Best Poster Award for 2008

Announced at ASEE Session 3541, ELD Professional Issues Forum by Alice Trussell, Moderator (and ELD Awards Committee Chair)

Best Poster Award:

ELD Best Poster Award for 2008 is given to the work that is well-organized and communicates the content, presentation, and enthusiasm of the presenter(s). With only five posters in the running, three posters rose to the top and one stood out above the rest.

The person who received this year’s award reminded Alice of an allegory entitled “Of Wolves, Sheep, and Sheep Dogs.” The essence of the message was that there are three types of people in the world: the sheep, or people living in the world, trying to make a living; the wolves, who threaten the lives or the livelihoods of the sheep; and the sheep dogs, the protectors of society, who are constantly vigilant - always on the lookout for the wolves (or their ilk) who threaten the sheep. This year, the ELD Best Poster Award is awarded to Larry Thompson, ELD’s very own sheepdog, for his poster entitled SAE DRM: What’s Happening?

Through his dogged determination, Larry has kept on top of the SAE DRM issue. Larry hounded ELD membership, surveying them to determine whether or not SAE’s DRM policies had any effect of their decisions to purchase, retain, or cancel the SAE Digital Library. Over the last year, SAE has modified their original DRM (in response to ELD members and other folks) and Larry nipped at the heels of ELD members again to see if those modifications changed the member’s original purchasing, retention, or cancelation decision.

The poster was clearly and simply displayed and communicated well that “SAE just does not get it!” The ELD Poster Session proved to be an excellent forum for reaching a large number of ASEE faculty regarding this important issue.

Congratulations Larry!

By-Laws Changes Considered During Annual Meeting

Mel DeSart opened the discussion concerning By-Laws changes that will be voted on later this summer. Four copies of the proposed changes have been placed at each table and copies were distributed to the ELD membership 30 days prior to this meeting.

• Two of the three changes are mandates from the ASEE Board of Directors. Article XI, Sections 4 and 5, provide language required by the ASEE Board. “Amendments approved by the Division (in section 4)/Executive Committee (in section 5) shall be submitted through the PIC IV Chair for approval by majority vote of the ASEE Board of Directors and shall take effect only upon such approval.”
• Article XI, Section 3 includes language regarding the distribution of proposed amendments to the ELD membership. Current wording ties any consideration of these amendments to this Annual Meeting and ties the distribution to the ELD electronic discussion list, ELD-L, and the mail. These proposed changes would permit the ELD Executive Committee more flexibility and simplify the language.
• Addendum 1, Section 11: Liaisons: Language has been adopted by the Executive Committee to place the Liaisons chair on track with the other Committee Chairs.
• The first question from the floor addressed the need for ASEE approval. Does this not take away some autonomy we have as a Division? As the question was being asked, Mary Anderson-Rowland, outgoing PIC IV Chair and representative to the ASEE Board of Directors, arrived and Mel turned the podium over to her for her answer. Mary explained that all Divisions of ASEE have been required to include such language in their By-Laws. ELD is not being singled out. The ASEE Board believes that this consistency of language will strengthen the Society as a whole and not weaken any Division.

After answering this one question, we then went out of the normal order of business to allow Mary Anderson-Rowland to proceed with her PIC IV Chair Report (not listed here).

Having completed her PIC IV report, Mary Anderson Rowland excused herself to attend another Division Annual Meeting. We then resumed the normal order of business and Mel DeSart continued our By-Laws discussion.

• Concern was reiterated regarding By-Laws changes being forced on Divisions by ASEE. One member will vote against the changes on principle and concern that such action leads to homogeneity within the Society. The irony is that they just established a Diversity Board. Mel responded that the main reason for the language added to our By-Laws (and all Division By-Laws) is to ensure that Division By-Laws do not violate the Society’s By-Laws.
• Another member asked how often the ASEE Board meets? The ASEE Board meets twice a year, at this conference and in February. They met Sunday and approved By-Laws then and will meet Wednesday. Like ELD, they are looking at ways to streamline the By-Laws voting process (electronic voting).
• Another member questioned the wording in section three – why was “distributed” changed to “made available?” Mel responded that the language was “fuzzed up” on purpose. The new language permits consideration of By-Laws changes at times other than the Annual Meeting. Thirty days notice would still be required before consideration. Consideration would still be necessary before a vote. “Distributed” ties the hands of the EC to the ELD Discussion list. The new language permits distribution or notification of proposed amendments through means not yet dreamed of without having to change the By-Laws to accommodate every future means of communication.

