October 2020
Letter from the Editor
By Michael Devetsikiotis, University of New Mexico
Dear ECEDHA family and friends,
Welcome to the new normal. Where fewer of us visit our offices, and where students are settling into the routine of a remote university. I like to tell everyone these days how I had set up my own class on a hybrid mode, intending to teach from a Zoom equipped classroom, and expecting an onslaught of students needing to learn from me up close — only having to accept now that no more than 2-3 students want to come in person and 20 more prefer the safety or the convenience of Zoom.
In some ways, many of us feel relieved, with enrollments holding strong for now, and our work even being (much) easier in some ways. Life in this bubble can be comfortable. However, this “new normal” is rather fickle and uneven, an unstable equilibrium perhaps in systems parlance.
Besides the overall uncertainty, a major shift is afoot in the business model(s): with no conferences and fewer memberships, our professional associations livelihood is on the line. With more and more remote instruction becoming the norm, will the students finally succumb to a fully online model? And are our fears from a few years ago, regarding MOOCs bringing about the end of most traditional universities, becoming true?
Well, thankfully we are very competitive, enterprising folks. One of the many thoughts I remember from reading “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari this summer is the point that there is no real determinism or predictability in human history (only after the fact, of course, according to the other great philosopher Yogi Berra). The point being that exactly because we, as smart and deliberate people, see the challenges and the hazards of the future, we adapt, and we evolve, and we make a new future come about.
And so, in our departments, in our colleges, in the ECEDHA, we stay on our toes, we adjust, and we respond to the new models: how to treat our colleagues with respect, how to keep the loyalty of our students, how to have our organizations funded in innovative ways, how to embrace the new normal and make ourselves a new future.
In this vein, I am very keen for the Source to emphasize student experiences and points of view, including the good and the bad, and especially what we can do to engage the students, our main constituents, as we deal with the fickle present and carve out a new future.
I am also keen on promoting healthy, respectful “self-interest.” ECEDHA can be an example of a forum for such self-interest: we all benefit from each one of us doing their best and being at our best, a strong, well-branded ecosystem, more effective student recruiting, and competitive but inclusive faculty hiring. In this direction, ECEDHA is considering a project on collecting data about the strengths, areas and specializations of our members. Our eye is on enabling a competitive but inclusive forum with data and tools worthy of our technical might. Stay tuned for more about this exciting direction in upcoming issues of the Source.
In this October 2020 issue of the Source, we are hosting a piece by Ken Connor on “Self Interest." We also have a faculty perspective on supporting anti-racist language in textbooks by Clem Karl, as a follow up to last month's article by Mike Seele. Additionally, Charles Hall provides a communicator's perspective on the future of communicating in our new normal. Finally, we are pleased to introduce a new column, "A Conversation with Our Members," which will shine a spotlight on our academic and industry leadership. We begin this month with features on both Magnus Egerstedt and Hayne Shumate.
Have a great month and stay safe!
Michael Devetsikiotis
Professor and Chair, Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of New Mexico
Email: mdevets@unm.edu