Futures in Engineering: Camp Caters to Aspiring Women Engineers
(Continued from the Engineering home page.)

UNH student Robyn McMicken '07, '09 M.S. Forensic Science, works with ten-year-old Catie Jennetta, a sixth grader at Har-Bur School in Burlington, during this summer’s engineering camp for girls at the University
Encouragement from her high school chemistry teacher and the winning of a “Golden Test Tube Award” led UNH Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dr. Nancy Savage down her career path. This summer, Dr. Savage shared that interest, awakening 10-to-15-year-old students from throughout the state to the rewards of engineering through the University’s new Engineering and Science Summer Institute for Young Women, an overnight camp that ran from July 29 through August 2. “Science and engineering disciplines need women, with their experiences, interests and ideas, to help bring about future discoveries and innovations,” Dr. Savage says. The initiative has attracted corporate interest: Pitney Bowes Literacy & Education Fund has provided a $21,550 grant for the 2008 Engineering & Science Summer Institute for Young Women.

Fueling Interest: The Tagliatela College of Engineering Corporate Partners Program
(Continued from the Engineering home page.)

Introduction
The Tagliatela College of Engineering (TCoE) has established a Corporate Partners Program (CPP) as part of a strategic initiative to establish stronger ties to business and industry and to increase enrollment in the college. The present shortage of technical talent in the region is not a new phenomenon, but one that will persist unless plans are put in place to reverse the trend. For the past several years, enrollment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors at the university level has declined. This is a national trend with the number of BS degreed engineers graduating in the U.S.A. falling to a low of 59,258 in 2001 from a previous high of 77,572 in 1985. The number of BS degreed engineers graduating in the U.S. since 2001 has remained essentially flat at 60,000 - 65,000 annually.

The TCoE has taken a three-pronged approach to address the shortage of engineering students. Firstly, it has developed an innovative, hands-on, multidisciplinary approach to engineering education – the spiral curriculum - which connects students to the engineering profession in the freshmen and sophomore years. Secondly, it is redoubling efforts to support the Project Lead The Way program through a memorandum of understanding with the State of Connecticut, to expand the program state wide. Thirdly, it has established its corporate partners program as it seeks to integrate the theory of engineering with engineering practice. The partnership will also convey to students that regional employers need talented individuals in order for their organizations to prosper, and, more importantly, that challenging and rewarding positions will be available to them when they graduate.

The Corporate Partners Program
There are two aspects to the CPP. The first element is the awarding of a scholarship in the name of the sponsoring organization. The TCoE will award a Corporation X Scholarship, 100% funded by the university, to an entering freshman student. In recognition, Corporation X will provide one summer internship for each Corporation X Scholarship. The corporation also gives permission to the TCoE to use the Corporation X logo on its corporate partners web page.

The TCoE requires all engineering graduates to meet an experiential education requirement because it believes that all newly graduating BS-degreed engineers should be exposed to the practice of engineering. The majority of TCoE students choose to complete the experiential requirement through internships completed in the summers following the sophomore year and the junior year of study. The corporation will be invited to participate in the selection process for the summer internships, including interviewing potential interns, (students with sophomore or junior standing). The corporate partner will not be involved in the process of awarding the freshmen corporate scholarship (i) because it is cumbersome to involve the corporate partner in an already involved admissions process and (ii) freshmen are focused upon the transition from high school to university and not upon identifying an internship position.

For additional information contact: Dr. Barry Farbrother, Dean, Tagliatela College of Engineering, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, CT 06516. (203) 932 7167 BFarbrother@newhaven.edu.

Daniel C. O’Keefe, Professor, Electrical Engineering:
(Continued from the Engineering home page.)

Daniel C. O’Keefe, 63, a popular Electrical Engineering professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) July 11. O’Keefe, who endeared himself to UNH engineering students for turning complex challenges into approachable topics, was the adviser to the University’s IEEE chapter (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). He served on the Faculty Senate and the Honors Program Committee, among a host of other involvements. One UNH student wrote of Dr. O’Keefe on Ratemyprofessors. com, a website where college students share information on professors nationwide, “Best EE teacher at UNH. Teaches often somewhat tough material so it’s incredibly easy. Highly recommended.” Dr. O’Keefe joined the faculty in 1969. He lived in Guilford. A father of three, he leaves a daughter, Teresa O’Keefe DelVecchio, and two sons, Christopher and Matthew O’Keefe. Dr. O’Keefe also was a doting grandfather to four grandchildren. He loved to travel, although finding a way back to his starting point often eluded him. “We – his family – always laughed that for someone who traveled so much, he always got lost during family vacations,” DelVecchio says. “He called them shortcuts.” Scores of her father’s students and colleagues paid their respects at his memorial service. “It made us all so happy to see that his teaching, his life, will live on through those he taught,” she says.

Memorial contributions may be made to the ALS Association/Connecticut Chapter, 4 Oxford Road, Unit D4, Milford, CT 06460