Author: Geert Letens, ASEM President

I have some good news to share. Over the last month the Board of Directors has approved two new exciting elements. First, we have been able to create an international section in Brazil. Fernando Deschamp, the first president of the section, has planned a kick-off event on February 24, 2016 to start working towards the achievement of the operational plan of the section. I will leave the honor to Fernando and his team to share pictures and details on their ambitions in the next newsletter.

Along with the creation of this section, we have been able to celebrate our 100th professional international member. This is a remarkable achievement that certainly deserves a big thank you to Simon Philbin, our International Director, and Dave Wyrick, our Associate Executive Director, who over the last two years have been boosting our international efforts with the help of a highly committed team of international volunteers: Beth Cudney, Ben Baliga, Fernando Deschamps, Steve Wang and Alberto Sols.

The second approval that sets another milestone for the society relates to the institution of an academic partnership program. This program that has been created under the guidance of Paul Kauffmann (ASEM Treasurer) and Ben Baliga (At-Large Director) provides a cost effective and simple approach to facilitate student membership registration and reduce the administrative load on faculty. This allows faculty to focus on what really matters - student value creation: providing students exposure to our standards and publications, access to webinars on current topics from research and practice, guidance for professional certifications, and last but not least, opportunities for student leadership. We believe that when you are running an EM program in your university, stepping into this partnership program is a must to support your ABET accreditation or ASEM program certification goals. But even if you are teaching EM introduction courses as part of other engineering programs, this partnership will be valuable for you, allowing engineering students from all orientations to experience the importance of engineering management in support of their career ambitions. Don’t hesitate to contact Bill Schell or Ona Egbue, our Membership and Associate Membership Directors, to find out details: they will be happy to set you up in no time!

While our board is getting ready for its spring board meeting to assess progress and define priorities for the upcoming six months, I want encourage you to take some time in the next week to submit your abstract for the upcoming International Annual Conference in Charlotte. You will find the details in this newsletter through a link to the conference submissions website. The submission deadline (February 29, 2016) is coming up soon – don’t miss the opportunity to share your research and to continue the discussion about the future of engineering management. Our technical program team (Suzie Long, Ean Ng, Craig Downing and Bimal Nepal) have put together an impressive group of track chairs to assure a program that will ‘Energize Engineers’. Our conference hosts (Ertunga Ozelkan and Mike Ogle) are lining up prestigious keynote speakers and inspiring industry tours. They are looking into exciting options for social events at the motor speedway: wouldn’t that be cool!

In short - ASEM is on the move – let’s continue to get connected!

Geert Letens, PhD PEM
ASEM President 2015-2016