We are we're very happy today because we
are following our very successful Dean
Dean Franco Brahma law in whose name
this lecture series is established so
Dean Brahma laws family is here and I
will introduce the Dean fank ramallah
first and then I will introduce the
family at the end of the lecture series
we have Brahma no lecture being
delivered today by a very distinguished
member I'm proud to say she is our own
alum and she is a member of our College
advisory board so let me introduce Dean
Ramallah first he this is the lecture
that armours him he had a very
distinguished record as the Dean some of
the most important positions he took
involved really some experience show
type of learning we think that's a
fashionable word but back then you know
he was the one talking about it there
was a nice history book on the College
of Engineering actually two or three
books one one entirely about yet another
about the history so you will see you
will read some of the challenges at that
time which quite frankly are not too
different from the challenges we are
facing now so Dean brahmaloka came to
MSU in 1951 as professor and head of
civil engineering he became a Dean of
the College of Engineering ten years
after we moved here in 1961 and he
served until 1974 until he was untimely
death in that year in 1974 and his
family been so gracious set up this
lecture series and in fact I think what
is the number of this lecture series 44
this is the 44th lecture being given
and we had some very prominent lecturers
one of them included the Chancellor was
reminding me this morning he himself
gave the brahmana lecture a few years
back apparently when he was serving on
our College advisory board so this is
this has always attracted some very
eminent speakers let me introduce our
our lecture distinguished lecturer today
miss Allison yeah bro
she is our 44th distinguished brownlow
lecturer she's I should say doctor yeah
bro she is a principal engineer the
Aerospace Corporation a non-profit
federally funded research and
development center that delivers faced
systems engineering and technical
support the government and civil agency
she holds five paddocks with a member of
the Dean's Advisory Council in the
College of Engineering and she's acted
with organizations or support
engineering education and she is very
passionate about women in engineering
and she does have my scholarship and we
have a student receiving her scholarship
and the woman in engineering programs
continue to need support and we are very
thankful to dr. Alvaro for supporting
those areas she is an electrical
engineering
alumna did her bachelor's from NMSU
and she continued with her master's and
PhD programs in electrical engineering
and got those degrees from Cornell
University she has a very such a vast
breadth of experience I was most
fortunate
along with our directors of development
to go visit her
in California this college is totally
blessed and I keep saying that again and
again but I want to repeat that truly
blessed to have such outstanding support
from people and time together so without
further delay I invite you to deliver
your lecture thank you I'm honored to
present the 44th rommel o lecture as
part of engineering week activities when
Professor Brahma Lowe arrived at New
Mexico State is the chair of civil
engineering there were no more than 40
faculty members in the entire college
and then starting with his appointment
as Dean 10 years later as Dean ready
just mentioned he led the expansion of
the faculty to almost 60 and was the
driving force for creating graduate
programs in civil mechanical and
electrical engineering and he
established the department's of
engineering technology and industrial
engineering was also instrumental in
attracting increased funding from the
state and served the engineering
profession with distinction in diverse
roles over his long career
Dean Brahma lo he clearly appreciated
the obligations of a land-grant
institution to serve the state of New
Mexico and he applied his vision to for
excellence to executing those
obligations as a graduate of the
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering I'm a beneficiary of that
commitment to excellence which has
really shaped my entire educational and
engineering career and with that
foundation I'd like to share with you
over the next few minutes my thoughts on
engineering education and
self-empowerment
or to put it a slightly different way
I'm here to talk to you about equality
equity and shoes
and might be thinking well what if those
have to do with engineering education
and self-empowerment but let me explain
today's global career environment is
competitive it's full of surprises it's
exciting and to succeed in it requires
strong skills the ability to adapt
quickly self-empowerment to seize
control of your destiny and education is
the foundation of that success and
taking it a step further engineering
education is a powerful accelerator for
self empowerment and eventually
controlling your own destiny
especially when it's taught holistically
engineering prepares learners to be
nimble and poised for success in diverse
environments over the course of their
careers however we define it isn't it
true that what we're all really seeking
as individuals is the ability to control
our destinies and fulfillment whether we
choose corporation entrepreneurship
academia Advanced Studies public service
or some other role as educators
employees employers parents and mentors
we strive to produce graduates who are
beyond just ready to survive the future
we want them to be prepared to define
the future and since all of us are very
likely to transition between multiple
jobs or careers over time we must
recognize and honor that those doing the
learning they may range from K through
12 children to undergraduates to adults
