Clinic Directorship and Projects Advised

Engineering Clinic

The Engineering Clinic Program started in 1963. It is a sponsored Third-/Fourth-Year capstone project course. A good deal of information can be found here. A brief history can be found here. Clinic has grown from its start in Engineering to include Computer Science, Physics, Math, and a Global Program. The concept of Clinic has been copied widely but was radically different from the prevailing engineering pedagogy in 1963.

Each student-led project has a Faculty Advisor who is a coach or a mentor to the team, and not a typical Principal Investigator. However, the Faculty Advisor typically learns as much as the students do about the sponsor and the project. I’ve put both information about my time as Engineering Clinic Director and about the projects for which I’ve been the Faculty Advisor.

Engineering Clinic Director

From July 2010 to July 2015 I was the Engineering Clinic Director. The Engineering Clinic Director’s primary responsibility is recruiting of Clinic Projects for the students. The total number of projects required varies from year to year depending on the number of Engineering Majors. During my time the count in Engineering varied between 20 and 26. The total annual budget for the Engineering Clinic Program is in excess of $1,000,000. I am happy to discuss the details of the budgeting on an individual basis.

Barry Olsan, the Director of Corporate Relations initiates contact with most of the sponsors. Once he has a potential sponsor willing to either meet or or have a teleconference, the Engineering Clinic Director gets involved for the site visit or teleconference. A good fraction of my time was spent on site visits and teleconferences. The Clinic Director helps the sponsors edit the project statements and get the business agreement in place. The Clinic Director then assigns the students and the Faculty Advisors to the teams, and deals with the logistics.

I had the great benefit of having David Harris as the Associate Director for the first two years, Qimin Yang as the Associate Director for the next two years, and Lori Bassman as the Associate Director for the final year. My job would have been impossible without the support of Lorena Gonzalez, the Engineering Clinic Program Coordinator, and the rest of the Engineering support staff.

My time as Engineering Clinic Director gave me both practice at and great insight into what it takes to manage a $1,000,000 program.

Clinics I’ve Advised

Again, the Faculty Advisor is a coach or a mentor to the team, and not a Principal Investigator. Nevertheless, I’ve learned a great deal from the projects I’ve advised and I’ve learned a lot more engineering than I otherwise would have.