ASEM Blog

It has been an honor and a pleasure to moderate this year’s International Annual Conference (IAC) Industry Roundtable. This opportunity gave me the chance to interact with and learn from several of the most knowledgeable engineering management professionals from a myriad of industries. I left the Roundtable with a much better understanding of where ASEM has gone and where we can go in the future evolving ASEM towards the future needs of its members. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the panelists for their energy, involvement, and patience they provided to me to ensure that we had a successful Roundtable.

Each of the panelists have been gracious enough to provide some final comments related to their discussion at the Industry Roundtable. I hope that these statements provide our organization and its members the same insights that I had when I read them:

John D. Chaffee, MA Economic Geography (President & CEO, NCEast Alliance). Engaged Engineers: Cultivating the Next Generation

There is a dearth of engineering talent looming on the horizon with the retirement of baby boomers. The current structure of most educational systems is not producing a sufficient number of qualified individuals to enter engineering schools to replenish the profession. Companies, and their engineers, need to become more directly involved in supporting schools, teachers and students. NCEast Alliance has developed a model that produces better results and can be replicated in other regions of the country. STEM East, as a component of NCEast, a regional economic development organization, has succeeded in 'growing talent' locally through vibrant and robust partnerships with companies, public schools, community colleges and universities. 

Danielle Gabinetti (Engineering Section Manager, Raytheon Information, Intelligence and Services). Utilizing AMP Solutions in a Defense Industry Environment

Within the Defense Industry, there is a growing trend of major knowledge holders nearing retirement age and a loss of how to retain young technical employees.  This knowledge gap could be bridged by applying Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose (AMP) Management Principles.  In particular, motivating young technical employees via Purpose can be realized when they work in the field with end products and end users.   When employees see how meaningful their efforts are to the customers, war fighters, allies and our communities they inevitability gain a sense of purpose.  

ASEM should reach out to engineering companies, such as Raytheon, to offer a venue to recruit both recent college graduates and Subject Matter Experts.

Chris Holder (Research and Engineering Lead (AIR-4.0), Commander Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)): Leadership: The Key to Change Management

Most people dislike change, both personally and professionally. With that being said, engineers are the most averse to change based on their leanings towards order, set rules governing the physical world, and the need to understand. To create a successful environment for change within the engineering world, strong leadership is the key. The ability to translate a vision into reality and then execute that vision with tenacity and consistency is paramount.

A strong leader who wants to create change in an engineering environment must motivate, have a vision, develop support, manage the transition, and maintain momentum. If a leader can successfully embrace and apply these tenants, meaningful change can happen, even with engineers.

George Strodtbeck (Vice President, SBTI), Change Maturity and Kano

Change happens over time.  Beginning with a defined future state, a system change can be defined using S-Curves which describe a system's maturity.  Combining S-Curves with the Kano Model helps leadership to plan for the growth of new processes, methods and skills maintained by the functions.  Using this approach supports a planned change that will take time to deploy across an organization.

Dale Wahlstrom (CEO, ACT 3 LLC Consulting): Engineering in Medical Technology: What is happening?

In the world of medical technology, the clinical environment is undergoing dramatic change globally.  ASEM is uniquely positioned at the crossroads of academic and private sector “entanglement” and could play a much needed role in defining programming and educational opportunities for students and those professionals needing re-training.  Development of experiential immersion opportunities in health care environments for students is an example of where ASEM could provide leadership.

Report on the International Panel Session at IAC 2016 in Charlotte:

• Dr. Simon Philbin, Imperial College London, UK and ASEM International Director (contact information is at the end of this article)
• Dr. Fernando Deschamps, Pontifical Catholic University of Parana & Federal University of Parana, Brazil and President ASEM Brazil Section
• Mr. Azam Ishaque, Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, National University of Science & Technology and E Care Vision, Pakistan and President ASEM Pakistan Section
• Dr. Alberto Sols, Norwegian Institute of Systems Engineering, Norway and ASEM International Committee Member
• Dr. Steve Wang, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA and ASEM International Committee Member

(1).       Introduction

At the 2016 IAC held in Charlotte and for a second year in a row, an international panel session was held as one of the concurrent sessions.  The panel session included contributions from several panelists who are all involved in the international development of ASEM, including those involved in new international sections and other activities.  The session also included an initial presentation by ASEM’s International Director who provided a summary of a survey carried out in 2015 of ASEM’s international members as well as an overview of the Society’s strategy to improve international engagement. 

