Newsletter Archives; Fall 1996
Joint Advance and Advisory Committee Meeting
Over forty faculty and industrial leaders attended the Department's first combined Faculty Advance and Advisory Committee meeting on September 23 at the Shoreline Conference Center in Seattle. The Advance is an annual event during which the faculty discusses important issues and decides on courses of action for the academic year.
The theme for this year's meeting was Focus on Design. Department Chair Ashley F. Emery opened the meeting with a discussion of the goals for the Advance. He then introduced Dean Denice D. Denton, who gave her views on education, research, and the state of the College of Engineering. Her talk was followed by a presentation on the current state of design and how it is taught in the Department.
Four Advisory Board members (Kathryn Whiting, Boeing; Alec Willis, Sandia National Labs; Steve Radons, Physio-Control Corp., and Robert Schneider, D. Hittle & Associates, Inc.) gave corporate views on what needs to be taught. The attendees then divided into discussion groups and later reported back on how design could most effectively be taught and how industry could interact with faculty and students on design projects.
Following lunch, Jody D. Nyquist and Donald H. Wulff, Director and Assistant Director of the UW Center for Instructional Development and Research, gave a presentation and answered questions on new ways of teaching. Breakout groups discussed what they heard, then reported back on important action items to be accomplished.
The final general session of the day began with decisions on the most important action items from the discussion sessions, with these items becoming the Department's goals regarding the teaching of design. The faculty then discussed the overall future direction of the Department. The faculty reorganized, adding a fourth interest group (Design) to the existing groups (Energy & Fluids; Mechanics, Materials & Manufacturing; Systems & Dynamics). Another important decision was to form a focus group to recommend future strategic directions for the Department.
Professor Emery closed the meeting by thanking everyone for their contributions which made this first joint meeting so successful. The teaching of design was examined both from the academic and the industrial viewpoints, and action items identified to improve both the curriculum and methods used to teach design. The faculty made important decisions concerning the future strategic direction of the Department.