Voting on these By-Laws was not held at this meeting. Look for details about the voting to be sent out in the near future over ELD-L.

ASEE/ELD Conference Highlights

HIGHLIGHTS - ASEE/ELD Conference – Pittsburgh, PA, June 22-26, 2008

Main Plenary Session - Engineering Education for the 21st Century, Dr. Charles Vest, President of the National Academy

Our new century will be determined by nano and bio technology issues concerning energy, water, food and sustainability:
+ Decline in share of R&D in the U.S., fewer U.S. engineering grads and
China dominating the numbers of graduating engineers
+ New connections (Thomas Friedman, “The World is Flat” -- “jobs are now just a mouse click away”), open innovation (“globally integrated enterprises” Foreign Affairs, The Globally Integrated Enterprise, IBM’s Samuel J. Palmisano, May/June, 2006) … MIT’s new Open courseware initiatives
= Engineers facing grand challenges to creative problem-solving: Energy, environmental sustainability, manufacturing and communication logistics, improving medical and healthcare, reducing vulnerability to threats (both natural and people-caused) and expanding the human capacity for joy. Engineering a prime career for today's young people and women who say they want jobs in fields where they can "help people and make the world better."





Sustainable Energy Issues in Education: Developing a Practical Applicable course in Sustainability – an Engineering Challenge.


Florida Gulf Coast University is introducing a new program (2009) in the Whitaker Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics on Sustainability in Education: Interdisciplinary studies to focus on water, energy and civic engagement , ethics, consumer communications, case studies to encourage lifelong learning and critical thinking … Partnering with Florida Solar Energy Center, University Central Florida for solar technology study and public problem solving … Four- semester course series: 1) World views and water .. 2) Energy /Shelter .. 3) Food/Agriculture … 4)Waste, Health, and Pathways to Sustainability. Lectures, small group meetings, field trips.





Engineering Librarian’s Basics Boot Camp – Engineering librarians discussed their information literacy efforts: Business tools (Company/market research, UN & Census demographic data, financial and competitor data, Yahoo Finance, executive/industry profiles, SWOT analysis, NAICS … ASME Tech Papers (Use of Linda Hall Library for Science, Engineering and Technology Information in Kansas City (http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/) ) … Cultivating Grey Literature & Older Engineering Literature ( Be careful about tossing old engineering indexes and literature, language and terminology differences in past, older indexes, work from engineers in foreign countries useful today (i.e. Texas A&M has engineering studies about Nazi use of alternative fuel) … NTIS to introduce a new interface this summer ) … Your students are Pod People, But that’s Alright ( Handout of web links for Instructional Websites on Podcasting, Audio/video Editing Software and Further Readings.)





Millennial Behaviors and Higher Education Focus Group (Jam-Packed!) Richard Sweeney, New Jersey Institute of Technology focus group among Millennials, discussing these young people's characteristics: Direct, confident, inclusive and tolerant … Abstract thinkers, adaptive, organized and self-disciplined … READ LESS, digital natives/ gamers, want practical consumer choices and personalized/customized products … Impatient multi-taskers, experiential learners who seek balance in their lives. Focus group held among 12 college Millennials (born 1979-1994).



For more pictures in/around Pittsburgh, UPitt, the Incline and Pat, Charlott and Beth pigging out on desserts @ Monterey Bay atop the incline, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/watkinspatricia1/PittsburghASEEELDConference

ICE Virtual Library Competition Winner

"We [ICE] are pleased to announce that the winner of the competition was Alice Trussell from Kansas State University - many congratulations!"

Alice won an iPod Nano.

