Winter 2008 Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

December 15, 2008 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) Josh Host, Student/Alumni Advisory Board
Faculty: Haluk Aktan, Osama Abudayyeh, Jun-Seok Oh, Ahmad Jrade, Hubo Cai, Xiaoyun Shao, Heather Highhouse
Student Representative: Michael A Romkema, President CCE Student Chapter
Guest: Heather Highhouse (Career & Student Employment)

New IAB member

Mr. Steve Vanderbrink was introduced. Mr. VandenBrink is Vice President from Fleis & VanderBrink Engineering. They are currently building a new facility here in the Research Park. Mr. VandenBrink is a graduate of Michigan Tech, but has many ties to WMU. His brother is a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering and his son graduated from WMU

Best Capstone Design Project Award - Dr. Cai presented this award.

Winner of the 2008 Award was "East Wing Addition to College of Engineering and Applied Sciences". The team members were: Jon Dyke, Ryan McGoff and Dharmesh Valsadia. According to Dr. Cai the projects were judged on the report submitted as well as the delivery of the work. The students will receive a certificate in the mail and their names will be on a plaque that will be displayed in the Department.

CEAS Initiatives - Dean Litynski was not present so Associate Dean Osama Abudayyeh presented for him.

a. The Dean initiated the planning process for a 50,000 square foot extension to the Engineering facility to the East, which would house the CCE department along with the MDOT labs. The Dean has hired a consulting firm to investigate fundraising opportunities. The concept has already been created. It was the design project that won the Capstone award. Dr. Jrade has walk through plans on the computer.
b. A planning activity is underway for the next 5 years for the undergraduate and graduate programs as well as the College of Engineering as a whole. The report will be available in early January and will be a tool for the new Dean to begin with the implementation phase.

Career Office Initiatives - Dr. Aktan introduced Heather Highhouse from the Career and Student Employment Services Office. Heather specifically works with the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to promote students to employers. She coordinates numerous activities throughout the year to bring students and potential employers together. She also spends time, especially with freshman, making them aware of the opportunities available to them through the Career and Student Employment Services Office. Some important dates that are coming up are:

January 28, 2009-Get Prepared Session at the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences.
February 4, 2009-Engineering and Applied Sciences Career Opportunities Night- Networking opportunity at the College of Engineering prior to the next day career fair event at the WMU Bernhard Center. Representatives are invited to attend and give a 30-minuite presentation to WMU's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences students. There is a financial commitment in participating with these sessions. For cost and schedule see the website.
February 17, 2009-Engineer's Week Dinner at Fetzer Center - The Professional Engineering Societies in Southwest Michigan organize a dinner program to celebrate National Engineers Week. Both high school and college students are invited guests with the program designed to promote engineering as a career.
February 20, 2009-Women in Engineering
April 15, 2009 - Co-Op Cookout and Geek Games

Spring 2009 Career Initiatives in the College of Engineering: To improve communication with students, Faculty and Employers, we are developing a culture, sense of Community and Communication Infrastructure for the students at CEAS.

Students:

Facilitate Monthly RSO President's meeting

Develop Face book Group: Bronco Engineer

Movie Night at Parkview

Geek Games at Parkview (similar to main campus Greek Games)

Win the 2009 Soapbox Derby Homecoming Event

Faculty:

Partner on Employer Information Sessions

Raise awareness of the importance of Co-Op and Internships

Become a resource to Faculty for Potential Subject Matter Experts

Connect Employers offering resources for Senior Design Opportunities

Employers:

Partner with Employers to meet the increasingly "Scarce Resource" of Talent

Hold interviews at CEAS for any Engineering position

Identify Premier Partners to develop more opportunities including Scholarships, Co-Op and Internships

Create a feedback system to evaluate a Company's ability to be an Employer of Choice

ASCE Student Chapter Initiatives - Report was given by Mike Romkema.

Fall 2008 Activities: Adopt-a-highway, field trip to KPS middle school, two joint meetings with locate ASCE section, Bronco Bash, CEAS first year experience welcoming, Ford field with concrete canoe, CCE cookout.
Steel Bridge update - design finished, steel obtained, fabrication underway-template completed & small groups formed, plan to be completed by March 2009.
Concrete Canoe update - finite element analysis complete, concrete mix design finished by Friday-January 9, 2009 and expected to have over 80% post-consumer recycled content; paddling practice starts in January; cast date-January 24th at 9:00AM - Everyone welcome.
Spring 2009 Activities: 2009 ASCE WSCL-sending 4 members to Denver; 2009 NCRC at Lawrence Tech; Science Olympiad; Adopt-a-highway; field trips/speakers
2010 NCRC: WMU to host 2010 North-Central Region, exact dates are unknown; contact with Student Recreational Center has been made, and currently looking for lakes in the area that meet criteria.

