2022 Schedule

The maker movement is finding its way into educational settings around the globe, but how it is integrated into ECE settings varies widely. Is the “making” integrated into your curriculum? Is it part of a design-focused capstone? Perhaps your makerspace is available for personal student projects? In this panel, we would like to hear from IEC member institutions about their makerspaces and how they serve their student community and beyond. How does your makerspace provide meaningful and authentic design experiences for your students?

This informal session is intended to highlight the position of department head (chair) and its relationship to upper administration, faculty, staff, and students. The afternoon is intended to elicit discussion and sharing of best practices that may be of particular interest to new department chairs/heads. The discussion will be led by two chairs that have combined over 25 years of experience leading their respective departments.

John Papapolymerou
Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Michigan State University
 

John Papapolymerou’s research interests are in the areas of RF/microwave/mm-wave/THz circuits, antennas and packaging for wireless communication systems, sensors and radars. His current projects include the utilization of additive manufacturing techniques for three-dimensional RF circuits and modules, the development of cost effective packaged RF modules for high power applications, as well as the development of thin nanomagnetic materials for high frequency applications. He served as the Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters from 2012-2015.

Hulya Kirkici
Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of South Alabama

Hulya Kirkici is Professor and Chair of ECE at the University of South Alabama. She received B.S. and M.S. in physics from Middle East Technical University (METU); and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University (currently NYU), NY. Previously, Dr. Kirkici was Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Auburn University, faculty Fellow at AFRL– Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and visiting scientist/engineer at NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. She is a Fellow of IEEE and sits on the IEEE-HKN Board. She was the 2019 IEEE Vice President – Publications and President of IEEE DEIS (2009-2010), among other volunteer services.

Noah Schmitz
Director of Americas University Development
Keysight Technologies

Noah graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Oklahoma with a BS in Engineering Physics and holds an MS degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. His technical articles have been published in EE Times, Wireless Systems Design, Microwave Products Digest, and Electrical Design News China. With deep application knowledge in the areas of wireless communications, power and energy, and optical electronics, he has been invited to speak at technical symposia including Semicon Singapore, Test and Measurement World Korea, and the European Space Agency Power Conference. Noah is a lifelong learner passionate about education and committed to empowering the next generation of engineers, scientists, and research professionals. His academic accolades include selection as a National Merit Scholar, the Most Outstanding Graduate of the OU College of Engineering, and a member of the PE-ET University Top 10 Honor Society..

Marco Rolandi
Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering
UC Santa Cruz

Marco Rolandi, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Marco received his PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University and a LEAD Certificate from the Stanford Graduate School of business. His research focuses on bioelectronic systems and devices, biological control in regenerative medicine and synthetic biology, and their translational applications. His work on bioelectronic transistors and shark electrosensors has been highlighted in The New York Times, the Washington Post, New Scientist, MRS 360, IEEE Spectrum, Materials Views, Engadget, Popular Science, and several others. He is also interested in visual communication in science and engineering and his essay on how to prepare scientific figures was the most downloaded article in Advanced Materials during the fall of 2011 (> 10,000 times).

More information to come.

More information to come

Regional Meetings

• Introductions: John Janowiak, Executive Director, ECEDHA
• President's Welcome: Susan Hagness, Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, President, ECEDHA
• Conference Overview: Agnieszka Miguel, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seattle University, Vice-President, ECEDHA

Association Updates & Open Forum

Speaker:
Susan Hagness
Philip D. Reed Professor and Chair Department of ECE
ECEDHA President
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Susan C. Hagness received the B.S. degree with highest honors and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL in 1993 and 1998, respectively. Since 1998, she has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she currently holds the title of Philip D. Reed Professor. She served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Affairs in the College of Engineering between 2014 and 2017 and has been serving as the ECE Department Chair since 2018. Prof. Hagness was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) presented by the White House in 2000. In 2002, she was named one of the 100 top young innovators in science and engineering in the world by the MIT Technology Review magazine. She is also the recipient of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Early Career Achievement Award (2004), the URSI Issac Koga Gold Medal (2005), the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering Outstanding Paper Award (2007), the IEEE Education Society Mac E. Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award (2007), the Physics in Medicine and Biology Citations Prize (2011), the Sven Berggren Prize from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund, Sweden (2015), and a Distinguished Lecturer appointment in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (2018-2021). She received the UW-Madison Women Faculty Mentoring Program Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2017–18) and the UW-Madison College of Engineering Equity and Diversity Award (2021). Her student mentees have received numerous research recognitions, including three first prize awards in URSI student paper competitions. She was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 2009 and Fellow of the AAAS in 2021.