2009 Author Guidelines - Dates

2009 Annual Conference Publication Deadlines (as distributed to program chairs in Pittsburgh)

Monday, Sept 8 – Friday, Oct 10, 2008	Abstract Submission Process Open
Friday, January 9, 2009	Abstract Accept or Reject Decisions Deadline
Friday, January 9 – Friday, February 6, 2009	Draft Paper Submission Process Open
Wednesday, January 21, 2009	Registration and Housing Opens
Friday, February 27, 2009	Draft Paper Decision Deadline
Friday February 27 – Friday, March 13, 2009	Final Paper Submission Process Open
Friday March 13 – Friday, March 20, 2009	Paper Accepted Pending Changes Final Upload Phase Open
Friday, March 27, 2009	Paper Accepted Pending Changes Decision Deadline
Friday, April 3, 2009	Author Registration Deadline, Proceedings Fees & Copyright Transfer Due

Publish to Present - Session 3541

As most of you know, ASEE has chosen to move to a Publish to Present model for all technical sessions and posters. The reason presented to us by our current PIC IV chair (Mary Anderson –Rowland), is that ASEE made this choice to make the conference proceedings, and publishing in them, more reputable, since they are all reviewed.

It was pointed out that there was no discussion about the reviewing process or expected paper content outlined by ASEE to help with this perceived increase to the proceedings reputation. All divisions are responsible for the review of their own papers, and setting expectations for content of those papers.

During the Professional Issues Forum those of us still at the conference on Wednesday afternoon had a lively discussion about what this means for our division, which has previously been what was called an “abstract only” division.

The first order of business during the session was to make sure all members of the division had a complete understanding of which sessions would be effected, what we have control over as a division, and what exists for potential work-arounds.

As requested during the session, I’m going to write up my comments (as best I can remember them 5 days later) for all division members who were not present, and as a reminder for those who were there.

- First, all presentations during technical sessions and the division poster session are required to include a paper in the conference proceedings. Presentations during panel sessions, guest speakers and distinguished lecturers are not required to publish a paper.

- Technical sessions are all those where presenters have suggested their paper and been assigned to a session which was designated as a technical session. In a technical session all presenters are members of ASEE.

o This has always been the bulk of the sessions offered by ELD.

- Panel presentations can include both papers suggested by authors through abstract submission and/or invited guest speakers.

o As an example, our Biomedical Informatics session in Pittsburgh was a panel presentation.

§ Mary Lou Klem was an invited guest speaker.

§ The other two presentations were submitted as abstracts.

- Division poster sessions: this is the Wednesday morning session, when all posters from all divisions are presented. Any posters presented during this time would need to have published papers accompanying them in the proceedings.

o The benefit of this session, and our participation in it, is that we have the opportunity to present our posters in a situation which allows non-librarians to review our information.

o Posters are not considered second tier publication or presentation options at ASEE. The posters provide an opportunity for divisions which receive too may quality papers on a topic for one session to have the ‘extras’ presented in the poster session.

There is one potential mechanism available to get around the need to publish a paper in order to present during the conference. The panel presentation option would allow ELD to receive abstracts for a session, place them all in a panel presentation, and the authors would not be expected to publish a paper with ASEE. This option could also be used for a local poster session which would not include published papers. In this example we would assign a collection of abstracts to a session, have all the posters displayed around the room and have each presenter give an approximately 5 minute presentation on their poster. The rest of the time could be used for people to mingle and ask questions of the authors.

- There was a concern that panel presentations would not have authors and titles listed in the program. Unless there are changes to SmoothPaper, any abstracts submitted that are assigned to panel presentation, will continue to have their title and author information reflected in the conference program.

- This option was maintained specifically for divisions like ours, where publish to present has not been the way we have operated and requiring papers could be a hindrance to our future conference participation.

As mentioned above, the reviewing process for papers is the responsibility of each division. This means we can set our own guidelines for what we are expecting in submitted papers. A bit of additional discussion about this topic during the EEC (Extended Executive Committee) meeting on Wednesday afternoon, brought up the point that the publications committee has guidelines it uses for review of submitted papers. As a starting point, these guidelines will be posted for ELD members, so they can be aware of what the reviewers are looking for when they read the papers.

Author Rights

ASEE is still unclear about our concern regarding their required copyright transfer in order to publish your paper with them. Mel DeSart, the chair of our Scholarly Communications Committee, will continue to work with our incoming PIC IV chair, (Noel Schulz) our representative to the ASEE Board of Directors. The goal will be to get a generic author rights addendum, applicable for all ASEE authors. More information on the progress in this area will be forthcoming from Mel.