SPSEE

Society of Penn State Electrical Engineers                                                                    129 Electrical Engineering East

                                                                                                                                                The Pennsylvania State University

                                                                                                                                                University Park, PA  16802

 

 

Nineteenth General Membership Meeting

Friday, October 20, 2000

117 Earth Engineering Science Building

 

 

MINUTES

 

1.       Welcome and Introduction – by Mark Wharton


Mark called the meeting to order at 1:08, welcomed all attendees to the University Park campus and thanked them for their participation.

2.                 EE Dept. News – by Ken Jenkins

Ken Jenkins gave a very upbeat state of the EE Dept News:

·         Complimented SPSEE as a “wonderful “ organization, doing good for the Dept

·         Listed Faculty promotions and new Faculty

·         EE enrollment is slightly down

·         Progress -Strategic faculty recruiting -recruiting for particular needs

·    Established a search committee for the Kirby chair

·    Restructured administrative positions

·    Established a new work load policy

·         Tightened up general student recruiting to improve quality -discussed the need for more fellowships.

·         Discussed progress on new facilities and space

·         Discussed new research initiatives

3.                 EPICS Program – by Liz Kisenwether

Liz discussed our efforts at the PSU Volunteer Fair which resulted in considerable leads for pursuing potential projects. She showed examples of potential new projects.

An information meeting will be conducted on Oct 25 and all organizations which have indicated an interest have been invited to attend.

Liz discussed plans for Spring and Fall 2001 activities.

4.                 SPSEE Graduate Fellowship Fund – by Mark Wharton

Mark showed data on the status of the fund. To date, contributions and pledges totaling $ 232,559 have been received. Our current goal is to reach $250,000 by year end. This is against the original goal of $100,000. The current market value of our fund’s investment is $300,000.

The total awards to date are $34,293 with an available balance of $16,109.

5.       Undergraduate Recruiting – by Harry Bell

Our SPSEE volunteer recruiters made actual contact with 69 High School students who had made application to Penn State with a stated interest in Electrical Engineering. 18 of those are now enrolled in the current Freshman class. This is considered a very good “yield” since the students we were recruiting were academically superior in High School and were being recruited by all the major Engineering schools in the country

6.       Amendments to the Constitution – by Mark Wharton

Mark Wharton presented the proposed amendments to our Constitution which were necessary to bring the document into compliance with our actual operating procedures. The amendments were unanimously approved.

7.       Election of Officers – by Harry Bell

Harry Bell presented the following slate:
President- Mark Wharton (for a 1 yr. term)
Vice President -Hank Barracano (for the standard 3 yr. term)
Sec’y/Treas -Kathy Muhonen (until Jan. 2001)

The slate was elected unanimously.

8.       Guest Speaker – by Ray Lunnen

Dr. Ravindran presented a very interesting overview of the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department which is thriving and has recently started an Affiliate Program Group (APG) similar in structure and purpose to SPSEE. He then took us over to the brand new Leonhard Building where the IME Dept is now housed. We were all very favorably impressed with this new facility

The meeting concluded with the tour .

 

A date of Friday May 18,2001 has been set for the Spring General Membership Meeting.

 

 

Harry Bell