Each year, students enter universities with different expectations of science, technology, and education based on how they were raised and the technology available. They are motivated to tackle the great challenges of today: renewable energy, autonomous vehicles, and connected devices and yet our curriculum so infrequently changes to meet these new expectations. How do we make sure our students are inspired and prepared to solve these grand challenges while balancing a fundamental engineering education?

Download the Spotlight Presentation Here

Speaker:

Andy Bell
Director Academic Programs
National Instruments

As Director of Academic Programs, Andy Bell oversees a team whose mission is to empower discovery in undergraduate classrooms, graduate-level studies, and advanced research through the use of LabVIEW system design software and NI hardware.

Since joining NI in 2000, Bell has held positions spanning from field and applications engineering to leading strategic partnerships with organizations such as FIRST Robotics and Project Lead the Way. Most recently, Bell managed the academic program for North and South America.

Previously, Bell has also worked for LEGO Education as the Director of Innovation and Alliances where he focused on transforming K-12 STEM education through the development and improved use of robotics technology.

Bell serves on several advisory boards including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB), and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA).

Bell holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a certificate in Integrative STEM Education from Virginia Tech.

Pam Cosman
Distinguished Professor
UC San Diego

Dr. Pam Cosman is Co-Director of CRG-STEMM and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego. In May of 2017, Dr. Cosman won a Pinnacle Award from Athena, a San Diego group championing women executives and managers in STEM fields. Dr. Cosman was awarded the UC San Diego Affirmative Action award in 2016 for her work to promote equity and diversity on campus.Dr. Cosman is the author of over 150 papers and book chapters in the areas of image/video compression, image quality evaluation,and biomedical image processing, and recently authored a book for children titled, “The Secret Code Menace” which teaches kids the basic concepts of wireless communication.

Ned Mohan
Regents Professor, Oscar A. Schott Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Michigan

Ned Mohan is setting the new standard for electric energy systems education with a curriculum that recognizes that many solutions to electric energy challenges lie outside the traditional boundaries of the field. Dr. Mohan has created renewed interest with course enrollments increasing four- to five-fold at the University of Minnesota, and his curriculum has been adapted by universities worldwide. His student-oriented approach integrates power systems, power electronics and power drives courses and laboratories and emphasizes renewable energy sources, reliable delivery and efficient end-use. Dr. Mohan supports his curriculum with textbooks and laboratories he developed himself. His teaching philosophy is based on treating students with the utmost respect and considering if new approaches will benefit not only their technical knowledge but their long-term career-development potentials.

Pramod Khargonekar
Vice Chancellor for Research and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of California, Irvine

Pramod Khargonekar has more than three decades of experience as a scholar, educator and leader in academic institutions and government organizations. He is an expert in control and systems theory, cyber-physical systems, and applications to manufacturing, renewable energy, biomedical engineering. Most recently, he has been working on the confluence of machine learning for control and estimation. Beyond these, he is deeply interested in understanding and improving processes that connect research to innovation. Driven by a deep belief in the inherent value of inclusion and diversity, he has pushed creative new approaches to solving this long-term problem. He has pushed forward the convergence research paradigm, one of NSF’s 10 Big Ideas, a creative new framing for multidisciplinary research that depends on collaborative teamwork. He has contributed to key emerging topics such as Future of Work, Energy System Transformation, Food-Energy-Water Nexus, and Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Processes. With a lifetime of experience in research universities, he is interested in new approaches and ideas that will shape their future in the 21st century.

Marija Ilic
Senior Research Scientist, MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society; Professor Emerita, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University

Marija Ilic joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University as a full professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Engineering Public Policy. She has been a Senior Research Scientist at the EECS Department at MIT since 1987. Her interest is in control and design of large-scale systems. From September 1999 until March 2001, she was a Program Director for Control, Networks and Computational Intelligence at the National Science Foundation. Prior to her years at MIT, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Cornell University. She is a recipient of the First Presidential Young Investigator Award for Power Systems. She is also an IEEE Fellow and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

This session will share various experiences from programs implementing innovative curricula in Autonomy and Robotics. Presentations will include cases with perception, navigation, planning and control, and systems-level integration in the context of self-driving vehicles through an open-source curriculum for autonomy education that emphasizes hands-on experience. In a collaborative format, students are able to implement key concepts on a low-cost autonomous platform with the goal of navigating a model town complete with roads, signage, and traffic. The session will end with a panel discussion involving faculty, students, and industry partners.

