Fall 2009 Industrial Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
September 22, 2009 12:00 p.m.
Room C-258 Parkview Campus
Board: Joanna Johnson, Tim Mitchell, Bobbie Welke, Rex Bell, Joshua Host, Haluk Aktan
WMU Staff: Tony Vizzini, Osama Abudayyeh, Jun-Seok Oh, Ahmad Jrade, Xiaoyun Shao, Yufeng Hu, Upul Attanayake, Duane Hampton, John Polasek, Estella Burdick
Student: Britney Richmond, Kim Warners, Paul Pagano, Travis Miller
- Call Meeting to Order/Introductions
- Faculty Reports:
- April 28, 2009 Meeting Minutes:
- Capstone Design Factory:
- Student Reports:
- IAB Outcomes:
- Engineer's Week Dinner:
- Other Issues:
Mr. Mitchell called the meeting to order at 12:02 p.m.
Dean Tony Vizzini was introduced. Dean Vizzini welcomed the IAB's support of the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering.
Travis Miller was introduced. Mr. Miller, a graduate from Kalamazoo Central High School, was employed as an MDOT summer intern within the TRAC pipeline program and is now a recipient of a $2,500.00 TRAC scholarship as a WMU CCE freshman.
Dr. Attanayake described his work to develop safe and durable highway bridges, heavy truck rollovers, vehicle components reliability, and usage of laser trackers. Dr. Oh shared his work with traffic monitoring and management, development of smart vehicles laboratory, and TRANSIMS application of highway work zones. Dr. Shao described her work in structural experimental methods, and structural health monitoring.
Dr. Hampton reported his geo-science research involving surface water and groundwater modeling and remediation. Dr. Jrade shared his work in building energy sustainability. Dr. Hu briefly described his area of work and Dr. Abudayyeh shared the amount of research contracts underway at the college ($4.2 million) and within the CE program ($600,000).
Ms. Johnson introduced a motion to accept the April 28, 2009 meeting minutes. Mr. Bell supported this motion. There was no discussion. The motion to accept the meeting minutes was accepted.
John Polasek updated the board on the enhanced Capstone Design Factory program. The enhanced program includes new measures to create long term and positive relationships with industry, greater oversight, and updated web page, and three additional lectures.
IAB Member Action Item: All IAB Members are to review the Capstone Design Factory report and provide feedback in regard to the project submittal form to Mr. Polasek by October 9, 2009.
Senior project presentations are scheduled for December 8, 2009 (two teams) an on April 20, 2010 (nine teams).
Mr. Bell asked about the role of the sponsor and faculty with the teams. Mr. Polasek reported that faculty would advise each team, with projects within their specialty area, in support of the sponsor's efforts.
Discussion covered the opportunity for a project to involve creating or assisting industry with new processes, such as dealing with arsenic in soil and LEED certification issues. Ms. Welke described the Spring 2009's team effort to perform winter engineering for MDOT which has resulted in plans to reduce the number of State highway snow routes on a trail basis in the winter 2009/2010, thereby reducing labor and equipment costs.
Ms. Richmond, ASCE Student Chapter President, updated IAB in regard to the activities of the chapter which included preparation for the canoe/bridge contests, recruiting for more freshman members, adopt-a-highway trash pick-up, and social events. The canoe will be casted on January 23, 2010. Dr. Shao will be the steel bridge team's faculty advisor.
IAB Member Action Item: IAB members are requested to identify an area structural engineer/expert who is willing to volunteer to perform as an advisor to the steel bridge student team.
Ms. Warners, Chair of the North Central Regional Conference Planning Team, reported on the status of this event which is scheduled for March 26-28, 2010. The majority of the events will be on campus and the concrete canoe races will be at Ramona Park in Portage. In addition to the canoe races and bridge contest, the events include an ethical paper competition, a business meeting, a social event, a friendly competition (concrete putt-putt golf), and a banquet.
Fundraising for this conference is underway with a goal to raise $9,000.00.Collaboration with many at the university and within the greater Kalamazoo area is planned. IAB members suggest potential collaborative partners. Mr. Bell volunteered to introduce the planning team to Mr. Robert Miller.
A public relations team has been formed. IAB members suggested a variety of groups which may welcome the opportunity to be involved with this conference. The groups include the TRAC (variety of schools throughout southwest Michigan), ACE (Battle Creek Math and Science Center), Engineer's Week, Southwest Michigan Science Olympiad, MSPE Math Counts, and Kalamazoo Math and Science. Ms. Warners is to share any developed conference brochures with IAB members.
IAB Member Action Item: The conference planning committee is seeking sponsorships, industry judges for the concrete canoe and steel bridge contests, as well as IAB presence at the conference.
a. IAB Charter: A motion was made by Mr. Mitchell to table the acceptance of the Charter until the January 2010 meeting, which was supported by Ms. Johnson. A great deal of discussion covered the need to enhance the Charter to include clear expectations on the part of the board, both for this board, given its recent organization, and for future board members. Mr. Mitchell will organize a conference call(s) to further discuss the Charter prior to the January meeting. The motion was passed.
IAB Member Action Item: Mr. Mitchell will organize a conference call(s) in December 2009 for the board members to further discuss the Charter
b. IAB 2008 Annual Report: The annual report will be amended to include the 2008graduation information and then shared with members.
c. IAB Web Site: Dr Aktan will work with Ms. Burdick to create an IAB Web site with a goal for the site to be operational by the end of October.
IAB Member Action Item: Dr. Aktan will organize an IAB Web site. Two members must still supply their biographies.
IAB Member Action Item: A request for creating a remote shared file system for IAB members will be considered by Mr. Mitchell and Dr. Aktan.
d. ABET Program Objectives Update: Dr. Aktan reported on the Program Objectives Assessment. To date, the surveys for the Alumni and Employers have had low response rates.
IAB Member Action Item: Ms. Burdick will share the Alumni contact information with IAB members. IAB members are to identify those that work within their firm/agency, and have yet to complete the alumni survey, to advise the employee(s) of the importance to complete the survey. IAB members are also reminded to complete the employer's survey (one survey is to be completed for a "composite" of their employees).
An evaluation of the completed surveys indicates a shortfall in environmental engineering, communication, and economical and social impacts.
Mr. Mitchell is a member of the steering committee sponsoring Engineer's Week events. The dinner event will be held on February 16, 2010. Mr. Mitchell recommended that IAB members consider participation with some of the week's activities.
IAB membership: Currently, there are seven members on the board. Expanding the board to up to ten members was discussed.
IAB Member Action Item: IAB members are requested to identify an area structural and/or environmental engineer/expert who is willing to volunteer to become a board member. Potential members will be discussed at the planed December 2009 conference call (to discuss the Charter).
WMU Event: Dr. Aktan extended an invitation to all board members to participate in the university's Homecoming, scheduled for October 23, 2009.
Industry Event: The Kalamazoo County Road Commission is hosting an open house between 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on October 2, 2009 to recognize their 100 year anniversary. Board members were invited to this open house.
2010 Meetings: The 2010 meetings were tentatively scheduled for noon on January 26, April 27 and September 28. The meetings are to be held in Room C-258 at Parkview Campus.
Adjournment: Today's meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.
