November 28, 1995

CEFO Minutes

(J. Carter, Secretary)

M I N U T E S

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FACULTY ORGANIZATION Tuesday, November 28, 1995 @ 12:30 PM CARC Building – Room 101
Dr. Rick Lejk opened the meeting at 12:42 PM. The following individuals signed the attendance sheet:

COLLEGE OF ENGR: R. Snyder, S. Middleton, N. Schul, P. Tolley. COMPUTER SCIENCE: M. Allen, K. Chen, G. Epstein, R. Lejk, T. Mostafavi, J. Quinn, G. Revesz, Z. Ras, H. Razavi, R. Shaw, B. Wilkinson, J. Xiao. ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: E. Braun, N. Byars, J. Carter, J. Chaffin, D. Liou C. Liu, R. Lollar, C. Mobley, J. Patten, R. Priebe, W. Shelnutt, D. Smith, P. Wang. CIVIL ENGINEERING: D. Bayer, J. Graham, D. Hanks, R. Janardhanam, M. Kane, I. Runge, D. Young. MECHANICAL ENGR & ENGR SCIENCE: P. DeHoff, H. Estrada, Y. Hari, J. Hill, R. Johnson, R. Kim, G. Mohanty, S. Patterson, J. Raja, R. Wilhelm. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING: S. Bobbio, T. Dahlberg, K. Daneshvar, R. Greene, M. Hasan, Y. Kakad, V. Lukic, R. Makki, M. Miri, D. Phillips, M. Sleva, F. Tranjan. CAMERON A.R.C.: H. Leamy, T. Rufty, ENGR RES & IND DEVMT: J. Roblin. COMPUTING SVCS & LABS: J. Grant. GUESTS: Silvie Fossiez. Total documented attendance: 62.

I. Minutes of the October, 1995 meeting. The minutes of the 10/24/95 meeting were approved as submitted.

II. International Exchange, David Smith.
There are several ways we can become involved with the Bethune Institute of Technology in France. They include:

Teaching. They offer classes taught in American English. We have sent four faculty members and received two. One faculty member from France is expected to come here to teach French to prospective exchange students.
Student Exchange. They are ready to send students to UNCC. We expect to attain parity soon.
Team learning. Through a joint French/USA engineering project similar to a Senior or Capstone project coordinated through an ISDN video-conference link.
International Experiential Learning. The students gains skills in a foreign language and work experience in an international company.
Research Opportunities. Faculty in Bethune are ready to collaborate with UNCC faculty on research projects. The best mechanism to initiate such activity is through personal contact with their faculty members.
Programs like TEMPUS what give us a window through which to interact with universities in former eastern bloc countries.
Seminars and Workshops. The Bethune IUT makes a lot of use of seminars and workshops in their normal educational programs.

III. International Exchange, Silvie Fossiez. (Ms. Fossiez is the Associate Director of International Relations, Bethune Institute of Technology, Universit� d’Artois.) Bethune IUT was created in 1968. It now welcomes about 1000 students each year to six departments: chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, telecommunications & networks, mechanical engineering and production management. The institute prepares students for a diploma obtained after two years of undergraduate study. These short studies are attractive for students coming from the North of France, an area where the social standard is generally modest.

In 1986, Bethune IUT established international relationships by making the international mobility attractive in these two-year courses, and making this mobility successful through linguistic, technical, and financial efforts. Bethune IUT is now an international Institute of Technology. International links are important because they help our students and staff alike to respond to an increasingly interconnected world.

This year the institute welcomed over one hundred international students and staff from the European Union, eastern countries, and the USA. International students are expected to have attained a suitable qualification in French. However, we know that a lot of international students will require some further support with their use of French. Intensive classes in French are provided in the Summer before courses begin, and on a weekly basis during the term of study.

A range of courses in the Institute offer students the option of adding an internal dimension to their diploma by sending three to five months on internships in Europe, either by attending courses at a University or gaining work experience. The expansion of international links in recent years has also added the USA and the Eastern countries. Among the 100 students who take part in this program each year, most qualify for a European Commission Erasmus, Commet, or Tempus grant which helps cover travel and living costs. Wherever they go, the students find the experience a rewarding one: it provides for a broader outlook and brings a new vision to their study and work.