Tim Mitchell congratulated Mike on all his hard work to get more students involved and to ensure that there is student participation in coming years.

Capstone Design Factory Spring 2009 Projects and Mentors - Dr. Cai

Theme-Sustainable Civil and Construction Systems, we have 33 students (9 construction & 24 civil) there will be 10 groups/projects.

Project pool is made up of 10 faculty members, 3 members from MDOT, 3 members from Miller Davis and 2 members from CSM Group.

The following are the Spring 2009 Projects - Project judging day will be April 14, 2009

Project	Sponsor	Group Faculty Advisor
Olivet College-Cutler Event Center	CSM Group	Dr. Jrade
Van Buren County Road Commission/Vehicle Storage	Miller Davis	Dr. Cai
Culvert Replacement	MDOT	Dr. Oh
Winter Operations	MDOT	Dr. Cai
Hawkins Road Bridge	Dr. Attanayake	Dr. Attanayake
Parkview Bridge	Dr. Jrade	Dr. Jrade
12th Street Elementary School	Dr. Oh	Dr. Oh
Steel Frame Retrofit	Dr. Shao	Dr. Shao
Bridge Load Rating	Dr. Shao	Dr. Aktan
Gusset Plate Capacity Analysis for a Steel Truss Bridge	Dr. Shao	Dr. Shao

More project ideas are needed for future years. Department faculty members are grateful to those firms that submitted projects and hope that industrial participation increases. Please continue to submit project ideas and direct potential submitter's to the CCE web "Capstone Design Factory" link.

CCE initiatives - Dr. Aktan

Dr. Aktan explained the differences between Associate, Assistant and Term Professor Appointments. He then introduced Dr. Shao the newest faculty member.
CCE enrollment trends: currently have 285 BSc students; 29 MSc studentsenrollments have doubled in 6 years. CCE Graduation trends: As of 2007 37 BSC Degrees; 3 MSc Degrees.
Coming for Spring 2009 - Accelerated Bachelor's and Master's in CE program-one student has already signed up.
CCE department's biggest challenge is number of faculty. ABET would like a student/faculty ratio of 30:1 we currently have 57:1. Need to address this issue before 2011 ABET visit. The department is hopeful to get one more position this next year. Funding is uncertain because of State budget cuts.
Growth in the CCE program contributed to the following: CCE field moving forward, jobs that are not outsourced, WMU facilities, graduates selling program, WMU location on the West side of state. The only competition for students on this side of state is Michigan Tech.
CCE Challenges: Recruit and retain good students-attract increased number of students with distinction and increase outreach efforts to elementary, middle and high schools; identify, define and respond to national needs and priorities-direct faculty resources to areas with future research needs; and establish sustainable community based partnerships.

IAB Members - thoughts, initiatives, news and predications for civil and construction industry

The major theme "tough economic times" was echoed by all the industrial board members that were present. Everyone seemed to agree that if the stimulus package from the Federal Government comes through at the beginning of 2009, there will be plenty of job opportunities for civil and construction engineers. Everyone is just trying to maintain current projects with less funding and manpower and looking forward to better times.

New/Old Business 2008-2009

Dr. Jrade and Dr. Oh updated the Board on the Outcome Assessment Plan with the changes that were made to meet ABET criteria. Any comments or feedback on changes please send them to Dr. Jrade or Dr. Oh.
Tim Mitchell opened the discussion about the industrial board members role on the Advisory Board. There was some discussion about what this should be. A few of the members thought that meeting more than twice year might be needed to make a bigger impact. Tim and Bobbi are going to do some research into how other Advisory Boards identify the Industrial leader's role in order to make the best use of their expertise.
Bobbie Welke also asked if it was possible to get a list of important dates, such as Senior Design Project Day judging, because calendars fill up very fast but if they know when a specific activity will take place they can make room in their schedule to attend. She suggested a year out timeline would be great.

Next meeting will be Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. Room C258 Parkview Campus. Meeting adjourned 2:50 p.m.

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