Members Present: Harry Bell, Ken Jenkins, Ray Lunnen, Jack Mitchell, Fred Thompson, Tom Walsh, and Mark Wharton

Mark opened the meeting at 7:30pm.  He had an agenda with 6 topics.

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Topic 1.  Introduction
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Liz Kisenwether will be the EPICS and permanent member of the SPSEE planning committee.  She is also teaching an EE403 section (engineering senior design project dealing with community service).

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Topic 2.  Committees
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PSES divides up projects and assigns project leaders to head them.
Mark has spoken with the following and they accepted:
Fundraising:  Mark Wharton
Recruitment:  Harry Bell
EPICS:  Liz Kisenwether

Mark then asked the following:
Ray Lunnen said he would lead the project for Guest Speakers.
Tom Walsh said he would lead the project for Technology.
Mark will ask Hank Barracano to lead the project for Long Range Planning.

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Topic 3.  Parliamentary Matters
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SPSEE Constitution
Mark distributed copies of the constitution with areas marked.
The constitution was reviewed and there are several suggested changes
to reflect the actual workings of our membership.  Specifically:

Article IV.  Organization
Article V.  Election of the Board of Directors

We need to revise these sections since we do not actually operate based on the elected board members.

• Fred Thompson will raise this issue and propose changes.

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Topic 4.  Graduate Fellowship Fund Awards
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We need to formalize this process.
Mark distributed copies of the PSU SPSEE Graduate Fellowship document with
the following sections circled:

5.  Selection procedure:
This is usually not 'appointed by the dean' but rather by the department head.
Jack Mitchell suggested changing the wording to 'EE Department Head'.

6.  Amount of Award
Now that the fund has grown to over $200,000.00 we would like to break up the yearly allotments.  Thus, Mark suggested that the sentence "The selection committee may award no more than two fellowships annually." be removed completely.

• Mark will contact Cindy Jones and/or Dick Swails to see what needs to be done to officially revise this document.

EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service)

Ken Jenkins said that Edward J. Coyle from Purdue will come to Penn State most likely during the week of February 14.  Ken visited Purdue and saw that there are 200 students involved per year, with 10 to 20 students per team and 2 to 3 faculty very much involved.  In this program they join as sophomores and work on the project until they are seniors.
They CAN get credit for it.

One project that stood out was for a local disabled person (motor skills). The students built a doll house that was completely automated with a moving bed, mirror with flashlight, closet doors that open, etc.

For a different project, students worked with a therapist for a person with cerebral pulsey, and came up with a toy that kept moving if the disabled person could keep their head up, but would stop if their head tilted.  This encouraged the person to work hard at keeping their head up and resulted in progress for the person.

Ken admitted that these projects require funding.  NSF provided some money, Microsoft donated all software.  The department would need to provide faculty time and teaching assistants.

Ken wants to start small (1 team) and see how it goes.  He wants it to be not just EE (e.g., ME too). Jack Mitchell said that the learning factory does similar integrated projects but that they are more 'company supported'.  Recently they have not found enough companies to support projects.

SPSEE can help!

Would Bill Leonhard interested?

EPICS information can be found on the web by going to Purdue's homepage.
http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/root.asp

Undergraduate Recruiting

Harry Bell said that the PSES seminar is on Saturday, March 18 (9:30am - 3pm) at the Penn Stater Conference Center for those who intend to make calls.  He will then get a list of 50 names and divide them so that there will be 10 calls each.  This is run through the Undergraduate Office.

Elections

The three year terms expire in FA00.
Thus, a SP00 nominating committee was appointed (Harry Bell).

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Topic 6.  Date for Spring Meeting
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The next general membership meeting will be on Friday, May 19, 2000.

• Tom Walsh will send a notice to all active members so that they can have ample time to reserve hotel rooms and make travel arrangements.