Faculty Meeting Notes - Winter 2007-2008

 

03/12/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Ken Halliday, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Dave Bayless, Jesus Pagan, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

> House Bill purchases need to be made/encumbered before April 1st 2008.

> Next Meeting: Wed April 2

 

For information:

> Randy asks everyone to inform him when sending any equipment to surplus (so he can verify it is not on our inventory list).

> Engineering and Public Policy Course being proposed as a J course, and it now has college support.  It would require ~10 sections per year (20 students per) and each dept. Would be asked to teach a section. (Is J course approval instructor specific?)

> Budget update - 3% raise pool in current budget, pending info from state on possible budget cuts.  Provost/EVP has fought to maintain 2nd year of equity increase in spite of tight budgets.  There is ongoing discussion of guidelines for dispersing funds to college / dept / faculty. 

> New SIS system "gap test" is proceeding.  More info expected next qtr.

> New Blackboard system in pilot testing - likely to convert to it in summer.

> Space allocation in new building - there is no assignable space for RCENT, except for biomedical research collaborations.  Classroom and student project space will be scheduled through the University and college.

> Term of Chairman appointment: 2 year initial appointment ending.  Dean has asked me to continue in the position.  Max consecutive term based on department consensus is 5 years (July 2011, after ABET visit)

> 5S approach to safety (Toyota factory method) being planned for 011 and SrD next year.

[The assertion of 5S is that by assigning everything a location, time is not wasted by looking for things. Additionally, it is quickly obvious when something is missing from its designated location. 5S advocates believe that the benefits of this methodology come from deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be stored.The 5S's are:

- Seiri (整理): Separating. Refers to the practice of going through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.
- Seiton (
整頓): Sorting. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. "Orderly" in this sense means arranging the tools and equipment in an order that promotes work flow. Tools and equipment should be kept where they will be used, and the process should be ordered in a manner that eliminates extra motion.
- Seisō (
清掃): Cleaning. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place. The key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of the daily work - not an occasional activity initiated when things get too messy.
- Seiketsu (
清潔): Standardizing. This refers to standardized work practices. It refers to more than standardized cleanliness (otherwise this would mean essentially the same as "systemized cleanliness"). This means operating in a consistent and standardized fashion. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are.
- Shitsuke (
): Sustaining. Refers to maintaining standards. Once the previous 4S's have been established they become the new way to operate. Maintain the focus on this new way of operating, and do not allow a gradual decline back to the old ways of operating.

(SrD - talk with Randy about buddy system to allow work when he is not present)

> Provost is evaluating the overhead return policy - Dave is on the committee and will keep us informed

 

 

For discussion / approval:

1. House Bill requests - current status and approval of some items (See Izzi's file)

> Get requests in by end of month for full consideration.  Rudy suggested using his combined tension/torsion tester. 

2.  Safety -

> 015 "door open alarm" being investigated.  (door doesn't always shut - look at getting door to close properly, may need to make sure all students who need it have a key, or have a card swipe lock.)

> Considering adding safety awareness and discussions about methods for enhancing safety to 280 / 580.  More info from safety committee later...

 

3. BOV poster session TH May 8th, 6-7 PM, OU Inn - one "hands-on" project display from the department and one from each center.  All RCENT faculty, staff and students invited.  Ideas for department project to display?

 > Bob will organize, with Haptics as the centerpiece

 

4. Proposed quarterly meeting schedule, by week (to support ABET prep, safety and risk mgmt, etc.)

1. Dept business (schedule review, assessment planning for new qtr, etc.)

2.  Area of Expertise mtgs to review and discuss assessment info from last quarter [Spring only]

3.  ABET business and "training"

4.  Department business

5.  Social (ASME, etc)

6.  ABET business and "training"

7. Guests / visitors (Dean, CTL, etc.)

8. Department business

9.  Area of Expertise mtgs to review and discuss assessment and other info from this quarter

10.  ABET business and "training" (yearly meeting will be at this time in Spring Qtr)

Exam Wk: no meetings

Break: no meetings

> Schedule approved, with comments on the importance of focusing on ABET.  There were also comments on the need to set short and long term milestones for the overall ABET process.

