ETCS Mission Statement The objective of the School of ETCS is to be an increasingly valuable technological resource for its students, and to serve society as an integral component of a unique and comprehensive university with vigorous regional ties and a growing national reputation. Within the broader mission of the university, the school's goal is to prepare technicians, technologists, computer professionals and engineers, and to provide its students with opportunities to develop fundamental skills and knowledge and a professional attitude.

Experts Discuss Corporate Training Needs

G. Allen Pugh, IPFW; Mitchell Springer, Hughes Defense Communications; Michael Fritsch, Logikos; and Michael Stocksill, IPFW.

A panel of experts discussed "Professional Development Needs in Northeast Indiana" during the October ETCS Advocates Council meeting. Michael Fritsch, director of research at Logikos Systems and Software moderated the lively exchange. Mitchell L. Springer, director of corporate training and employee development at Hughes Defense Communications in Fort Wayne; G. Allen Pugh, interim dean of ETCS; and Michael Stockstill, IPFW executive director of continuing education were the panelists.

Springer discussed how Hughes training needs were being met. They use a combination of in-house programs and contract with outside training specialists. One of the training programs involved a nine-week course created by James L. Silver, chair of computer science. Silver developed a course to introduce all types of engineers to the discipline of software engineering. Stockstill cited examples of how universities across the country are reaching out to companies both large and small to meet corporate training needs. He stated, "Today's professionals are asking that continuing professional development be part of their employment contract." Pugh addressed how the School of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science would be able to help meet training needs for local companies. IPFW s Continuing Education is available to set up individual courses or certificate programs.

The moderator asked council members to talk about how their respective companies were handling training needs. Many companies have set up their own training "institute." Continuing professional development is considered an integral part of everyday business to keep employees informed and to update their skills.

Also, we welcomed the addition of five new members to our council. They include: Gary Davis, Dana Corp.; David DeStefano, GTE; Daniel Floryan, Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire; John Hope, Essex; and Thomas Gidley, Navistar International Corp.

Welcome Interim Dean Pugh

G. Allen Pugh, Ph.D., will serve as interim dean for the next two years (1997-99). Pugh, who came to IPFW in 1981, holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1982. His research interests include manufacturing simulation and statistical process control, in which areas he has published several dozen papers. He teaches industrial engineering technology courses and serves as chair of the manufacturing technology department.

The ETCS Computing Initiative G. Allen Pugh, interim dean of ETCS Keeping up with computing technology is an on going battle. In the School of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science we have been losing this battle for several years now. To site but two examples: visiting high school students are curious about why their high schools have more advanced computers than we do, and our robotics laboratory is controlled by computers six generations old. This year we intend to begin to alleviate some of these problems with the ETCS Computing Initiative. Our plan is: to move to a client/server system for faculty, staff, and laboratories to install software for creation and monitoring of Internet courses and Web pages to enhance student and faculty access to more powerful modeling software, and to improve remote access. At several places along this road we will need the assistance of the Advocates Council-you will soon be hearing more from us!

-G. Allen Pugh, interim dean

Successful 1997 Scholarship Drive

At our annual scholarship banquet last April, we presented $59,900 in scholarship monies to 45 students. Eleven incoming freshmen received scholarships and the rest of the awards went to continuing students. We are very grateful to the scholarship sponsors for their generous donations. If you would like to help sponsor the 1998 scholarship program, please call Mary Jane Casiano at 219-481-6839.

Sponsors
A. W. Schenkel Memorial
American Electric Power
Bonar Group
Building Contractors Association
CTS Inc. of Berne
David Hunt Memorial
DePuy Inc.
Electric League
Fred Gideon
GE Motors
General Motors
Guardian Industries
Hagerman Construction
Hughes Defense Communications
John W. Johnson Memorial
Lloyd W. Smith Memorial
Maurice Lam Memorial
Navistar
North American Van Lines
Northeast Indiana Construction Advancement Foundation
PHD Inc.
Poly Hi Solidur
Ross Caldwell Memorial
United Technologies
Zollner Foundation

Retiree News

Ken Johnson, associate professor of mechanical engineering, will retire after 26 years of service. He plans on spending more time with his family and traveling. O. Richard "Dick" Detraz, associate professor of electrical engineering technology, will begin partial retirement in spring 1998. He will teach spring semesters only for the next several years. He came to IPFW in 1968. Also, C. Jack Quinn, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering technology returned to IPFW to help out this semester after Sunday Faseyitan accepted a teaching position in Pennsylvania.

Positions Available

Four out of five departments will be recruiting faculty in 1998. Civil and Architectural Engineering Technology is searching for an instructor in the architectural program. The Department of Computer Science has one position to fill. The Department of Engineering is searching for an instructor in mechanical engineering. Manufacturing technology needs one instructor each in mechanical engineering technology and industrial engineering technology.

