Ronald J. Schmitz Award | IEEE Education Society

To recognize outstanding and continued service to engineering education through contributions to the Frontiers in Education Conference.

Prize:

Plaque

Funding:

Frontiers in Education Conference, which is sponsored jointly by the IEEE Education Society, the IEEE Computer Society, and the ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division.

Presentation:

Annually, at Frontiers in Education Conference

Eligibility:

Must be a member of the IEEE Education Society or a member of ASEE Educational Research and Methods Division; both individuals and groups are eligible.

Recipients

2012

Arnold Pears

8 (Africa, Europe, Middle East)

Biography

Dr. Pears is Professor, and head of the Department of Learning in Engineering Sciences at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He leads research in Engineering Education and Computing in Schools and is a director of the CeTUSS Swedish National Center for Student and Societally Relevant Engineering Education. He has previously served as Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board of the Uppsala University Center for STEM Higher Education Research, and member of the Uppsala University Academic Senate and pedagogical advisory board to the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Arnold received his BSc(Hons) and PhD from La Trobe University, AUSTRALIA. Arnold is an IEEE Senior Member, Computer Society Golden Core Member(2012), receiving the Schmitz Award (2012) for services to the FIE conference. He has published more than 100 articles in major conferences and journals and has served as conference and program committee chair for many major conferences under the auspices of the IEEE and ACM. For more information https://www.kth.se/profile/pears/

2023-2024 President-Elect Position Statement:
If elected I will use my extensive experience as STEM researcher and departmental leader to make significant contributions to policies, initiatives and curricula and pedagogical standards through the IEEE Education Society. Thought leadership is central to our goal to improve our professional support for students and professionals both through education and after graduation. I offer my services to the community in the pursuit of these goals.

The IEEE Education Society is dedicated to enhancing education in all areas of engineering and increasing the accessibility and relevance of engineering for future generations of young people. Ours is a society of volunteers, with volunteers, for volunteers. Understanding how to increase the relevance of membership is a key current challenge. I will implement a process of innovation to understand and improve the types of support our community gives to education and or profession. Supporting our members in their professional lives is vital to our continued success. I will work toward enhancing the relevance and appeal of the Education Society around the globe.

Affiliation(s)

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Sweden

2011

Susan M. Lord

6 (Western U.S.)

Biography

Susan M. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). Dr. Lord’s teaching interests include electronics, optoelectronic materials and devices, service-learning, feminist pedagogy, and lifelong learning. From 1993-1997, Dr. Lord taught at Bucknell University. Her industrial experience includes AT&T Bell Laboratories, General Motors Laboratories, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and SPAWAR Systems Center. In 2012, she taught at Southeast University in Nanjing, China. From 2006-2016, she was Chair of Electrical Engineering at USD.

Dr. Lord’s research has been supported by several National Science Foundation (NSF) grants from programs including CAREER, gender in science and engineering (GSE), and research in engineering education (REE). Her research focuses on the study and promotion of diversity in engineering including student pathways, diverse populations including Latinos and military veterans, and cross-cultural studies with non-U.S. students. She is part of the USD team working on “Developing Changemaking Engineers”, funded by the NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) program.

Since entering college, Dr. Lord has been committed to increasing diversity in engineering particularly supporting women and underrepresented minorities. She co-authored The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering with Dr. Michelle Madsen Camacho of the USD Sociology Department. She and her research team have received best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education and the IEEE Transactions on Education and the 2013 WEPAN Betty Vetter Award for Research.

Dr. Lord is active in the international engineering education community. She served as General Co-Chair of the 2006 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference and as the Vice President (2007-2008) and President (2009-2010) of the IEEE Education Society. Dr. Lord is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Education and the Journal of Engineering Education. She joined the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI) facilitation team in 2015 conducting annual workshops for engineering educators

Affiliation(s)

University of San Diego

United States

2009

Russ Meier