Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering Newsletter
The Dodecahedron Better Ingredients, Better Engineers: Bryan Hill At the risk of ripping off the Papa John’s pizza chain and their commercials with the title above, it is a many‐faceted challenge to get the right students with the right preparation into engineering, nurture them through their studies, then connect them with the companies that rely on the U of A’s talent for their future. Make, bake, and deliver the student in four years (without the money back guarantee). It is not always a clear and focused path presented to Bryan Hill (BSIE 2003, MSIE 2007), Assistant Dean for Student Recruitment and Diversity, Honors and International Programs to navigate, but it is the nature of this valuable position in the College of Engineering. His is a position that is dedicated to do whatever is necessary to help students succeed, develop diversity, help the development of the college, provide teacher workshops, and even reach into the K‐12 schools to enhance math and science instruction. Recruiting Began Early as a Student Bryan served as part of the College of Engineering’s student recruiting group while earning his BSIE degree. As many of you may recall, there was a group of student recruiters started by Rick Malstrom that wore red jackets. Then IE’s success with that effort led Dean Neil Schmitt to make the effort college‐wide around 2005. Bryan said when his group of recruiters started, “the red coats died with us” because it became too dif icult to ind enough red jackets for the number of students involved in the program. In his day, the memorable experiences were the student trips (particularly to IIE conferences) and getting to know the faculty as a graduate student in IE. An interesting fact is that three of the current IE faculty were his classmates.
Bryan sees the current generation as, “students that want to make a difference in the world, not just in math and science.” He sees a strong interest in sustainability, and a greater independence Bryan Hill, (contrasted with Assistant Dean for worries about Student Recruitment dependent students and Diversity, Honors and their helicopter and International parents of 5‐6 years Programs ago). Students want to ind their own way, but want programs in place that help them discover and develop talents. Most students and parents now ask about ROI. The current student pro ile is also changing with a diversity developed using targeted programs that have been some of his proudest achievements. Since taking on the assistant dean role in 2009, the College’s undergraduate enrollment has increased 84.5% (1770 to 3265), the % of undergraduate females has increased from 17.9 to 22.5% (317 to 735) and the % of ethnic minorities has increased from 16.8 to 21.9% (298 to 715). He has seen IE overcome perceptions of the “imaginary engineer” due to the success of the graduates, the productivity of the faculty, and the number of strong programs and initiatives that began in IE and spread through the college. There are many leadership positions throughout the university that include people with IE backgrounds and connections. (Continued on page 8)
Spring 2016 AAIE Of icers Angela Kuli President Ken Gaines President‐Elect Ami Spivey Secretary Jonathon Fite Treasurer Mike Gross Past President
Inside this issue: From the President ....... 2 Scholarship News ......... 3 From the Department ... 4 IE Student-Athlete ........ 5 A4U ................................ 6 Global Experience ........ 7 Scholarship Donors ...... 9 Membership ................ 10