Spring 2009 Industrial Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
April 28, 2009, 12:00 p.m.
Room C-258 Parkview Campus
Present:Johanna Johnson (Kalamazoo County Road Commission), Tim Mitchell (SME, Inc.), Bobbi Welke (MDOT), Steve VandenBrink (Fleis & VandenBrink) Rex Bell (Miller-Davis Company), Jerry VanderVeen (M.W. Vander Veen Company), Josh Host, Student/Alumni Advisory Board
Faculty: Haluk Aktan, Jun-Seok Oh, Ahmad Jrade, Hubo Cai, Xiaoyun Shao, Yufeng Hu, Upul
Attanayake
Student Representative: Britney Richmond, President ASCE Student Chapter, Michael A Romkema, Vice-President ASCE Student Chapter
- Board Organization and Governance:
- Event Report/IAB Meetings:
- IAB Outcomes
- Faculty Report - Was given by Dr. Aktan for Dr. Cai
- Other Business
Tim Mitchell explained that the IAB members would like to get more organized, establish meeting procedures-rules of order and records of votes taken. These items would not only help the current board members but would be beneficial to future IAB members.
A motion was made by Rex Bell to elect Tim Mitchell and Joanna Johnson as Co-chairs and Bobbi Welke as secretary of the IAB. Each would serve a 2-year term, 2009-2010. Motion was seconded by Jerry VanderVeen. Motion was voted on and passed.
IAB Mission Statement: After much discussion it was decided that the vote on approving the IAB Mission statement would be tabled until next meeting. Bobbi Welke and Josh Host will work on rewriting the mission statement and possibly adding a vision statement for the IAB. IAB members can forward suggestions to Bobbi or Josh.
Joanna Johnson made a motion that the IAB meet 3 times a year, beginning of spring semester, end of spring semester and beginning of fall semester. Bobbi Welke seconded the motion. The motion was voted on and passed.
Mike Romkema reported for ASCE, they currently have about 55-60 members with 40-45 active members and the leadership will remain similar for next year. Mike also reported on the Concrete Canoe/Steel Bridge competition at Lawrence Tech. The event took place on April 2-4. It was the best year that WMU has had, they placed 3rd overall in the competition. Mike explained that the conference is just more than the canoe race; there is an ethical paper presentation and a professional presentation. There is also some social event which this year was a bocce ball competition that WMU also took 3rd place in. This is the fifth year that WMU has competed in the concrete canoe competition. They had a 25 member team which was a 25% increase over 2008. He also thanked Joanna Johnson for her critiquing of the team's oral presentation which helped them place first in the oral presentation. Mike also reported that the steel bridge team successfully competed in the competition this year. All the work was done by students, which isn't the case with most of the other schools that compete. WMU is looking at increasing member involvement and get more help from faculty and industry for next year. Overall the conference was a big success and made the other schools realize that WMU is a team that is up and coming.
Britney Richmond then reported on the North Central Regional Conference that will be hosted by WMU in April 2010. The conference consists of many components, the concrete canoe competition, steel bridge competition, ethics paper and presentation, professional presentation, business meeting, banquet, and a "Fun competition". The following is a list of what is need: large venue to hold canoe aesthetic judging and steel bridge competition (possibly student rec); lake for canoe races, preferable zero-entry with pavilion and restrooms; venue for banquet; meals on competition days; contact hotels for blocks of rooms with fixed rate; judges; and sponsorship. ASCE will form a small committee consisting of students, representative from the university and representatives from industry. ASCE needs support from CCE department, College of Engineering, the University and Industry. Tim Mitchell suggested that they talk to Myndi Bacon she has experience at planning a big conference like this. It was also suggested that ASCE utilize the IAB member's contacts in industry. Joanna Johnson volunteered to help the students with the planning.
Tim Mitchell expressed how impressed he is with the organization of the ASCE. He also expressed how great it was to see all the press that this years concrete canoe received and that should help with community support for next years conference here at WMU. There was discussion about sharing of email address not only with IAB members but also with the ASCE local chapter to obtain as much support for the April 2010 conference as possible. Rex Bell congratulated the concrete canoe team for a great competition. Rex also asked about the AGC student chapter and expressed his willingness to sit down with the students to discuss how he can help the chapter.
All IAB members expressed their support of ASCE for the 2010 conference and told Mike and Britney to get in touch with them for help.
Mike Romkema gave the casting date for the 2010 concrete canoe as January 23, 2010, everyone is invited.
Tim Mitchell asked if everyone had had an opportunity to review the 2008 Industrial Advisory Board Annual Report. Everyone had. There was some discussion about when the spring 2009 graduation numbers would be available. Dr. Aktan reported that those numbers should be available in about 10 days. Joanna Johnson made a motion to accept the 2008 Industrial Advisory Board Annual Report with the inclusion of the 2009 graduation numbers. Jerry VanderVeen seconded the motion. Motion was voted on and passed.
Dr. Aktan reported on the 2009 expected outcomes, ABET Accreditation Update, shared the 2009-2010 Civil and Construction Engineering Objectives and Assessment Plan.
The ABET Accreditation renewal will be in 2012, but we need to start collecting data this summer in order to get it compiled for the accreditation process. The alumni and employer surveys were discuss as was the timing of mailing of these surveys. It was explained that the surveys need to go to alumni that graduated at least 3 years ago. There was discussion about the best way to get the surveys to alumni and their employers. Jerry VanderVeen expressed his thoughts that a mailing with a cover letter stating the importance of this survey to the program might be the best way to collect the data. He also thought sending the employer surveys to the alumni with a postage -paid envelope might be the only way to get the employers surveys to the current employers of our alumni. It was suggested that an email or phone call to alumni might be a good idea to alert them to watch for the upcoming survey. The IAB members need to help finalize the surveys. Tim suggested that all IAB members review the surveys and provide feedback to Dr. Aktan by the beginning of June.
Report on Senior Design Spring 2009: There were a total of 33 students on 10 teams. There were 7 civil engineering teams and 3 construction engineering teams. The presentations were held on April 14. A wide range of projects focusing on civil infrastructure were presented. The "Best Senior Design" Award went to the team on "Gusset Plate Analysis for Steel Truss Bridges". The department and students want to thank our industrial partners and faculty for sponsoring, advising and judging of these projects. MDOT sponsored 3 projects, Miller-Davis sponsored 1 project, CSM sponsored 1 project and the others were sponsored by faculty.
In fall 2009 there will be 6 students which will make up 2 teams. The projects that have been picked are: Wastewater plant optimization-Battle Creek and Road Asset Management-KCRC. The Capstone project is always looking for help and input on projects.
Tim Mitchell asked about the spring 2008 construction engineering projects, he seem concerned that they were more construction management projects with not that many engineering aspects to them. Dr. Aktan stated that any project is considered as long as it contains 2 subdivision of the civil and construction engineering curriculum.
Bobbie Welke announced that the Portage Central middle school and high school had competed in MDOT Bridge building contest recently and did very well. The 5th and 6th grade students took the top 3 places in their competition. She also stated that Dale Freeland a science teacher from Portage Central high school might be a possible contact for the steel bridge team. He has done good job developing a bridge building team in the middle and high schools in Portage.
Meeting adjourned 2:20 p.m.
