October 5, 2001

The Advisory Board meeting took place at the Ullsvik Center. Jeff Mazanec, Chair, welcomed everyone to UW-Platteville.

Rich Shultz extended a thank you to Jean Olson for her assistance during Carol Beals’ absence. Jean accommodated the College’s needs very well.

Introductions of board members were done.

Nomination Committee Report—Daryl George introduced John Baseler from Rockwell Collins. Mr. Baseler has a background in software engineering. Also, Mr. George indicated that they would like to have committee chairs for the committees. The following recommendations were made:

Concept Development Committee—Sue Babb was recommended for a 1-year term.

Special Projects Committee—Joe Coenen was recommended for a 2-year term.

Program Committee—Kevin Hagen was recommended for a 3-year term.

All of these terms would be renewable for 3 years. Joe Coenen motion to approve as presented. Gerry Waelti seconded and motion carried. Chuck Crawford moved to accept John Baseler onto the EMS Advisory Board. Gerry Waelti seconded and motion carried.

Dean Rich Shultz gave a College update which covered the following:

  1. Fox Valley Initiative—UW-Platteville is delivering an undergraduate engineering program to the UW Fox Valley campus. There has been full funding approval and a cooperative agreement was signed. The Search and Screen process to hire two faculty members has also been put in motion. There are approximately 70 students taking preliminary courses. This program focuses on non-traditional students with course offerings at night. This is a very positive project for Wisconsin. A program director will also be hired and this position will be based in the Fox Valley area.
  2. New Department—Software Engineering and Computer Science will be merged together as one department within the College of EMS. This will become effective June 2002.
  3. International Initiative—During the Fall 2000 semester, there were two exchange students to Darmstadt Germany and one student to Galway Ireland. Two faculty members also went to Darmstadt University for a faculty exchange teaching experience. There is also a master's degree in computer science being discussed between Moscow University, Darmstadt University and UW-Platteville. All courses would be instructed in English. The visit to Turkey and Sweden were cancelled due to the September 11 events. An invitation has also been received from Kuwait University and Ghana West Africa.
  4. MOE Update—Lisa Riedle gave an update on the program. This is the second year of offering this program and the rotation of classes is set up through the Spring 2003 semester. Currently 22 students are enrolled, courses are complete for engineering management, and more faculty are getting involved. Things seem to be going well. As the interest grows, we will be hiring adjunct faculty and possibly have our first graduate by May 2002.
  5. Highway Tech Training Program—This is a program which offers courses for DOT employees to be certified for on-site inspections. We are currently looking to hire a director for this program.
  6. Enrollment—At the current time, placement may drop a little and the good news is that enrollment is high.
  7. Faculty Recruitment—Currently hiring the following positions for the College of EMS: Electrical Engineering—2, Computer Science/Software Engineering—3, Mathematics—3, Civil and Environmental Engineering—1, Engineering Physics—1, Mechanical Engineering—2. The increases in faculty salaries as set forth by JCOER are 3.2% increase from university money for the first year with a 2.1% for the first 6 months of the second year and another 2.1% increase for the second 6 months of the second year.
  8. ABET Results—The College received notification that all six programs are accredited. The Software Engineering program will be up next for accreditation.

Jeff Mazanec was pleased to present some College of EMS students that shared projects with the advisory board members. Projects included:

  1. FIRST Robotics—Lee Zastrow and Grant Wilson presented the robot to members and told them about the programs. The team has six weeks to design and build the robot. This year’s competition will be held in February. There is also a Lego event that the program sponsors with area school. This competition is held in December.
  2. Water Quality of Rountree Branch—Samanth Belka and Kristy Ketcher gave a presentation on this topic and outlined the work that has bee completed as well as future ideas. They are hopeful that the DNR will be involved with this project.
  3. Surface Cleaning—Brenden Carroll informed individuals of his experience of working with Argonne National Laboratories and developing a cleaning material for optic lenses and surfaces. This is a material that would protect lenses during the shipping process.

Lunch Break

After lunch, the group divided into their committee and then reconvened at 2:30 for summary reports.

Jeff Mazanec presented signature pages for members to sign in support of the Fox Valley Initiative. These letters will be sent to the legislators as a thank you for supporting the program to this point.

Members were asked to consider nominations for the Vice Chair position for the next meeting.

Sue Babb reported that the International Committee covered the following issues:

  1. Raise awareness and encourage students to plan ahead for an international experience during their academic career by talking to GE 102 engineering classes,
  2. Explore the possibility of a co-op experience for students,
  3. Develop a web site,
  4. Bob Schmitt and Mike Penn shared their experience of teaching at Darmstadt University,
  5. Include with freshman orientation when parent(s) are present,
  6. Keep advisors informed of guidelines, as well as other ideas were discussed.

Special Projects Committee reported that there is no marketing budget allocation for the Master of Engineering program. It should be the focus to target the non-engineers. Joe Coenen drafted a thank you letter to legislators that were involved with the Fox Valley Initiative. Work is also being done with the Fox City Chamber of Commerce for funding of start up costs.

Program Committee discussed the possible faculty support issues of the Fox Valley program. UW-Platteville will need to build a relationship with industry to incorporate faculty while on a teaching assignment in Fox Valley. The permanent local representative will need industry ties in the community as well. We’ll need to plan ahead to the type of faculty participating in the program. One possibility might be to have a sub-committee of the Advisory Board to support the director of the program.

The next Advisory Board meeting will be April 5, 2002.

Closing remarks were given by Rich Shultz. Thank you for your involvement.