Owl - Winter 2009

              Table of Contents
Letter from the Dean.................................1
New SOE Faculty.......................................2
Sikorsky honors high schoolers.................3
Tau Beta Phi..............................................3
New freshmen & graduates......................4
FA project...............................................4
SOE outreach............................................5
Gifts & Grants...........................................6
Engineering ethics....................................6
New Advisory Board members..................7
Intern spotlight.........................................7
www.fairfield.edu/engineering
Winter 2009
Letter from the Dean
January 2009
In academic symposia
and workshops and,
most prominently, in
meetings with industry
leaders, the question of the
future of this country in
technological leadership
is a perennial topic of conversation and
concern. In recent years, we seem to be
looking over our shoulder as our leader-ship
in technical innovation, in training
creative engineering manpower, even in
our research universities, seems to narrow
as large swaths of the world, namely India,
China, South Korea, Japan, and even our
European partners, are actively eroding our
lead in engineering and technology.
The National Academy of Engineering
and the federal government have taken
notice of this challenge to American sci-ence,
engineering, and technology, and
took steps to document and clarify it. In
2005, the National Academy released Rising
Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing
and Employing America for a Brighter
Economic Future, prepared by a 20-mem-ber
blue ribbon committee. The federal
government responded by establishing and
funding the National Innovation Initiative
in the same year. Has this helped? It is too
early to know. One would think that a
nation with 300 million citizens ought to be
able to attract and retain students in science
and engineering, so that our graduation rate
of about 65,000 students with B.S. degrees
in engineering should at least double.
My own view is that the challenge to our
technological education and leadership has
to be met locally, and, more narrowly, in
individual universities with engineering and
technology programs. And this, by the way,
includes the two-year community colleges
as well as the comprehensive and research
universities in the state. Acting locally, and
with the proper focus, is a necessary strat-egy
for bringing to fruition actions by fed-eral
agencies. Along these lines, recent out-reach
efforts in the School of Engineering
should be mentioned. We continue to take
steps to strengthen our academic alliance
with six community colleges in Connecticut
and one in New York. Just as important,
we have partnered with the Bridgeport
Catholic high schools and public high
schools to establish the Bridgeport High
School Engineering Academy (HSEA) sup-ported
this year by a $400,000 grant from
General Electric. Adjunct faculty from
the School of Engineering participate in
instruction at the HSEA, using the national
pre-engineering curriculum Project Lead
the Way.
In our School, we continue to provide our
students with the resources and pedagogy
for a first-rate engineering education. We
feel keenly our responsibility to prepare
the next generation of innovators and
Fairfield University
a publication of the school of engineering
continued on page 8