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From the Dean

Dear CoE Faculty and Staff,

I hope you all have had some relaxation or been able to catch up on work over our Winter Break. Rumor has it that the snow will soon disappear!

Please enjoy the updates in this email newsletter describing recent activities throughout the College. The range of accomplishment and excellence demonstrated by our faculty, students, and staff is truly marvelous.

You recently received notice from Provost Martha Pollack that planning is under way to name the search committee to assist in finding my successor. This is customary timing. Dean terms at Michigan are restricted to two 5-year appointments. I am nearing the end of my 9th year and so it is time to begin planning for the future. I do want for everyone to know that I am by no means retiring and we still have much work to do while I am dean. We currently are searching for more than 40 new faculty members, we have major plans for construction and facility upgrades, we are deepening our partnerships with other units across campus, and we are in the middle of a billion dollar fund raising campaign. This all is invigorating and we have no time to rest!

Very best wishes as we launch into the second half of the semester.

Regards,

Dave

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AOSS to Change Name

Effective September 1, 2015, the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences will be renamed the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering. The change reflects the department's evolution, in line with research trends and societal needs. The department no longer conducts research in or offers classes in oceanography. In addition to its space and planetary research, it is a leader in climate science and education. The name change aims to communicate accurately the scope and depth of the faculty's research, teaching and service.

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Construction/Renovation Updates

G.G. Brown Laboratories

The infrastructure phase of the G.G. Brown renovation project is in progress, including construction of new electrical rooms, a new substation and a new fire alarm system, and upgrades to the toilet rooms and stairwells. The first renovation phase, on the third level, is scheduled for mid-April completion. The 62,880 square-foot G.G. Brown addition (Center of Excellence in Nano Mechanical Science and Engineering) is fully occupied.

Nuclear Engineering Laboratory

The final decommissioning documents for the Nuclear Engineering Laboratory (former Ford Nuclear Reactor building) await Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. Following NRC approval, we will approach the Regents to bid and award the project.

M-City

The MTC test track for research on autonomous and connected vehicles has been renamed M-City. Traffic signals, signs, and building facades will be added this spring. This facility, located by the water tower off Plymouth Road, is partially funded by the College of Engineering and is a joint project with UMTRI, UMOR, the Office of the Provost, and the Michigan Department of Transportation.

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Bid Limit Increased

Based on feedback from the CoE and several other units, as well as a benchmarking survey of other Big Ten universities, the University's formal bid limit has been raised from $5,000 to $10,000. The single-transaction limit for P-Card purchases will remain at $5,000.

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Improved Process for Purchasing Research Computers

CoE has been granted a blanket exception for purchasing research computers. Faculty no longer must complete a U-M exception form and wait for approval from the central purchasing office to buy research computers outside of the University's strategic Hewlett-Packard contract. Also, when necessary, a P-Card may be used for these purchases, provided a detailed receipt is furnished. This exception does not change any departmental requirements related to computer purchases. Please consult your local purchasing expert and/or unit administrator for guidance.

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Student Awards

SHPE Award

The U-M Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) received the Medium-sized Student Chapter of the Year Award at the November 2014 SHPE National Conference held at Cobo Center in Detroit.

Master's Student Named Rhodes Scholar

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Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Updates

International Programs in Engineering

IPE is pleased to announce that the College of Engineering will host the Global Engineering Education Exchange (GE3) Annual Meeting, May 20-23, 2015. The College has been a member of this consortium since the early 2000s, and the partnership remains strong today with 70 participating universities worldwide. More information about the annual meeting and opportunities for the CoE community to engage with our global partners will be announced soon.

IPE has launched three new summer programs for 2015, giving CoE students more avenues to pursue international experiences. EECS professor Kim Winick will lead a program at our partner institution l'École Nationale Supérieure de l'Electronique et de ses Applications (ENSEA), located outside of Paris, teaching EECS 301; Vice Provost James Holloway will lead a program at Chiang Mai University in Thailand teaching Engineering Across Cultures (ENGR 260); and students will earn Spanish language and culture credit while learning about sustainability at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid.

Summer 2015 program applications are now open. Learn more about IPE's summer programs by visiting the IPE website. IPE offers walk-in advising Monday-Friday from 1-4:30 p.m., no appointment needed. Thank you for encouraging students to gain international experience by pursuing a summer abroad.

Honors Program

CRLT-Engin Teaching Circle

Again this term, the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering is running the "Teaching Circle for Large Engineering Courses." The program has three main goals: (1) to influence the faculty's ideas about teaching by introducing compelling research on effective teaching; (2) to provide a safe and supportive environment for participants to implement new teaching practices; and (3) to build a supportive community among participants. The Teaching Circle has been successful in accomplishing these goals. Faculty self-reports indicate that enthusiasm, clarity and interaction has increased in statistically significant ways; objective observations by trained consultants indicate that participants. teaching behaviors changed to increase student engagement and active learning over the term; and participant feedback has been positive. Due to increased faculty interest, CRLT-Engin is offering the Teaching Circle for two separate cohorts of faculty this term, bringing the total number of engineering faculty involved to 34.