 

5. Student award nominations

> Sr leadership award - recognizes students who have demonstrated significant leadership in the department, college, university, community, or in any other situation. Students with proven accomplishments (not just a list of positions they occupied) are most likely to be selected for the award.

> Melissa, Alex Conatser, Jim Ferrence, Mike Starkey

> Outstanding ME senior - recognizes students that have demonstrated a balance of academic achievement, leadership and service, while acting with character and integrity.

> Melissa, , Mike Starkey

 

5. Grad Program

> PhD program updates - looking for CE to get approval soon, and we are next in line (but timeline is still not clear - very political)

> Discuss use of "college funds" for grad student support, specifically issues with PhD student funding

> Department policy: PhD students who are admitted need to have a faculty advocate

 

Open items:

>  Technical Writing Committee: (John, Greg, Frank,...)

> Develop standard Technical Writing guidelines for the department (common expectations for reports).

> Define a standard citation format for all departmental undergraduate (lab and design reports) and graduate (project and thesis) reports.

> Discussions initiated with CHE faculty concerning content of CHE418

> Thermal systems group is preparing to include a thermal systems design activity (with assessment) in ME328. The proposed wording of the outcome is:

[ABET-8] The program must demonstrate that graduates have the ability to work professionally in both thermal and mechanical systems areas, including the design and realization of such systems

8.1) Design and realization of mechanical systems [Competence*; ME472**; Design***]

8.2) Design of thermal systems [Competence; ME328; Thermal Systems]. 

> Note that the realization aspects of both mechanical and thermal systems are developed and assessed in the capstone design sequence (ME470/ME471/ME472), but that a specific thermal design activity is assessed in ME328.

> Lab / Experimental Methods: Frank Kraft, Dave Bayless, Izzi Urieli, Bob Williams, Khairul Alam,
[More definition of ME388/488 (are we doing the 6-8 experiments, each sponsored by a different faculty member for ME388?), assessment of ME288/388/488, use of lab space (015, 408, 298,...), need to address the outcome: An ability to explain the operation and performance characteristics of electric motors [Competence; ME388 or ME488], ...]

> Materials and Manufacturing: Frank Kraft, Khairul Alam, Jay Gunasekera [Determine how best to use the new CNC lathe to address the outcome: The ability to program and use CNC machines to manufacture simple parts [Competence; ME388], Develop tensile tests with the Instrom to handle mechanical systems in ME388 to serve as an acceptable replacement for CE223,...]

> Computers, programming and simulation: Izzi Urieli, John Cotton, Bob Williams
[ET181 new outcomes, ET181 and MATH344 assessment follow ups, ME351 and ME451, ...]

> Mechanical Systems: Bob Williams, Rudy Pasic,
[linear systems sequence, servo mechanism labs, Mechatronics, ...]

> Design: Greg Kremer, Ken Halliday, John Cotton
[ME303 and ME304/ME351, and ME451 (development and assessment),...]

> Other Items

> Put together a list of requests for departmental mtg with the Dean

> Departmental P&T guidelines

> Curriculum issues: Update on impact of the new Gen Ed Requirements (effective 08-09) and the total number of hours if ME280 and ME380 are added to the curriculum.

> Create programs form FYI to add ME280 and ME380 to curriculum.

> Make 321 a prereq for 388 (and include the steam turbine and other thermal systems labs)

> Address issue with transfer students and total # of hours of Math and BS (in catalogue, DARS, and by assigning a "transfer advisor")

> Correct the catalog wrt CE220 listed in same quarter as 263C.

> Address issue of the lack of courses for students early in the program (if they do not start in MATH263A)

> Promote tech elective "concentrations" such as Energy, Biomedical, Robotics, Automotive, Manufacturing, ...

> ABET review preparation

> Develop department-level understanding of an appropriate scope and level of difficulty for a graduate project (vs. a thesis).

> Need more SAB members (personal invitations to freshmen, sophomores and juniors) and GSAB members (Sarang, Erik K., PhD from Khairul or Bob ?)

> Report to Task Force on Centers of Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education - due date and format TBD
> College Strategic Plan and Workload policy

 

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03/05/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Ken Halliday, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Dave Bayless, Jesus Pagan, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

> House Bill purchases need to be made/encumbered before April 1st 2008.

