Newsletter Archives; Winter 2000

William R.D. Wilson Professor and Department Chair

Chair's Corner

Welcome to the Winter 2000 edition of the Mechanical Engineering Newsletter. As you know, I have just moved from Northwestern University to take up the position of Chair. This has been a period of great change for my wife and myself. However, we are beginning to feel that Washington is our home and we are thoroughly enjoying the new environment. I have also been greatly impressed by the faculty, staff and students of the Department and the level of teamwork and cooperation that they display. It has been a pleasure to work with my new colleagues.

Soon after I arrived, I was fortunate to be able to take part in the Faculty Field Tour. This is an event for new faculty which involves a week-long bus trip round the state led by the President and Provost. The trip provides a "crash course" in the culture, geography and economic realities of Washington state. I believe that this experience will be of great value to me in my new role as Chair.

One of my first priorities was to set in motion a process of strategic planning for the Department as described in the lead article. The resulting strategic plan addresses many areas including the need to improve teaching and to strengthen and streamline our curricula, to expand our research activity, to strengthen our infrastructure and to improve the visibility of the Department. An important element of the strategic plan is to encourage interdisciplinary research and education directed towards areas of current concern. The plan identifies four such "Thrust Areas": environment, healthcare, information technology and manufacturing. The Department already has significant activities in each of these areas, which are also priorities for the University.The strategic plan has already influenced several important aspects of departmental operations. In particular, we are currently seeking several additional faculty members who can contribute to both our teaching and research programs. The strategic plan is providing direction for our search. Our latest addition to the faculty, Joyce Cooper, is central to our thrust in the environmental area. She brings a great deal of expertise and energy to the Department. We are all delighted to have her here.

During the year we also lost some of our faculty. Bill Armstrong and Bill Murray went on to new faculty positions at SUNY Binghamton and Cal Poly respectively. During their time at UW, both Bills made major contributions to our program. We wish them all success in their new jobs. On a more somber note, we were all saddened by the tragic and unexpected death of Dale Calkins in June while on leave at Ford. I was just getting to know Dale and was looking forward to more extended discussions with him when he returned. He had a major influence on the Department as outlined in the article on pages 6 and 7.

One of Dale's major passions was acting as faculty adviser for the Formula SAE racecar project. Of course, his untimely death had the potential to jeopardize the project Fortunately, Ashley Emery returned this fall from a stint as Program Director at the National Science Foundation in the other Washington and graciously took up the FSAE torch. We are again preparing to participate in the 20th competition this spring in Dearborn with the help and support of our alumni and other friends. I know that you will all join with me in wishing our team "good luck".

The FSAE racecar is only one of the projects and courses that emphasize "hands on" learning. Part of our strategic plan is to continue to emphasize and improve such activities. Although they are expensive in terms of faculty time, cost and required infrastructure, we feel that they are essential to a quality engineering education. Good instructional shop facilities are the most important component of the hands-on infrastructure. We are fortunate to have retained our instructional shop facilities during a period when many engineering departments lost theirs to tighter budgets. However, we need to work to upgrade our shop equipment. A recent gift from Boeing allowed us to take an important step in this direction through the purchase of several new lathes. Over the next few years, I hope that we are able to continue the modernization of our shops.

Like many ME Departments across the country, we face the ongoing challenge of providing suitable space for our evolving educational and research programs. We currently occupy space in the Mechanical Engineering Building (MEB) and the Engineering Annex (EGA). The MEB was constructed in 1959 to replace the Engineering Hall. The EGA is even older, having been built for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909! Of course, there have been many improvements to both buildings, including the renovation of a large part of the EGA to house the Integrated Learning Factory. More recently, we just inaugurated a new lab in the MEB to accommodate Ann Mescher's research on polymer optics and processing. Work on Joyce Cooper's environmental design lab should also be finished in a few weeks. I expect the process of renovating space to meet our changing needs will continue as long as the Department is active.

One of the problems of piecemeal space renovation is that it leads to fragmentation of space. The arrival of a new Chair creates an opportunity to make some larger-scale and longer-term plans regarding space and to "get ahead of the game". While a new building for Mechanical Engineering is in the University's capital plan, it will be many years before this can be realized. Thus, over the past few months, I have been working with Department and College staff and faculty to create a "master plan" for the renovation and rationalization of our existing space in the MEB and EGA. The major elements of this plan are now in place and we are working to generate the necessary funding and detailed plans to bring about the physical transformation of the Department. I hope that we can complete this in time for the celebration of the Department's centenary in 2003.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who have helped operate and support the Department and smooth my own assumption of the Chair. These include the faculty, staff and students of the Department and College, our alumni and friends in industry. Without your help, my job would be impossible and the Department could not hope to achieve a fraction of its potential. I look forward to your continued support in raising the Department to a new level of excellence.