To achieve all these international activities, the international office is composed of four permanent staff:

Jean-Claude Andricq is the head of the international office. He is responsible for the planning and management of the international office activities.
V�ronique Carrier is responsible for the accountancy.
Pascaline Vincent is responsible for the Eastern countries (i.e. TEMPUS programs.)
Silvie Fossiez is responsible for the Western countries (i.e. SOCRATES and
LEONARDO programs.)

Bethune IUT is rated the first IUT in France for its international relationships. They now count 77 partner campuses in 19 countries all over Europe and the USA.

IV. Undergraduate-Industry Interaction. The creative projects laboratory (CPL) is an extension of the successful CPL organized under SUCCEED.

Summary.
Formalizing the CPL (11/03/95 memo to Dr. Snyder). Projects suggested by industry; student design teams with faculty advisors; industry participation and funding. Successful pilot operation developed by Bill Shelnutt and Bob Coleman. Participants included Duke Power, Florida Steel Drum, Freightliner, IBM, Ingersoll Rand, NCI, PMI, Siecor, and Square D. Current participants include Duke Power, Ingersoll Rand, NCI, PMI, and Square D.

Benefits of the CPL. Addresses ten goals, strategies and deliverables in our strategic plan.
For the students, the CPL will enhance their learning experience, provide opportunities to experience professional problem solving situations, provide opportunities to work directly with practicing engineers, and give them a richer, more varied selection of senior projects.
For participating companies, the CPL will allow them to suggest problems which, if solved, can improve their performance, expand the technical resources available to address their engineering problems, heighten their familiarity and appreciation of the college’s abilities to help them, sharpen their recruiting efforts by identifying promising potential employees, and help them develop new professional relationships with our faculty and students.
For the faculty, the CPL will help develop a wide variety of challenging senior design projects for student’s selection, enable the development and advisement of undergraduate design teams, enhancing their team and communication skills, Provide chances to work with engineers in industry, seeing industry problems and approaches firsthand, provide opportunities to enhance our credibility with potential industrial clients, broaden contacts with the industries that hire our graduates and retain faculty services, create direct links for advisory participation and input, and supply additional funds to the college for the enhancement of undergraduate education. Companies contribute $1000 if they have fewer than 100 employees, $3000 if they have from 100 to 1000 employees, and $5000 if they have more than 1000 employees.

Bolts and Nuts. A brochure describing the program will be developed and distributed to industries in the region. Project suggestions will be submitted to Departments for faculty approval. Approved projects will be presented to students via Mosaic, bulletin boards, and other media. Contributions from companies that suggest approved projects will be accumulated in the UNC Charlotte Foundation account (already set up.) Source and uses of the funds will be tracked, along with student and faculty participation, by department. Funds will be used to enhance undergraduate education, as determined by the Dean and Department Chairmen. Non-proprietary results of projects will e described to the industrial community via newsletters, the CPL brochure, and other media.

V. Space and Facilities Planning Report, Steve Patterson. (Four handouts were provided which described the North Carolina Space Grant Consortium: (1) Higher Education Incentives Program, (2) Special Incentives Program, (3) Research Seed Grant, and (4) Outreach Program. The report of the Space and Facilities Planning Committee was attached to the meeting announcement.

The College of Engineering has 40% to 50% of the median facilities when compared with the other facilities in the University. Relative losses in past years, compared with the rest of the campus, leave us in a bas position. We will be seeing the conversion of existing space in other facilities for use by the college, including space currently in use by the Bookstore, and some in the Kennedy building. The facilities planning report was developed by an Ad-hoc committee, so its input is provided to the college for evaluation and action. Committee members would be glad to answer any questions on the subject.

Dean Snyder added that “It is appropriate at this time that a design for an engineering campus on this site” be done.

VI. Computing Facilities Planning Report, Art Edwards. The planning report was Emailed to all faculty. The floor was opened for general discussion and questions. Considerable discussion ensued pertaining to the need for a PC-based platform within the context of the Mosaic system. The discussion was tabled for lack of time.

VII. Dean Middleton. The College of Engineering has hired a Faculty Associate for Mentoring Programs, Ms. Patty Tolley. Her office is in Smith 240, her Email address is patolley@uncc.edu.

Volunteers are needed to sit in, evaluate, and grade Freshmen presentations for ENGR 1201.

VIII. Dean Snyder. The strategic planning process is being taken very seriously, and is the basis for current planning and further discussion. Many subjects are before us and will be addressed in the Spring semester.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:56 P.M.