The other panelists then provided their own insights on the steps being taken to increase the international reach of the Society.  The panel considered the current challenges as well as opportunities for ASEM in regard to international development and expansion.  Plus, session attendees had the opportunity to contribute their own views on how the Society can pursue a global agenda.  This report provides a summary of the material that was presented during the panel session along with some brief conclusions.

(2).       International Membership Survey

Dr. Philbin discussed a recent survey of international members that was carried out in 2015 and the results of the survey are summarized in Figure 1.  The survey was sent out to 65 international members (this was the international membership level back in March 2015), with 12 completed surveys being returned (a response rate of 18%).  The survey included the following open ended questions:

• 1.       As an international member, can you please tell us why you originally joined ASEM?
• 2.       Which ASEM services and products do you find the most useful?
• 3.       Are there any new services or products that you would like ASEM to offer?
• 4.       Do you have any suggestions on how ASEM can increase its profile and number of members in your country?
• 5.       How do you feel ASEM should develop in the future, including its international development?

Figure 1: Summary of results from international membership survey held in 2015.

(3).       ASEM International Strategy

Dr. Philbin then spoke about ASEM’s current international strategy and the focus of the work of the ASEM international committee.  Figure 2 provides a summary of the current ASEM international strategy and the supporting activities.

Figure 2: ASEM international strategy and supporting activities.

The strategy is based on pursuing an integrated set of activities designed to increase the international reach of ASEM and also promote engineering management as a discipline internationally.  This includes developing activities, services and products in regard to international development according to outreach, membership, education/certification, publications and conference attendance.  These activities are supported by setting up new international sections, international certification activities and are also underpinned by the work of the international committee, which meets monthly and includes representatives from USA, UK, Belgium, Brazil, UAE and Norway.  Dr Philbin went on to describe the status of current international activities across a number of areas, which are summarized as follows:

• ·         Current number of international members: 123 (in October 2016)
• ·         Number of international attendees of the IAC: 28 (in 2016); 27 (in 2015); 16 (in 2014)
• ·         International ASEM Sections: 2, Pakistan (set up 2015) and Brazil (set up in 2016)
• ·         International webinars: 2 in 2016 (from UK and China)
• ·         International partnerships: Strategic collaboration between ASEM and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and other partnerships are also under consideration
• ·         Participation in international conferences: CAE International Engineering Management Forum in Guangzhou, China (2015) and CAE International Engineering Management Forum in Xi'an, China (2016)
• ·         International translation of EMBoK: ASEM Board has approved translation of EMBoK into Chinese and Portuguese (Brazil)

 Dr. Philbin concluded his presentation by outlining recommended areas of international development for ASEM, which are as follows:

 International promotion of Society and IAC: Continued international promotion of society membership and the IAC.

1. Organisational development: Continue to develop new international sections to follow on from initial sections in Pakistan and Brazil.  New sections to help drive forward growth in membership.
2. International collaboration and partnerships: Further development of collaboration with Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).  Pursue other partnerships, where possible.
3. EM Education and professional development: Support international CKP activities and work towards new business models for international certification (AEM/PEM).

 (4).       International Perspectives

 Brazil Perspective

Dr. Deschamps gave a summary on engineering management in Brazil.  In alignment with ASEM’s strategy for a more significant international presence, Brazil’s ASEM Section was established in January of 2016. Since the beginning, the major concern has been for developing a strong foundation from where to grow and spreading out the word about ASEM. Some actions that were undertaken for addressing these concerns are described next.

