CED Newsbriefs
The Cooperative Education Division of the   American Society for Engineering Education	Spring 1998

From the Chair 

I have nothing prophetic to share at this time. Besides, whatever I said would pale compared to the very thoughtful article written by our own E. Sam Sovilla in the January 1998 issue of ASEE Prism - "Co-ops 90-year Odyssey." As a 13-year practitioner in a field celebrating its 90th anniversary, I except Sam's challenge to contribute to developing ways for the CED membership to better educate ourselves "on the roots and routes of its past" in order that we can play or significant role in higher education's future.

I've been blessed with years of mentoring by Lou Takacs (Past CED Chair), Mary Jo Fairbanks (Current CED Chair) and a close working relationship with a CED historical figure Jack "the great delegator" Leer. I'm as ready as I can be. So grab a hold, we are off on another fun-filled and productive year as one of ASEE's most dynamic divisions.

 
 
 
 
From the Past Chair
Having just returned from the '98 CIEC in Savannah and a wonderful

CED Program, thanks to Harold Simmons, it is time to reflect on events of the past year. A year ago I dusted off CED's Strategic Plan to see how we were doing. To my surprise, we were doing quite well and some of our activities during 1997 reflect that we're not straying too far afield.

While in Savannah we presented Alvah K. Borman Awards to Bill Taylor and Chet Atkins, oops I mean Tom Akins. It was most appropriate to honor these two gentlemen. Both are past CED Chairs and have worked tirelessly to improve the cooperative education experience for students and have brought dignity to our profession as well. We also honored the CED/CEA Student of the Year, Fraya Kaufman, from Northeastern University.

I think that every CED Chair must begin their term of office with a list of at least 25 goals that seem attainable. I'm not sure we reached any of the ones on my list, but progress was made in several areas. Some of our activities follow:

Bill McMahan helped the CED Board set some goals to make CED more attractive to employers. We strengthened our financial base with General Conference Chair Mike Mathews' careful planning of the '97 CIEC and Brenda LeMaster's exciting CED Program. Finances are in good hands with Walter Odom's careful attention to detail following the careful attention given by Gary Hamme. Craig Gunn is in the process of streamlining Newsbriefs. His plan is to use less paper but provide more information to the membership! Jack LeMay expanded his work to the state of Florida, bringing information about cooperative education to high school students there. Lou Takacs provided immeasurable support to the Chair, making it possible for everyone to tolerate her. Lou left the Board in Savannah after many years of service. His expertise will be greatly missed.

The dominant item of business this year seemed to be Engineering Criteria 2000. Les Leone came forward and took an active role in thoroughly understanding the criteria and then passing his knowledge on to CED. His boss and long-time CED member, Ted Bickart, carried CED's message to ABET. Every Board Member and Committee Chair has been active in examining the measurable outcomes of cooperative education in order to confirm co-op's place within these new criteria. In the months to come, Gary Hamme will have much to tell us about CED's dialogue wiith ABET.

This year has provided a steep learning curve for me. Although I have been active in CED for over 15 years, I finally feel that I understand what the organization is all about! Thanks to everyone for the support I received. Under the capable leadership of Gary Hamme we can look forward to another active and exciting year.

And, finally, if you haven't already done so, mark your calendars for the '99 CIEC which will be held at the Riviera Resort Hotel in Palm Springs CA from January 30 through February 6. See you there!
 
 

CED Spotlight 

Walter Odom, Current Secretary-Treasurer and Chair-Elect for 1999

Walter attended North Carolina Central University in Durham on a football scholarship and graduated with a degree in Public Health. While working in the community health field, he had an opportunity to interview for and accept a position as co-op coordinator at Winston-Salem University. Thus began Walter's co-op career back in 1983!

Walter remained at Winston-Salem, a university of about 2500 students, until 1987. He also managed during that period to obtain a graduate degree at UNC/Greensboro in Educational Administration.

In 1987, Walter left Winston-Salem for Texas A & M, a slightly larger university of about 38,000 students! He began as Assistant Director, was promoted to Associate Director, and left in 1994 to assume the Directorship at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

RIGHT NOW THE JOB MARKET IS HOT FOR TECHNICAL STUDENTS. HOW HAS THIS AFFECTED YOUR PROGRAM?