 

Announcements:

> Statics prereq survey completed for this quarter (14/34 completed it), and data was compiled nicely by Carole - thanks.  Greg will informally discuss it with CE reps and offer the standard prereq survey as a tool they may want to implement since they are doing their own prereq inventories.  We will continue to compile data and Rudy will try to get better participation next time.

> Budget update:

a. Still waiting on Stocker money (travel, etc) to be credited to our operating account.  Hard to tell now if we will have any excess available to release to faculty for discretionary or other purposes.  More later...

b. Learned that student awards and science fair awards can be charged to accounts other than Foundation accounts -
c. All "cash on hand" processes linked to the college (petty cash, etc) are being eliminated based on audit findings.

> ICMT faculty hire - one ME in top 3 candidates

 

Quick items:

1) Continuation of report from most-of-the-day long ABET college retreat (Greg)

1. ABET is looking closely and giving deficiencies for undocumented prereq violations - we may need to change the pink slip process to require a letter in the file and department-level sign off.

> Remove the one line from the pink slips that requires a letter, and require a letter for that situation only.

2. Showing that faculty are current in discipline is important and failure to do so has led to concerns - it could be an issue for faculty who do not regularly attend conferences or do professional development.

3. We need to address the issue with transfer students and total # of hours of Math and BS (in catalogue, DARS, and by assigning a "transfer advisor")

4. We need to close the loop for technical writing.  Advisory board evaluations of lab reports is one part, but we probably need to show program improvements...

---------------------------Items above addressed at last mtg -----------------------------------------------------

5. We need to implement a more formal Sr. exit survey for employment / job title info - it is a new required reporting feature in the self study report. 

> Students suggested sharing Sr survey data with Robbyn in career services - maybe even get her office to do the survey and post the data (useful for recruiting, alumni relations, etc.). We should also ask alumni if they are willing to give permission to be contacted by students for job/career info.

6. We need to resume more frequent Area of Expertise meetings to review/discuss assessment data and courses, and document the assessment conclusions and recommendations

> Faculty preferred not to have meetings during exam week.  Based on the long breaks after Fall and Spring, review meetings for those quarters will be during 10th week (with an extended meeting or extra meeting during 10th week of Spring for the annual faculty program review meeting).  Winter review meeting will be 2nd week of Spring quarter. 

 

2) Computer Lab report (John)

  > Update on student requests relative to tech fee - discussed duplex printer for lab.  Added question to SAB student survey to get additional ideas.

  > The following Tech Fee policy proposal was approved

To request tech fee money to purchase software, please include responses to the following questions in your request:

a) Course use: Is the software used in a required course, an elective course, or not in any course?

b) Individual student use: Will the software be used to support student mentoring (including undergrad research, graduate research, student projects,...)

c) Number of students impacted: Please estimate how many students a year will use the software for any purpose (research, course work, etc.) 

d) Is there any other justification for use of Tech Fee money for this purchase (for example you plan to give a yearly seminar in colloquium on the software application to make students more aware of its capabilities)?

> The computer lab coordinator (John) will review the requests and either act on them (with department chair approval) or if there is some question he will bring them to the faculty meeting for discussion.  Requests for software that is primarily for research and that would impact a small number of students are only eligible for up to 25% of their cost from tech fee money. For transparency, the computer lab coordinator will periodically report to the faculty on tech fee budget and purchases.

 

3) SAB/GSAB:

> The revised SAB program survey was approved and will be used in ME304 / ME 314/ ME472 early in Spring Qtr.  A sophomore specific survey will also be made by eliminating some questions that do not apply and it will be administered in ME 224 early in Spring Qtr. The department will help compile the results, and the SAB will evaluate them and use them in their report to the Advisory Board.

 

> Sr. and Outstanding Leader awards were discussed.  There is little student awareness of the awards.  Other departments give larger awards than we do, but there is no need to match them.  [Note: Civil -  3 senior awards, ($300, $250, $200) 3 junior awards ($200, $175, $150) and one outstanding student award  - ($150), EECS - 2 awards ($250 junior, $500 senior) plus plaques, ME - 2 senior awards - $100 each plus plaque, 1 junior - $50 plus plaque, 1 sophomore - $50 plus plaque]. 

