President's Note | February 2023

Dear ASEM Community,

Hard to believe but it is time to make plans for the 2023 International Annual Conference already! The conference will take place between October 25th and 28th in the Mile High City, Denver, Colorado where we will be “Climbing Higher with Engineering Management!” The deadline for an abstract is March 6th!

One new addition to the conference this year is our new Practitioner and Industry Track! Along with the outstanding research-focused work we call for, the new track provides an opportunity for authors to highlight key insights and new application challenges that arise from real world implementations of engineering management practice and theory. Please visit our Call for Papers for more information at https://www.asem.org/IAC-CFP where, beside paper submissions, we also encourage you to propose panels and workshops.

In-person presentation will take place on Thursday (October 26th) and Friday (October 27th), and virtual presentation on Saturday (October 28th). For more information about the conference, please visit https://asem.org/Conference. The dates for submissions can be found at https://www.asem.org/IAC_Dates and the submission instructions at https://www.asem.org/IAC-Author-Instructions.

An online Member Town Hall is coming up on February 24th to answer any questions about the conference, moderated by our Executive Director, Dr. Gene Dixon: https://www.asem.org/event-5129153. Many thanks to our hosts at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as ASEM’s Conference Planning Committee for working hard to organize an exciting event for all participants, in-person and virtual.

Speaking of events, as you may recall, we have been organizing online open forums to provide updates on new ASEM services and at the same time, to hear from our community to serve them better. These services include a new mentorship program, upcoming workshops, webinars, networking opportunities and many others. Registration to these forums is free and forum participants who are not members will receive an offer of 10% off on membership fees.

Two new forums are comping up in February, one for industry professionals / leaders on Friday, February 10th, 12 – 1:30 pm ET (to receive the Zoom link, pre-register at https://asem.org/event-5150263), followed by the one for academic professionals on Friday, February 17th, 12 – 1:30 pm ET (to receive the Zoom link, pre-register at https://asem.org/event-5150275).

I will be moderating these forums where the participants will have an opportunity to learn about the very latest developments in ASEM, and then have an interactive discussion around five key questions to move this organization forward as it provides the greatest benefit to its members. The forums will also be attended by one of our workshop instructors and Regional Directors, Dr. Larry Mallak, as well as ASEM Communications Director, Patrick Sweet, and Professional Membership Director, COL Jim Schreiner, Ph.D. They will provide first-hand insight about the contents of our upcoming workshops, new online networking tools, and the ASEM mentorship program. During these sessions, I will make an announcement to establish a team of volunteers as well, so please do not miss these events if you would like to get more closely involved in ASEM.

In summary, we strongly encourage you to consider attending these forums and choose the one that is most appropriate for you (industry or academia). Worldwide participation is most welcome!

Moving on to another important topic, it saddens me to announce that our Executive Director, Dr. Gene Dixon, is stepping down from his position. He has been serving the Society in this role for the last three years, and successfully guided this organization through the unprecedented times of the pandemic. We extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Dixon for his invaluable leadership.

As a result, ASEM is searching for a new Executive Director (for the ad, please visit https://asem.org/Position-Announcements/ . If you are interested in applying for this voluntary leadership position, please submit an application package consisting of a complete resume/CV, a cover letter detailing your interests, including a statement of your objectives and goals if selected, and a recommendation from two members of the society, to me at President@asem.org, by March 31st, 2023, with “Executive Director Application” in the message subject line.

Last but not least, let us welcome Thomas J. Day, Ph.D., to ASEM’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB)! Dr. Day is the Program Management Branch Chief at the NOAA’s National Weather Service and Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Maryland Global Campus. Please note that we are still accepting new industry leaders to the IAB. If you are interested in joining this Board or if you would like to nominate someone, please do not hesitate to contact me at President@asem.org.

I hope to see you online throughout the year and meet you in Denver on October 25th!

President's Note | November 2022

I am deeply honored and privileged to serve as ASEM’s 2022-2023 President. In this role, my goals are to make sure our great organization continues to meet and exceed its stakeholders’ needs, and to maintain ASEM’s position as a bridge between academia and industry. In this context, together with our Board of Directors and members, I aim to work on ASEM’s industry outreach, value proposition and promotional activities. Towards these goals, we have recently formed an Industry Advisory Board (IAD). With many thanks for their enthusiastic involvement, the founding industry members of this Board are (in no particular order) Mike Holman, Vice President, Production Operations at Coleman Aerospace and a recent ASEM Fellow; Shawn Brougham, Vice President of Engineering in Altec; and Tres Bishop, Director of Quality and Regulatory Affairs for DaVita Labs and the instructor of ASEM’s Six Sigma Green Belt Certification training. We will be adding other prominent companies to the team in the future.

The IAD is supported by a group of ASEM Officers and members, including (in no particular order) Paul Kauffmann, ASEM’s Special Projects Director; Jim Schneider, Professional Membership Director; Patrick Sweet, Communications Director; Patricia Anzalone, Professional Society Outreach Director; Richard Grandrino, ASEM member, and myself.

We will also be hosting online open forums soon to have conversations with various stakeholders. Their inputs will provide important data for us to act upon as we carry ASEM’s successful path into the future. We have already collected feedback from the IAD and several members, and as a direct result of their inputs, we are working on creating domain groups, workshops, webinars and more to benefit our members.

Another new addition to ASEM’s social media content will be various spotlight series with different themes. Through these, we are determined to celebrate the contributions of our members to ASEM and the engineering management profession.

ASEM is speeding up its partnerships with other organizations as well. Most recently, we co-organized the International Engineering and Technology Management Summit in Istanbul, together with Istanbul Technical University and Bahcesehir University (https://etms.itu.edu.tr/2022/). Our Officers, Greg Sedrick, ASEM’s Past President; Willy van Overschee, International Director; Alex Gorod and Leonie Kay Hallo, Co-Presidents of ASEM’s Southeast Asia & Pacific Section and myself were invited to deliver keynotes, organize panels and international sessions for this event.

Even though the ASEM community is growing on a global scale, this organization is a family in spirit. We are determined to maintain that spirit while providing great networking and professional development opportunities to our members. Please attend the online forums to voice your opinions; join us at other events such as the 2023 International Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, participate in joint events that we co- organize, workshops, webinars, certification programs, domain groups when available, and many more…

I will be happy to connect with anyone who wants to join this exceptional community and desires to be more involved. If you have any ideas to assist ASEM to fulfill its aforementioned goals, or if you are a representative of an organization that wants to become a member of our Industry Advisory Board, or if you would like to partner with us in another capacity, please email me at President@asem.org.

The theme of last month’s conference in Tampa was “Engineering Managers as Champions of Change.” Let’s get the ball rolling and change together to reach new heights!