2013 IEEE Vice President, Educational Activities

Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon; B.S. (highest honors), M.S., University of Florida. Currently Professor and Chair of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder. Co-Director Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Advancing Cognitive Technologies, Technology Director, Boulder Digital Works (postgraduate digital media program), served as Associate Executive Director of the Colorado Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Conducts research in assistive cognitive technologies and has worked in EDA including simulation, synthesis, test, verification, and optimization, as well as signal processing. IEEE CAS Society Golden Jubilee Medal, 2000; IEEE Third Millennium Medal, 2000. Received the College of Engineering Max Peters Award for Outstanding Service, 1997; the inaugural John and Mercedes Peebles Innovation in Teaching Award, 1996; the College of Engineering Hutchinson Award for Outstanding Teaching in the College, 1995; Distinguished Service Award from IEEE for Serving as Editor of IEEE Transactions on Computer-aided Design.

 

IEEE ACTIVITIES: (F97, member for 41 years)

•   IEEE ABET Board Rep to IEEE Committee on Technology Accreditation Activities 2010–2011

•   IEEE ABET Board Rep to IEEE Committee on Engineering Accreditation Activities 2010–2011

•   Member Educational Activities Board (EAB) Accreditation Policy Committee 2010–2011

•   IEEE Representative to ABET Board of Directors 2010–2011

•   Chair, Board Ad Hoc Committee on Engineering Education Reform

•   PSPB representative to the Conferences Committee, 2011

•   Chair-Elect IEEE Committee on Earth Observations

•   Education Lead for IEEE Cloud Computing Initiative 2011

•   Member PSPB N&A 2009–2011

•   Member PSPB 2009–2011

•   Chair of PSPB Publishing Conduct Committee 2011

•   Member of PSPB Strategic Planning 2009–2011

•   2007 IEEE Past President

•   Served on Infrastructure Oversight Committee, 2007–2008

•   Member Compensation Committee 2006–2007

•   2006 IEEE President

•   Member Executive Director Search Committee 2004–2005

•   Served on IEEE Executive Committee 2002–2004, 2005–2007

•   Chair IEEE New Initiatives Committee 2005

•   2005 IEEE President-Elect

•   IEEE Vice President for Publication Services and Products Board, 2003–2004

•   IEEE Vice President for Technical Activities, 2002

•   Chair IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) Products Committee 1999, 2000

•   IEEE TAB Society Presidents' Forum Chair 2001

•   Member IEEE Nominations and Appointments Committee 2000–2003, 2007–2009

•   Member IEEE TAB Finance Committee 2000–2003

•   Division Director I, IEEE, 1998, 1999

•   Member IEEE Tab Management Committee 1997–1999

•   Member of the IEEE TAB, GOLD and Audit Committees 1997–1999

•   Member of the IEEE Products Committee 1999–2001

 

SECTIONS/CHAPTERS:      

Founding member IEEE Denver Chapters – Signal Processing Society, Engineering, Medicine and Biology Society, Communications Society

 

•   Past President, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 1997

•   President, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 1996

•   President-Elect, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 1995

•   Vice President, Technical Activities IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, 1991–1993

•   Secretary Treasurer, IEEE Technical Committee on Computer-Aided Network Design (CANDE) 1985–1987

•   Member, Administrative Committee of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society

•   Member of IEEE Press Editorial Board

•   Editor, IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design, June 1989–June 1991

•   Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design

•   Associate Editor, IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine

•   Member-Circuits and Systems, Computer, Signal Processing, Communication, Engineering Medicine and Biology, Education

 

CONFERENCES:  

•   Executive Committee of the Design Automation Conference, 1997–2000

•   Program Chairperson, 1993 International Conference on Computer Aided Design

•   Technical Program Chair of IEEE VLSI Winter Workshop, 1992, 1993

•   Technical Program Chairperson, 1992 International Conference on Computer Aided Design

•   General Chair 1993 IEEE/ACM International Conference Computer-Aided Design

•   Chair, IEEE Technical Committee on Computer-Aided Network Design (CANDE) 1987–1989

•   Member of Technical Program Committee 1984–1988 International Conference on Computer Aided Design

•   Member of Technical Program Committee, 1989 International Behavioral Synthesis Workshop

•   Member of Technical Program Committee, 1987 International Logic Synthesis Workshop

•   Chair for Special Session on Logical Design for VLSI, 1982 ISCAS, April 1982

•   Chair and Organizer for Special Session on Applications of Optimization to Circuit Design, 1981 ISCAS, April 1981. Editorial Service

