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Southwestern ECE Heads Gather at UNM

October 15, 2017

Southwestern ECE Heads Gather at UNM

The Southwest Regional chapter of the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (SWECEDHA) held its annual meeting Oct 5-6 at UNM.

The SWECEDHA is composed of heads or chairs of ECE departments from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas who offer accredited programs in electrical and/or computer engineering. Thirteen departments were represented at the meeting as well as seven companies and national labs.

The event began with a casual dinner at the ten-story Andaluz Hotel on the evening of Thursday, Oct 5. Opened in 1939, it was Conrad Hilton's fourth hotel and the first modern high-rise hotel in New Mexico.

The two-day gathering culminated in a meeting that took place the next day in the historic Bobo room of Hodgin Hall (1894), the oldest building on the UNM campus.

Graced by WPA hand-tooled tin chandeliers overhanging a polished walnut floor and surrounded by southwestern pottery and rugs, the group worked from 8 am to 3 pm and promoted actions along three primary themes:

1) A lunch meeting with addresses by UNM interim-President Chaouki Abdallah

2) A presentation by Quanser’s Tom Lee

3) An hour-long forum which included AFRL, Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs, Northrup Grumman, Sacred Wind Communications, National Instruments and Quanser. The forum was also attended by a representative from the office of the CIO of the City of Albuquerque, and the district director from Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office.

The three working-group primary themes included course sharing across institutions, addressing highly specialized graduate courses and also senior design; building a research consortium, by engaging regional capabilities toward addressing regional and national needs; and shared and collective efforts to strengthen outreach into K-12 as well as to enhance branding.

Afterward, the group enjoyed a trip up to Sandia Crest on the world's longest tram.

Group Shot of SW ECE

List of Attendees
Academia:
Arizona State University Steve Phillips/Director
Lamar University Harley Mylar/Chair
New Mexico State University Satish Ranade/Head
New Mexico Tech University Aly El-Osery/Chair
Texas Tech University Mike Giesselmann/Chair
Texas Tech University Brian Nutter/Associate Chair
University of Arizona Hal Tharp/Associate Department Head
University of Houston Badri Roysam/Chair
University of New Mexico Michael Devesikiotis/Chair
University of New Mexico Reiner Martens/Department Admin
University of New Mexico Chaouki Abdallah/Interim President
University of North Texas Barrett Bryant/Chair
University of Texas at Arlington Jonathan Bredow/Chair
University of Texas at Austin Ahmed Tewfik/Chair
University of Texas at Dallas Mehrdad Nourani/Associate Department Head
University of Texas at El Paso Miguel Velez-Reyes/Chair
Industry:
Andrew M. Kwas    Northrop Grumman
Andrew Williams AFRL
Tom Lee Quanser
Amirpasha Javid  Quanser
Neo Nicolaou      Sacred Wind Communications
Igor Alvarado National Instruments
Bruce Carlsten Los Alamos National Labs
John McVay  Sandia National Labs
Todd Bauer  Sandia National Labs
Peter Ambs  CIO, City of Albuquerque
Mariana Padilla

District Director
Office of Congresswoman Michelle Lujan
Derrick Clyburn Ballard Emtech Global
Steven Lucero Perpétua Partners
Christos Christodoulou Dean, School of Engineering, UNM
Chaouki Abdallah Chaouki Abdallah