Patricia Mendoza
ECE Laboratory & Research Coordinator
The University of Texas at El Paso
 

Patricia completed her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Computer Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). For thirteen years, she worked in industry in areas such as Testing, Product Engineering, Solutions Engineering and Quality Control in several companies including Kodak, Delphi (GM), Hewlett Packard, First Alert and Johnson Controls. Patricia currently works as a Laboratory and Research Coordinator in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer at UTEP.

Ali Golbazi
Department Chair
University of New Haven
 

Dr. Ali Golbazi is currently the chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of New Haven. He teaches in the electrical engineering program both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to joining the University of New Haven, Dr. Golbazi was a lecturer at George Washington University. He is a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Dr. Golbazi' s academic and research interests are in fiber optics, optical sensors, and electronics. Dr. Golbazi serves as the Director of Project Lead The Way (PLTW) at the University of New Haven. PLTW is the leading STEM curriculum for middle and high schools in Connecticut and the nation.

Ramsin Khoshabeh
UCSD ECE Makerspace Director
UC San Diego
 

Dr. Khoshabeh received his PhD from the ECE department at UC San Diego in 2012, specializing in computer vision and machine learning for medical applications. He currently serves as the Director of the ECE Makerspace at UC San Diego. In addition to overseeing the lab, Ramsin also teaches numerous experientially-focused courses covering topics such as electronics prototyping, wearable sensors, Python programming, full-stack development, real-time signal processing, machine learning and vision, human-centered product engineering, and agile business planning. Ramsin has been part of several startups and has consulted for a number of companies helping to design and build intelligent systems, software systems, and even blockchain solutions. Dr. Khoshabeh received the Teacher of the Year award in 2018 and holds two patents in 3D video processing and one in adaptive nonlinear signal processing.

Joseph Young
Assistant Teaching Professor
Rice University
 

Joseph Young received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NC State and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rice University. His main interest is embedded and autonomous systems. Dr. Young is an assistant teaching professor at Rice with the primary role of overseeing capstone projects for the professional Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering (MECE) program. He currently serves as director of the MECE program.

José Alvarez
Senior Director, CTO & Strategy
Intel

José Roberto Alvarez is Senior Director at Intel Programmable Solutions Group in San Jose, California, where he leads the Technology and Innovation CTO Office, defining and implementing long term FPGA research strategy and roadmaps. He started his career at Philips Laboratories and throughout his career he has been deeply engaged in architecting, designing and implementing technology products for a variety of industries including broadcast, embedded, consumer, post-production and computer graphics for companies including Philips, S3, Broadcom, Maxim, Xilinx, and four successful start-ups in Silicon Valley. His research interests include FPGA advanced architectures and development tools, immersive media technologies and volumetric coding. His work has been granted 53 patents.

Helen Li
Clare Boothe Luce Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Duke University

Hai (Helen) Li is known for her research on neuromorphic engineering, the development of computation systems based on physical artificial neurons, and on deep learning techniques for using deep neural networks in machine learning. She earned both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Tsinghua University, and completed her Ph.D. at Purdue University. She worked in industry at Qualcomm, Intel, and Seagate Technology on computer memory technology before returning to academia in 2009 with a position at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, then known as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. She moved from there to the University of Pittsburgh in 2012, and then to Duke University in 2017. Li was named an IEEE Fellow in 2018, and she was elected as a 2021 ACM Fellow.

Ahmad Bahai
Chief Technology Officer
Texas Instruments

As Chief Technologist of Texas Instruments and director of Kilby Labs and corporate research, I oversee our global network of central corporate research labs, supporting disruptive innovation for game changing technologies leveraging TI diverse IP portfolio. Also, I engage with many strategic partners and users of TI technologies to define opportunities for new solutions in autonomous systems, industry 4.0, personal electronics, health systems, energy, and communication infrastructure systems. I regularly engage with many university and government research programs through TI research collaboration initiatives in support of fundamental research.

Speaker:
Ken Connor
Professor Emeritus, Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Dr. Connor's research involves plasma physics, electromagnetics, photonics, biomedical sensors, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning. He learned problem solving from his father (who ran a gray iron foundry), his mother (a nurse) and grandparents (dairy farmers). He has had the great good fortune to always work with amazing people, most recently the members and leadership of the Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC) from HBCU and HSI ECE programs and the faculty, staff and students of the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) ERC, where he was Education Director until his retirement in 2018. He was RPI ECSE Department Head from 2001 to 2008 and served on the board of the ECE Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) from 2003 to 2008. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.

