Alumni Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2006

In this issue:
Note from the Chair
Engineering Alumni Electronic Network
Engineering Alumni Dinner
Endowed Scholarship Support
Hofstra Engineering High School Student of the Month Award
2006 L.I. FIRST Robotics Contest

Note from the Chair | table of contents |

The 2005-06 academic year is winding down, but the Engineering Department is gearing up for the summer. We have many projects and programs going on and look forward to a productive season. ABET has been on our minds all year; the engineering reaccreditation of our programs has successfully occurred and we are stronger for the experience. This periodic physical had us prepare reports, gather student work, analyze alumni data, and demonstrate faculty proficiencies in several areas, all with ever-increasing specifications.

With that as the backdrop of year, we had several other initiatives that were conceived and implemented. One of them was creating a more active Hofstra Engineering Alumni network, something that was long overdue. Learning from and supporting one another can make real differences in our professional lives. For instance, several students have been able to gain internships because of contacts established through the network, where we are posting employment opportunities. While companies are typically seeking new engineering graduates, they also value people with experience too. The Engineering Alumni Dinner was a great success - thank you Maryann Clune and Gerry Gildea for all your hard work.

The Engineering Industrial Advisory Board is expanding. We want to increase membership with a particular focus on Long Island companies where our graduates work. One of our goals is have advisory board members facilitate internship opportunities for our students.

The Engineering and Computer Science departments were co-hosts of the L.I. FIRST Robotics Contest, held at the Hofstra Arena on March 24th and 25th. Several thousand people attended. Faculty and students participated as judges and in support of the high school teams during the contest.

We initiated the Hofstra Engineering High School Student of the Month Award in February, an ongoing awards program. The idea behind the award is to recognize high school juniors who have demonstrated an interest in engineering. This also serves to publicize the Engineering programs at Hofstra as well as engineering as a profession.

We have also expanded scholarship support for engineering students. We now award over $50,000 annually. Much of the support comes from industry and society annual scholarships, but the endowed scholarships are also increasing and may be where you wish to target some or all of your Hofstra donations.

We look forward to hearing from you; let us know what we can do to make the Hofstra Engineering Alumni Network stronger and more helpful to you.

Dave Burghardt

More than 200 alumni are connected on the network thus far, so we can send you updates and share information that might be beneficial to you. We also want to create an Engineering Alumni website as part of the Engineering Department site. Your ideas as to what would be interesting and valuable are important as the site is designed. For instance, should the site be open to all visitors, or require some sort of identification? Either choice poses challenges and opportunities. We would like to hear to your views.
Email us at egglac@hofstra.edu

Engineering Alumni Dinner | table of contents |

With over 50 people in attendance, our first Engineering Alumni Dinner was a great success. From the faculty and personal perspectives, it was great seeing graduates we hadn't seen in a long time. It is part of what makes teaching a rewarding profession. At this point, we anticipate having a dinner/reunion every other year.

Endowed Scholarship Support | table of contents |

The department is the recipient of several endowed scholarships and we (and the students) are ever so grateful for the financial support we can provide students. You may be interested in creating a scholarship of your own, or perhaps contributing to ones that have already been established. Some of the more recently created endowed scholarships are:

* The Ronald J. Alvarez Scholarship for Civil Engineering students.
* The Phillip J. Panzeca Scholarship for Industrial and Electrical Engineering students.
* The Stanley P. Goldstein Scholarship for Engineering Science and Mechanical Engineering students.
* The Women in Engineering Scholarship that my wife Linda and I established to support women whose engineering education had been delayed or interrupted.

Other existing endowed scholarships are the Nicholas C. Croce Scholarship, the Doris and Bruce Lister Scholarship, the Donald H. Murphy Scholarship, the Horst K. Saalbach Scholarship, and the Robert E. Stuhler Scholarship.

Hofstra Engineering High School Student of the Month Award
| table of contents |

We are very excited about this new award, which we created in conjunction with the public relations office. Working together with high school principals, guidance counselors and science/math/technology teachers, who nominate students for the award, we select an outstanding high school junior who has demonstrated an interest in engineering. The goal is not to target just science contest researchers, but students who participate eagerly in science, math and technology education classes, extra curricular events, and contests that indicate an interest in engineering.

Members of the Engineering Department Industrial Advisory Board assist with the evaluation of the students and the nominating teacher provides information about the students. We work with the weekly newspapers on the north and south shores of Nassau County, and another in Queens, to run photographs of the awardees, their principals and nominators, and a faculty member or advisory board member of the Engineering Department.

All awardees, their families and nominators are invited to a dinner in mid-June. This year twelve of the fourteen awardees and their families plan to attend. We will continue this successful program next year.

2006 L.I. FIRST Robotics Contest | table of contents |

This is the second year that we have co-hosted a regional play-off of this national contest at Hofstra. The official tally shows 8000 people attending over the two-day event. Forty high school teams participated in the regional play-off, with the national contest held in Atlanta. The teams have a wide variety of support from the local community who ante-up $5000 just to get the team a box of parts. Two to three times that amount is ultimately needed, so there are local fundraisers, engineers and technicians from local companies support the teams. Students treat the event as they might a sports team playoff, so there are cheering sections, costumes and team outfits. A lot of fun, great to watch, wonderful to participate in. If you are interested, we can line you up with a school. Let us know.