NEWS AND EVENTS

Old Dominion University's graduate program in engineering management has been awarded the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM) Founder's Award for "Excellence in Academic Leadership."

Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology's Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) has received the award in 2000, 2002, 2005 and in 2007. This latest award was presented at the ASEM Conference in Rogers, AR, on October 13. "This award is a testimony to continued excellence and leadership of ODU in engineering management graduate program offerings," said Resit Unal, professor and chair of EMSE.

To recognize graduate program leadership, the ASEM Founder's Award looks for an engineering management graduate program that meets ASEM certification standards and offers a program that is recognized for its quality by the engineering management education community. More subjective evaluation pertains to faculty involvement with ASEM and other professional societies, contributions to engineering management education and practice, and other significant achievements of the program.

Finally, the program won the honor because in the last three years, EMSE awarded 425 graduate degrees in engineering management, faculty members have published more than 50 refereed journal articles, more than 100 conference proceedings and secured $3.72 million in research funding.

"I'm thrilled with this repeat award, but frankly, I'm not surprised," said Batten College Dean Oktay Baysal. "The graduate program in engineering management at ODU has been recognized as a trailblazer for some time now."

ODU Alum Admiral Robert Willard, USN, selected for key assignment

Admiral Robert Willard, current commander of the Navy's Pacific Fleet, has been recommended by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for appointment as Commander of the "Pacific Command". Headquartered in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the command encompasses about a third of the earth's surface, 28 countries, and more than half of the world's population. "PACCOM" includes 250,000 military personnel representing all services in the U.S. Armed Forces.

A naval aviator, Admiral Willard is ODU's most senior military graduate on active duty. He received his Masters in Engineering Management (MEM) Degree in 2005 by distance learning while serving as Commander of the U.S. SEVENTH Fleet in Japan. The Admiral is one of the University's "Distinguished Alumni".

Karey Edens wins 2008 Faculty Award in Engineering Management & Systems Engineering

Two EMSE Faculty Members Win Excellence Awards for 2008

The Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology announced its Excellence Award Winners at its biannual faculty and staff meeting April 29. Awards were presented to members of the College who have excelled in a particular area. The Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering received two out of the five possible awards:

• Excellence in Teaching - Dr. Rafael Landaeta
• Excellence in Research - Dr. Andreas Tolk

Students Take Center Stage at VMASC

Students from all over the country came to the Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center Thursday to compete in the 2008 Student Capstone Conference. The conference is part of the weeklong celebration for VMASC's 10th anniversary.

Students participating in the Capstone gave presentations of their research in military and homeland security, discipline/body of knowledge, medical modeling, general science and modeling and simulation in engineering to some of the field's experts in government, academia and industry.

An evening banquet with awards capped off the day. The following students won in their respective categories:

Military and homeland security: first place, Saikou Diallo, Old Dominion University; second place, Derek Overby, Texas A&M; and third place, Anthony Devivi, Old Dominion University.

Discipline/body of knowledge: first place, Michael Spiegel and Ross Gore, University of Virginia; second place, Siakou Diallo, Old Dominion University: and third place, Charles Turnitsa, Old Dominion University.

Medical modelin: first place, Yufei Shen, Old Dominion University; second place, Miao Liu, Old Dominion University; and third place Elaine Blount, Old Dominion University. General science: first place, David Horres and Ross Gore University of Virginia; second place, Rachel Phillips, Old Dominion University; and third place, Trishal Khetia, Old Dominion University.

Modeling and simulation in engineering: first place, Kittisak Koombua, Virginia Commonwealth University; second place, Yang Xu, Old Dominion University; and third place, Mahmoud Khasawneh, Ahmed Marie, Jun Zhang and Tariq Zain El Abdein, Old Dominion University.

At the reception, Patrick Driscoll, a professor of operations research at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, spoke to all of the participants. He said the true beauty of this competition is the students get to have good, constructive discussions with some of the nation's leaders in modeling and simulation.

"It wasn't just you come here and compete," he said. "It was about having judges ask meaningful questions about what you do."

