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February 09, 2010
Engineering Education Excellence Award
The Sustaining Universities Program of the Professional Engineers in Higher Education of the National Society of Professional Engineers has established an award to recognize engineering educators each year. This national award recognizes engineering faculty who have demonstrated the ability to link engineering education with professional practice. The recipients must be licensed and have a tenure-track faculty appointment in an ABET-accredited engineering program. The recipients of the award will be recognized on the NSPE Web site and will receive a cash prize of $5,000. The Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology has implemented new criteria and processes for accreditation of engineering education known as EC-2000. The programs that receive accreditation under EC-2000 must demonstrate they have better prepared graduates to become practicing engineers. The Engineering Education Excellence Award has been developed to be supportive of EC-2000 and will recognize faculty members who are working to introduce students to professional practice. A minority of engineering educators are licensed. PEHE believes that engineering educators should possess the professional designation. To date, a handful of states have enacted legislation to require engineering faculty to become licensed. By instituting this award program, PEHE affirms support of this requirement and will continue to promote and recognize professional licensure among engineering educators.
2008 Engineering Education Excellence Award Winner
Steve is an outstanding educator and proponent of professional licensure. He has taught for 20 years. From 1988 to 1999 Steve served as an active duty educator at the USAF Academy. Upon active duty retirement as a Lt Colonel and full professor, he immediately began a second academic career at the University of Wyoming. He regularly teaches a full load and has developed several new courses in embedded systems and industrial control. He has been recognized with numerous teaching awards at the department, college, region, and national levels. In 2004 he was recognized as the U.S. Professor of the Year for the State of Wyoming by the Carnegie Foundation. Steve is a registered PE in Wyoming and Colorado and acts as a consultant developing control hardware for U.L. approved entry access points. He has integrated discussions of licensure, practice and robust design into his coursework. He is a strong advocate for professional licensure at the national level. He serves on the IEEE Licensure and Registration (L&R) committee and serves on the NCEES PE examination writing committee for electrical engineering. His article for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer "To P.E. or not to P.E.: That is the Question" emphasized the importance of licensure and licensing procedures. Steve has shared his expertise in engineering education having co-authored four textbooks used throughout the world on microcontrollers and embedded systems design. One was recently released in a Chinese edition while another enjoyed a second edition release in 2008. He has co-authored eight refereed journal articles on engineering education with his students and colleagues. Steve is a senior member of IEEE and serves on the IEEE-USA L&R Committee and is Education Department co-editor for IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering magazine. He is chair-elect of ASEE Computers in Education Division and has served as Division Program Chair for the last two national symposia. He serves the NCEES as a PE exam writer and serves as an ABET/EAC Program Evaluator. Steve also serves as the college's Chief Faculty Advisor for the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. He is a member if NSPE. |
 
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Steven F. Barrett, Ph.D., P.E. Doctor Barrett is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wyoming, College of Engineering and Applied Science. 