Kathleen Meehan
Department Chair and Professor
CSU Chico

Kathleen Meehan is Professor and Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at California State University, Chico. She has designed, fabricated, and characterized semiconductor lasers, photodetectors, LEDs, and nanomaterials in a variety of material systems during her 12 years in industry and 25 years in academia. Her current area of research is in the field of agrivoltaics. Dr. Meehan developed and has refined her ideas on student learning and instructional techniques over the years, incorporating her experiences teaching in the US, UK, and China universities that range from primarily undergraduate to research-intensive institutions.

Florian Solzbacher
Department Chair and Professor
University of Utah

Prof. Solzbacher is Director of the newly established Center for Engineering Innovation, Co-Director of the Utah Nanotechnology Institute, President and Executive Chairman of Blackrock Microsystems and of Blackrock Neuromed and holds faculty appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Bioengineering at the University of Utah. His research focuses on harsh environment microsystems and materials, including implantable, wireless microsystems for biomedical and healthcare applications, and on high temperature and harsh environment compatible micro sensors. Prof. Solzbacher received his M.Sc. EE from the Technical University Berlin in 1997 and his Ph.D. from the Technical University Ilmenau in 2003. He is co-founder of several companies such as Blackrock Microsystems, Blackrock Neuromed, and First Sensor Technology. He was a board member and Chairman of the German Association for Sensor Technology AMA and of Sensor + Test trade show and conference from 2001 until 2009, and serves on a number of company and public private partnership advisory boards and international conference steering committees. He is author of over 190 journal and conference publications, 5 book chapters and 22 invention disclosures, pending patents or patents.

Diana Huffaker
Department Chair and Professor
UT Arlington

Professor Diana Huffaker is the Electrical Engineering Department Chair at the University of Texas at Arlington. She maintains Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) where she directs the Integrated NanoMaterials Laboratory User Facility with the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). Before joining UTA, she directed the Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS) at Cardiff University where she held the Welsh Government Sêr Cymru Chair in Advanced Materials and Engineering. Professor Huffaker has co-authored over 250 refereed journal publications with more than 11K citations (h-index =54) and many invited presentations world-wide. Her research interests include nanostructured materials, quantum technologies, plasmonics and metamaterials. Her active projects include 3D nanolasers, quantum emitters, advanced photodetectors. She is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, National Security and Science Engineering Faculty (NSSEFF) and the Humboldt Society along with Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer. She is an active participant in the technical community with leadership roles in many international societies including IEEE, OSA, MRS, SPIE, Women in Science, select local and national community programs.

Abdullah Eroglu
Department Chair and Professor
North Carolina A&T State University

Abdullah Eroglu is Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University, NC, USA and Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University Indiana, USA. His research focuses on antennas, RF/µW/THz circuit design, wave propagation, metamaterials, RF Amplifier Topologies and Linearization Methods, RF Control System. He is the author of six books and Editor of one book and over 140 journal and conference publications.

Renewable energy is rapidly expanding in its penetration into the energy grid due to continued reductions in the price of renewable energy technologies as well as increasing interest by consumers in clean energy sources. In the western United States in particular, an increasing number of states are adopting aggressive renewable energy portfolio standards, with many states considering policies requiring 50% or more of the total electrical energy to come from renewable sources in the next decade. This swiftly changing energy landscape poses many challenges as well as opportunities in terms of managing this transition, and the technologies, policies, and future workforce needed in the future to maintain a resilient energy network. This panel session brings together leading experts from the utility and solar industries, as well as government and university to present their views on the future of renewable energy and how to prepare for it.

Download the Presentation Slides Here

Organizers:

Stephen Goodnick
Professor
Arizona State University

Neal Armstrong
Regents Professor of Chemistry/Biochemistry/Optical Sciences and Associate VP for Research
University of Arizona

Neal Armstrong is a Regents Professor of Chemistry/Biochemistry/Optical Sciences, and an Assoc. VP for Research at the University of Arizona. His program has focused on the interface science of emerging technologies such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), thin film solar cells (OPVs and perovskites), and photoactive nanocrystalline materials for the generation of “fuels from sunlight.” He has recently been “drawn” into the science, systems and policy underpinning the Energy/Water/(Food) nexus at UA.