He said these capstones "create a culture of success" for those participating in them.

Similarly, when Michael McGinnis, executive director for VMASC, concluded the night's event, he said he hoped everyone "enjoyed the intellectual discourse, sharing of ideas, competition and fellowship" of the day.

For more information about VMASC or the capstone event, log onto www. vmasc.odu.edu/capstoneconference.

- by Lauren Wicks

Engineering Management receives Award for Excellence from the American Society of Engineering Management

Old Dominion University's graduate program in Engineering Management has received the American Society of Engineering Management's Founders Award for Excellence in Academic Leadership at the society's national meeting held November 7-10, 2007 in Chattanooga Tennessee. Old Dominion University was selected for this prestigious award among competing programs. ASEM's executive vice president Jerry Westbrook has praised ODU's Engineering Management as one of the best in the top three Engineering Management programs nationwide. On hand to receive the award were ODU faculty Resit Unal and Rafael Landaeta. The award was presented by Dr. William McFadden, President of ASEM.

Simply The Best

Old Dominion University's graduate program in engineering management recently received the American Society for Engineering Management's Award for Excellence in Academic Leadership at the society's national meeting held Oct. 26-29 in Virginia Beach. On hand to receive the award were ODU faculty (from left) Rafael Landaeta, Shannon Bowling, Ghaith Rabadi, Andres Sousa-Poza, Charles Keating, and department chair Resit Unal. ASEM President Heny Wiebe (far right) presented the plaque.

Largest Online Graduate Program in the Nation

U.S. News and World Report has ranked Old Dominion University's online graduate engineering program as being the largest in the nation and for the second consecutive year, based on student registrations.

In this week's issue, the news magazine surveyed 1,450 institutions to compile a detailed list of 434 graduate-level, e-learning programs in business, education, engineering, library science, nursing and public health. It then named the top five largest programs in each field measured by enrollment.

The Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion boasted the largest program, enrolling 1,243 students in the fall of 2004.

According to the college's dean, Oktay Baysal, the program's success can be traced to the focus on distance learning by the university as a whole and to a unique program that the college offers, the master's of engineering management degree offered via CD-ROM to U.S. Navy nuclear-qualified officers on submarines and aircraft carriers at sea and shore.

Faculty in Modeling, Simulation and Visualization

Old Dominion University (ODU) is recruiting five (5) tenure-track faculty members (Assistant/Associate Professor level) five endowed chairs in targeted areas of modeling, simulation, and visualization (MS&V). These positions along will form the core of MS&V academic and research program at ODU. University's Virginia Modeling, Analysis & Simulation Center (VMASC) is one of the world's leading university research centers for computer modeling, simulation, and visualization. The mission of the Center is to conduct collaborative MS&V research and development, provide expertise to industry and governmental agencies, and to promote ODU, Hampton Roads and Virginia as a center of MS&V activities. The Center has over 50 research and administrative staff and works closely with faculty researchers from across the University. In 2004, the Center conducted approximately $10.5M in funded research. ODU offers masters and doctoral degrees in Modeling and Simulation supported by faculty from all six academic colleges and research faculty from VMASC. The program has an enrollment of approximately 55 masters and 45 doctoral students.

More>>

Master of Engineering Management Program Certified by ASEM

The Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program has recently been certified by the American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM). Theprogram is one of the first three in the nation to become certified as part of a newly instituted ASEM program. To receive certification, the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering underwent a two part process that consisted of first evaluating itself against criteria laid out by the ASEM and then hosting a three day visit by ASEM certification team representatives, the first such certification visit to be held. During their visit the team conducted their own evaluation of the program based upon ASEM criteria. The result of these evaluation is that the MEM program has been certified for 4 years.

The Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering has been previously recognized by the ASEM for excellence in Graduate Engineering Management programs in 2000, 2002 and 2005.

For more information on the ASEM and the certification process, visit the ASEM Web Site at www.asem.org/members/certific.html

US News and World Report Article

US News and World Report ODU's online graduate engineering program the largest in the nation (Read more)