> We haven't had an increase in our award amounts for a long time, so we will increase our awards to $300 for Outstanding Sr. (combo of GPA, academic achievements, and leadership within and outside the university) and $150 each for all GPA-based awards.  Another note: The Sr. Leader nominee for the Loehr Leadership award gets $100 from RLI, but no monetary award from department.

> The Department of Campus Life encourages nomination of students who have demonstrated great leadership while attending Ohio University - Due April 9th.  Awards presented at the 25th Annual Leadership Awards Gala, Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

 

4) Evidence of student problems caused by MATH dept.  This can include specific anecdotes or broad observations.

> Unexplained inconsistency in grading from one section to another. 

> Examples of students who have done well in Math 115 - and then D's or failed 263A.

> Lots of student feedback on their dissatisfaction with their MATH instructors.

> Math concerns from TJ - they avoid application problems, which are important to engineers.  We need them to focus on common problems in Engineering, not the analytically difficult problems.

 

5) We put together a list of requests/questions for our departmental mtg with the Dean (Spring quarter)

> Space allocation

> Workloads and P&T - High WSCH loads for ME profs puts us at a disadvantage

> Faculty lines - to address our high student/faculty ratio

> Plans for the Stocker and Russ bequests - scholarships (Ugrad and grad), recruiting, pipeline programs, increase travel support, ...

 

 

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02/27/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Dave Bayless, Jesus Pagan, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

> White Award Applications due to department March 1.

Teaching Committee: Bob (chair), with Dave (2006) and Greg (2005).  Teaching Application

Research Committee: Rudy (chair), with Frank (2006) and Dave (2005).  Research Application

> House Bill purchases need to be made/encumbered before April 1st 2008.

> As agreed in the 2/6/08 ME faculty meeting, we will follow the same procedure this year as in the past for the faculty evaluations that help determine distribution of any merit-based salary increases (including equity adjustments).  To be considered, please edit your form from previous years, or fill out a new form available at

 http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~kremer/ChairStuff/ME_Faculty_Eval_form.doc. The due date will be March 3, 2008.

 

Announcements:

> International Space University may be coming to campus in summer '08.  If so, it may displace some summer classes to rooms outside of Stocker.

> Classroom space on first floor of Stocker will be made available to departments (primarily to ME and CE) after the classrooms in the new building are on line.  We will have the chance to use or trade spaces.  Committee (Dennis, Val, Gayle, Greg and Shawn) will begin to discuss / plan.

  > Possibly use for dep't controlled classrooms, location for SEM... Try to find Stocker layout to help decide what spaces would be best for the department...

> A Copy of the topics list was reviewed for the first course in the MATH Proposal concerning splitting MATH 344 Numerical Methods for Civil and Mechanical Engineers into two 2 hour courses, 1 that could be taken concurrently with MATH 263B and a 2nd which would be department specific applications in differential equations.  There were huge concerns with freshmen being able to handle the topics listed, especially in a 2-credit course.  Per Todd Young, MATH will keep teaching MATH344 as long as we want them to, so we will not make any changes now and will wait to see what happens with the course proposal with the other departments. 

 

Carole brought up an issue with course availability for sophomores - focused first on ME288 but more broadly a concern that students leave when they cannot get into courses needed for their degree.

Discussion of ME288 prereqs led to a possible need to have 263B formally listed as a prereq due to the histograms in statistics.

 

Quick items:

1) Selected a 3-member Russ Best Paper Review Committee (Frank, Bob and Dave submitted entries).

> Khairul, Rudy and John.

 

2) Report from all-day meeting on employment issues (Greg)

1.Campus Safety is a mindset (new notification systems being implemented, there is already an emergency info link on the OU home page http://www.ohio.edu/emergency/)

2. Internal Controls Survey (emailed to faculty)

3. Pre-employment background search policy (near approval status, will add some time [<48 hours] and cost to faculty searches)

4. Employee misconduct

5. Americans with Disabilities Act

6. Harassment policy

7. Public records (all you can do for now is limit the written records you create)

8. Ohio Ethics Law

 

3) Report from most-of-the-day long ABET college retreat (Greg)

1. ABET is looking closely and giving deficiencies for undocumented prereq violations - we may need to change the pink slip process to require a letter in the file and department-level sign off.

> Remove the one line from the pink slips that requires a letter, and require a letter for that situation only.