Moderator:

Dan Arvisu
Chancellor
New Mexico State University

Dr. Dan Arvizu became Chancellor and the 28th Chief Executive of the New Mexico State University System (NMSU) on June 1, 2018. NMSU is New Mexico’s land-grant institution founded in 1888 and is presently one of the nation’s foremost Hispanic-serving universities. NMSU is a NASA Space Grant College and is home to the very first Honors College in New Mexico. Dr. Arvizu is the second alumnus and first Hispanic to be hired as the NMSU System Chancellor and Chief Executive. He previously served in various roles at Emerson Collective including Chief Technology Officer, STEM Evangelist, and Senior Advisor. He also currently serves as a Venture Partner for Sustainability for Ridge-Lane Partners, Ltd. and as a Precourt Institute Energy Scholar at Stanford University.

Dr. Arvizu has had a long distinguished career in advanced energy research and development, materials and process sciences, and technology commercialization. He started his career in 1973 at Bell Labs, and after four years transferred to Sandia National Labs, where he spent the next 21 years, 14 years in executive roles. In 1998 he joined CH2M Hill Companies, Ltd for 6 years, his last two years as a CTO. In January of 2005 he was appointed the 8th Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado and became the first Hispanic Lab Director in the history of any of the 17 U.S. DOE’s National Labs. He retired in December of 2015, and is presently Director Emeritus.

Dr. Arvizu has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University, and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
 

Panelists:

Charlie Gay
Director
Solar Energy Technologies Office
Department of Energy

Dr. Charlie Gay is the director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office. In this position, he leads a team that is dedicated to early-stage research and development of solar technologies, with a focus on how they contribute to supporting the reliability, resilience, and security of the U.S. electric grid.

Charlie is an internationally recognized pioneer in photovoltaics. After starting his career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communications satellites at Spectrolab, Inc, he later joined ARCO Solar, where he established the research and development program and led the commercialization of crystalline silicon and thin film technologies.

In 1990, he became president and chief operating officer of Siemens Solar Industries, and from 1994 to 1997, he served as director of DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In 1997, he was named president and chief executive officer of ASE Americas, Inc., and from 2001 to 2005 served as founding chairman of the technical advisory board at SunPower Corporation. He joined Applied Materials in 2006 as corporate vice president and general manager of the Solar Business Group. He served as president of Applied Solar and chairman of the Applied Solar Council from 2009-2013. As president, Charlie was responsible for positioning applied materials and its solar efforts with important stakeholders in the energy industry, technical community and governments around the world.
He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside and was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2013. He established the Greenstar Foundation in 1997 to demonstrate an economically sustainable model that delivers solar power and internet access for health, education and microenterprise projects to developing world villages.

Jeffrey B. Guldner
President, Arizona Public Service Company
Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Pinnacle West Capital Corp.

Jeff Guldner is president of Arizona Public Service Company (APS), the primary subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation. Based in Phoenix, APS is Arizona’s largest electric company and serves 1.2 million customers across the state.
Guldner was named president in December 2018 and is responsible for all areas of APS, excluding nuclear generation. He also continues to lead regulatory and government affairs activities at the local, state and federal levels as executive vice president, public policy, for Pinnacle West.
Prior to joining APS in 2004, Guldner was a partner in the Phoenix office of Snell & Wilmer LLP, where he practiced public utility, telecommunications and energy law. Before practicing law, Guldner served as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy and was an assistant professor of naval history at the University of Washington.
Guldner actively serves on external boards, including the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Partnership for Economic Innovation, the National Association of Manufacturers, and Arizona Theatre Company. He is chair of the PHX East Valley Partnership board of directors.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa and graduated magna cum laude from the Arizona State University College of Law. Guldner also completed the Reactor Technology Course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Advanced Management Program at Columbia Business School.