• ·         ASEM was presented to professional engineering institutions (like the Brazilian Association for Production Engineering – ABEPRO) and universities that have engineering programs (undergraduate and graduate). The partnership with ABEPRO is key, because ASEM will benefit from a large number of academics and professionals that work with engineering management in Brazil who are associated with ABEPRO, and ABEPRO will benefit by partnering with an international society that is focused on one of its topic areas.
• ·         Partnerships with consulting and training companies were also prospected, and will likely result, in the upcoming months, in the offering of training programs more directed to engineering management topics according to ASEM’s view.
• ·         For enhancing the awareness of ASEM in Brazil, a Web portal was released together with the establishment of social media presence in outlets such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. News and announcements are being routed through these channels and interest has started to grow.
• ·         Through the help of its members, the Section has started translating the EMBoK into Portuguese. This is considered a key activity for growing the Society, as having a reference in the native language of its audience is a critical element for growing the membership base. Over 30 people are involved in the translation and plans are to release the translation in the first semester of 2017.

For the year of 2017, the ASEM Brazil Section Executive Committee is preparing actions that will further enhance ASEM’s visibility in Brazil. Such actions encompass the realization of two Webinars (one in each semester), the release of a quarterly newsletter with content focused on the Brazilian reality and a certification event for its current and also prospective members.

See the following hyperlink for the ASEM Brazil Section website: http://asembrasil.org/.

Pakistan Perspective

Mr. Ishaque gave a summary on engineering management in Pakistan.  Engineering management is a relatively new field in the world when compared to other engineering and management disciplines.  In Pakistan this field was formally introduced around the year 2000.  A discipline that originally started in one of the universities of Pakistan has now grown to 13 universities all over the country, including 5 universities that are in the top 10 ranking list of Pakistan universities.  Indeed when the first EM program was delivered in Pakistan, the session was run with only 14 students but it has now expanded to more than 20,000 students all across Pakistan.

One of the major causes of this huge growth in the discipline is the fact that the students, who have qualified through taking EM degrees, have performed exceptionally well in industry. Pakistan has a vast and rapidly growing manufacturing and services industry and this industry has been impacted by growth in the neighboring industries of China and India. This growing industry has now developed a continuing and growing need for engineers and engineering management professionals. Due to this need and a lack of supply of graduate engineering managers in the market, Engineering Management and Industrial Management are increasing in prominence and importance in Pakistan. More and more universities are offering these courses and industry is making provision for new jobs for these EM professionals.  Another major reason for growth of the EM discipline is the fact that in the Middle East, there are a large number of mega-projects that have commenced and the main requirement for many jobs on these projects is often for engineers to have an EM degree. Consequently, Pakistan has built on its foundations in regard to the quality of education through developing EM programs that have now become an essential discipline for every major engineering university in Pakistan.

See the following hyperlink for the ASEM Pakistan Section website:

http://www.asempakistan.org/.

Norway Perspective

Dr. Sols gave a summary on engineering management in Norway.  Norway is a large country with a very low population. Despite the low number of inhabitants (circa 5 million), Norway has a very technological and competitive industry. Indeed the Norwegian government has provided support to clusters of companies that meet certain requirements.  Consequently, a large number of the so-called Norwegian Centers of Excellence (NCE) were created, together with a few of the more demanding Global Centers of Excellence (GCE). Centers of particular relevance from an engineering management perspective are NCE Systems Engineering, NCE Micro and Nanotechnology, GCE Subsea, GCE NODE (Energy and Maritime Industries) and GCE Blue Maritime. Moreover, the Norwegian industry is in general very keen on continuous improvement, with a strong focus on technology and innovation. At the same time, ASEM’s footprint in Norway is currently very small.

On the educational front, there are a few world-class programs on engineering management, like those run at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and USN (University College of Southeast Norway). Thus, there is a good opportunity to increase ASEM’s presence in Norway.  Although it is unlikely that Norway would ever be representative in ASEM in quantitative terms, a higher cooperation would be good, qualitatively speaking. For ASEM to be better known in Norway it would be necessary to plan and conduct some selected marketing activities.