 

 

As Vice President, EAB, I am reorganizing the Board to concentrate on key areas. This is producing a more focused board. In addition, EAB is now considering all budget items and voting on priorities. Further, the operationalization of initiatives is being carefully scrutinized. We are also considering a comprehensive set of activities in the university space and carefully considering the exploded competition in continuing education and determining the best path for IEEE. As President-Elect and President, I led the IEEE initiative to open an office in China and expand our activities in that country as the initial phase of our Asia-Pacific expansion. As chair of N&A, I significantly modified the IEEE N&A process to bring a more structured and, I believe, fairer process to those important activities. As President, I started the IEEE Board of Directors-based strategic-planning activities that were carried to fruition by President Leah Jamieson. As Vice President, PSPB, I spent significant time on the challenges that arose when our publications and activities were embargoed in certain countries due to United States OFAC regulations, and I visited Iran to celebrate with our members when we succeeded in having those restrictions relaxed. As chair of the IEEE TAB Products Committee, I began the process of requiring business plans for all proposals.

In addition to serving as the current Vice President, EAB, I have spent my entire career in education and volunteering for IEEE. I have extensive knowledge of IEEE and have chaired the Technical Activities Board (TAB), the Publications Services and Products Board (PSPB), and the Board of Directors. I have strong skills in building community among volunteers and staff and moving groups toward consensus. I value and encourage innovation, inclusion of multiple opinions, honest but civil discourse, and the wide-ranging talents and insights of our volunteers and staff. I also am keenly aware that IEEE is a "team sport." An individual has a very short time in any specific role, and it is important that consensus be developed, prior contributions valued, and ongoing initiatives supported. We must be working for the good of the organization and not our individual causes. Based on two years' participation with the Educational Activities Board (EAB) and a lifetime in higher education, I understand the key EAB initiatives, its organization, and opportunities. I understand the time commitment of this position and have the support of my employer.

My primary goal will be to continue and solidify the work of this year. We have taken our EA strategic goals and asked how well our current structure supports those goals. The answer in many cases is not very well. We are currently working to reorganize EA to both effectively focus on our core goals as well as effectively collaborate across our three focus areas: pre-university, university, and continuing education. This work is under way while we engage the key challenges that exist in the university and continuing-education domains. In addition to the reorganization discussed above, we are working to transform the EAB into an action-oriented board. Beyond the importance of continuing the actions just outlined, my goals remain the same as last year and I repeat my statements on university education and continuing and professional education as a reminder of these important issues. In continuing and professional education, progress has been made with the redefinition and relaunch of the eLearning Library. Much work remains to be done to significantly increase the content, refine the marketing, and achieve an overall record of impact and financial success. This program needs major effort in connecting with Societies, Standards, MGA, and IEEE-USA to identify important topics, successful styles, pricing, access models (specifically using languages other than English), subject-matter experts, appropriate mechanisms to acknowledge completion of units (such as CEUs), and potential third-party partners. The IEEE should be pushing continuing education as a major initiative. Our brand, access to experts and users, and the clear need in the marketplace make continuing education a natural. In university education, we have one major program, accreditation. IEEE spends considerable money supporting accreditation in the United States and has worked over the past five years to expand our support of accreditation in countries throughout the world. (Unfortunately, accreditation is viewed by most faculty as a necessary evil.) Additionally, courses in technical English have been pioneered and the Computer Society with the ACM has developed a model curriculum for computer science and soon will release one for computer engineering. Interestingly, these model curricula efforts did not involve EAB. In the IEEE, we have the best technical educators in the world, yet they are really not connected with, nor, generally, interested in EAB. Further, many educators are not IEEE members. This is a major loss for the IEEE. One of my primary goals will be to identify and begin to develop programs that will engage and support engineering educators globally. One effort in this direction is the Board ad hoc committee on engineering-education reform, which I would continue to work on if asked by President Day. But beyond that effort, we have to address the fact that in engineering education, IEEE has little relevance. ASEE has taken a leadership role and even it is not viewed with much favor by those who are both engineering educators and top researchers. Our goal will be to make IEEE EAB relevant to engineering educators globally. One effort that has began this year and that I would continue is to develop global connections to department heads in IEEE areas of interest.These changes will not be done in one year; however, my primary goal will be to identify those mechanisms and projects that can be used to accomplish this goal. Through significant leadership over the past six years, EAB is positioned to be a much more dynamic and compelling institute-wide partner. My goal is to propel EAB in this direction.