retooling their skills to improve their
earning power and make a better life for
their families graduates and workers in
the science technology engineering
in math or STEM fields they enjoy better
job opportunities and typically earn
bigger salaries according to studies by
the government and industry groups the
career website that many of you are
probably familiar with Glassdoor reports
that 13 of the 25 highest paying jobs
are in technical fields US News and
World Report and the Bureau of Labor
Statistics also ranked opportunities for
stem and steam job seekers as the most
favorable in several years last year in
2018 Time Magazine's Money section
reported that stem graduates made the
highest starting salaries of any other
career field while the work of burning
glass technologies that's a job market
analytics firm they have shown that STEM
related graduates had access to twice as
many entry-level jobs as their non stem
colleagues and the trend is expected to
continue the Bureau of Labor Statistics
predicts that stem jobs will grow 55
percent faster and non-stem jobs over
the next decade and as these types of
statistics that encourage us regardless
of where we are along the career
spectrum that we made a good choice when
we selected a technical career path and
in my experience it's personally
fulfilling it's satisfying to be
involved in technologies that make a
difference in the world and develop
critical thinking that prepares us to
pursue lots of different career options
over time now back to equality equity
and shoes traditionally we have expected
an intern
in education we've expected equality
meaning that we treat everyone the same
with the goal of ensuring fairness which
this seems as it should be until now
when we realized that today's very
complicated world of unexpected
challenges shifting dynamics changing
and diverse needs that requires even
more equality assumes that everyone
starts from the same place and that
everyone needs the same support we
recognize now that this is not the case
it's not the reality instead I contend
that what we need is equity which
focuses on giving every student every
learner every every employee every
worker what they need as individuals in
order to achieve their goals and that's
been a very from person to person
depending on their abilities into their
motivations and needs
simply put equality is about giving
everyone shoes equity is about giving
everyone shoes that fit let's not give a
learner with needs this size or a worker
needs this size with education or
training that's built for a need that
looks like this it's a mismatch this is
a really important distinction because
engineering education equity and the
successive generates relates directly to
the future ability to control one's
destiny and by destiny we could mean
being competitive in getting a higher
skilled job feeling empowerment
achieving financial stability or greater
personal satisfaction that's define a
whole bunch of different ways for all
for all of us in other words the results
of education equity speed what I called
destiny equity and New Mexico State's
College of Engineering excels in this
realm of equity and empowerment just
take for one example to be brief
take the Aggie innovation space this
three-part integrated center that brings
together that prototyping space the
fabrication lab and the machine shop
with evolving and upgrading of
state-of-the-art equipment and software
since it first opened in 2014
its goal has been to provide hands-on
experiential learning and one thing
that's unique about the innovation space
is that it's it's student-run with the
leadership team managing everything from
budgeting for materials to operations
and safety to some of the hiring and I
hear the interviews and selection
process that the student managers
conduct are grueling or non-trivial the
faculty and staff members describe the
innovation space as a smoothly running
student-centered committee community
setting and what I've seen on my visits
to the space bears that out another
attribute is that while organizationally
it resides within the College of
Engineering the student project
opportunities and engagements are open
to students across campus and I think
that this mosaic of diverse perspectives
and skill sets enriches the engagement
the opportunities and the
comes significantly another key element
I think of its successful operation is
the partnership with the entrepreneurs
and mentors at the Arrowhead Center and
that ability to help businesses in the
region blossom into viable companies
that contribute to New Mexico's economic
development and have students and
budding entrepreneurs part of that is
one of the high one of the important
pieces of the value proposition the
Aggie innovation space represents one of
the pinnacles of engineering education
equity providing a full spectrum of
learning and training modalities that
fit the diverse files in which students
and learners assimilate knowledge and
own that knowledge and when students own
knowledge and then can work with others
to create solutions to problems that
they care about that matter to them
that's when empowerment springs forth
the realization that you can take the
know-how in hand and use it creatively
to meet a need and speaking of teamwork
and meeting needs I want to change
things up a little bit and ask you to
participate in a little exercise with me
you'll notice that at each table there's
some very simple materials powerful and
custom there's some toothpicks
what I would like to do is just a simple
illustration just go on this participate
in this thought experiment with me let's
say that Dean Reddy has decided okay the
college is going to erect a new
sculpture in the mall that represents
the diversity the ingenuity the
innovation of New Mexico State
engineering and he's crowdsourcing ideas