China Perspective

Dr. Wang gave a summary on engineering management in China.  With one of the fastest growing economies in the world, China has a diversity of engineering disciplines that follow both the Russian and United States systems. Future growth of China’s economy will depend highly on the quality and leadership of its engineering management. China’s development of training and education in engineering management has been an important issue and has been led by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) for the last decade. During the past ten years, China has developed many international engineering companies. Its international engineering management has been influenced by China’s own culture; the country looks forward to being recognized by other global societies.

In order to link with these global societies in the engineering management area, CAE has signed a memorandum of understanding with ASEM.  There are currently plans to establish an ASEM Section in China, with its headquarters at Chongqing University. China’s educational system is one of those that graduate the largest group of engineers in the world. In the future, China will require many well-educated engineering managers and a close relationship with global societies such as ASEM. China is endeavoring to explore the domain knowledge in the interdisciplinary areas of engineering management in order to enhance China's unique status and to build up its competitive advantages in the global arena.

(5).       Conclusions

After the panelists had given their individual contributions, there was a lively discussion and Q&A session with the audience.  Various additional points were made and all agreed that there is significant potential for ASEM to continue to develop internationally.  Moreover, the development of ASEM on a global basis supports the goal of increasing the adoption of engineering management as a discipline and international expansion provides scope for increasing the level of Society membership thereby supporting the sustainability of ASEM. 

Dr. Simon P. Philbin PhD MBA FRSC PEM, Conference Panel Chairperson
Director of Programme Management, Imperial College London
International Director, American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM)
Visiting Fellow, Birkbeck, University of London
Associate Editor, Engineering Management Journal
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.philbin

Happy New Year from ASEM!  I hope you were able to find time to relax and ring in 2017 with friends and family.  I certainly hope that you will continue your membership and participation in ASEM as we move into this new year.   I always find the new year motivating and look forward to sharing ASEM successes and program with you throughout the year.

I am happy to report that ASEM ended 2016 in good financial standing.  This is indication of our strong membership base and evidence that the Society is bringing value-adding products and services to our EM constituents.  Please feel free to share ideas on how ASEM can bring increasing value to the EM community at our ASEM Networking and General Forums https://www.asem.org/Introductions-and-Networking-Forums.

We are excited to start 2017 announcing two new ASEM Student Chapters at University of Colorado Boulder and Michigan Technological University. The Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado Boulder was established in 1987, and offers a Masters of Engineering (ME) degree in Engineering Management, undergraduate Engineering Management minor, and a variety of graduate and undergraduate certificates (http://www.colorado.edu/emp/).  Dr. Christy Bozic, ASEM’s Southwest Regional Director, will serve as their new faculty advisor, and Mr. Diego Gomes will serve as the new chapter president.  The chapter already has 15 student members!  Our new student chapter at Michigan Technological University also has 15 student members including Kalli Hooper who will serve as the new chapter president.  Dr. Dana Johnson will serve as their faculty advisor.  The School of Business and Economics offers a BS degree in Engineering Management, which is the fastest growing program in their school (http://www.mtu.edu/business/undergraduate/engineering-management/).  New ASEM student chapters are always welcome.  Inquires can be sent to Bill Schell at StudentMembership@asem.org.

I am also pleased to announce two new ASEM academic partnerships with London Southbank University in the United Kingdom and Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Being an academic partner allows departments and programs to simplify larger volumes of student membership registrations and related funds management.  To learn more about ASEM Academic Partnership Program, access https://www.asem.org/AcademicPartnership.

Please consider submitting an abstract for paper/presentation at our 2017 ASEM International Annual Conference to be held in Huntsville, Alabama from October 18-21, 2017.  Abstracts are due February 27, 2017.  Please visit https://www.asem.org/2017_IAC for more information.  Proposals for Tutorials, Workshops, Panels, Roundtables and Special Sessions are also due on February 27^th.  Huntsville is a hub of engineering management excellence which reinforces our conference theme, Reimagining Systems Engineering and Management. 