Multidisciplinary Design Program

MDP + Computer Science: New Multidisciplinary Software Engineering Pilot

In 2015, the MDP is collaborating with Computer Science and Engineering to pilot a two-semester course combining MDP Partner Sponsored Projects with a CSE software engineering pilot. Each MDP team is composed of CS students developing software combined with non-CS students from across the University to produce an integrated project. The course covers the complete design cycle: from idea conception to delivering enterprise software or customer-ready applications. All projects include the weekly participation of a real customer. The course covers software engineering, project context including business development, customer requirements and impact to society, basic security, multidisciplinary teamwork, and software testing, validation, and delivery. This arrangement will provide a rich, engaged learning environment that mimics current professional practice.

3rd Cross-Departmental Senior Capstone Pilot

MDP Director Gilchrist (EECS/AOSS) together with Professors Shih (ME), Taub (MSE), and Shtein (MSE) have started the third semester of a pilot cross-departmental senior capstone. It combines project opportunities for EECS, ME and MSE students to work on significant, multidisciplinary capstone projects. All students complete their departmental capstone requirements while working with real customers and a multidisciplinary project team.

MECC (Michigan Engaging Communities in the Classroom) Initiative Begins Fifth Semester

The College of Engineering/MDP is beginning a fifth semester of the MECC (Michigan Engaging Communities in the Classroom) initiative with two teams; one based in Washtenaw County working on development of the US 12 corridor, and a second working in Detroit on urban renewal in the Osborne neighborhood. This initiative is exploring methods of coordinating student capstone projects between departments and colleges and developing a workable plan for advancing classroom-community collaboration. Capstone courses participating come from Industrial and Operations Engineering, Urban Planning, Public Health, Art and Design, the Law Clinic and Public Policy. Past capstone courses have drawn from Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Ross, and Plant Biology.

2014 Project Fair

Each October, MDP hosts a Project Fair to showcase the Corporate Sponsored Design Teams and Faculty Research Design Teams for the upcoming calendar year. Held in the Duderstadt Center, the Project Fair is the primary recruitment event for these project teams. It provides students with the opportunity to meet the professional engineers they will interact with while on the project. Staffed by 50 corporate representatives and 15 members of the faculty research labs, the 2014 Project Fair attracted more than 600 students from all over campus. The demand for experience on a multidisciplinary design project continues to grow: a total of 688 students applied for a maximum 290 positions available across all teams. The volume of applicants represents a 15% increase over 2013. This competitive process yields a very high-quality team.

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Office of Student Affairs Updates

The Michigan Engineering Zone ("MEZ") Open House

The Office of Student Affairs invited faculty and staff, students from 18 Detroit high schools, their teachers, Michigan Engineering student mentors, and mentors from the Detroit engineering community to the Michigan Engineering Zone's open house held on Wednesday, February 11. The open house included a tour of the MEZ facility, a demonstration of this year's FIRST robots, and refreshments. The MEZ is located at 3663 Woodward Avenue within the University of Michigan Detroit Center. For more information, contact mezdetroit@umich.edu.

Student Recruitment

The Office of Student Affairs is hard at work recruiting the first-year class for fall 2015. In its ongoing efforts to recruit the Leaders and Best, the Office of Student Affairs brings top admitted students to Ann Arbor to experience Michigan Engineering in late-January and early-February. Throughout the fall and this winter, alumni across the country involved in the HAIL program have been meeting prospective students in their hometowns across the country to share their own stories about Michigan Engineering and help applicants learn more about Michigan. To help them in their college decision-making, admitted students also receive phone calls from alumni and current students over the next few months. In partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Office of Student Affairs will continue to welcome students to North Campus, February through March, during Campus Day, a program that allows admitted students and their families to visit Michigan and have their questions answered by students, faculty and staff before they make their final college choice. Thanks to those of you who help with recruitment efforts in the College.

Office of Student Support and Accountability

To enhance its support for CoE students, the Office of Student Affairs has brought the areas under Angela (Angie) Farrehi together in a new location. The Office of Student Support and Accountability is now located in 129 Chrysler Center. This office is responsible for the Scholastic Standing Committee process (undergraduate student academic standing issues and college rules), Honor Code process, student critical incident management/support, and student wellness and student academic support coordination (coordinating support between advising offices, tutoring, and time management). Dr. Tiggs, the CoE therapy dog, is also available during designated "office hours" at this location. More information will soon be available on the Office of Student Affairs website, http://studentaffairs.engin.umich.edu. For more information, please call 734-615-1405.