"We have experienced tremendous demand on our student pool. In some areas, there are 10 opportunities for every student. Our biggest challenge has been determing which ones are co-op positions vs. which ones are "jobs". As a result of that, we have eliminated probably 20% of our previous employer pool; however, our employer base has tripled since 1994.

I'm very pleased with our student participation, because we've gone from 17.5% to 42% participation.

HOW HAVE YOU ACCOMPLISHED THIS?

"We did a lot of sessions where we solicited involvement of alumni. All of our students also have e-mail accounts. We also utilized scholarship monies to target top co-op students as ambassadors for the program."

WHAT IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOUR PROGRAM?

"We got a real vote of confidence from our dean to raise the bar/expectation level for incorporating engineering co-ops into the academic program. ABET 200 has come along nicely to help promote this."

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING CO-OP?

"Influencing behavior, and not just the student's. It's for the employers who are the decision makers, the administrators, deans, presidents, even governors and senators."
 
 

During his retirement, Jack was by far the most active member of CRISP. He worked with high school guidance counselors and science and math teachers to encourage graduating students in college co-op opportunities. At the time of his death he was still working on these programs in New York and Florida.

Jack, who was a chemical engineer, was very active in CED. When he took on assignments, it was a given that they would be extremely well done and carried to completion on-time and with competence and integrity. In all his co-op efforts, his major concern was always for the student.

LeMay received the Borman Award from CED in 1982 and last June in Milwaukee he was the recipient of ASEE's Clement J. Freund Award.
 
 
 
 

Thomas M. Akins
Georgia Institute of Technology

Thomas M. Akins, Director of Corporate Education, the Georgia Institute of Technology, is one of the most professional, conscientious, and respected individuals in the field of engineering cooperative education. Since assuming the directorship of Georgia Tech's Cooperative Division ­ the nation's largest voluntary cooperative education program - student participation has increased more than 30 percent to over 3500 students - about 40 percent of all students at Georgia Tech, about 500 employers, and a staff of 14.

Tom joined his alma mater as assistant director of cooperative education in 1976 and became associate director in 1982. He was already quite familiar with the program having co-oped as an undergraduate. As Assistant Director he was responsible for counseling and advising over 300 students in electrical, mechanical, and industrial engineering; orientation of new co-ops, and all admissions to the program. Tom has promoted co-op within state of Georgia by serving on University System Committee for Placement and Cooperative education.

Thomas has served CED in many capacities and continues to contribute to the improvements of engineering cooperative education. He was CED program chair for an ASEE Annual Conference, Secretary-Treasurer, Chair-Elect, and member of several committees. As chair of CED in 1990- 91, he helped increase employer participation in the division's activities and membership. For the past five years, Tom has organized and moderated CED's Experienced Persons Workshop at the Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration. His efforts have raised thousands of dollars for CED as well as providing one of the highlights of the conference.

Tom holds memberships in the World Association of Cooperative Education ( WACE), The Cooperative Education Association ( CEA), and the National Association of Minority Engineering Program Administrators (NAMEPA). Georgia Tech is also a member of the National Commission for Cooperative Education(NCCE), and Tom has served as one of CED's representatives to the joint CED/CEA/NCCE task force. He is also an active member of a cooperative education network and a leader in cooperative education accreditation issues.
 

William D. Taylor
University of Alabama

William D. Taylor, Director, Office of Cooperative Education, the University of Alabama has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of cooperative education in engineering for over 17 years and has been an important leader in our field - his influence extending well beyond engineering. Bill is nationally recognized as a leader, trainer, and consultant in cooperative education.

Bill served as CED's conference program chair, academic representative on CED's Executive Board, and as CED's Chair in 1992-93. He has made significant contributions to our long-range planning activities and served on several of our committees. Perhaps his most significant contributions have been in the role of government affairs academic representative and his leadership of the Southeastern Training Center for Cooperative Education. For over 13 years Bill has helped prepare hundreds of practitioners for their co-op careers. As a result of his grantsmanship abilities, his interests, and the respect he earned at the Federal level, Bill has been a major contributor to projects involving "Cooperative Education and Career Development in Historically and Predominantly Black Colleges and Universities," the innovative "Federal Government Cooperative Education Conference,"and the Corporation for National Service ­ Washington, D.C." Over his career he is successfully developed approximately $1.5 million in grants to support important educational projects. He also served as a consultant to corporations and schools as a reader of Title VIII grant proposals and was a member of a Federal Task Force on Cooperative Education for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Bill pioneered the CAPSNET listserve that provides the field with a valuable electronic discussion group and immediate linkages with many co-op professionals.

