Thanks for getting together with Today's Engineer, Charles. At this year's IEEE-USA Leadership Workshop, you received IEEE-USA's highest honor — the Robert S. Walleigh Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Professionalism Award. What are your thoughts on receiving this most prestigious honor?

I have been fortunate in that I have both worked with and been mentored by a wide cross section of the IEEE's leaders. Actually, I was taken aback when initially informed that I had been selected for this award. I have known and worked with many of the 26 previous Walleigh awardees, from 1978's John Guarrera through last year's awardee, John Reinert, and I could clearly identify the many things they had accomplished that brought them this great honor.

Although I wasn't aware that my activities merited such recognition, I was humbled that many colleagues were surprised I had not been nominated earlier. I dedicated the award to my wife, Rose, and my family for their support in allowing me to volunteer time away from them; to the many leaders with whom I have worked who have received this award; and to a good friend and fellow “Walleigh” recipient, Bob Noberini, who passed away last year.
 

When it was time for college, I selected the most difficult program at what I thought was the best college in Brooklyn — Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (PIB). My SATs weren't high enough, so it didn't happen. I went on to earn an associate degree at Staten Island Community College (SICC), and a bachelors degree in engineering science at Richmond College. Today those schools are combined and now called the College of Staten Island.

My first job was working on instrumentation for an air pollution monitoring van for General Electric in the summer of 1969. I taught at SICC in the fall, and I would still be there, except I that was invited to attend PIB for my graduate work on a National Institutes of Health internship.

After earning my masters, and while working on my doctorate in bioengineering with minors in electrical engineering and systems analysis at PIB, I moved to Seattle to become Director of Bioengineering Research for a Veterans Administration Project. I returned to New York to finish my Ph.D. at PIB while teaching there. In 1980, I went to Pratt to teach electrical engineering.
 

I had already been an active IEEE volunteer (Student Branch Counselor, Region and Engineering Management Society Board member). My deans have supported my IEEE activities by granting me time off from administrative duties and the flexibility to reschedule classes. In fact, they encouraged my IEEE service even more when I was appointed TAB Newsletter Chair, and then to the IEEE Publications Board. Quite possibly, I was the first library degree holder to serve on that IEEE Board.

Over the past 11 years I have created several networked computer labs and smart classrooms, served five years in administration at the associate dean level, and developed several graduate level network, database and markup language courses. Far from being unique, all library school faculty have graduate degrees in subject fields — engineering was mine.
 

Twenty years later, I was elected to the IEEE Board of Directors of that same conference. It was an exhausting effort to put together an annual conference of that magnitude, with 1,500 exhibits and some twenty thousand attendees, at its peak. But working with colleagues from the tristate Boston areas gave me a great sense of the breadth of the IEEE “family.” And my IEEE family has grown with my willingness to accept higher-level leadership roles, as I traveled all over the world as an IEEE volunteer, distinguished lecturer and presenter.

In IEEE-USA, I have most enjoyed working on IEEE-USA’s Board of Directors as a technical activities representative, working with Board members on H-1B visa responses; helping to shape policies for IEEE-USA Training workshops; and working toward re-establishing a fund for Division/Society PACE Projects. I have also served on IEEE-USA’s Professional Activities Committee for Engineers (PACE) reviewing policies, encouraging projects, and working with Member Professional Awareness Conference (M-PAC) programs in Regions 1 through 6. And I have worked with non-U.S. colleagues to promote professional activities throughout the entire IEEE.

One of my aspirations is to introduce professional activities and concepts to all IEEE members using the breadth of IEEE-USA programs and projects in Regions 1 though 6 to mentor similar activities in Regions 7 through 10. We already have the template for this type of activity — IEEE-USA’s student professional awareness conferences (S-PACs), managed by IEEE-USA volunteers and staff in Regions 1 through 6, and by the Regional Activities Board in Regions 7 through 10.
 

In that presentation, I point out that the key to the IEEE as a professional society is that it provides opportunities for learning about the diverse areas of the IEEE’s 41 technical societies and about our various councils; for attending IEEE Chapter sessions; and for networking with local industry leaders, researchers and colleagues.

IEEE volunteers learn soft skills, such as bookkeeping, presentation and leadership — all with low risk and plenty of mentoring. As our members grow in their volunteer roles, they learn and apply leadership skills that focus on that special kind of effort needed to “herd cats” — and by that, I mean work with volunteers — as they find incentives to motivate those on the different committees they serve on.

Speaking of committees, IEEE-USA has about 25 of them
covering a wide variety of programs from finance to technical policy. I encourage you all to look at these service opportunities at: www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/committees.
 

It also helps to be a people person, and to understand you cannot always change things you feel are wrong (at least not overnight). I really don’t know that I could have done anything more to gain this recognition earlier. The "Walleigh” is not something you work to achieve, rather it is a recognition from your peers that says that the things you have accomplished have made a difference.

IEEE-USA has several levels of awards from its Professional Achievement Award to “The Walleigh.” And their requirements are simple — do PACE projects! I encourage everyone to consider nominating their colleagues for IEEE awards. You should be recognized for your efforts more often. For additional awards information see: www.ieeeusa.org/volunteers/awards.

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