Thursday, April 2, 2009

Skills Engineering Graduates Need to Succeed - An Expert Opinion

Is there a gap between what engineering students learn and the skills industry needs? Leading academics and industry professionals will discuss the skills engineering graduates need to succeed on June 17th at this year's ASEE Annual Conference. Quanser and The MathWorks are hosting a panel discussion titled Helping to Teach Engineers Real World Skills with Hands-on Labs. The dynamic panelists who will be sharing their unique perspective include:

Dr. Chaouki Abdallah is a professor and the chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico. Professor Abdallah conducts research and teaches courses in the general area of systems theory with focus on control, communications, and computing systems. His research has been funded by NSF, AFOSR, NRL, national laboratories (SNL, LANL), and by various companies.

Dr. Marcia O'Malley is currently an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department at Rice University. She holds a joint appointment in Computer Science at Rice, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine. Her research interests include physical human robot interaction, robot-assisted rehabilitation, nanorobotic manipulation, and educational haptics.

Dr. Mark Spong is a Dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the Lars Magnus Ericsson Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research interests are in nonlinear control theory and robotics. He has published over 250 technical articles in control and robotics and is co-author of four books.



Dr. Jacob Apkarian is CTO of Quanser. Jacob taught Electrical Engineering at the University of British Colombia and held senior engineering and management positions at Lyndhurst Hospital and Spar Aerospace. He founded Quanser in 1990 to enhance and advance control theory education. He made the company world-renown in the academic and research realms and achieved reputation as a global leader in the development of real-time control systems and services for industry. His main interest remains in research and development where he explores new ideas in control and create imaginative and industry-driven teaching and research plants.

James H. Hughes is a Training Manager at The Apprentice School of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Newport News, responsible for academics and continuing education of graduates. Prior to joining The Apprentice School, James was as Assistant Professor at the School of Education and Psychology at North Carolina State University. James has a doctorate in education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Andy Mastronardi joined Freescale Semiconductor in September of 1999 and is Global Director of the Freescale University Programs. Prior to Freescale, Andy spent 26 years in the education industry, both as a teacher and in educational publishing. Andy holds a BS from SUNY Potsdam and a MS from Long Island University.

Terri Morse is the Engineering, Operations & Technology Director at The Boeing Company. She’s had engineering and management positions developing systems such as Flight Controls, Autopilot/Auto throttle, Flight Management Systems, and many others. She’s been part of the design teams for various airplanes, including 777 and 787 airplane. In addition, she has been leader of the Define aspect of the Phantom Works Lean & Efficient (L&E) Thrust responsible for developing the next generation processes and design tools for use across the Boeing Company.

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