INDUSTRY ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

June 13, 2006

Hosted and Chaired by Dolores Ventura, Infrastructure Engineering Corporation

  1. Welcome

The June 13, 2006 MESA Alliance Industry Advisory Board Meeting was called to order at 1:20 pm by Dolores Ventura.

  1. Introductions
Members Present
NameCompanyPhoneEmail

Bakhiet, RagaSouthwestern College MESA(858)

Chambers, PamelaNorthrop Grumman(858)

Chavez, ThelmaSDSU MSP Program(619)

Espinoza, RobertNAVAIR(619)

Garcia, TheresaSDSU MESA Engr Program(619)

Forbes-Celise, NatashaSDSU MESA Engr Program(619)

Hice, SaraNavy Human Resources Ctr(619)

Gooden, CarolNasland Engineering(858)

Mack, TarrenceHamilton Sundstrand(858)

Marquis, MeridithKyocera America, Inc.(858)

Perrett, MarkSD County Dept of Public Works(858)

Picha, LanceTMI(858)

Ventura, DoloresIEC(858)

Members Excused
NameCompanyPhoneEmail

Chambers, PamelaNorthrop Grumman(858)

Hooker, DeeCALTRANS(619)

Philpott, AlanSPAWAR/PEO C4I & Space(858)

Troian, RosemaryNOAA Fisheries(858)

Valdovinos, MelissaSD Resource Water

Ward, AdamQualcomm, Inc.(858)

Guest Present
NameCompanyPhoneEmail

Bashant, AmieRick Engineering Compnay(619)

Charles, MariaHamilton Sundstrand(858)

Keles, NilaySDSU MEP Intern(619)

Miller, ErikQualcomm, Inc. (619) 651-0487

Wilk, JimNorthrop Grumman-Radio Sys(858)

  1. Review of Minutes (February 14, 2006)

A motion to approve the minutes of the February 14, 2006 meeting was made by Carol Gooden – Nasland Engineering and seconded by Sara Hice – Navy Human Resources Ctr. The minutes were then approved.

  1. Program Updates (all information, unless otherwise noted, given by Theresa M. Garcia)
  2. SDSU MEP – Working with SDSU’s Institutional Research office to develop much needed statistics on program. The first report shared focuses entering first-time freshmen from Fall 1999 through Fall 2004. Findings include: MEP students earn higher GPA than non-MEP students. MEP students had a higher 1 year continuation rate than non-mep students. MEP students were less likely to be on probation after their first term. MEP students stayed in technical major through end of their first year. MEP students will take longer to graduate. Theresa shared with the group that although MEP students take longer to graduate than non-mep students they are doing so because they are taking less units (as recommended by staff) and therefore receiving better grades while taking on internships, research and student leadership positions. The full report is attached to these minutes. Note this information does include students of the Maximizing Science Potential (MSP) program. This report will be expanded to include more components and successful data. This data will be a useful tool when applying for grants.

SDSU MEP office has submitted budget for statewide support of $20,000. This funding is sponsored by the California Public Utilities Diversity Council. The budget proposal includes suggestions from the previous board meeting including enhancement of the Mentorship Program and $4,000 targeted for data management.

MESA Statewide Office will again include SDSU MEP graduates in its next issue of the MESA Statewide Newsletter. This is the second story on the SDSU MEP program published by the MESA Statewide Newsletter.

Qualcomm Entrepreneurial Management Center Program Intern, Nilay Keles, will work on developing a Marketing Plan for the MEP program. This plan will provide direction as to the best way to present data/stats findings when promoting SDSU MEP.

  1. City College MESA – Program still on hiatus until Fall semester due to changes in the MESA staff.
  1. Southwestern College MESA – (all information, unless otherwise noted, given by Raga Bakheit, PhD). Reviewed activities such as Science Opportunity Day and asked board for suggestions on how to draw more companies to this event. Suggestions included speaking with Job Fair (which took place at the same time) coordinators about positioning technical companies where MESA Students would have the most benefit. It was also suggested that the student organizations could play a bigger part in drawing more students to the booths by encouraging their members and creating a competition between the organizations.