CAPS at Michigan Engineering

Beginning with the fall 2014 semester, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has had a counselor located within the College of Engineering. Our CAPS Counselor, Shivaun Nafsu, is dedicated to working solely with our students, faculty and staff. She is with us full time, Monday through Friday, and is a wonderful, free resource available to the CoE community. Faculty and staff are encouraged to view the CAPS at Engineering website at http://caps.engin.umich.edu for information about when and how to refer a student to CAPS. The website also details how faculty and staff can make an appointment with Shivaun for consultation regarding students of concern.

The Honor Code Celebrates 100 Years

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the College of Engineering Honor Code. The Honor Council plans to hold various events during the year in celebration of this occasion. Also, New Honor Council members are being accepted. Associate Dean Brian Noble will be sending out an email soon with information on how to nominate and/or apply for membership. Membership is open to all CoE undergraduate and graduate students.

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Office of the Associate Dean for Graduate Education Updates

Master's in Entrepreneurship to be Discontinued

Effective in December, the master's degree program in entrepreneurship, offered through the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Engineering, will be discontinued. A thorough review of the program concluded it was academically strong but has not generated enough students to remain viable. The 11 students now enrolled will be able to complete the program. The University remains committed to graduate-level entrepreneurship education and continues to explore alternative formats for delivering entrepreneurship skills to students. Examples include making available a variety of class offerings, providing incubator experiences and offering an undergraduate entrepreneurship minor and certificate. In addition, the College is exploring the possibility of a new masters-level entrepreneurship program in partnership with the other science-based units on campus.

NextProf Workshop for Michigan Students

After three successful NextProf workshops for students from around the country (including U-M students), the College will be holding "NextProf for Michigan Students" on May 12-13, 2015. The workshop is designed to encourage students to consider academic careers and to provide advice on how to start such a career. About 50 graduate students and postdocs will be selected; information on how to apply will be available shortly. Please contact NextProfMI@umich.edu with any questions.

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Office of the Associate Dean for Research Update

According to an analysis by AAAS, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015 appropriated $1.1 trillion to fund the Federal government through FY15. The bill appropriated $137.6 billion for Federal R&D, keeping pace with inflation by growing 1.7% over the FY14 appropriation. NSF will receive a 2.4% increase, and Department of Defense base R&D will rise by 1.3%. Department of Energy R&D goes up by 3.1%, driven by gains within the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NIH R&D increase was only 0.5%. The largest increase in NASA's budget is for aeronautics research.

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Center for Entrepreneurship Updates

Grand Rapids Startup Trek: Discovering Innovation in Manufacturing

Why would a group of University of Michigan entrepreneurship students spend a Friday in western Michigan working with manufacturing companies?

When students grow up in a media frenzy of entrepreneurship celebrity, hearing constant "buzz" about who will invent the next best thing, it can close their minds to opportunities in innovation in their own backyard. At the College of Engineering's Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE), the innovation philosophy is simple: strive to make something better than it is. This form of innovation is alive and growing on the western side of the state, and the best way to show U-M students what it looks like is to take them there to experience it firsthand.

The CFE took a select group of students on the Grand Rapids Entrepreneurs in Action Trek (GREAT) to work with entrepreneurs, major manufacturing companies and U-M alumni living and thriving in western Michigan. The day was focused on innovation in manufacturing; in terms of what companies are doing now, and looking ahead to what they want to create for the future. Read a full recap of the trip here.

M-Engage Bringing Together Alumni to Innovate: San Francisco

Michigan's first "Connect and Learn" Innovators UnConference recently brought together 50 Michigan alumni spanning the graduating classes of '63 to '05.

The four presentation breakout sessions were voted on by attendees in advance, and included discussion of machine learning, commercialization, applying to accelerators and the "personality traits of an entrepreneur." Open networking before and after the sessions allowed alumni to explore business partnerships, share ideas and meet potential alumni talent for recruiting.

Participants said: "People were really into it and it's great to see alums helping each other in real time. I honestly think this has to happen at least once a quarter" ('05 Engineering), and "...I think I landed at least one new client!" ('63 Engineering).

Michigan Leads the Way in Teaching I-Corps Commercialization Training Principles Across the State

The CFE's I-Corps team kicked off 2015 with three "Train the Trainers" programs, made possible by its recent MEDC grant to extend Michigan's commercialization training to other universities and educators throughout the state. CFE worked with Wayne State University, Michigan Technological University and Lawrence Tech University in training their staff and faculty on how to successfully run a commercialization program based on the I-Corps methodology.

