Newsletter Archives; Fall 1997

Welcome to the Fall 1997 edition of the Mechanical Engineering Newsletter. I hope that you will find this Newsletter interesting, and a reflection of the hard work and progress of our faculty in defining and achieving our educational objectives. In this edition you will read about the Integrated Learning Factory, a new approach to engineering education, featuring an action-based approach to experiential learning. You will find out about our newly established master's program in manufacturing, developed jointly with the Department of Industrial Engineering, and with the strong support of the Boeing Company. You will also learn what our faculty have decided to be the key focus areas for our research in the near future.

The past academic year has seen the implementation of our new undergraduate curriculum, significant new directions in our faculty research programs, and the participation of our faculty and staff in an effort to restructure and streamline the administration of the College of Engineering. The strong demand from students to enter our Department reflects the sound economic conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Our 27 full-time faculty are teaching approximately 320 undergraduate students, 111 master's students, and 29 doctoral candidates. Last year we awarded 160 BSMEs, 49 MSMEs, and 11 PhDs.

As we adapt our curriculum to the changing needs of our constituency, we are guided by the directives of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The new guidelines promulgated by ABET (termed ABET 2000) call for each engineering department to identify its curriculum objectives and develop means to assess how well these objectives are met (outcome-based assessment). We plan to include present and past students and industry in updating our curriculum objectives and identifying assessment methods. ABET 2000 was a major topic at our Department Advance held this September, and you will hear more about it in future newsletters.

Three illustrious faculty members have retired in the past year. Dave Pratt, former chair of the Department and an active teacher and researcher in the modeling of combustion processes, retired in December 1996. Dick Corlett, past associate dean of the College of Engineering and also a past chair of the Department, whose specialty is combustion systems and energy management, also retired last December. Albert Kobayashi, an eminent teacher and researcher in structural mechanics and fracture mechanics and the recipient of almost every major award in his field, retired this spring. This group is clearly irreplaceable; the younger faculty hope to emulate their examples and follow the high standards that they have set.

This past year also has seen a change in our departmental administration. After three years at the helm, Ashley Emery stepped down as Chair of the Department this past spring, and is currently a program manager at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. Dean Denton of the College of Engineering has initiated a search for a new Chair, and we encourage you to submit names of qualified candidates to the chair of the search committee. In the interim the Dean has asked me to serve as acting chair of the Department.

The role of alumni in the future development of the Department cannot be overemphasized. Alumni can provide comments and ideas on improving the Department, participate in assessing the effectiveness of the departmental curriculum and education, and help raise funds to improve Department facilities and services. I encourage you to give us your feedback and ideas and to visit the Department when you have a chance. The faculty and staff would be happy to show you our new labs and facilities, introduce you to our new faculty, and discuss ideas for improvements in our curriculum.