Blank Slate Engineering At Florida Gulf Coast University – Innovative And Multidisciplinary From The Ground Up
- Conference
- Location
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Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
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June 18, 2006
- Start Date
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June 18, 2006
- End Date
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June 21, 2006
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Multidisciplinary Engineering
- Page Count
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15
- Page Numbers
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11.279.1 - 11.279.15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--490
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/490
- Download Count
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508
Paper Authors
Susan Blanchard Florida Gulf Coast University
SUSAN M. BLANCHARD joined FGCU as Founding Director of the School of Engineering in February 2005. She received the A.B. in Biology from Oberlin College in 1968 and the M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 1980 and 1982, respectively. Before moving to FGCU, Dr. Blanchard was the Director of Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Programs at North Carolina State University and Professor in the joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2004, the Biomedical Engineering Division of ASEE awarded her the Theo C. Pilkington Outstanding Educator Award.
Nosa Egiebor Florida Gulf Coast University
James Sweeney Arizona State University
JAMES D. SWEENEY has been hired by FGCU as Professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering (starting his contract in August 2006). Currently he is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Arizona State University. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve U. in 1988 and 1983, respectively, and his Sc.B.
Engineering degree (Biomedical Engineering) from Brown U. in 1979. At ASU, he is also Director of the Flinn Foundation funded Multi- and
Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program in Bioengineering. Dr. Sweeney received the ASU Bioengineering Faculty of the Year Award for 1994-1995 and 1997-1998.
Lisa Zidek Milwaukee School of Engineering
LISA ZIDEK has been hired by FGCU as Director of Graduate Programs and Associate Professor (starting her contract in January 2007). Currently she is the Industrial Engineering Program Director and Associate Professor at Milwaukee School of Engineering. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from UW-Madison in 2003, as well as the M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Marquette University in 1992 and 1990, respectively. She began teaching at MSOE in 1996 and previously worked as an engineer for Firstar and Johnson Controls.
Chalmers Sechrist Florida Gulf Coast University
CHALMERS F. SECHRIST has been an adjunct faculty member at FGCU since 1998. He has taught: Introduction to the Engineering Profession, Engineering Concepts and Methods, Principles of Electrical Engineering, Issues in Science and Technology, and The World of Technology. He is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Assistant Dean Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1959 and 1954, respectively, and his B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1952. He is also a former program director of engineering at the National Science Foundation and a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Sam Hulbert Florida Gulf Coast University
SAMUEL F. HULBERT is President Emeritus of Rose-Hulman Institute for Technology, adjunct professor in the School of Engineering at FGCU, and a member of the School of Engineering's Advisory Board. During the fall of 2005, he taught two sections of Introduction to the Engineering Profession. Dr. Hulbert received the B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University in 1958 and the Ph.D. in Ceramic Science from Alfred University in 1964. Dr. Hulbert founded the Society of Biomaterials and has received many awards during his illustrious career.
James Osborn Florida Gulf Coast University
JAMES R. OSBORN was a Visiting Professor in the College of Business at FGCU in 1999-2000 and has been an adjunct faculty member since then. He is currently teaching Engineering Concepts and Methods for the School of Engineering. He received four degrees from the University of Michigan: the B.S. in Mathematics and B.S.E. in Engineering Mechanics in 1962 and the M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics in 1965 and 1969, respectively. During his 32-year career in industry, he worked at General Motors, E.I. duPont, and W.L. Gore and Associates and as a Consulting Professional Engineer in Delaware.
Robert O'Neill Roger Williams University
ROBERT JAMES O'NEILL has been hired by FGCU as Professor and Program Director for Civil Engineering (starting his contract in August 2006). He is currently a Professor of Engineering at Roger Williams University. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Kansas State University in 1993, M.S. degrees in Structural and Geotechnical Engineering from Stanford Unversity in 1984, and a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1975. Dr. O'Neill has been active as a Senior Mentor and instructor in Project ExCEEd for the American Society for Civil Engineering.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Blank Slate Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University –
Innovative and Multidisciplinary from the Ground Up
Introduction
The history of Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is built on visionary support for higher education in one of the fastest growing areas of the nation – Southwest (SW) Florida. In the 1980s, community leaders began the initiative to establish a state university in SW Florida to serve the needs of Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, and Lee Counties (referred to as the 5- county region) and beyond. By 1991, the Florida Board of Regents formally recommended the development of Florida’s tenth state university, and Governor Lawton Chiles signed the legislation authorizing the new university. In 1992, the Board of Regents selected a 760-acre site in Lee County (between Naples and Ft. Myers) that had been donated by Alico, Inc. (www.alicoinc.com). FGCU opened its doors in August 1997 with 2,584 students (1602 undergraduate, 295 graduate, and 687 non-degree seeking) and grew to a total of 7,223 students (5,972 undergraduate, 763 graduate, and 488 non-degree seeking) in fall 2005.
From its beginning, long-range plans for FGCU included a School of Engineering to complement areas of specialization within the university. A 2000 Area Educational Program Needs Assessment Report conducted by MGT of America (Tallahassee, FL) stated that there was widespread interest throughout SW Florida for civil, electrical, mechanical, agricultural, and possibly computer engineering courses. The report also stated that the increasing need for growth management and municipal planners throughout the region spurred the need for additional civil engineers, but that the concentration of engineering employers was somewhat limited in the region at that time.
A study conducted by Dr. James Koch (Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and President Emeritus, Old Dominion University) during 2002-2003 echoed the need for a School of Engineering at FGCU. The report states: “The message is clear. Ft. Myers, by usual standards of measurement, is not a high technology area, even though some high technology employers are present. As a result, the region does not boast the technology related, knowledge-based jobs that one sees in other regions. And that, in turn, means that the region does not host as many highly attractive jobs that tend to offer higher than average salaries and which, in turn, often are connected to the generation of even more jobs. It is precisely this deficiency that engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University will address.”1 The Koch Report also stated that “SW Florida is the largest metropolitan region [MSA] in the United States not to host an accredited engineering program” and went on to recommend that FGCU offer degrees in environmental engineering, biotechnology engineering, and engineering management.
Blanchard, S., & Egiebor, N., & Sweeney, J., & Zidek, L., & Sechrist, C., & Hulbert, S., & Osborn, J., & O'Neill, R. (2006, June), Blank Slate Engineering At Florida Gulf Coast University – Innovative And Multidisciplinary From The Ground Up Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--490
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