We were very saddened to learn about the passing of one of our esteemed EM members, Dr. Ronald Cox.  Ron was a pillar in the EM community, and his sound wisdom and expertise will be missed by ASEM.

Heather Nachtmann, Ph.D.

2016-2017 ASEM President

Hello Friends of ASEM!

As you know, ASEM holds an International Annual Conference (IAC) where your research and projects are presented to peers and colleagues alike. The deadline for your abstracts is less than a month away. Abstracts are an important first step in the process to have your work included in the conference proceedings.

Visit https://www.asem.org/2017_IAC to learn more about the process, the Knowledge Domains and Suggested Topic Areas, as well as other important dates that all authors and presenters need to know.

I am looking forward to see what everyone is working on!

Tricia Simo Kush is a Certified Scrum Master and certified Professional Engineering Manager with a background in Information Technology. She graduated from the MEM program at St. Cloud State University in 2010. To her, Engineering Management is a fascinating mix of technology and business, people and process. She is constantly seeing the ways that Engineering Management spans many industries and helps everyone to become effective leaders. Follow her on Twitter (@TSimoKush) or check out her profile on LinkedIn.

Hello! In case you missed it, there were a number of awards presented at the 2016 IAC, held in Concord, North Carolina from 27OCT-29OCT2016. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Congratulations to the ASEM 2016 Award Recipients

ASEM Fellow Toni Doolen Craig Downing Neal Lewis Bernard R. Sarchet Award Ronald Cox Frank Woodbury Special Service Award Simon Philbin Founder's Award – Undergraduate United States Military Academy Founder's Award – Graduate Missouri University of Science and Technology Founder's Award – Student Chapter Missouri University of Science and Technology Merl Baker Award – Best International Annual Conference Student Paper Balance Scorecard Approach in Assessing Social Impact Performance Measures  Paola Grijalva, Oregon State University Bhuvanamalini Karaikudi Ramesh, Oregon State University Lucia Darrow, Oregon State University Waleed Mirdad, Oregon State University Student Case Study Competition Missouri University of Science and Technology William Daughton World Headquarters Service Award William Sabados, UAH SMAP Center Past Presidents of the Society Award Geert Letens

Engineering Manager of the Year Award Major General Albert Husniaux Meritorious Service Award - New Member Recruiting Roque Senga Meritorious Service Award - Outstanding Non-Board Member  John Farr Jimmy Gandhi Ertunga Ozelkan  Mike Ogle Ken Sexe Meritorious Service Award - Outstanding Local Section President Azam Ishaque Eschenbach Award for the Best EMJ Paper Multiple-Technique Approach for Improving a Performance Measurement and Management System: Action Research in a Mining Company Han-Hsin Chou, Hsing-Wu University Merritt Williamson Award – Best International Annual Conference Paper Improving Army Aviation Maintenance One Part at a Time: A Lean Six Sigma Application  CPT Michael Smith, USMA LTC James Enos, USMA Best Dissertation Award Modeling New Product Success from Component Measures of Product Advantage: A Model Utilizing Automated Text Classification and Sentiment Analysis Author: Nolen Akerman, Western Michigan University Advisor: Larry Mallak, Western Michigan University

President's Note

It is an honor to serve as your 2016-2017 ASEM President. In this capacity, it is my goal to increase the value of ASEM membership for all of our members. We are in the process of developing our ASEM 2020 strategic plan with value driving initiatives as the key to future success and growth of the Society. At the conclusion of our annual conference, the ASEM Board of Directors welcomed Suzanna Long as our new ASEM Secretary, Charles Daniels as Southeast Regional Director, Larry Mallak as North Central Regional Director, and Brian Galli as Northeast Regional Director. Our new Functional Directors include Trish Simo Kush over Communications, Patrick Kush leading Professional Membership and James Schreiner leading Professional Development. In addition, the Board approved three Ad Hoc directors; Hiral Shah as Publications Lead, Paul Componation representing the Engineering Management Honor Society, and John Richards representing CEMAL, the Council of Engineering Management Academic Leaders. Thank you to all of our new and continuing directors for investing their time into ASEM’s success. You can find the full list of ASEM leadership at https://www.asem.org/Leadership. Please feel free to reach out to any members of our Board with ideas or suggestions. We are here to serve you.