2. Showing that faculty are current in discipline is important and failure to do so has led to concerns - it could be an issue for faculty who do not regularly attend conferences or do professional development.

3. We need to address the issue with transfer students and total # of hours of Math and BS (in catalogue, DARS, and by assigning a "transfer advisor")

4. We need to close the loop for technical writing.  Advisory board evaluations of lab reports is one part, but we probably need to show program improvements...

 

---------------------------Items below not addressed due to time -----------------------------------------------------

 

5. We need to implement a more formal Sr. exit survey for employment / job title info - it is a new required reporting feature in the self study report.  [Is there a way to make it valuable to students / alumni - for example by putting a table of the data on the web each year with student permission?

6. We need to resume more frequent Area of Expertise meetings to review/discuss assessment data and courses, and document the assessment conclusions and recommendations.

7. We need to correct the catalog wrt CE220 listed in same quarter as 263C.

8. We need resume more formal yearly faculty program review meetings.  Proposed meeting during exam week: Wednesday June 11th, 10AM - 2PM.

 

4) Area of Expertise Committee updates?

> Statics prerequisite survey data [Rudy]

> Updates on other open items?

 

5) Computer Lab report (John)

  > Update on student requests relative to tech fee

  > Tech Fee policy discussion?

 

6) SAB/GSAB - Try to get easier access to style guides for ME grad students (in addition to the copy at the library), and work with Melissa to refine the SAB data collection method for this year.

 

7) ME288 - Do we need to add another section?  Main issue is lack of courses for students early in the program. 

 

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02/06/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Ken Halliday, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

> White Award Applications due to department March 1.

Teaching Committee: Bob (chair), with Dave (2006) and Greg (2005).  Teaching Application

Research Committee: Rudy (chair), with Frank (2006) and Dave (2005).  Research Application

 

Announcements:

Congratulations to Dave Bayless for being elected to the grade of Fellow in ASME!

 

Hydraulics Lab Opportunity - IT department and the college are working with Parker-Hannifin to have a Hydraulics lab donated, and have invited ME participation. 

a) Any ME courses we would be interested in using the lab for (demos, experiments, etc.)?  If so, what equipment would we want? 

b) Next Tuesday a group from OU will visit Parker-Hannifin. Anyone from ME want to go along on to see options and give the ME perspective?  If not, anyone willing to be the ME contact person to work with Pete Klein on this?

FYI, we are likely to get 8 training stations, with hydraulics and controls (PLCs) and sensors...probably similar to this lab description from U of I: "The laboratory consists of hydraulic and pneumatic test systems that are interfaced to a computer-based data acquisition and control system. The focus of the lab activities is to support classes related to modeling, analysis, and control of dynamic systems."

 > No ME champion for now (but Dr. Jay is willing to help out).  There is interest in using the lab in 388 and 401 and maybe some other courses.

 

>Follow up on the MATH Proposal concerning splitting MATH 344 Numerical Methods for Civil and Mechanical Engineers into two 2 hour courses, 1 that could be taken concurrently with MATH 263B to give a compact introduction to Matlab programming and some numerical methods early in the curriculum, and a 2nd which keeps its ME focus and covers the second half of the material which is primarily differential equations. (http://www.math.ohiou.edu/courses/math344/).  Todd Young has been asked to come to a college CAC meeting for additional discussion.

> For Rudy's idea of offering a workshop for our students, Ken thought that we would need an immediate application if it was added to ME101.  It may be more appropriate in ET181 since there are immediate applications, if MATLAB is appropriate to introduce in that course.  The computer committee will revisit the overall issues with ET181 and at that time will consider including MATLAB in the course.

 

> Dear Chairs/Directors: I am writing to ask for your help in promoting the upcoming interviews with candidates for Vice President for Research and Creative Activity and Dean of the Graduate College.  This is a very important position for the university and the open forums provide an opportunity for the university community to become acquainted with each candidate and participate in the selection process by filling out a candidate evaluation form that will be available at the forums.  I would appreciate it if you would encourage the faculty in your departments/schools to attend the remaining open forums.

