Moderated discussion on the present and future of making and the maker movement in ECE. Panelists will include thought leaders from the maker community, ECE faculty and staff, industry, and research on making from the learning sciences.
Moderator: Shawn Jordan, Ph.D., Arizona State University
Speakers:
Alan Cheville, Ph.D.
Chair, Electrical Engineering
Bucknell University
R. Alan Cheville received degrees in electrical engineering at Rice University, specializing in ultrafast optical spectroscopy. After postdoctoral work in ultrafast optoelectronics, he joined the faculty of Oklahoma State University in 1998. He continued his work on high speed THz optoelectronics—supported by funding from the Department of Energy, the Army Research Office, and the National Science Foundation including a CAREER award—in areas such as THz time domain spectroscopy of molecular vapors and flames, pulsed ranging, and optical tunneling. During his time at Oklahoma State University he slowly transitioned his research interests from optoelectronics to engineering education, with an initial focus on effectively integrating research-based pedagogies into engineering curricula in the areas of photonics and electromagnetics. He led a five year, $1.2M NSF-sponsored department-level reform project at OSU that sought to integrate relevant design experiences and mathematical competencies across the curriculum. Following the conclusion of this project, he served for two and a half years as the program director for engineering education in the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Directorate. During this time he developed several funding programs, served as NSF liaison to a Federal working group on games, as well as on several internal working groups. He was recognized by the Director’s Award for Program Management Excellence. He currently serves as chair of the Electrical & Computer Engineering at Bucknell University, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Education and the Journal of Engineering Education, and on several advisory boards. He is currently interested in engineering design education, engineering education policy, and the epistemology of engineering.
Dorothy Jones-Davis, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Nation of Makers
Dorothy joined Nation of Makers as its Executive Director in March 2017. An eternal optimist and connector, Dorothy is deeply interested in finding ways to create connections between a diversity of makers, leveraging their collective skills to harness solutions for the world’s challenges, grand and small. She envisions Nation of Makers as a collaborative community, one where organizations of different types can learn from one another and share best practices, and where shared engagement fosters the development of long lasting partnerships that have outcomes that reach farther than any one entity could accomplish alone.
Dorothy received a B.A. in Psychobiology from Wellesley College, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan. She worked as a scientist in the Bay Area before moving to Washington, DC, as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in 2012. In this role, she worked at the National Science Foundation investigating non-”traditional” technologies, policies, practices, and business models for STEM education. This work led her straight to a formal involvement in the maker movement, and to her eventual role as a co-founder of the DC non-profit NationOfMakers.org (this organization later transferred name and digital assets to the new national Nation of Makers non-profit). In this capacity, she served as the co-producer of the DC Mini Maker Faire, the National Maker Faire, and contributed to the National Week of Making. While in this capacity, Dorothy collaborated with the White House Office of Science and Technology policy and also served as a representative on the White House Interagency Working Group on Making.
David Sandys
Director, Business Ecosystem Development
Digi-Key
Kevin Pham
Georgia Tech