A little background about me: I have been a member of ASEM since 1999 when I joined as a student member as a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, and I was elected as an ASEM Fellow in 2011. In addition to recently serving as Society Secretary and President-Elect, I co-hosted the 2010 ASEM International Annual Conference and have served as an Associate Editor for the Engineering Management Journal since 2012. Professionally, I serve as Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Industrial Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas and direct the Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center and MarTREC, the Maritime Transportation Education and Research Center, which focus on multimodal transportation research advances and development of our next generation transportation workforce. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas with my husband and have four children (ages 22, 11, 9, 6). Being a mother has honed my people management and negotiation skills!

As an undergraduate engineering student, I recall many of my professors describing engineering management as the intersection between engineering science and people. I believe ASEM embodies that intersection through its production of the Engineering Management Journal, Engineering Management Body of Knowledge, and Engineering Management Handbook as the premiere publications in our field and professional development opportunities through our International Annual Conference, professional and program certification opportunities, webinars, and communication forums. As a fellow ASEM member, I hope you will take full advantage of your membership benefits this year.

ASEM held an outstanding conference in Charlotte last month. It was a pleasure to visit with many of you there. My congratulations and gratitude to our hosts and logistics committee chairs, Ertunga Ozelkan and Mike Ogle from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who provided us with the wonderful venue and excellent keynote speakers and tours. Through the efforts of our technical program committee; Suzie Long, Ean Ng, Bimal Nepal, and Craig Downing, we enjoyed a wide variety of academic and practitioner talks and workshops focused on current advances in engineering management. Please make plans to join us in Huntsville, Alabama from October 18-21, 2017 for our 2017 International Annual Conference. Abstracts are due February 27, 2017.  Visit  https://www.asem.org/2017_IAC for more details.

Heather Nachtmann, Ph.D.

2016-2017 ASEM President

Hello! I have a short post to share with you in anticipation of the upcoming International Annual Conference, held in Concord, North Carolina from 27OCT-29OCT2016. I have the links for this event right here and ready for you to visit!

IAC 2016 Conference Information

IAC 2016 Conference Schedule of Activities

There is a lot to see, say, hear and do in a compressed time frame. This makes for both a fun and exhausting event, trust me!

If you review the schedule, you will see that Major General (M Sc Eng) Albert Husniaux, the Engineering Manager of the Year, will be attending the conference as well. One activity that I am performing at the IAC is interviewing our winner. Along with Alice Squires, PhD, CSEP-Acq, PMP, PEM, we have the privilege of sitting down and learning more about his background, goals and vision for Engineering Management.

If there is a question that you would like to have asked, post it here or reach out to me via social media (LinkedIn, Twitter). As time permits, I will be happy to include your inquiry in the interview.

Also, please post if you are planning to attend the conference. I would love to catch up, introduce myself and wish you an awesome conference in person; travel safely!

Tricia Simo Kush is a certified Professional Engineering Manager with a background in Information Technology and a goal to take her career to a higher level through Engineering Management. She graduated from the MEM program at St. Cloud State University in 2010. To her, Engineering Management is a fascinating mix of technology and business, people and process. She is constantly seeing the ways that Engineering Management spans many industries and helps everyone to become effective leaders. Follow her on Twitter (@TSimoKush) or check out her profile on LinkedIn.

 

We are exactly one month away from our International Annual Conference (IAC) when I am writing this president’s message for the September newsletter, and I can assure you that everyone involved in the organization of our major annual event is starting to feel the vibes. Good vibes, as once more this year’s conference is promising to be the ASEM highlight of the year.