Mark Welker- Feb 11th  - 4:10pm Baker Center room 240

Rathindra Bose - Feb 19th - 4:10pm Baker Center room 240

CV's for each of the candidates can be found on the search web site: http://www.ohio.edu/apaa/VP_RESEARCH_SEARCH.cfm

Sincerely,Martin Tuck PhD, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

 

> Next Wed Feb 13th, ASME social 12-1, 103.

> Feb 20th - open time for area of expertise meetings.  Feb 27 - normal meeting.

 

Quick items:

1) SAB - At the request of the Advisory Board to provide a sampling of student perspectives on the department and the curriculum, the SAB proposed doing a survey in several of our new or modified classes (ME288, ME303, ME314, ...) to reach a range of students and ask some general questions about the curriculum, and ask for some comments on the new courses. 

> Ken was concerned that the initial survey that was presented in the meeting crossed the line into assessing individual courses/instructors rather than the program and curriculum.  Greg will work with the SAB and the Industrial Advisory Board to clarify what data is needed and how best to obtain it this year.

 

2) Statics prerequisite survey data [Rudy]

> Only 2 extra submissions - Rudy will present data at the next meeting from the 17 tests completed

 

3) House Bill purchases need to be made/encumbered before April 1st 2008.  Remaining balance = $20,234

> Izzi and his committee will accept applications for lab equipment that directly supports undergraduate labs.  See Izzi for instructions and the application guidelines.

 

4) Faculty availability for teaching next year - any planned buy-outs or other things to consider as we look at the teaching schedule?

> Izzi on sabbatical in Winter, Khairul 1 class buyout in Winter and Spring, Frank and Dave may also buy out of a class.

 

5) Discussions initiated with CHE faculty concerning content of CHE418.  Need ME faculty to participate in the discussions. 

> Frank and Ken will meet with Dan Gulino, Darin Ridgway, and Dr. Gu.

 

6) Faculty evaluation form -

> We will use same process for this year, with a due date in early March.  We expect equity money to be available for merit-based distribution.  We do not know about the general salary pool.

 

7) Tech Fee report (John): Money is available for software or other technology to support students and teaching. 

> Khairul will talk to John about Polyflow

> Melissa suggested cleaning towels for the computer keyboards.  SAB will consider other student needs.

 

8)  ME Department metrics  - updated after meeting with the dean and based on discussions at last meeting.  Only one more issue to discuss now - PE registration for faculty - what is our target? (50% of eligible Group 1 is college goal). 

    > We may return to metrics later after we have data and an understanding of their use & importance.

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1/30/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; Dave Bayless, John Cotton, Bob Williams, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

 

Announcements:

>MATH Proposal: Thinking about offering a new 2 credit freshman course, tentatively titled: "Introduction to Numerical Methods and Programming". It would be modeled on and take materials from the current course: MATH 344 Numerical Methods for Civil and Mechanical Engineers.  Our idea would be to take about half of the material from 344 to make a 2 hour course that could be taken concurrently with MATH 263B to give a compact introduction to Matlab programming and some numerical methods early in the curriculum.  If it works, we would then reduce MATH 344 to a two hour course which keeps its ME focus and covers the second half of the material which is primarily differential equations. The ME majors in MATH 344 routinely say that they wish they could have had the course earlier in their careers and when asked, they unanimously favor the idea of the proposed change. (http://www.math.ohiou.edu/courses/math344/)

> There was general support for the idea

> Questions: What is real breakup of material? Ideas were offered for how it could be done.

> Related discussion: Rudy offered to lead a MATLAB short-course for students.  Maybe offer it in ME101.  He will talk to Ken.

 

Quick items:

> Statics prerequisite survey data [Rudy] - Report postponed until more data can be collected.

> Curriculum change suggestion: The idea of moving ME412 into Jr year, possibly before ME328 was thoroughly discussed by the thermal systems group after the main faculty meeting.  There were good arguments for both sides, depending on whether you prefer a systems-first or a component-first approach.  In the end it was decided to try to move ME412 to the junior year in the catalog and in our advising materials, but not to add any prerequisites that would force it to happen.

> Feb 22nd - ME Advisory board members on campus in morning for SrD help sessions - may be available in early afternoon for talks to classes.

