The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering department at Washington State University is pleased to invite you to our upcoming seminar Monday, December 7, at 12:10 p.m. in Todd 311.
Dr. James Sweeney is a full professor and Head of the School of Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering at Oregon State University (OSU). Prior to coming to OSU in December of 2014, he was Chair of the Department of Bioengineering & Software Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). He also served as Interim Dean of the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering at FGCU in 2012. Before joining FGCU in August of 2006 as a Full Professor and founding Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, he was a tenured Associate Professor, Department Associate Chair, and Director of the Flinn Interdisciplinary Graduate Training Program in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering at Arizona State University (ASU), where he now holds Emeritus Faculty status.
Dr. Sweeney received the Sc. B. in Engineering (Biomedical Engineering) from Brown University in 1979 and the M. S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1983 and 1988, respectively. Dr. Sweeney is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is currently a Commissioner and Team Chair for the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET, Inc., and also sits on the Accreditation Activities Committee of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). He was the 2009-10 Program Chair and 2010-11 Division Chair for the Biomedical Engineering Division (BED) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
Dr. Sweeney’s research, educational and conference efforts have been funded by the NIH, NIST, the Whitaker Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research, the Flinn Foundation, National Instruments, and the American Heart Association. His research interests have included bioelectricity, design of medical devices, bio- and environmental sensors, and innovations in engineering education. Dr. Sweeney is an author on over 70 journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings papers and patents.
The NSF RED (Revolutionizing Engineering Departments) grant at OSU: Shifting Departmental Culture to Re-Situate Learning While the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE) at Oregon State University provides students many innovative learning opportunities, the extent to which these efforts are marginalized and isolated can limit their influence. Our goal is to implement revolutionary change by replacing a business-as-usual approach with a holistic, inclusive, professionally -based learning environment woven through both curricular requirements and co-curricular opportunities. We will address social inequality by creating engineering educational systems and interpersonal interactions that are professionally and personally life-affirming for all people across their differences. Change will come through construction of a culture of inclusion and a shift in our learning environments from sequestered activities to realistic, consequential work. This requires a fundamental change in the nature of department culture (values, norms and structure). Core activities include: (1) curricular redesign of 9 core sophomore-and junior-level studio courses to include more realistic, consequential work leveraging research-based pedagogies like problem-based learning and model-eliciting activities; (2) growing faculty and students’ capacity to engage issues of inclusivity by shifting their cognitive and affective knowledge of power and privilege; (3) planning and implementing student professional development pods, longitudinally mixed student teams where students help one another understand the university experience and how it relates to professional practice; and (4) implementing formal changes in governing policies and procedures within CBEE. This project will provide the first well-documented case study of institutional, cultural change in engineering making use of a situative theory. As more institutions and faculty experience an inclusive culture centered on engaging students with work that connects to engineering practice as well as their own identities and communities, we expect retention, recruitment and graduate numbers to increase. Additionally, faculty empowered to participate holistically in their teaching and research will reap personal benefits likely to be reflected in measurable outcomes such as research productivity, teaching effectiveness, sense of belonging, and growth.