Our hosts Ertunga Ozelkan and Mike Ogle from the Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) Department of the UNC-Charlotte have selected a great venue, less than a quarter mile away from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Could there be a better place to inspire engineering managers to reflect on how to achieve top performance of organization, man and machine around the world? Ertunga and Mike have lined up inspiring keynote speakers from industry and academia (checkout their bio here). They have organized interesting industry tours to Daimler’s Truck Manufacturing Plant and Siemens Turbine Manufacturing Plant, and have planned a social event that will allow you to get a taste of Uptown Charlotte as well.

Thanks to your massive participation, our experienced technical program committee (thank you Suzie Long, Ean Ng, Craig Downing, and Bimal Nepal!) has been able to create an impressive program of close to 200 presentations, eight workshops, and three panel discussions. I particularly want to thank Alice Squires and Ken Sexe for bringing an elite group of industry leaders together for our second industry roundtable that aims to uncover the most challenging issues in engineering management. I see this roundtable as an important instrument to keep us grounded in reality. Discussions on overcoming obstacles, implementing best practices, and sharing lessons learned, are vital to keeping our EM Body of Knowledge current and to orient future products and services of ASEM. Further, our many international participants will find value in attending the international panel, organized by our International Director, Simon Philbin, in collaboration with speakers from around the world, who will share their experience as international ambassadors of ASEM in their countries.

Last but not least, the IAC allows us to recognize volunteers who have provided exceptional service to the society, as well as individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of engineering management in general. You will be impressed by the winners of our various awards. They all have been elected through a new awards election process that over the last months has been optimized under the professional guidance of our president-elect Heather Nachtmann.

It is a pleasure to announce that through this new award process, the ASEM Board has elected Major General Albert Husniaux, the First Chief Scientist of NATO’s Science and Technology Organization, as the winner of this year’s Engineering Manager of the Year Award. I cordially invite you to the Awards Banquet on Friday evening, October 28, to welcome our winner and to learn from his experiences in engineering management throughout his career.

In short, if you didn’t sign up for the conference yet, then please do so right away. You don’t want to miss any of this!

Geert Letens, PhD, PEM(TM)

ASEM President 2015-2016

Please send your thoughts and comments directly to Geert at: President@asem.org

From the Desk of the ASEM President, Dr. Geert Letens, PEM(TM)

Now the summer has come and passed, the harvest season is about to start in the Northern Hemisphere. September and October are critical months for our society that lead to our annual conference, where we typically recognize important contributors with awards, and take the time to evaluate the overall performance of the society while we prepare the transition to a new leadership team. And there is good news to be shared. EMJ achieves submission rates that almost double our previous records, international collaboration continues to grow and closely related to this, our professional membership levels are up again. I see two main drivers for this.

First, ASEM has developed a strong value package that is attractive for young and senior managers for industry, government and academia. The Engineering Management Journal, our Engineering Management Body of Knowledge, the Engineering Management Handbook, certification and professional development (don’t miss the chance to register for our exam preparation training at the conference: https://asem.org/event-2305685 (there are still a few seats left), webinars, practice periodical, newsletter, etc.

Second, we have invested in growing professional sections and strategic partnerships around the world. This creates visibility for ASEM to engineers from all continents and stimulates membership growth of the society while at the same time further increasing our value proposition. Returning home from a successful meeting in Xi’an and Beijing with our partners from the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), allows me to illustrate this. While the ASEM delegation supported the 10th International Forum on Engineering Management focusing on Large-scale Infrastructure Projects with six keynote speakers (Dave Wyrick, Beth Cudney, Steve Wang, Lida Xu, Fei Dai and Geert Letens), we also managed to prepare agreements to translate and publish our EM BoK in China, to setup an ASEM section in China, to explore options for certification events in China, etc. Last but not least, we identified ways to intensify our support of the Frontiers of Engineering Management Journal of CAE. This will not only drive our value and growth strategy for new members in China, but will provide current members of ASEM additional opportunities to publish their work and to learn from engineering managers around the world.