> ME Department metrics  - updated after meeting with the dean.  Significant discussions, especially about diversity goals.  Plan to follow up on this the Dean

> Upcoming meetings: Feb 6th - normal meeting.  Feb 13th, ASME social.  Feb 20th - open time for area of expertise meetings.  Feb 27 - normal meeting.

> ME388 / CHE418 Spring schedule conflict.  Moving ME388 TH session to Wednesday would solve it.

****Consider eliminating CHE418 from the curriculum.  Replace with a ME materials lab to replace CE223 and CHE418.

> ME328 / CHE418 conflict - no change planned since it is not a graduation critical issue - and ME328 may be offered in summer, and CHE418 is able to be taken next year.

> Computer/Software report (John)

> SAB/GSAB items

> Faculty evaluations - same process for this year?

 

Agenda:

> Thermal Systems group discussion of thermal design outcome.

At minimum we need a short term assessment solution.  We can also prepare for a longer term curriculum solution.
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1/23/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Ken Halliday, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, Alex Conatser, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

 

Announcements:

> PE salary incentive - $1500 added to base, plus Dean will pay associated preparation and travel expenses

> Yield activities are again being encouraged by the University

> Sick leave reminder - faculty must file if they are out or if they spend time in hospital for an extended period (days)

> Russ College Research Fair, May 9th in Walter Hall, faculty-focused displays/demos, goal is to demonstrate (to the Board of Visitors and to other within the college) the expertise available in the college

> 60% classroom scheduling on hold until details can be worked out with departmental schedulers (Steph is our representative).  They are starting with scheduling of 125+ rooms.

> State Budget uncertainty - should know by end of January

> College funding looks better in long term due to major gifts

> Physics plans to switch two weeks of material between 252 and 253. Specifically, the material on electrostatics currently in 252 will be moved to 253 and material on the wave properties of light and geometrical optics will be moved from 253 to 252. The rational for this change is that less than half of the students that take 253 take it in the quarter immediately following the one in which they take 252. By moving the material on electrostatics into 253 we will have a complete unit on electricity and magnetism. Moving the material on light into 252 is justified by emphasizing the wave properties of light and not the electromagnetic properties, as is currently done.

> ME467 Biomechanics of Human Motion approved by CAC.

 

Quick items:

> Stocker Scholars, Sat Feb 16th, need 2 faculty from each program to talk to families at the beginning (Dave will be there, need one more, Bob)

> Need to schedule departmental mtg with the Dean (he has no agenda, but wants to meet all departments to keep in touch and answer questions) - put together a list of requests

> Faculty training required for writing / reviewing documents?

> We need to establish Departmental P&T guidelines (The Dean said that we can no longer just rely on the college guidelines).  [Dave volunteered to be on the committee to work on it]

> Per Dave: ME 388 will not really conflict with ME 328 in the Spring, as the lecture is really only 1-2 T/Th, so the 2pm start time of ME 328 should be fine

> ME351/ME401 conflict in Spring?

 

Agenda:

The College safety committee has instituted a requirement for posting in the lab the operating procedures and emergency procedures for all experiments, both instructional and research. Randy discussed this and we will take steps to comply.

 

Addressed issue with ME288 outcome for DOE awareness - moved to ME488

 

Thermal Systems discussion: (ran out of time before completing this - will follow up after the meeting)

> Adopt the curriculum suggestion?: Move 412 into Jr year and make it a prereq for 470 instead of 328 (though there was some concern from students that we shouldn't allow too much time between 321 and 328).

Other options?  At minimum we need a short term solution, we can also prepare for a longer term solution:

a. Reinstituting ME417 was proposed, but it is 4 credits with prerequisites of ME328 and 412 - this would cause issues with total hours and scheduling (hard to fit in before Sr. year). 

b. 1-hour "thermal design lab" coreq with ME412

c. 1-hour lab add-on to ME328

[Note - the better of b and c depends mostly on where they fall in the curriculum.]

d. Do it in SrD by restricting project selection to faculty-selected projects that incorporate both thermal and mechanical design and instituting measures to ensure all individuals complete design work in both aspects of the project. This would require increased involvement of thermal design faculty in the Sr. design sequence and a long term commitment to continue it.

e. Make ME412 a prereq for ME451, and do a thermal design project in ME451.

f. Make ME328 a prereq for ME488, and do a steam turbine design / experimental activity in 488.

