The Pacific Southwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE-PSW) held its 2009 Conference “Educating Next Generation Engineers” at National University’s Spectrum campus on March 19 and 20.
Areas of teaching and research covered in the conference included all engineering fields, nano-technology, biotechnology and nano-biotechnology. Session topics spanned a variety of topics, including technologies in teaching and learning, laboratory innovations, issues in design education, agile teaching, problem driven teaching, game based learning, and community-based learning.
A total of 123 professionals attended the conference from different institutions and organizations, including Stanford University, Lehigh University, University of California-San Diego, University of Arizona, University of Nevada, University of the Pacific, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Diego State University, Embry-Riddle, Microsoft, and many other universities and colleges in the West.
Out of 74 submissions, 47 full papers were accepted based on the reviewers’ comments and recommendations. Each submission was double reviewed, including abstracts and the full papers, by two to four experts. These reviewers also provided their help and support to many young faculty members in preparing the final manuscripts. The program committee made their best efforts to accommodate all submissions with high academic merit and scholarship.
Howard Evans, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology (SOET) at National University, provided the opening remarks at the conference. Keynote speakers included Marvin White, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of Sherman Fairchild Solid State Studies Center at Lehigh University; Shu Chien, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine and Director of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego; and Melissa Micou, Ph.D., a bioengineering lecturer at UC San Diego.
The conference was organized and managed by a group of professors from the program committee; the chair was Mohammad Amin, Ph.D., an SOET professor in the department of applied engineering; and the co-chair was R. Lal Tummala, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering at San Diego State University.
The ASEE is a nonprofit organization of individuals, institutions, and companies dedicated to improving all aspects of engineering education. For more information, visit the Society’s web site at www.asee.org.
