Members Present: Hank Barracano, Harry Bell, Jim Breakall, Tom Collins, Heath Hofmann, J. Kevin Kelly, Ray Lunnen, Jack Mitchell, Alvin Reiner, Dave Salvia, Jeff Schiano, Tom Walsh, Mark Wharton

1. Introduction - Mark Wharton
    Mark opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.  He described the SPSEE as an organization that promotes Electrical Engineering at Penn State University.

2. EE Department News - Jack Mitchell
    Jack noted that the meeting time for the Spring SPSEE General Membership Meeting was ideal.  It is an off week (after graduation yet before Memorial Day).
    Jack said that W. Ken Jenkins accepted Penn State's offer to become our next department head.  He will arrive in August/September.  He has been the Director of the Coordinated Sciences Lab (CSL) at the University of Illinois.  His background is in signal processing.
    Jack said that PSU EE ranked #18 last year and #17 this year in national publications.

Undergraduate News:
    The Technology Classroom (225 EE West) funding came through.  Drs. Croskey and Sznaier proposed this in 1996.  The $200,000.00 invested and will come online this fall.  Dave Salvia will coordinate its schedule.  It will be used for faculty meetings and thesis defenses as well.
    With its great audio/visual capabilities, Jack suggests that we have our Fall SPSEE General Membership Meeting there!
    Circuits lab - Jeff Mayer will coordinate $75,000.00 of new equipment.
    First Year Seminar - ALL PSU students are now REQUIRED to take a 1 credit first-year seminar.
    Enrollment is up.  Over the years it has gone from 180 to 220 to 280.  This year it is expected to be up to 280 juniors again.

Graduate News:
    Recruiting - Dr. Aydin (Graduate Program Coordinator) said that of 22 U.S. students that came to a campus visit, 11 said yes for Fall 1999!  Many of these involved "multi-year awards" (2 years for a masters, 4 years for a Ph.D.).  This is the first time we have offered multi-year awards. The Dean's office will contribute to the first year but the Department needs to contribute for the second year.  SPSEE can help the most with the SPSEE Graduate Fellowship Fund by not distributing very much money this year and by distributing the maximum amount of money next year.

New Faculty:
    Four new tenure-track faculty have been added to our department (Constantino Lagoa, Doug Werner, Hao Che, and Heath Hofmann), as well as a fixed-term faculty member (Tom Walsh).  Departures include Tony Ferraro, Eric Cross, Stewart Kurtz, Karl Kunz, and Jim Robinson.
    Dr. Hofmann was asked to say a few words.  He said that he is involved in Power Electronics (auto and space) and will be developing a new course in Electric Machines and Drives.  This will involve a laboratory project, as well as using design and control using computer software (Matlab and Simulink).  He said that everyone was very friendly at PSU EE and he felt welcome.
    Jack said that we are currently looking to fill two more positions (1) a joint position with CSE, (2) EE tenure-track position.

3.  Undergraduate Recruiting - Harry Bell
    Harry reported that he received about 70 names from the Dean's office and had 11 SPSEE members signed up from the last SPSEE General Membership Meeting to make calls.  That worked out to about 7 students to call for each SPSEE member.
    Jack said that students who enter the PSU Honors Program (Schreyers College) receive up to $3,000/year.  However, the decision to get into the honors program is not made until later.
    Dave Salvia said that Freshman Incentive Scholarships are given to about 30 students but are only $1,000/year.  Dave said that this is too little too late.  By the time these decisions are made by the College, the student has already made up his/her mind.  Dave suggests that the SPSEE members who are in contact with the powers that be in the Dean's office should suggest that they consider reducing the number of awards and make each one worth more, and/or make the decisions earlier so that the students have enough advance notice to decide for themselves.
    Other SPSEE members that made calls (Barracano, Kelly, Wharton, and Walsh) all noted that their calls were well received by the students, and that the parents appreciated the calls.

4.  SPSEE Graduate Fellowship Fund - Mark Wharton
    Mark reported that since the 96-97 season, there have been 8 students that have received money from the SPSEE Graduate Student Fellowship Fund (click here Funding_Spring_1999.ppt ).
    The current balance is $194,538.00, the interest this year will be $13,036.00.  So by the end of this year, we should break $200,000.00!
    This year, Tony Skraba received money.  He won the Outstanding Senior EE Award, was President of the EE Honor Society (HKN), and had a GPA over 3.8.  He will be working with Jeff Schiano.
    Mark said that in 1996 the goal was to reach $100k (which we reached in 1 year).
    Mark is now challenging the SPSEE members to reach $250k by December 2000 (the "Beginning of the Millennium").  This can be coordinated with the PSU Grand Destiny Campaign by checking the checkbox for "SPSEE Graduate Fellowship Fund" in the Engineering Magazine's form.  Jeff Schiano suggested that we need to do better to get the word out that this can be done!  Tom Walsh suggested that he will try to get an email out to the faculty to apprise them of the situation.  He will also try to get an email out to the active SPSEE members once the database is constructed.
    Jack Mitchell said that he cannot think of a better way to help the department.

