March 2021
Letter from the Editor
By Michael Devetsikiotis, University of New Mexico
Dear ECEDHA family and friends,
Happy March! The first month of Spring is bringing more optimism, with vaccines and other positive trends allowing planning for the Summer and Fall to be less depressing and more upbeat, more positive.
March is the month when our flagship activities would have taken place in person, at a beautiful location, social and warm and surrounded by friends. So, this month we are reminded that the pandemic has brought us (one more) real loss. But at the same time, I believe that we have gained a “new ECEDHA,” an association which is not about a group of old-timer Chairs doing a sightseeing tour with their spouses once a year. Instead, ECEDHA is becoming a modern-day, global, diverse organization, fully virtualized in the best possible way.
In ECEDHA, we are not just department chairs/heads anymore, but we are faculty and staffers and lab managers and industrial constituents and, very importantly, also students and recipients of the “products” of our ECE departments.
Our flagship events this month and over the Spring, will be all virtual but no less relevant and even larger and more inclusive than ever before: the Summit series later this month will be one of the most relevant ever, the same for the New Chairs workshop, and the ABET event as well. The iREDEFINE event to promote diversity in the profession and the Excellence in Senior Design, could not be more timely.
We have redoubled our efforts to organize a repository for ECE teaching materials under the RECET project, and to seek funding from the NSF, while publishing our plans in the ASEE conference. And we are bringing new content to our constituents through The Circuit, ECE Tech Talks, blogs and podcasts.
As you can see in the current issue, we continue to bring our diverse students onto center stage, to increase our emphasis on hands-on learning experiences, and to provide a podium to our industrial partners regarding learning tools and important skills.
Specifically, in this issue of the Source we are glad to feature student perspectives on diversity, equity, and inclusion from the National Society of Black Engineers at the University of New Mexico. We are also pleased to feature a piece on innovativing the ECE Curriculum from Catharine June at the University of Michigan, which is so timely and relevant to us all as we move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Have a great month and please stay healthy!
Michael Devetsikiotis
Professor and Chair, Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
Email: mdevets@unm.edu