80% of the students awarded by the Math, Science and Engineering department were MESA students. 10 internship including SPAWAR, Caltrans, UCSD Link Medical Science Program, Profil Institute for Clinical Research and CalState. Photos of the NewMESACenter facility was shared with the board and center will also be in need of supplies or old equipment donations from industry.

  1. Student Organizations –All students currently on summer break. New officers are planning for fall and should be introduced and the August meeting.
  1. Joint MESAAlliance Events
  2. MESA Olympics and Robotics Challenge, 4/29/06; held at SDSU Campus – A low number of 25 students attended which only included SDSU and SWC. SDSU won the Robotics competition. Thank you to the following volunteers: Mariel Cairns, Daisy Galeana, Lance Picha, Tori Robinson, Dolores Ventura, and Cawin Tran. Special thanks to Sony for sponsoring this alliance event. Photos of the day’s event were shared. The next Olympics and Robotics Challenge will be held on Saturday, April 28, 2007.
  3. Joint Planning Conference, 8/11/06 – This event is hosted by Qualcomm and in its fifth year. It was developed to assist student organizations in collaborating and coordinating efforts. Organizations from the following campuses have participated over the past 5 years: San DiegoCityCollege, SDSU, SWC, UCSD and USD. Topics include Leadership Skills, Master Calendar development, Membership and the annual Who’s Who Roster which is developed and disseminated to the IAB and other industry of interest. Raytheon has also offered to assist student organizations by hosting a conference to help SDSU organizations. This will take place prior to and help organizations prepare for the Jt Planning Conference.
  4. End of Year Alliance Summary – report of all alliance activities for 2005-2006 including numbers of students attending and reflects donations received from industry by the alliance as a whole. See the attached report.
  1. STEP Proposal - is being revised for the September deadline. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) goal is to increase underrepresented graduates in STEM fields. We will be asking for letters of support from the IAB over the summer. Templates will be sent to help board supporters develop letter; yet, you must customize and personalize these letters listing your experience with the program so that the proposal can capture more points.
  1. Task Teams
  2. Training Academies – looking for hosts for the 2006-2007 academic year. Academies for 2005-2006 included CALTRANS, Hamilton Sundstrand, and NAVAIR. These academies are meant to introduce students to concepts not taught in the classroom. Students were very pleased with the academies this year and want them to continue. Tarrence Mack of Hamilton Sundstrand mentioned that he received positive feedback from upper management and suggested to get faculty to attend. Theresa Garcia is working on feedback from the NAVAIR academy. Tarrence Mack volunteered for the 2006-2007 academy during the board meeting.
  1. MESAdvantage – start date extended.
  2. Graduating Senior Resumes – Were sent via email prior to this meeting. This was our first time doing this, but there was a lot of interest to do so. We had about a dozen resumes that were sent. We hope to continue doing this and hope that next time the resumes will be higher in number.
  3. Internships - We expected to launch the internships this summer, however, we’ll have to postpone until next summer.
  4. Face to Face - event will occur during the SDSU Joint Professional Development conference in October. Ideas include ID entrance or appointment prior to general public opening at the PDC. Dilemma: Great foot traffic when PDC is at the engineering building but space is limited to accommodate industry. If held at AztecCenter, for instance, lots of room but foot traffic reduces greatly. Suggestions included turning the PDC into a two day event with half the companies attending one day and the other on the second day. There was a suggestion that PDC seminars, which take place simultaneously with the PDC, include information on EIT and License.
  1. Other Topics
  2. End of YearBeach Party – 5/19/06

This party was held at the Aquatic Cove in Chula Vista. Attended by SDSU and SWC in students who not only enjoyed refreshments but also did many activities including kayaking.

  1. Building agenda for next meeting
  1. Adjournment – the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 pm.

Next meeting August 8, 2006 1-3pm tentatively at SDSU.

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