Henry A. "Hank" Courtright
Senior Director Corporate Strategy, Planning, & Innovation
Salt River Project

Hank is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in utility operations, strategic planning, technology development, regulatory and government relations and stakeholder outreach. He is recognized throughout the electric utility industry as a strategic thinker, consensus builder, organizational leader and industry spokesman. His experience in the electricity sector includes leading several business and technology sectors of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), one of the largest and highly regarded R&D organizations in the world. His technical understanding of the industry comes from diverse leadership roles at EPRI in generation, renewable energy, environmental science and compliance, sustainability, customer energy programs, regulatory relations, international relations and governmental policy.
Following his notable career with EPRI, Hank joined the Salt River Project (SRP) in 2017 where he now serves as the Senior Director over the Corporate Strategy, Planning, and Innovation organization. Salt River Project is the nation’s third largest public power utility and one of Arizona’s largest water suppliers. In this role, Hank collaborates with various internal and external stakeholders to develop strategic partnerships that position SRP for long-term success in an ever-changing business environment. The mission of his organization is to “envision the future of customer value and pursue its realization.” Hank’s extensive background brings a wealth of knowledge and creative ways of thinking as his team strives to excel at its mission through various research initiatives, economic development, pilot projects, and full-scale commercial implementation projects. 

Mahesh Morjaria
Vice President for Photovoltaics Systems Development
First Solar Inc.

Dr. Morjaria leads a R&D effort addressing key challenges associated with integrating utility-scale solar plants into the power grid. Prior to joining First Solar in 2010, Dr. Morjaria worked at GE for over twenty years where he held various leadership positions. His academic credits include B.Tech from IIT Bombay and Ph.D. from Cornell University in USA.

Kathy Elsesser
Americas Channel Partner & University Programs
Keysight Technologies
 

Moderator of the session.






Mario Leone
ECE Technologist
Rowan University
 

Mario Leone is an ECE Technologist at Rowan University, providing support and guidance in the ECE labs, designing, building, and setting up lab experiments for classes, research projects, and clinic projects, as well as assisting students with their project needs. He maintains the lab equipment including repair and calibration, acquires materials to support student and faculty projects, designs and delivers courses on lab safety, instrument operation, and other lab and technical procedures and processes, including how to take designs from paper to reality. He also manages a team of students to assist with departmental and research support and teaches them skills not otherwise acquired in class and utilizes these students to design and build products for researchers and commercial clientele; through this program they receive real-world product design and build experiences. As a technologist, entrepreneur, and business owner with 40+ years of technical and business experience, he helps guide Rowan students on the myriad of aspects of the technical world beyond the classroom. In addition, he has served and continues to serve on numerous industry standards committees as a subject matter expert. His technical interests include IoT, alternative energy and energy reduction, data communications, process control, automation, and vintage electronics.





Dohn Bowden
Assistant Systems Lab Manager
UMass Lowell
 

Dohn Bowden is the Sr. Electrical Engineering Lab Manager at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is responsible for set up, testing, and maintenance of equipment in Electrical Engineering instructional laboratories, and maintaining inventory control and management of stockroom, provides laboratory instructions, and instructs one or more of the instructional laboratory courses. In addition, he collaborates with students and faculty to brainstorm solutions for design problems, especially when it requires the use of stockroom parts and/or department/College equipment. He oversees staff as well as students hired to help operation or deliver course content. He is also an Engineering Technology Adjunct instructor for the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Division of Graduate, Online & Professional Studies and teaches technology courses for the electrical engineering technology program. Courses include logic design, microprocessors, alternative energy, and data conversion. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Research and Evaluation in Education. Prior to coming to the University of Massachusetts Lowell, he was a civilian engineer working for the Department of the Navy (33+ years). Work included working on and managing major electrical, electronics, and mechanical naval shipboard systems. In his spare time, he enjoys working with new technology such as IoT and enjoys working in his woodworking workshop.

Alan Feinerman
Associate Professor, Undergraduate Laboratory Coordinator
University of Illinois, Chicago

Dr. Feinerman is an Associate Professor at UIC in the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Materials Engineering, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Departments in the College of Engineering and the Urology department in the College of Medicine. He in investigating inexpensive and High-R value vacuum insulation panels and cryopreservation. He is the undergraduate laboratory coordinator in ECE. He is working on an assortment of new medical devices to reduce medical expenses.

Aaron Hawkins
Department Chair
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Brigham Young University
 

ECE Department Chair at BYU since 2018, where he has been on the faculty since 2002. Before that, he worked in industry at Intel and Ciena and also founded a startup company in the fiber optic space. Ph.D. from UCSB and B.S. from Caltech.

Anthony Maciejewski
Professor and Chair
Colorado State University
 

Anthony A. Maciejewski received the B.S.E.E (summa cum laude), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1982, 1984, and 1987, respectively, all from The Ohio State University under the support of a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship. From October of 1985 to September of 1986 he was an American Electronics Association Japan Research Fellow at the Hitachi Central Research Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan where he performed work on the development of parallel processing algorithms for computer graphic imaging and simulation. In 1988, Prof. Maciejewski joined the faculty of Purdue University as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and Full Professor in 1998. In August of 2001 he joined Colorado State University where he is currently a Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). In 2018-2019 he served as President of the ECE Department Head's Association.
 

