delays in Visa Mantis, or the special visa review for students, scientists and other professionals.

"The 67-day average processing time that GAO found last year was alarming," Boehlert said. "I am gratified by the good news today that the number has been drastically reduced. I am pleased that the Science Committee's focus on the issue is bearing fruit."

The report indicates that since last year, agencies have made efforts to improve the Mantis program, including adding staff to process the cases, developing an electronic tracking system, and extending the Mantis clearance validity period.

In February, the State Department extended the duration of visa security clearances for students and people working in sensitive technical fields such as nuclear engineering. Clearances for students could now last four years, up from the previous one-year limit.

To read more about visa clearance for foreign students and scientists, visit: http://www.house.gov/science/press/109/109-24.htm.

National Science Foundation Up for a 2.4 Percent Budget Increase in FY 2006
For FY 2006, President Bush is requesting $5.6 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF), a 2.4 percent increase from FY 2005's $5.47 billion.

The four main priorities in the FY 2006 NSF budget are strengthening core research, continuing to provide tools and infrastructure, broadening participation, and continuing to sharpen NSF's management. Four themes will crosscut the priorities: Areas of Emerging Opportunity, International Collaborations, Interagency Initiatives, and Homeland Security Activities.

Although NSF Director Arden Bement called the FY 2006 budget climate "constrained," he remained optimistic. "Even in this environment, there is recognition that NSF's record of providing the fuel for the American economy through discovery and innovation, which translates into economic growth, has kept us in a strong position," he said. "Despite some tough choices ahead, we will be able to focus energies into research that seeks the frontier and beyond, and on first-class tools and infrastructure that will help scientists and engineers be more productive."

The largest increase is in the Research and Related Activities (R&RA) account, which increases nearly 3 percent to $4.3 billion. Within R&RA, Engineering grows 3.5 percent to $580 million and Computer and Information Science Engineering increases 1.1 percent to $620 million. The Education and Human Resources account decreases 12.4 percent from $841 million to $737 million.

For detailed information on the NSF's budget request, visit: http://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100890&org=NSF&from=news.

Back to the index.

III. Teaching Toolbox

A Chair in Your Future
There are times when numbers and percentages speak volumes. As reported in the just-released Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges published by the American Society for Engineering Education, the percentage of women who are full professors in engineering stands at just over 5 percent. The highest percentage of female faculty is at the assistant professor level. Assistant professors are typically untenured and have little job security or ability to change the culture of their departments.

To read the rest of this story, visit www.prism-magazine.org/may04/teachingtoolbox.cfm.

Head of the Class
Chemical and biological engineer Kristi Anseth has, at the tender age of 35, already built a distinguished career in the burgeoning interdisciplinary area of biomaterials, which uses chemistry, biology, and engineering to devise replaceable body parts. The University of Colorado-Boulder professor is a leader in the development of new materials to build scaffolds, or templates, on which cells can grow to replace diseased or damaged parts, like knees, hips, and even some structures of the human heart. Now Anseth has won the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, a $500,000, three-year grant given annually to outstanding young researchers under the age of 36.

To read the rest of this article, visit www.prism-magazine.org/sept04/facultys_finest_kristi_anseth.htm.

Back to the index.

IV. Feature Articles

An Engineer First
By Pierre Home-Douglas

He is best known today for his eight-year stint as a NASA astronaut, culminating with his "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" in July 1969. But Neil Alden Armstrong's curriculum vita states the 73-year-old had one career before he was an astronaut, and one long after: aeronautical engineer. "I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer," Armstrong told the National Press Club in February 2000, "born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow."

To read the rest of this story, visit www.prism-magazine.org/may04/engineerfirst.cfm.

Lights, Camera, Train
By Jo Ann Tooley

O. Winston Link has been called one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. He studied civil engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn but engineering jobs were scarce when he graduated in 1937 so he became a photographer. During World War II he found work at a military research lab next to the Long Island Railroad and started photographing trains during his spare time. Nearly 20 years later, he began work on what was to become his most enduring legacy: chronicling the last days of the steam engine.

To read the rest of this story, visit www.prism-magazine.org/may04/trains.cfm.

Back to the index.

V. Professional Opportunity

California State University-Long Beach (CSULB) announces two new positions for Associate Deans in College of Engineering. We are looking for two top notch Deans to join our team.

Positions open until filled.

Please see the College of Engineering Website at:
http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/coe/.

Position Number 2080 for Associate Dean for Instruction
Position Number 2081 for Associate Dean for Research and Development

In addition to meeting fully its obligations of nondiscrimination under federal and state law, CSULB is committed to creating a community in which a diverse population can learn, live, and work in an atmosphere of tolerance, civility, and respect for the rights and sensibilities of each individual, without regard to economic status, ethnic background, political views, or other personal characteristics or beliefs. California State University, Long Beach is an equal opportunity employer.

Back to the index.

VI. ASEE-administered Fellowship Programs

Did you know that ASEE administers doctoral, post-doctoral, and faculty fellowship programs funded by the federal government? The following are the programs currently offered:

NASA Summer Faculty Research Opportunities, sponsored by NASA's Faculty Awards for Research (FAR) Program and the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program

• Intended for U.S. citizens who hold full-time science and engineering faculty positions at U.S. colleges, community colleges, and universities. The duration of this summer fellowship is 10 continuous weeks and research is performed on-site
• A competitive stipend and travel/relocation allowances are available
• Application deadline will be in February, 2005
• For more information and to apply online, go to www.asee.org/nffp or e-mail nasa@asee.org.

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

• One to three year postdoctoral fellowship program designed to increase the involvement of creative and highly trained scientists and engineers from academia and industry to scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Navy
• Open to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents
• Offers a competitive stipend, as well as insurance, relocation and travel allowances
• This program has a rolling admission; visit www.asee.org/resources/fellowships/nrl/ to learn more about the program.

Back to the index.

4th ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium Call for Papers

ASEE, partnering with the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AaeE), is announcing a call for papers for the 4th Global Colloquium on Engineering Education. The colloquium will be held in Sydney, Australia, from September 26-30, 2005. The colloquium in Sydney will have the following themes: globalization of engineering education, the K-12 pipeline, and the transformations of the disciplines. It will provide an excellent opportunity for international leaders and policy makers from industry, academe, and government to gather and discuss the major challenges in preparation for the next generation of engineering innovators. The deadline for abstract submission is March 23, 2005. To submit an abstract or paper, visit www.gcee2005.com/call.htm.

Connections is brought to you by the American Society for Engineering Education.

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