Engineering and Technology
Teaching and Learning
The enrollment decrease in both headcount and student credit hours during the past two years slowed down. The total student credit hours for the academic year 2006-07 were lower than 2005-06 by 4.5%. The major decline was again in Computer and Information Technology (CIT) enrollment, which comprises about one third of the school’s student credit hours.
School awarded 109 certificates, 139 AS degrees in technology, 369 BS degrees, and 56 MS degrees, totaling to 673 degrees.
All of our technology programs went through IUPUI Program Review process in November 2006. Based on the recommendations of the Review Team, the school established 15 Faculty and Staff Action Groups to address several issues in the school, including retention, recruitment, diversity, marketing, research programs, and re-organization among others.
Annual updates of articulation agreements between Ivy Tech State College and our school were completed. Additional agreements were signed by area high schools.
Based on the 2006 ASEE Engineering and Technology Colleges Profile, IUPUI is second in the USA in number of Engineering Technology bachelor’s degrees awarded (after Ferris State University). The Wentworth Institute of Technology and Purdue University, WL are third and fourth, respectively. IUPUI is first in USA in number of Engineering Technology bachelor’s degrees awarded to women. Wentworth Institute of Technology, Ferris State University, and Southern Polytechnic State University follow IUPUI. The school also has the seventh largest Engineering Technology enrollment in the USA, in spite of our drastic loss of engineering technology enrollments during the past few semesters.
Mechanical Engineering senior, IUPUI men’s golfer Justin Wenger, has been voted to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team by the College Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) on the at-large ballot. He becomes just the second IUPUI student-athlete to earn First Team All-America honors, joining former women’s basketball standout Tiffany Kyser, who was chosen in 2002-03. Justin has a cumulative grade point average of 4.0.
Research and Scholarship
The school faculty submitted a total of 107 external proposals during the 2006-07 academic year for $35,657,139 of funding. 42 awards were received for a total of $5,515,222. The major grants received during the year were:
- Rong Rong Chen, US Army, “Renewable Energy through Fuel Cell and Reformable Technologies,” $1,270,000.
- Steven Rovnyak, IPower, Inc, “Commercialization of an Integrated and Optimized Distributed Generation Interconection System Controller-Phase II,” $564,750.
- Eri Kuno, John Schild, NIH-NIMH, “Simulation Model for Mental Health System Modeling,” $440,054.
- Ghassan Kassab, NIH-NHLBI, “Pressure and Flow Induced Remodeling of Coronary Artery,” $299,845.
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Yingzi Eliza Du received a prestigious Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award. Only 33 out of 214 young research professionals were selected for the award this year. The recognition comes with a three-year research funding grant.
Our faculty filed 12 invention disclosures, 3 new licenses, and 7 patent applications through IU RTC between July 2006 and March 2007.
After developing the highly successful Oncourse and Angel academic course management systems in the CyberLab, Ali Jafari and his team developed a new software system, Epsilen, which is currently used at more than 300 colleges and universities around the US. Most recently, the New York Times purchased one-third of the shares of Epsilen through a contract with IU RTC.
The school received US Army funds and IUPUI Signature Center funds to establish a research center on renewable energy. In April 2007, the laboratory was named the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy.
The school formed a partnership with Delphi Corporation to establish the Transportation Active Safety Institute (TASI) to become a research and testing facility for active safety product development for a large number of companies.
Civic Engagement
The number of internships increased from 238 in 2005-06 to 259 in 2006-07 with 102 additional interns for summer 2007.
Two faculty members (Akin Ecer and Ed Sullivan) continued their engagement and appointment with the Purdue University Technical Assistance Program, serving small companies with technical consulting in the Indianapolis area.
Charles Yokomoto and Pat Fox became Fellows of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the first two engineering or technology faculty at IUPUI to be so honored for their long and distinguished service to ASEE.
Sixteen of the IUPUI Top 100 students were from our school this year. Mechanical Engineering senior Kurush Savabi was the Top Male Student.
The Alumni Association of the school was again very active with Freshman Barbeque Welcome, department barbeques, Holiday Night at the Children’s Museum, Golf Classic, and Wine Exchange events.
The school celebrated National Engineers Week during the last week of February with several weeklong activities to increase awareness of engineering and technology among prospective and continuing students.
Our school is the lead partner in IUPUI’s activities in the Indiana Motorsports Association (IMA) and our collaboration with Panther Racing, along with the School of Liberal Arts and the School of Tourism, Convention, and Event Management. We are in the process of creating a new BS degree in Motorsports Engineering to be launched in fall 2008. We already have a “Motorsports Certificate” program. This is a very urgent initiative, as a number of other states, notably North and South Carolina, are ahead of Indiana in this area. Within Indiana, there is great momentum by state and city administrators, but Indiana State University is about to take the lead unless IU and IUPUI invest some resources in the effort. The Motorsports initiative is the most important priority at this time due to the potential for significant new in-state and out-of-state student recruitment, internships, and faculty and student project possibilities, which all contribute to the economic development of the state.
Our school, along with four other universities, is a leader of the Biocrossroads Indiana-STEM initiative, representing IUPUI. Charles Feldhaus is the project director.
Charles Feldhaus and Sam White are our liaisons with the Indianapolis Public School System for the Pathways to Engineering project, wherein one high school, one middle school, and four elementary schools in IPS are targeted for engineering magnet curricula.
The school continues to offer the highly interdisciplinary course GO GREEN (Green Organizations- Global Responsibility for Economic and Ecological Course) every summer. The international partner is Berufsakademie Mannheim in Germany and the industry partner is the Rolls Royce Corporation.
The Department of Computer and Information Technology’s annual Tech Camp attracted 75 high school teachers to IUPUI for a four-day training program in IT in July 2006. The Indiana State Department of Education partially sponsored the program.
The Annual Alumni Hi Tea in Malaysia was held on April 22, 2007 and attracted over 200 guests, including the alumni, their family members, and friends of the school. The school’s International Service Office and alumni office organized the event and the dean attended the function.
During his visit to Malaysia in April 2007, Dean Yurtseven also attended the Special Convocation of the Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) to celebrate the tenth year of the university. He was given the Honorary Doctor of Engineering award from Uniten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bni0Qp1D51c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ujcHSXAImw
The school hosted the third annual statewide Project Lead the Way Conference on campus with over 400 high school students attending.