Faculty News

Ronald C. Emery, associate dean of ETCS and professor of electrical engineering technology, returned to the classroom after serving as interim dean during the 1996-97 school year. Nashwan Younis is the acting chair of engineering this year. C. Wayne Unsell has returned from sabbatical leave to resume the duties of chair in CAET and Bob Sedlmeyer returned to the computer science department. Aly Mahmoud returned after teaching the past year in Malaysia.

Faculty Spotlight

Alam

Mohammad S. Alam is an associate professor of electrical engineering at IPFW and a graduate faculty member of both Purdue University and Indiana University. He received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1983 and 1985, an M.S. in computer engineering from Wayne State University in 1989, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Dayton in 1992.

Research

Alam is an internationally recognized authority in optical image processing. He has authored or co-authored 54 research publications in quality refereed journals, presented more than 67 papers at professional conferences, regularly serves as a guest editor in the topmost professional journals, continues to serve in leadership roles both as a symposium organizer and as technical session chair at international conferences.

Alam has consistently obtained external funding for his research projects from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, as well as from industry such as ITT Aerospace/Communications, Fort Wayne and Technology/Scientific Services Inc., Dayton, Ohio. He has been awarded nine research grants totaling nearly $250,000 through open competition. He has also received 10 international travel grants (totaling $11,000).

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to research, he received the School of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science (ETCS) Excellence in Research Award in 1993 and 1997, and the 1996 Researcher of the Year Award from Sigma Xi, the scientific research society. Recently, he was appointed as a guest editor for the Journal of Optical Engineering and editor of the SPIE Milestone Series on Real Time Optical Pattern Recognition.

Teaching

Alam has strengthened the electrical engineering curriculum by developing three new undergraduate courses (EE 320, EE 365, and EE 495) and a graduate course (EE 595). He has also developed the microprocessor systems and interfacing laboratory (EE 362L) and completely upgraded the digital logic design laboratory (EE 267) by designing both hardware and software for computer interfacing and by writing laboratory manuals containing 12 original comprehensive experiments for each laboratory.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in teaching, he received the ETCS Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995. Most recently, he was honored by being inducted to the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) in March 1997 under the Indiana University system.

Service

Alam's service to the profession has been at the national and international levels. He has organized and chaired many sessions at international conferences. Most recently, he chaired a session on "Light Modulators and Soliton Memory" at the International Symposium on Optical Information Science and Technology held in Moscow in August 1997 and chaired another session on "Algorithms, Applications, and Related Systems" at the International Conference on Imaging Science, Systems, and Technology which was held in June 1997 in Las Vegas. He has also chaired a session on "Optical Filter Implementation" and served as a member of the editorial board for the 1996 International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics which was held in India in December 1996. He has organized and chaired a session for the IEEE (NAECON) conference each year since 1994.

In addition, he has volunteered his services to the community. He has served as a member of the National Engineers Week planning committee, served as a judge for the regional science fair, given lectures about studying engineering to local high school students at the engineering high-tech career day, and served as a member of the local TCC-96 conference planning committee. He is also actively involved in consultancy with the local industry and with the United Nations Development Program.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in service, he received the ETCS Excellence in Service Award in 1996.

Engineers Week 1998

National Engineers week will be celebrated Feb. 22-28 this year. We are planning several events: a career day for high school students, pizza and popcorn sales sponsored by our student organizations, a fundraising phonathon, and an open house. The open house will feature the annual bridge building contest. Last year 140 students entered 73 bridges in this contest. This event is co-sponsored with the Northeastern Indiana Engineers Week Committee. We want to encourage all professional engineers to take time during this week to meet with "future" engineers at local high schools or even allow a student to job shadow for a day. For more information on student visitations, please call Ed Goetz Jr. at 622-7120.

Equipment Donation Corner DePuy Inc. of Warsaw donated three SPARC stations to the computer science department.

Guest Speaker

Mitchell

On Nov. 24, Steve Mitchell, manager of technology transition at General Electric in Cincinnati, Ohio, gave a presentation on "Today s Interdisciplinary Environment for the Successful Transition of Composite Technologies." His presentation stressed the need for engineers to communicate effectively, the need to work with many different disciplines, the need to know a little bit about many topics and disciplines, and the need to understand that people are motivated in different ways and measured in different ways. Basically, this accomplished engineer spoke about the real world of engineering.

We're on the Web

The School of ETCS has a home page on the World Wide Web. It is located at http://www.engr.ipfw.edu/. You'll see a listing of our degree programs, scholarship information, faculty information, and this newsletter. Check us out!

ETCS Advocate is published twice a year. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Brenda Groff, co-editor
219-481-5709
groff@ipfw.edu

Mary Jane Casiano, co-editor
219-481-6839
casiano@ipfw.edu

Interim Dean Ronald C. Emery
219-481-6839
emery@ipfw.edu

Associate Dean Robert A. Barrett
219-481-6179
barrett@ipfw.edu