However, as Engineering Managers, we realize better than anyone else, that the long term success of an organization is determined by the development of new products. This is no different for ASEM. As a result I am happy to announce that, thanks to the leadership of our editors John Farr and Jimmy Gandhi, the new edition of our Engineering Management Handbook is ready to go to print. At the same time however, Dr. Alice Squires, Director of our Product Development Committee is putting a core team together to develop a strategic roadmap for products that will further support the field of engineering management. This includes planning the future editions of the EM Bok and the EM Handbook, as well as defining a suite of new products such as an EM pocket guide, EM checklists, and an EM Glossary to be part of a complete EM Toolbox for engineering managers.

I look forward to sharing more details on all these exciting evolutions at the annual business meeting of our conference. See you soon in Charlotte!

Geert Letens, PhD, PEM(TM)

ASEM President 2015-2016

Please send your thoughts and comments directly to Geert at: President@asem.org

From the Desk of the ASEM President, Dr. Geert Letens, PEM I have so much exciting news to share with you this month that I hardly know where to start.  Let’s begin with an incredible summer deal offered by our Product Development and Continuous Education Committee (PDCE Director Tricia Simo Kush). At the occasion of its International Annual Conference (IAC) in Charlotte, the American Society for Engineering Management is proud to offer a special professional development value package. The package includes a two-day (15 PDHs) professional development and continuing education seminar on October 25 and 26, a one year complimentary ASEM membership and a Professional Engineering Manager (PEM) certification voucher. While the seminar provides a general overview related to the Engineering Management Body of Knowledge (EMBoK), it focuses on a number of important topics in preparation of the PEM certification exams. The ASEM membership includes free electronic access to the EM Handbook, the Engineering Management Journal, the EM Practice Periodical, and webinars on diverse EM topics, allowing you to continuously develop your EM skills throughout the year. With the PEM voucher, you will be able to take the PEM exam whenever you feel you are ready for it. This maximizes your chances for successful completion of the exam that provides you the only internationally recognized certification of Professional Engineering Managers. All this for…$950! Read the details on our website and be quick: we only have sixteen seats available. Our international committee (International Director Simon Philbin) continues to increase ASEM’s international presence. While an international delegation is getting ready to present ASEM at the International Forum for Engineering Management (IFEM) in Xi-an (China), we are happy to announce our first webinar in collaboration with the Chinese Academy for Engineering (CAE), presented by Dr. Dayuan Li entitled "Practice and Impacts of Chinese Emission Trading Scheme". At the same time, our Brazilian ASEM section has started the translations of the EM BoK in Portuguese. Under the leadership of the section’s president, Fernando Deschamps, a team of more than 30 translators and reviewers will assure the quality of this work. A similar effort for the translation of the EM BoK in Chinese will follow after our discussions with CAE at IFEM 2016. Mark your calendar for ASEM’s first international event in Europe (Valencia, Spain) during the summer of 2017. ASEM is proud to become the co-organizer of an international joint conference organized in collaboration with ADINGOR (Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Ingeniería de Organización), ABEPRO (Associação Brasileira de Engenharia de Produção), AIM (European Academy for Industrial Management) and IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers). Precise dates will follow soon, but this is clearly another important milestone for our society. John Farr and Jimmy Gandhi are doing the final editing of the second edition of the EM Handbook. With several new chapters and various significant revisions of previous chapters, the new handbook addresses current globalization trends that make engineering management more relevant than ever, but also require engineers to develop new management skills that are essential to be successful in a economy characterized by geographically dispersed organizations and multi-cultural employees. Let us know if your organization would like to benefit from the increased (international) visibility that our organization is receiving. Our sponsoring Director Rafael Landaeta will be more than happy to explore all our options (EM Handbook, conference, LinkedIn, website,…) with you, to identify the opportunity that really fits your purpose. ‘Go ASEM International’! Geert Letens, PhD PEM ASEM President 2015-2016 Please send your thoughts and comments directly to Geert at: President@asem.org