Bill has directed the co-op program at the University of Alabama since 1982. The program, highly regarded by employers and academic colleagues alike, has contributed to the quality of education and professional development for thousands of students.

Bill has given countless hours to enhance the quality of cooperative education on his campus in the southeast region, throughout the United States. He has given freely of his personal time over many years to travel the country of service to the field. His commitment, accomplishments, mentorship, and professionalism have made a positive difference for both CED and cooperative education.
 
 

1997 CIEC/CED Awards

Best Speaker Award
"The Evolution of Cooperative Education. A Critical Look"
Sam Sovilla ­ University of Cincinnati

Best Paper Award
"Re-engineering Cooperative Education Learning"
Richard Canale, Northeastern University
Ellen Duwart, Northeastern University

Best Session Award
"Re-engineering Cooperative Education Learning"
Moderator: Richard Canale, Northeastern University
Speakers: Ellen Duwart, Northeastern University
Les L.Leone, Michigan State University
Larry F. Hanneman, Iowa State University
Richard A. Kenyon, Union College

Fraya Kaufman
Northeastern University

Fraya Kaufman will graduate in June 1998 with both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Northeastern University. She was nominated by Ellen Duwart Cooperative Education Coordinator and her co-op employer, Analog Devices in Norwood, Maine. Her supervisor was Bill Thomas, Senior ICD Design Engineer. Fraya's objective is to be an integrated circuit designer involved in several aspects of the design process.

At Analog Devices Fraya worked with a DSP Fixed- point Design Group. She ported a phase-lock design from Mentors Graphics LED to Cadence's Composer, scaled the design from 0.6 ohms to 0.35 ohms technology simulated it in Hspice and Ikos, and made logical changes to the design. She evaluated a software tool to analyze electromigration and current density in an existing design. She made logical changes to schematics, altered assembly language code, and ran a hardware/software simulator to create a test vector for the high IDMA port of a fixed point DSP chip. She used Hspice to test coupling between bus lines and functionality with new materials and speed paths.

As president of the SWE chapter at Northeastern, Fraya initiated a successful mentoring program. She was treasurer of the Tau Beta Pi and president of Hillel, and treasurer of amnesty international. She was also active with a Dean's Advisory Council, the NU engineering recruitment team, and was the spokesperson for Co-op at the inauguration of the new president of Northeastern University. Charity work includes activities on behalf of the American Cancer Society, campus clothing drives, Tay-Sachs, and habitat for the humanity.

Fraya won the Computer Engineering Research Co-op Award for senior honors project work integrated circuit technology. She was awarded two National Science Foundation grants through Carnegie Mellon and Northeastern as a high school student.

"At analog devices Fraya was able to interact easily with employees with different backgrounds, experience levels, and personalities. Fraya's initial contributions were significant, but what is most impressive is that by her second and third assignment she was performing tasks critical to the success of our group. Fraya opened our eyes to the tremendous benefits of Cooperative Education ­ on both sides of the coin."

Bill Thomas, Analog Devices

Fraya's natural ability to solve problems, her speed in learning new skills/concepts , and her strong desire to bring tasks to completion, enable her to interface with individuals with various technical backgrounds. Fraya volunteered to handle higher-level tasks - this type of attitude reduced the amount of effort required by the more senior design engineers in managing Fraya's work.

Ellen Duwart, NU Co-op Coordinator

In the honors version of a computer-engineering course, which even the best find extremely challenging, Fraya was quite exceptional. In all phases of the work Fraya was out in front, interested, innovative, and effective. I can think of no one I would rather have working for me on any challenging program. This includes both engineering design and academic pursuit.

James Feldman, Professor
 
 
 

 COOPERATIVE EDUCATION DIVISION
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION 
Editor: Craig James Gunn
Michigan State University
Department of Mechanical Engineering
East Lansing, MI 48824-1226