Cockrell School of Engineering professor Dr. Jeffrey A. Siegel has been selected to attend the National Academy of Engineering's second Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium in Irvine, Calif. Dec. 13-16.
The two-and-a-half-day event brings together some of the nation’s most innovative young engineering educators to share ideas, learn from research and best practices in education, so that they can leave the event with a charter to help improve their home institution.
Siegel, an associate professor at the Cockrell School and J. Neils Thompson Centennial Teaching Fellow in Civil Engineering, is among 52 other engineering educators selected to attend. Dr. Stella Quinones, associate professor in electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso was also selected.
Attendees were nominated by fellow engineers or deans and chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants.
"The Frontiers of Engineering Education program creates a unique venue for engineering faculty members to share and explore interesting and effective innovations in teaching and learning," said NAE President Charles M. Vest. "We intend for FOEE to become a major force in identifying, recognizing, and promulgating advances and innovations in order to build a strong intellectual infrastructure and commitment to 21st-century engineering education."
This year's program will focus on ways to ensure that students learn the engineering fundamentals, the expanding knowledge base of new technology and the skills necessary to be an effective engineer or engineering researcher.
"In our increasingly global and competitive world, the United States needs to marshal its resources to address the strategic shortfall of engineering leaders in the next decades," said Edward F. Crawley, Ford Professor of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the chair of the FOEE planning committee. "By holding this event, we have recognized some of the finest young engineering educators in the nation, and will better equip them to transform the educational process at their universities."
Siegel received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from UC-Berkeley and a B.S. degree in engineering from Swarthmore College. He has received several teaching awards since joining the university, among them the Cockrell School of Engineering Award for Outstanding Engineering Teaching by an Assistant Professor in 2007 and the Student Engineering Council Departmental Favorite Professor Award in 2008.
More about NAE: The academy is an independent, nonprofit institution that serves as an adviser to government and the public on issues in engineering and technology. Its members consist of the nation's premier engineers, who are elected by their peers for their distinguished achievements. Established in 1964, NAE operates under the congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1863.