Agnieszka Miguel
Associate Professor and Chair
Seattle University
 

Dr. Miguel is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seattle University. Dr. Miguel received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, and MSEE and BSEE from Florida Atlantic University. Her professional interests involve image processing, machine learning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in engineering education.
Currently, Dr. Miguel is the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Vice President for External Relations and First Vice President. She is also the Vice Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) and the Program Chair of the 2022 ECEDHA Annual Conference.

Halima El-Naga
Professor and Chair
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
 

Bio to come

Session description to come.

Alan Feinerman
Associate Professor, Undergraduate Laboratory Coordinator
University of Illinois, Chicago
 

Dr. Feinerman is an Associate Professor at UIC in the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Materials Engineering, and Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Departments in the College of Engineering and the Urology department in the College of Medicine. He in investigating inexpensive and High-R value vacuum insulation panels and cryopreservation. He is the undergraduate laboratory coordinator in ECE. He is working on an assortment of new medical devices to reduce medical expenses.

Kevin Pham
Interdisciplinary Design Commons Director at GT ECE
Georgia Tech
 

Bio to come.

Doug Phillips- Moderator
Vice President of Marketing
Liquid Instruments













Shawn Hymel
DK
Shawn is an embedded engineer, freelance content creator, and instructor. In 2017, he started his own company, Skal Risa, LLC, to help clients create compelling technical content in electronics and embedded systems. Shawn is an advocate for enriching education through STEM and believes that the best marketing comes from teaching. He can be found giving talks, running workshops, and swing dancing in his free time.








Mike Pusateri
Assistant Teaching Professor
Penn State University
 

Bio to come.

ECE Department Heads must fairly distribute teaching load, laboratory space, and TA assignments among faculty. Using breakout sessions, we will crowdsource and discuss best practices from among the ECEDHA Chairs. Some of the issues we discuss include:
* Can you develop a formula for teaching load that handles, e.g. enrollment, multiple sections, and TA support?
* How much credit is given for working with students on senior design projects and individual study?
* What is the best buyout policy?
* How much space do faculty get?
* How do you decide between giving shared research space vs. dedicated space?
* How many TAs are given based on enrollment?
* Should research-active faculty get more TA support?

John Harris
Department Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Florida
 

John Harris has been the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida since 2011. He earned his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1983 and 1986. After working a year at the Hughes Research Labs (HRL), Dr. Harris joined the first entering class of graduate students in the interdisciplinary Computation and Neural Systems Program at Caltech. He earned his PhD in 1991 and then worked as a post doc at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. Dr. Harris joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at UF in 1993. For his research, Dr. Harris develops biologically inspired circuits, architectures and algorithms for signal processing. He leads the Hybrid Signal Processing Group in studying biologically inspired circuits, architectures and algorithms for signal processing. He has published over 200 research papers and patents in this area.

Ashfaq Khokhar
Professor and Chair, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Iowa State University
 

Ashfaq Khokhar has been serving as Palmer Department Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Iowa State University since 2017. He has also served as Department Chair of ECE at Illinois Tech, Chicago between 2013-2016. Dr. Khokhar received his B.Sc. in electrical engineering from The University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan in 1985, M.S. in computer engineering from Syracuse University, in 1989 and Ph.D. in computer engineering from University of Southern California, in 1993. Dr. Khokhar has published over 350 technical papers and book chapters in refereed conferences and journals in the areas of high performance computing, wireless sensor networks, machine learning, video communication systems, and video analytics. He is a recipient of the prestigious US National Science Foundation CAREER award in 1998. He is a Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) for his contributions to multimedia computing and databases.

Senior design courses are one of our student’s final undergraduate experiences and have the potential to be a memorable experience that helps to keep them engaged with the department as alumni. Senior design is most memorable when a student team tackles an ambitious project and succeeds in bringing it to life. But we need to ask “How are we preparing our students to take on ambitious design projects?”While traditional projects focused on ECE as “electron pushers”, our students and our faculty have expanded their interests becoming “bit pushers” and “pixel pushers” too. They are more aware than ever of the pervasive nature of ECE in all aspects of life.In many cases, ECE departments have a potential to become a hub for interdepartmental and interdisciplinary team projects that can span topics from autonomous vehicles, medical devices, circuits, IoT, nanotechnology/photonics, quantum computing, machine learning, and robotics.

