Society of Penn State Electrical Engineers
129 Electrical Engineering East
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
www.engr.psu.edu/SPSEE
 
 

Twentieth General Membership Meeting

Friday May 18, 2001, 7:00pm, 225 EE West

MINUTES

Members/guests Present: Woody Siefert (guest speaker), Harry Bell, Larry Burton, Bob Hurst, Ken Jenkins, Kevin Kelly, Liz Kisenwether, Jack Mitchell, Lloyd Peterson, David Salvia, Fred Thompson, Mark Wharton, Pat Yonker

Mark opened the meeting at 7:00pm.  He had an agenda with 8 topics.

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Topic 1.  Departmental News
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Ken Jenkins updated the members on a number of departmental issues:

  • Mario Sznaier -- full professor
  • Qiming Zhang -- full professor with tenure
  • David J. Miller -- associate professor with tenure
  • John Doherty -- tenure
  • faculty recruiting
  • Craig Grimes -- MEMS area
  • Assistant professor in the wireless communications area (pending)
  • Assistant/Associate professor in the Optical networking/switching (pending)
  • Kirby Chair -- ongoing process
  • departmental figures
  • 43 faculty
  • 676 undergrad students (very slight decline over prior year)
  • 151 MS students (large influxes in 1999 and 2001)
  • 101 PhD students (slight decline over prior years)
  • 18 staff
  • $10 million in research funds
  • physical plant
  • major renovations in EE West
  • administrative changes
  • Jack Mitchell -- Director of Academic Affairs
  • strategic growth areas
  • Electronic Materials and Devices (especially MEMs)
  • digital/optical networking
  • wireless communications and signal processing
  • environmental and remote sensing
  • biomedical imaging
  • grad recruiting
  • push to improve quality of incoming grad students
  • strive to attract more domestic students
  • offer more fellowships
  • efficient use of TAs
  • more RA support
  • curricular initiatives
    • ========================================
    Topic 2.  Guest Speaker:  Woody Seifert, Chief Engineer of Pyrotechnics Management, Fireone Systems
    ========================================
    Woody Seifert, an EE alum who now works at Fireone Systems, gave a very interesting talk/demonstration of their computer-controlled firework ignition system.  This system, used all over the world (including the State College 4th of July Celebration), synchronizes fireworks with music.

    ========================================
    Topic 3.  EPICS
    ========================================
    Liz Kisenwether updated the group about the first group of EPICS projects.

    It was suggested that to get better exposure, the EPICS initiative should be advertised in the Collegian, Penn Stater (Alumni Magazine), and Engineering:  Penn State (Engineering Alumni Magazine).

    ========================================
    Topic 4.  Undergraduate Recruiting
    ========================================
    Harry Bell gave an overview of the most recent efforts regarding undergraduate recruiting:

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    Topic 5.  Graduate Fellowship
    ========================================
    Mark Wharton updated the group on the SPSEE Graduate Fellowship Fund
      ========================================
    Topic 6.  New SPSEE Membership Campaign
    ========================================
    Mark Wharton discussed the need to continue the growth of SPSEE by bringing new active members into the fold.  There are over 400 local EE alums (about half of which do not have a present PSU connection).

    Methods of recruiting new members:

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    Topic 7.  Officers
    ======================================== ========================================
    Topic 8.  Annual Department Report
    ========================================
    It was suggested that the EE Department provide some sort of "Annual Report" that highlights the major department initiatives each year.  This would most likely be in the form of a newsletter.  SPSEE could be given a column in this newsletter.  This may provide additional exposure for SPSEE.

    A. David Salvia
    SPSEE Secretary
    9-07-01