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Two members of Lafayette’s engineering faculty have been elected as division chairs of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) for the upcoming academic year. Kristen Sanford Bernhardt, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will lead the civil engineering division, and Polly Piergiovanni, associate professor of chemical engineering, will lead the chemical engineering division.
“We have a faculty who believes that teaching, not just research, is important,” says Piergiovanni. “Our faculty values engineering education and pedagogy, and we hope that putting our efforts into leading the divisions will encourage other faculty to become involved.”
Both professors agree that the election of two national division chairs emphasizes the quality of Lafayette’s engineering programs and faculty. Each division has hundreds of members from around the country who participate in elections.
As chair of the civil engineering division, Sanford Bernhardt will ensure that other officers perform their duties, address member concerns, recruit new members among civil engineering faculty nationwide, and initiate programs to serve the needs of the division’s membership. She also will act as a liaison between division members and ASEE’s board of directors.
This past year, she served as program chair, organizing technical and social programs for ASEE’s 113th Annual Conference & Exposition June 18-21 in Chicago. The civil engineering division sponsored nine technical sessions, three business meetings, and its annual RAP session/banquet. It also co-sponsored six technical sessions, a joint RAP session with the architectural and construction divisions, and lecture.
“This is significant for the Lafayette community because it is a national leadership position,” says Sanford Bernhardt. “All of the approximately 650 members of the [civil engineering] division as well as other leaders in ASEE have seen, and will continue to see, Lafayette College with my name in all communications, etc. It is excellent visibility for the College in terms of name recognition, and it [conveys] that the College is committed to advancing undergraduate engineering education.”
As chair of the chemical engineering division, Piergiovanni will ensure that the division’s new initiatives run smoothly. It recently launched a web site that is a clearinghouse of chemical engineering educational material, where faculty can post and download new lab ideas, problem sets, and other information. She also will write two newsletters, lead two meetings, and oversee planning for Summer School for Young Faculty, a series of seminars, workshops, and fun activities held every five years.
Piergiovanni looks forward to learning about new ideas and methods to try in the classroom and hopes to use her contacts with professors at larger universities to aid her students who wish to pursue graduate school. She also notes that Lafayette’s reputation in ASEE has noticeably improved over the years.
“ASEE is a group of faculty who like to explore the best way to teach students so that they learn the material,” she says. “When I first became involved with ASEE, Lafayette did not seem to be well known, but now the faculty I see at meetings know about and respect our engineering program.”
Sanford Bernhardt publishes her research in engineering journals and has involved Lafayette students in her work. Along with Mary J.S. Roth ’83, professor and head of civil and environmental engineering, she received the Glenn L. Martin Best Paper Award at the 2005 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition in Portland, Ore. They earned the national honor for their coauthored paper “Undergraduate Research: The Lafayette Experience.” Sanford Bernhardt, who taught at the University of Missouri-Columbia for four years, holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S.E. from Duke University.
A specialist in biochemical engineering, Piergiovanni researches cell-dependent problems that have applications in pharmaceutical and biochemical industries. She has advised over 25 students, published 13 papers, and presented at 22 conferences, including those of ASEE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies. Piergiovanni has received several National Science Foundation grants, most recently one to improve chemical engineering labs this past spring.
Founded in 1893, ASEE is a nonprofit organization comprised of over 12,000 members committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. ASEE develops policies and programs to enhance professional opportunities for engineering faculty members, and promotes activities to support increased student enrollments in engineering and engineering technology colleges and universities. Its organizational membership is composed of 400 engineering and engineering technology colleges and affiliates, more than 50 corporations, and numerous government agencies and professional associations.