SPSEE

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. by president Mark Wharton. Mark welcomed all and thanked everyone for attending. He then announced that SPSEE won the 1998 APG (Affiliate Program Group) Award of the Alumni Association. This included a $500.00 award and a Certificate.

(Action Item: Mark indicated that it may be beneficial to increase SPSEE visibility among students/faculty/staff to display the APG Certificate somewhere in the lobby of EE East. Suggestions for the exact location are welcome.)

Mark then gave an update of the SPSEE Fellowship fund. The current balance is $147,000.00. He then announced that SPSEE is earmarked to receive an extremely generous annonymous estate gift of approximately $48,403.00! With the interest from the current balance, this should put us over $200,000.00 by the end of the year! The SPSEE fellowship fund is essential for recruiting the highest quality graduate students and maintaining the highest possible standards in our Electrical Engineering Department.

Mark announced that as of April 1, 1998, Dr. Larry Burton will become Associate Dean for Administration and Planning (replacing George McMurtry). Larry has been head of the EE Department since 1990, and said that he will continue to support SPSEE. We will all miss him. He has done a tremendous job for the Penn State Electrical Engineering Department, and his efforts have been extended to all the students, faculty, staff, and Electrical Engineering Alumni through the SPSEE. Thank you Larry for all you have done and good luck with your new challenges!

2. EE Department News - Larry Burton.

Larry reported on activities and developments in the department of Electrical Engineering. To begin with, Larry introduced Dr. Jack Mitchell as being the interim EE Department Head. Jack has been on the Penn State EE Faculty since 1980. Jack said that he is looking forward to working with SPSEE this year. Larry also mentioned that a national search is underway to look for a permanent EE Department head.

In reporting the current department numbers, it was noted that the Co-op program is up (of which Terri Rusillo is a part), and that there are more Co-ops from EE than from any other major.

Next, Larry reported that the Penn State Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Program ranks number 16 in the nation according to the U.S. News and World Reports www.USNews.com
and that the Graduate Program ranks number 18! Both of these numbers are up from previous years.

3. AlumniOnline - Terri Russillo (guest speaker).

Terri formally introduced the concept of AlumniOnline to the attending SPSEE members. This program has lots of promise as a way to increase communication and involvement between Penn State Alumni and current students/faculty/staff. Associate Dean Rob Pangborn wanted one central point that all alumni, faculty, staff, and students could go to to find out about different activities, advice areas, etc. AlumniOnline is the result of that effort.

AlumniOnline signup sheets were given to the SPSEE members to fill out. They can be returned by regular mail, or can be filled out and submitted online.

Terri is based in Pittsburgh to spend more time visiting companies for the Co-op program. AlumniOnline is a collaborative effort between PSES and Engineering Co-op. The goal is to connect the need of alumni and faculty/staff and students to communicate and interact more. It is mainly to set up bridges that may not have been in place, or to direct people to where those mechanisms are. It is not to achieve some kind of internal goal. With this motivation, AlumniOnline is open to ANY student (not just Co-ops). It is easy to get to www.engr.psu.edu/AlumniOnline .
It is separate from Lion-Link, but does not compete with Lion-Link or any other organization. (For example, if a student or alumni's needs are more in line with Lion-Link, then the student or alumni is directed to Lion-Link.)

Harry Bell mentioned that AlumniOnline is not well publicized. Terri said that in the past, a mailing has gone out to all facutly in the college of Engineering and to all student officers of engineering related societies.

(Action Item: Tom Walsh will ask Dave Salvia to email all EE students and faculty/staff during the first week of the Fall 1998 semester, to let them know about AlumniOnline.)

(Action Item: Tom Walsh will add a link to alumnionline directly from the SPSEE homepage. Also, he will talk with the EE webmaster to see what can be done in terms of a link to alumnionline from the EE Department homepage www.ee.psu.edu .)

Dwight Zeka suggested an enhancement to the current AlumniOnline by setting up an asynchronous question and answer screen that students could submit questions to, and that alumni could view the questions and decide if they want to answer. If they do, the answer could be posted so that more than one student could benefit from it (since many times students have similar questions). Terri said this may be possible. Tom Walsh volunteered to help with the initial setup.

Kevin reported on the efforts of SPSEE and PSES in recruiting highly qualified High School students. He said that the effort was worthwhile. Hank worked through the Houston local area. The calls were completed in February when many students had not made up their minds yet. It was good to call before they decided. The calls were intended to give them a warm feeling and to know that they were wanted. SPSEE was able to contact 34 students with 13 saying that the were sure to accept PSU, and 14 saying they were 50%-80% sure.

Fred Thompson suggested that as soon as a student is officially accepted, that SPSEE should call to make initial contact. Then a second call could be made around the February time frame. To do this, the information would need to be accelerated to SPSEE. Kevin also suggested that two calls may be better than one. Harry Bell said that 2/3 of those he contacted dealt with some schools that send acceptance letters in March. Mark Wharton said that he is aware of schools that require a decision by May 1.

5. SPSEE Logo Vote - Tom Walsh.

Tom took some time so that the current SPSEE members could officially congratulate the newest members of SPSEE, namely the graduating seniors! Then each SPSEE member took turns introducing themselves so that the new members could become more familliar with them.

Next, three people came up with a total of five final possible SPSEE logos, namely:

Dave Salvia suggested that we have two votes, one for the letterhead logo, and one for the webpage/pamphlet/poster logo. This was carried out, and the result was that Corey Poncavage won for one of his designs. Corey will be a senior in our department this fall, and will work with the SPSEE planning committee to finalize the design so that it appears clear as a letterhead logo. The $50.00 award will be given at a fall SPSEE planning committee meeting. Congratulations Corey!

The next SPSEE General Membership Meeting will take place in the Fall, 1998. The time and date are undetermined at this time.

Thomas M. Walsh
BSEE 1991, MSEE 1993
SPSEE Secretary
05-31-98
revised 08-13-98