 

1/16/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; John Cotton, Bob Williams, Ken Halliday, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, Alex Conatser, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

 

Notes:

> ASME social Feb 13th

> SAB / GSAB gave input on thermal design issues with curriculum.  Target any new projects for Jr year, if it is a lab add-on make sure it doesn't require more time than warranted by the number of credits,...

> GSAB concerns with MATH 545 - it doesn't seem to be working well with the current instructor.  TJ will keep us informed.

> Rudy gave an update on the Statics prerequisite survey.  He plans to have data at the next meeting.

> Outcomes Review - moved one from MATH344 to ME401.  Posted the updated outcomes list on departmental webpage for easy access by all (http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~kremer/ChairStuff/Specific%20Outcomes_withFundamentals_Jan08.doc).

> Thermal Systems discussion:

> Related curriculum suggestion: Move 412 into Jr year and make it a prereq for 470 instead of 328 (though there was some concern from students that we shouldn't allow too much time between 321 and 328).

Options Discussed:

a. Reinstituting ME417 was proposed, but it is 4 credits with prerequisites of ME328 and 412 - this would cause issues with total hours and scheduling (hard to fit in before Sr. year). 

b. 1-hour "thermal design lab" coreq with ME412

c. 1-hour lab add-on to ME328

[Note - the better of b and c depends mostly on where they fall in the curriculum.  There was general

be taken after it How to address the thermal design outcome.  Idea - add a 1-credit hour  to the ME412 course.]

d. Do it in SrD by restricting project selection to faculty-selected projects that incorporate both thermal and mechanical design and instituting measures to ensure all individuals complete design work in both aspects of the project. This would require increased involvement of thermal design faculty in the Sr. design sequence and a long term commitment to continue it.

 

1/09/08

Attendees: Greg Kremer; Izzi Urieli, Rudy Pasic, Khairul Alam; Dave Bayless, John Cotton, Bob Williams, Ken Halliday, Frank Kraft, Carole Womeldorf, Stephanie Walker, Melissa Feigi, TJ Cyders

 

Reminder Schedule

> Course Assessment  Report "front page" due for all required Ugrad classes - please see Steph if you need a template.

> Chemical Inventory due by Jan 10th - Please get with Randy if you have not yet completed it.

 

Announcements

> Jun Choi has accepted our job offer and will start July 1 2008.

> Jesus Pagan is currently working for the OCRC and will move into departmental role on July 1, 2008.

> Randy has updated the safety contact sheets and the nameplate info outside of each ME lab based on college guidelines.  Please make sure all students using the labs are aware of the procedures to follow in the event of a safety event.

> Two Sr. Design teams have received prototype funding awards from ASEE for their NISH projects, and one team received PURF funds.

> Randy's primary job responsibility is to support the Sr. Design machine shop and undergraduate labs.  He can help out with some research related items and special projects, but only as his schedule allows.  We have been asking too much of him in side projects, hampering his ability to prepare 011 and 015.

> Department "poster" is available for events, conferences, etc.  It is set up in Greg's office if you want to take a look.

> Stephanie is continuing to move into an administrative coordinator role (Assessment coordinator for Data and reports, Enrollment management coordinator, Special events coordinator)

 

Agenda Items

> The College safety committee has instituted a requirement for posting in the lab the operating procedures for all experiments, both instructional and research. (Randy)

> Departmental Safety Committee Update.

> Display area in hall - See Steph if you have items of interest to add to the area.

> ET280 - need a volunteer to do the ME talk on Feb 20.  I can provide a basic presentation file.  The emphasis is on examples - students or faculty talking about ME projects is good.

> Department Metrics - do we want to discuss?

> SAB items?

> Computer Lab items (John)

> Fundamentals & Service Courses (Rudy Pasic, Jay Gunasekera, Carole Womeldorf): Status of prerequisite inventory in Dynamics to make case for integrating Statics with Dynamics in a Mechanics course sequence.

> ICMT faculty hire Update?

> TA issues?

> 60% classroom scheduling rule

> Other items?

 

·        Other long term actions 

 

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Long Term Actions:

·        ABET / Assessment leader needed.

·        IT117 long term plan

·        Space issues

Modified January 2008, Copyright 2008, Ohio University

 
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