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News Archives
Southwestern ECE Heads Gather at UNM
October 15, 2017
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.
| 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 |
| Derrick Clyburn Ballard | Emtech Global |
| Steven Lucero | Perpétua Partners |
| Christos Christodoulou | Dean, School of Engineering, UNM |
| Chaouki Abdallah | Chaouki Abdallah |