from students and other members of
campus community to share with the
hypothetical architectural design firm
that he has selected and you're part of
that crowd source community so let's do
the following here's a challenge let's
create the tallest structure that you
can tallest most creative structure that
you can out of the materials in front of
you
structure in terms of the requirement
that's the requirement tallest structure
requirement a requirement B it's gotta
stand on its own for 15 seconds
unassisted the constraint is that you
may only use the simple materials in
front of you and you have 10 minutes
so I am going to start the timer you can
choose a partner
and I find primer there we go
Oh
okay oh good you're described okay
okay thank you everyone for
participating so this little exercise
really illustrates one of the ways that
that engineering at NMSU and this taught
and how problems are solved in
researching and in industry you're
presented with a problem with sometimes
without a lot of advanced notice you're
provided with resources like time staff
expertise access to facilities materials
not all of which are really what exactly
what you need and usually or often not
in the quantities you would like
sometimes the requirements change on you
where we had 10 minutes at first and
then I squeezed it down to whatever
eight and a half so things changed it
over the course of a problem getting
solved and executed nonetheless the
customer the manager the stakeholder the
researcher expects you to join with
others of similar or sometimes divergent
expertise to create a meaningful
solution on time and within the
limitations specified once empowered
with technical confidence confidence
soft skills like time management and
being active listener and being flexible
and being accountable you and your team
then create an acceptable solution might
not be an ideal solution but one that is
the need this exercise demonstrates an
analog for a parallel to the opportunity
provided by our college of engineering
and for example
a key innovation space the engineering
Leadership Institute the toys Family
Learning Communities and underpinning
this platform of opportunity are all the
supports that learners might need
including supportive faculty and staff
graduate and peer advisors mentors for
returning and non-traditional students
professional society student chapters
cultural supports and more back to my
theme of equity the College of
Engineering works to ensure that when
students graduate they possess the
technical competencies the soft skills
and the self confidence to succeed in
whatever endeavor they choose to pursue
in other words empowerment and the
ability to define and control their
destiny and this empowerment has truly
special meaning for me because it is
directly impacted my family and my life
after 26 years as a jet aircraft
mechanic in the Air Force in 1977 my
dad's Fred decided to retire from the
Air Force and complete the college
degree that he had pursued for many
years across many duty stations he and
my late mother moved from Cannon Air
Force Base and Clovis New Mexico moved
to Las Cruces built a house and dad
enrolled in the engineering technology
department here as a returning student
at age 45 I had enrolled in the
electrical engineering department two
years earlier as a freshman furthermore
my sister Shelley started out in
chemical engineering here the same year
as dad and mom not to be outdone she
enrolled in the family and consumer
studies program and the only reason my
brother Brian wasn't here was because he
was in middle school
but anyway so at one point for
Yarborough's were on campus as
undergraduates at the same time and my
dad's experience across electrical and
mechanical
systems and management in the Air Force
was a great baseline and his NMSU
education took it to a whole new level
there is nothing that makes me more
proud
that's a recount the admiration I have
for my dad's courage and vision and
persistence in earning his mechanical
engineering technology degree later in
life his experience was even documented
in newspapers in the area upon his
graduation he walked right into a job
for him waiting at what was then Hughes
Aircraft in Southern California and then
some years later was lured or a away by
a competitor where he enjoyed another
long and fruitful engineering career I
tell this story to illustrate how
impactful and engineering education can
be even when you start for very very
humble beginnings my dad says that as a
result of his engineering education at
NMSU he's been able to achieve things he
had always envisioned and many that he
never dreamed of and that sounds like
fulfillment empowerment and control of
one's destiny to me I'm fortunate to
have had him and my mom as role models
they inspired and embodied excellence
just like Dean Brahma Lowe did and are
responsible for any accomplishments I
have achieved to date through the Brahma
Loaf faculty and staff Awards the family
continues the legacy of high standards
and service to the profession it's a
privilege to follow that example and
also honor my parents dedication to
excellence through the Yarborough family
excellence and innovation Opportunity
Fellowship which helps pay the wages of
a student in the Aggie
innovation space stem professionals
create the things that we rely on
everyday and that make society work
being in a STEM related field is a
definite advantage in the job market and
for entrepreneurial adventures because
the demand for such skills continues to
accelerate so with an engineering
education in my opinion there's no limit
to how far you can go on your path to
success thanks to Bill shoes that fit
thank you for the opportunity to present
the 44th Bramall o lecture and thank you
for participating in our little design
challenge and I wish everyone happy