Panelists will share some experiences from their institutions regarding curriculum choices leading to senior design that enhance and detract from students pursuing ambitious senior design projects. They will also discuss thoughts on how to integrate software and data driven projects into the ECE senior design paradigm.

Mike Pusateri
Assistant Teaching Professor
Penn State University

 

Bio to come.

Mario Leone
ECE Technologist
Rowan University

 

Mario Leone is an ECE Technologist at Rowan University, providing support and guidance in the ECE labs, designing, building, and setting up lab experiments for classes, research projects, and clinic projects, as well as assisting students with their project needs. He maintains the lab equipment including repair and calibration, acquires materials to support student and faculty projects, designs and delivers courses on lab safety, instrument operation, and other lab and technical procedures and processes, including how to take designs from paper to reality. He also manages a team of students to assist with departmental and research support and teaches them skills not otherwise acquired in class and utilizes these students to design and build products for researchers and commercial clientele; through this program they receive real-world product design and build experiences. As a technologist, entrepreneur, and business owner with 40+ years of technical and business experience, he helps guide Rowan students on the myriad of aspects of the technical world beyond the classroom. In addition, he has served and continues to serve on numerous industry standards committees as a subject matter expert. His technical interests include IoT, alternative energy and energy reduction, data communications, process control, automation, and vintage electronics.

Sid Deliwala
Director of ESE Lab Programs
University of Pennsylvania
 

Sid has been the Director of Lab Programs in the Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE) Department for over two decades. His experience includes managing lab programs, developing unique courses that encourage student engagement in their academic career and teaching undergraduates. He also manages state of the art undergraduate teaching classroom+lab facilities [C-Labs], Detkin, Ketterer and Simmons Labs. Sid enjoys working with students and continues to teach summer high school programs (Pre-freshmen Program and M&T Summer Institute), ESE 111 (ESE Freshmen Course), ESE 190 (Silicon Garage), Coursera Robotics Specialization (capstone) and ESE Capstone (ESE 450/451 Senior Design) in Fall and Spring semester. He is also an active participant in ECEDHA conference and co-leads the Technology Program at ECEDHA. Sid graduated with bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Walchand Institute of Technology in 1991 and a master’s degree from Drexel University in 1995.

Hayne Schumate
Vice President of Internet Business
Mouser Electronics

As Vice President of Internet Business at Mouser, Shumate has built and led a strong team that has helped propel Mouser's growth by constantly improving the user experience and the capabilities of the e-commerce business. Joining Mouser in 2008, Shumate consolidated teams from Information Systems and Marketing into a new Internet Business Department capable of supporting and enhancing Mouser's rapid international growth as the company diversified its sales beyond the catalog.

Rok Ursic
Advisor
Red Pitaya

Rok Ursic is engineer turned serial entrepreneur. After graduation in electrical engineering, he became attracted by unfathomable potential of particle accelerators, one of the planet’s most complex and powerful machines used in science, industry and medicine. He spent first part of his career leading teams at particle accelerators in Italy, United States and Switzerland designing sophisticated diagnostic systems that allow particle accelerators to operate at their maximum performance. With the idea to streamline and industrialize design and manufacturing of those diagnostic systems he founded Instrumentation Technologies in Slovenia, which is today the leading provider in this field. As the company grew he leveraged its exceptional engineering potential, put together a dream team that incubated, organized a successful Kickstarter campaign and spun-off award winning Red Pitaya as an independent company. Ursic is today CEO of a digital health startup Cella Medical in San Diego and advisor to Red Pitaya.

Rania Hussein
Associate Teaching Professor, Founder and Director of Remote Hub Lab (RHLab)
University of Washington

Dr. Rania Hussein is an associate teaching Professor, and the Founder and Director of the Remote Hub Lab (RHLab) at UWECE. Her research focuses on embedded systems, IoT, image processing, and engineering education.Dr. Hussein is a senior IEEE member and a senior research scientist at the UW ECE Sensors, Energy, and Automation Lab (SEAL). She has over 10 years of work experience in higher education teaching courses in computer engineering and computer science at all levels with a strong teaching portfolio backed with high ratings from her students in course evaluations. Before joining UW, she was a research engineer at the Walt Disney Company.