Each university has now launched their own I-Corps program, designed to help students and faculty commercialize research through customer discovery and validation. Over the next six months, the I-Corps team will be training the trainers at Western Michigan University, Michigan State University, the U-M Medical School and elsewhere.

CFE Grows Learning Opportunities with Hire of First Entrepreneur in Residence: Aaron Crumm (MSE MSE '97, PhD '00)

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Advancement Updates

Thomas (BSE '62) and Polly (AB '63) Bredt met as undergraduates at U-M. To enable other students to have the exceptional experience they had, the Bredts have established multiple funds in the College of Engineering over the last decade, including the Bredt Family Professorship in 2000 and the Thomas H. and Polly Walker Bredt Scholarship in 2012. Additionally, the Bredts feel passionately that having a strong art resource is key in a university, and that balancing the arts in a science education will help create more well-rounded students. They have again shown their generosity by establishing the Bredt Charitable Remainder Unitrust. Those funds, to be shared between the College of Engineering and the Museum of Art, will have a lasting impact on the U-M community.

Designed to educate and train the next generation of global engineers, the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (JI), located on the campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, is a unique collaboration. Widely recognized as an outstanding academic initiative, it is considered one of the best programs in electrical and mechanical engineering in China. Also, it was recently awarded one of the highest honors by the Institute of International Education. To help support the JI and its students, two donors have established scholarship funds. The Jackson and Muriel Lum Endowed Scholarship Fund, created by Muriel and Jackson Lum, and the Roger King Scholarship Fund, established by Roger King (BSE EE '63), will provide scholarships to students spending two years in Ann Arbor enrolled full time in the JI program.

David M. Giancola (BSE IOE '63), Maryville, Tennessee, has established the expendable Clyde Johnson Memorial Fellowship Fund. The Fund will provide $10,000 of annual fellowship support for five years to full-time, IOE graduate students in healthcare engineering and patient safety. In addition, a percentage of his estate will be added to the Clyde Johnson Endowed Fellowship Fund in IOE. The expendable Clyde Johnson Memorial Fellowship Fund is named in memory of David's former professor Clyde Johnson (BA '31) and his pioneering efforts to apply industrial engineering principles in the hospital field. Thanks to Professor Johnson's mentorship, David became one of the first industrial engineers to work in healthcare. David was moved to explore this gift opportunity after reading about Professor Johnson and Bill (BS IE '67, MBA '69), his son, in the fall 2014 issue of The Michigan Engineer.

Assisting underprivileged students is a common passion among Michigan Engineering alumni, especially those who were scholarship recipients themselves. Although starting a named scholarship fund may seem out of reach, one young alum has found a way to make a big difference. Inspired by what she experienced herself as a U-M student, and what she's seen on campus as a recruiter for ExxonMobil, Kim H. Mai (BSE CEE '05, MSE '05) has established the Mai Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to support Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) students. To have an even larger impact, Mai turned to her company for matching support - tripling her donation. An additional match by U-M's Michigan Matching Initiative turned Mai's contribution of $37,500 over six years into a scholarship fund worth $185,000 - all to pay it forward as a victor for student support.

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Jack Hu Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

S. Jack Hu, Interim Vice President for Research, J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing, and professor of both Mechanical Engineering and Industrial and Operations Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for "methods for predicting and diagnosing root causes of product quality variation in multistage assembly systems." Election to NAE is among the very highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, and honors those who have made outstanding and innovative contributions to engineering.

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Jeremy Semrau Receives Thurnau Professorship

Jeremy Semrau (CEE) has been named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor by the Regents, effective July 1, 2015. These professorships recognize outstanding contributions to undergraduate education and are among the highest honors given to faculty members.

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Steve Forrest to Receive Distinguished University Innovator Award

Steve Forrest, Paul G. Goebel Professor of Engineering, and professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics, will receive the 2015 Distinguished University Innovator Award by the U-M Office of Research. This award recognizes individuals who have made important and lasting contributions to society through their efforts to develop novel ideas and insights, and to translate them to practice.

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Junior Faculty Awards

We congratulate the following assistant professors in the College.

Jacob Abernethy, CSE, NSF CAREER Award
Prabal Dutta, CSE, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
Alex Halderman, CSE, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow
Grant Schoenebeck, CSE, NSF CAREER Award
Somin Lee, ECE, NSF CAREER Award
Xiaogan Liang, ME, NSF CAREER Award
David Remy, ME, NSF CAREER Award
Matthew Johnson-Roberson, NAME, NSF CAREER Award

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New Faculty

We are pleased to welcome the following new faculty members who joined the College on January 1.

Computer Science and Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Industrial and Operations Engineering

Materials Science and Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Please join in welcoming the following research faculty members who recently joined the College.

Aerospace Engineering

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences

Biomedical Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences