President's Note | September 2023
Dear ASEM Community: Welcome aboard Mark and Alvaro! As always, if you would like to join the IAB or to nominate someone who is a high-mid level decision-maker in a private, non-profit, or government organization in or out of the United States, please do not hesitate to contact me at President@asem.org.
President's Note | August 2023Dear ASEM Community: As the time approaches for the Annual Conference in Denver, the early bird registration deadline is near. Please consider registering before August 15th to take advantage of the lower fees. Many thanks to our supporters and advertisers for helping ASEM to make this conference a success. We currently have academic and private sector organizations as well as individuals signing up. If you or your organization would like to be a supporter/advertiser, please contact Dr. Tres Bishop and Angie Cornelius to learn about the different options you can choose. Our Industry Advisory Board (IAB) continues to grow! We are pleased to announce that Anthony "Tony" Klaumann, PE, Associate Vice President - NE/IA Freight Rail Track Section Manager at HDR, has accepted our invitation to become the seventh member of the IAB. Welcome, Tony! If you would like to join this Board or to nominate someone who is a high-mid level decision-maker in a private, non-profit, or government organization in or out of the United States, please do not hesitate to contact me at President@asem.org. As ASEM continues its expansion worldwide as well, we have recently welcomed a new ASEM Section in Ecuador! Congratulations and many thanks to our members in that country for their hard work and enthusiasm to make it happen. Also, special thanks to our International Director, Alex Gorod, for his leadership. If you would like to start a section in your part of the world, please get in touch with Dr. Gorod. If you are interested in starting a student chapter, please contact our Student Membership Director, Ona Egbue who has been helping international student chapters to develop such as the Pakistan Student Chapter we welcomed last month. Last but certainly not least, we are happy to announce that our new Secretary has been elected! Ganapathy S. “Gana” Natarajan, Ph.D., CPEM, ASEM Fellow, Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, will serve as the ASEM Secretary for the 2023-2024 year before becoming the President-Elect and President in the following years. Congratulations, Gana! Looking forward to meeting everyone who will attend the conference either in-person or virtually in Denver. And, many thanks to our entire community for their support.
President's Note | July 2023Dear ASEM Community: I hope you are having a great summer! If you have submitted a paper, presentation, or a workshop, tutorial or panel proposal to the Denver Conference, you have probably received a submission notification by now. We continue to be very excited about the amount of interest in attendance and the variety of quality work sent our way. Thank you! Don’t forget to book your roomand register as soon as possible. While you register, I hope you consider reserving a space for this year’s Social Event at the Denver Center for Performing Arts! This is a ticketed event ($20 per person) and space is limited. If you intend on participating this event, please make sure it is added to your registration. As ASEM continues to grow worldwide, we have recently welcomed a new Student Chapter in Pakistan! Congratulations and many thanks to our members in that country for establishing ASEM’s first international Student Chapter! If you are interested in creating new Student Chapters or ASEM Sections in your part of the world, please do not hesitate to contact our International Director, Alex Gorod and/or our Student Membership Director, Ona Egbue. As part of our volunteerism program, we are searching for dynamic, social media-savvy individuals to help with our communications activities. If you are interested in joining the communications team as a volunteer, please feel free to contact our Communications Director, Ali Kucukozyigit, and/or President-Elect, Annmarie Uliano. Please visit our leadership page for the contact information you may need to reach out to us. And, finally, it is time for the ASEM Award Nominations! Each year, the Society gives out a variety of awards to deserving members, students, authors, and chapters. The nominations are accepted through July 30th. Please visit https://asem.org/Society-Awards to review the award descriptions plus criteria and consider using the form there to submit a nomination (or two, or three…). Enjoy your summer! President's Note | June 2023Dear ASEM Community: As you may recall, our Executive Director, Dr. Gene Dixon is stepping down this month. We are grateful for his outstanding service and dedication to the Society, especially during the pandemic times and beyond. We are also happy to know that he will continue to offer his leadership and in-depth knowledge for the advancement of the Society through various significant projects. On behalf of the ASEM community, thank you, Gene! On that note, please allow me to introduce ASEM’s new Executive Director, Dr. Suzanna ‘Suzie’ Long! Dr. Long is currently the Dean of Engineering at the University of Idaho and has been an irreplaceable member of ASEM for many years. She has served at several Board of Directors positions including the role of ASEM President during the 2018-2019 term. With many thanks for your committed service and leadership, welcome home, Suzie! Speaking of leadership, our Industry Advisory Board (IAB) continues to grow. Our newest member is Dr. Hannelie Nel, the Regional Quality, Risk and HSE Manager for UAE, Oman, North Africa and Iraq at Worley. We welcome Dr. Nel to the Board and look forward to her and all our IAB members’ instrumental guidance and support to achieve ASEM’s mission and vision together. If you are interested in joining the IAB or if you would like to nominate someone, as always, I will be happy to discuss. Please do not hesitate to contact me at President@asem.org. In the meantime, please check out the new IAB webpage at https://asem.org/IAB to learn more about our current members. Changing gears, if you recall, I have been hosting online open forums for different ASEM stakeholders this year such as industry and academic professionals. These sessions are open to everyone, member or not, regardless of what stakeholder group they are in, free of charge. Another forum will be held on June 9th, 12-1:30 U.S. Eastern Time, particularly for international participants. As usual, attendees who are non-members will be offered 10% off on new membership fees. Pre-registration is necessary to receive the zoom link prior to the event. For registration and more information about the forum, please visit this page. This is likely to be my last open forum, and I am looking forward to connecting with you at this event. Since we are on the subject of events, let us talk about one of our favorite ones: the International Annual Conference! We are very excited about what awaits all of us in Denver. We received an extraordinary number of papers, so we expect a significant attendance boost. We are also eager to facilitate our new and popular industry track, workshops, panels, social event and tours. It is going to be a terrific gathering! Don’t forget to book your roomand register as soon as possible. Moving onto a couple of other topics, like many other organizations, ASEM is not immune to the effects of inflation, unfortunately. As we announced before, there will be a slight increase in our membership dues (scroll down) to take effect on July 1, 2023. Therefore, we would like to remind you that if you desire to take advantage of the current rates before the due increase, you may want to apply for new membership or extend your current membership through the end of June. Last but not least, have you reviewed our Job Announcements page lately? The number and variety of the ads have been on the rise there. I hope both the employers and the prospective employees in industry and academia consider utilizing this service more and more, in line with the growing trend we are on. Until we meet again, I hope the month of June is the start of a great summer for all of you. President's Note | May 2023Dear ASEM Community: The International Annual Conference preparation is going full steam ahead! The draft paper submission deadline is May 30th, and more information on that and other deadlines are provided here. We expect higher in-person participation, so it is time to book your room at the conference venue and register for the conference. We are looking forward to meeting you in Denver. We have a new two-part online seminar series titled “Strategic Data Science for Engineering Managers” by Dr. Joe Wilck. It is coming up on May 11th (part 1) and 18th(part 2), 1-2:30 pm U.S. Eastern Time. For more information and pre-registration, please visit our event page. Our Industry Advisory Board (IAB) is growing. If you are or a contact of yours is interested in joining this Board, please feel free to email me at President@asem.org. I will be happy to provide more information and discuss the details. We are also still accepting volunteers to join our experimental online domain groups. These groups aim to provide interactive networking, idea-exchange, and mentorship opportunities to the group members (even if you are not yet an ASEM member). If you would like to be a volunteer, please fill out this form and let’s get you started! We are seeking volunteers for our webinar committee as well. This committee coordinates the effort of organizing and offering ASEM-supported webinars. If you are interested in serving on the committee, please email Ona Egbue, ASEM Student Membership Director at StudentMembership@asem.org and Cesar Poveda, ASEM Professional Development & Continuing Education Director at ProfessionalDevelopment@asem.org. For more information on the volunteers’ roles, please visit eNews. There will be another online forum that I will be hosting. It is particularly directed to international participants this time, but, as always, open to everyone. Please stay tuned for the date to be announced in the near future. It is great to experience the togetherness and growth of our community. Thank you for your continuing support in ASEM’s mission to advance the discipline and facilitate professional development and networking among engineering managers worldwide. President's Note | April 2023Dear ASEM Community: Great news! We have received a record number of abstracts to the upcoming International Annual Conference! As usual and perhaps even more so this time, the conference will be a special opportunity for engineering managers to network in a lively, welcoming environment. This also means that it is time to book your room at the conference venue, and sooner the better. Many thanks for your support. We are looking forward to meeting everyone in Denver in October 2023. As ASEM speeds up its continuing education activities, we will offer our first online workshop titled “Build a Better Team: The Everest Climb” on April 14th, 2023, 11 am – 1:30 pm U.S. Eastern Time. Please see the short video from the instructors, Dr. Larry Mallak and Mr. Jonathan Rees, and review the registration page for more information. This workshop is in partnership with Western Michigan University and has been offered to many corporate attendees over the past ten years. It engages participants in one of five specific team roles as they do a simulated climb of Mount Everest. The teams encounter challenges during the climb. That’s all we can say here – the rest is revealed during the experience. Past participants have described it as one of the best team experiences they have ever had. ASEM is hosting it at an introductory, one-time price, so I hope you consider taking advantage of it by registering soon to save a spot. Even though there will be a slight increase in our membership dues to take effect on July 1, 2023, ASEM continues to be committed to offering some of its up-to-date, informative continuing education events free of charge. There is a new online webinar coming up by Dr. Joe Wilck, on April 27th, 2023, 12 – 1 pm U.S. Eastern Time. This webinar will provide an overview of ChatGPT and how to effectively use it for professional purposes. The session will include tips and tricks so that you know what it is good for and what it is not. If you are interested in this popular topic, please register here (no charge, open to everyone). Dr. Wilck will also facilitate a two-part workshop on Data Science and Analytics for Engineering Managers on May 11th and 18th. The details will be announced soon, so please stay tuned. As part of our ongoing industry outreach, new members continue to join our Industry Advisory Board (IAB). We extend a warm welcome to our latest IAB member, Dr. David Murfett, the Global Systems Engineering Manager at REDARC Electronics Pty Ltd, Australia. We thank Dr. Murfett for coming aboard and all our IAB members for their invaluable encouragement, guidance and contributions. If you are or a contact of yours is interested in joining the IAB, please feel free to email me at President@asem.org. I will be happy to provide more information and discuss the details. Finally, we are still accepting volunteers to join our experimental online domain groups. These groups aim to provide interactive networking, idea-exchange, and mentorship opportunities to the group members (even if you are not yet an ASEM member). If you would like to be a volunteer, please fill out this form and let’s get you started! It is always great to connect with current and prospective members on virtual or in-person events. For now, I hope to ‘meet’ you on Mount Everest on April 14th!
President's Note | March 2023Dear ASEM Community: First, let me announce that the abstract deadline for our 2023 International Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, has been extended to March 13th! Remember that, alongside our traditional call for technical / research papers, we added a Practitioner’s and Industry track this year. So, we hope to welcome all technical / research and industry friends in Denver! Please check out the updated call for papers for both tracks here: https://asem.org/IAC-CFP. You may want to send an abstract not only for a full paper, but also for abstract only (presentation), a panel, workshop or tutorial. We are also looking for Track Chairs, so please let me know if you would like to be one (President@asem.org). Second, our open forums have generated a lot of energy and great ideas! We hosted many attendees from industry and academia, and from all over the world! Thank you for participating in these events and engaging with the larger ASEM community. More forums will be added in the future. As a direct result of your feedback as well as our Industry Advisory Board’s (IAB), new online workshops are coming up! The first one will take place on April 14th, 11 am – 1:30 pm, U.S. Eastern Time. This workshop will be instructed by our Northeast and North-Central Regional Director, Dr. Larry Mallak and his colleague from the United Kingdom, Jonathan Rees. It is titled “Build a Better Team: The Harvard Everest Climb,” and will be offered in collaboration with Western Michigan University. More information will be provided shortly so please stay tuned! Another workshop, tentatively titled as “Strategic Data Science for Engineering Managers,” will be taught by our Treasurer, Dr. Joe Wilck. We are hoping for a May 2023 date for this event, so please be on the look-out for that as well. Many thanks to Dr. Larry Mallak, Mr. Jonathan Rees, Western Michigan University, and Dr. Joe Wilck, for all of their hard work and dedication to bring these professional training opportunities to fruition. Third, again, as a direct result of forum attendees’ and the IAB’s feedback, we are starting to experiment with online domain groups! Our goals are to provide networking opportunities to ASEM members with an interest in various group topics, to exchange ideas, find solutions to any problems put forward by group members, and even create mentorship relationships. The first domain group takes its title from one of our EMBoK domains: “Leadership and Organizational Management.” I am looking forward to moderating this group and will be happy to include more volunteers in this team (please email me at President@asem.org, if you would like to join). Another online group will work on “Information Technology / Artificial Intelligence (IT / AI).” Many thanks to ASEM’s Professional Membership Director, COL Jim Schreiner, for moderating this group (if you would like to join, please email him at Membership@asem.org). Last but certainly not least, congratulations to Rice University for becoming ASEM's newest Certified Program (MEML; Masters in Engineering Management and Leadership)! To find out more about ASEM's Graduate Program Certification, visit https://asem.org/Graduate-Program-Cert. Let’s fire up the abstract submission link at https://asem2023.exordo.com by March 13th!
President's Note | February 2023Dear 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!
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