5.  Guest Speakers - Topic:  "The EE First-year Seminar Experience" - Dave Salvia, Jim Breakall, and Jeff Schiano
Dave Salvia described the idea of a First-year Seminar.  (Click here to view in Powerpoint  First_Year_Seminar.ppt ).
This Fall 1999 is PSU's first semester that ALL first-year students are REQUIRED to take one seminar (Note:  It is now politically correct to say "First-Year Student" as opposed to "Freshman").  The EE department needs to teach 8 seminar courses per year (4 in fall; 4 in spring).
    Dave challenged SPSEE to come up with ideas for other seminar courses.  Mark Wharton suggested a "wireless course".
    Dave then spoke about the course he is designing this summer:  "Digital Music".
The next speaker was Jim Breakall.  He is designing a "HAM Radio" seminar course.  Jim's call letters are "WA3FET".  He began HAM at age 12.  He has taught a HAM course for the State College area and is the faculty advisor for the PSU HAM Radio Club on campus.
    Jim recommends the book "ARRL - Now You Are Talking".  It contains about 200 questions usually asked in the HAM License exam which is regulated by the FCC.  Harry Bell suggested that a course like that (and passing the HAM exam) would look good on a resume.
    The next speaker was Jeff Schiano.  He was one of the pioneers in the idea of a First-year Seminar when he spoke to SPSEE in 1996.  He named the course EE 007 (after James Bond) and titled it "Adventures in EE" (View his Microsoft Publisher document here  EE 007 ).  He usually has 6 projects spanning the different EE disciplines from silicon devices to controls to circuits to linear systems.  He has students make a diode out of germanium.  He also has them use kits to take home and build projects so that more of the time is used in lab to debug.  Also, time at home lends to 'tinkering' which is lacking in recent high school graduates.  He always encouraged teams of two, and enforces the idea of a lab notebook.  He has them read articles in IEEE Spectrum and Potentials in the Engineering Library.  He mentioned that all first year seminars in EE will have a teaching intern - a senior assisting in the course and provided some funding.  The first year students identify well with the seniors and create an excellent atmosphere.  Jeff, doing his own survey, has noted that about 20% decide that EE is not for them after taking the course.  It is better to find out early than late.  Harry Bell questioned what the first year seminar courses would be like at the commonwealth campuses.
    Since kids don't tinker anymore, Jeff advises PSU EE HKN students to go to the community schools and teach 6 short projects that grade school kids can do.  It is great interaction for all involved.

6.  New Projects - Mark Wharton
    Mark asked for ideas for new SPSEE projects.  To do this successfully, a SPSEE member needs to champion the project for it to succeed.  We need to contact the other active SPSEE members that can not attend the general membership meetings.  Tom Walsh suggested working with Tom Collins to develop an easy-access database of SPSEE members.  We could then email them better (and more often) when ideas are flowing.  We could also periodically publish SPSEE minutes and notes through email.
    To see Tom Walsh's Powerpoint presentation of these and other ideas click here  SPSEE Ideas.ppt including the EE Open House, SPSEE Cost Center, Jean Pytel's request, Senior Design Project topics and external funding, etc.
    Dave Salvia submitted the following as a possible modification for the SPSEE Logo (Microsoft Word document header file ".dot"): SPSEE.dot
    Mark wanted to contact the graduate students that have received funding from SPSEE and see how it has helped them.  Hank Barracano, Jim Breakall, and Jack Mitchell all agreed to help with this.  Mark will report on this in the Fall 1999 General Membership Meeting.

7.  Adjournment - Mark Wharton
 Mark then adjourned the meeting.

Note: SPSEE Fall General Membership Meeting Date - Mark Wharton
    It was also decided that the Fall 1999 SPSEE General Membership Meeting would be held on:  Friday, October 15, 1999  (Note that this is the weekend of a Penn State home football game against Ohio State).  Hopefully, with this early announcement, members from out of town may have a better opportunity to obtain lodging in the area.