The College of Engineering, Technology & Computer Science participated in the Inaugural Community Celebration and Admissions Ceremony of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Preparatory Academy last week, Middle Tennessee’s first STEM charter school.

The event drew more than 400 new students, parents, community activists, and elected officials to the event held at the Adventure Science Center, the partnering institution.  More than 10 engineering students participated in the event as hosts and chaperones, and will be actively engaged with the middle school through tutoring, projects, and community service starting this Fall.

STEM Prep Academy is Middle Tennessee’s first public charter STEM school committed to delivering a college preparatory education for grades five through eight with an integrated curricular focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Its integrated curriculum that infuses STEM learning and real-world applications in both the STEM fields and entrepreneurship is unprecedented, says Dr. Kristen McGraner, the founder and Executive Director.

Dr. S. Keith Hargrove, dean of the College of Engineering, Technology & Computer Science at TSU, is equally excited about the school and its potential.  “I believe the solution to increasing the pipeline of STEM professionals for tomorrow’s workforce…begins with improving K12 with how we teach, what we teach, and the engagement of higher education.”

Hargrove serves as a board member for STEM Prep Academy, and is committed to supporting the academic achievement and success of the new innovative school.  Students from the College of Engineering will volunteer and work with the school in tutoring and specials projects.  STEM Prep Academy and the College of Engineering have also collaborated on several proposals to prepare teachers and for curriculum development.

The school will open its doors in South Nashville in July 2011 to 100 fifth grade students, growing a grade each year, and serving 400 students in grades five through eight by 2014.  STEM Prep Academy is a free, public charter school serving students who are zoned to persistently low-performing schools and is part of the growing charter school movement supported locally and state-wide.

In the midst of a crisis, airplane passengers count on pilots to be well prepared and well informed about issues when they arise. Pilots themselves count on an intricate network of sensors that alert them when something goes wrong and regular maintenance between flights.

Fortunately, TSU electrical engineering faculty and students are developing new technology that will help ensure that aircraft pilots are not only alerted by the sensors, but also are continually updated with real-time information that even suggests courses of action and commands for overcoming the temporary conditions.

With funding from the Air Force Research Lab at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Mohamed Zein-Sabatto, professor of electrical engineering, is leading a research team of three undergraduate students and three graduate students.

“Right now, there are no guarantees that during the flight the pilot will be able to accurately respond to crises and make sound decisions. Our research project will help determine how a particular mechanical failure happens and then decide what the pilot’s options are in avoiding a crash,” Zein-Sabatto said.

The group is using artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic to make real-time assessments of what is going on in the skies and to develop planned courses of action to accommodate temporary mechanical failure during a crisis.

Zein-Sabatto’s research is comprised of work on two distinctive features of modern aircrafts – the airframe, including the fuel tanks and wings; and the propulsion chamber, including the engine.

Ideally, the team’s work will improve sensors that monitor structural health, fuel flow control and the propulsion chambers on both sides of an aircraft.

Using turbine engine simulation software donated to TSU by NASA and the Air Force Research Lab, Zein-Sabatto’s group has been collecting data under a number of conditions to process and analyze how failures occur, identify particular patterns, and, at a secondary level, decide what to do based on how human beings think.

The funding enables Zein-Sabatto to compensate student researchers and students are able to use their work for capstone and thesis projects.

“Working on this project has helped me expand on the knowledge I learned in my controls class and get familiar with more advanced software and control systems,” said Frederick Northern, a senior electrical engineering major from Nashville, who plans to graduate this December.

When the Society of Women Engineers crafted a feature on women engineers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Winter 2010 edition of its self-titled magazine, they looked no further than to one of the pioneering members, Dr. Yvonne “Y.Y.” Clark, and chapter adviser Montanez Wade.

Clark and Wade both serve as engineering faculty members in the Tennessee State University College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science.

The cover story provided readers with both professors’ studies at HBCU campuses and further discussed their approach to teaching at an HBCU.  Clark was the first female engineering student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and later went on to become the first African-American woman to earn a master’s in engineering management from Vanderbilt University. She joined the TSU faculty in 1955 and still teaches courses today.

Clark said she loves teaching at TSU because it provides her with an opportunity to “make sure that students are learning to be productive once they get their B.S. degrees. I can tell the students these things now, and I feel comfortable telling them.”

Wade followed in her parents’ footsteps and attended TSU. She noted the support she had from her parents who encouraged her to invite her friends over to their family home during her years in school. Though she later received her master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Wade returned as an instructor at TSU in 1994.

“I know where I am today because I started at an HBCU. My identity was affirmed, expanded and challenged,” Wade said in the article.

Many would probably scoff at the idea of using poetry and storytelling techniques to introduce complex engineering concepts to a room full of freshmen, but they don’t know Montanez Wade.

Wade, who teaches orientation courses to incoming students in the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science, can as easily wow students with a recitation of Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” or enthrall guests with a beautifully woven story in the tradition of her African and African-American heritage as she explains concepts that bring electrical circuits to life.

In fact, she has found a teaching style that combines her love of poetry and metaphor with engineering concepts, so that students can not only know how engineering works but also see how it works as well. To make students understand the dual circuits concepts of power-supply vs. power-absorbed, she related the two to the flow of money in a transaction. To help a group of students struggling with negative and positive integers, she pointed them to the stairwell around the corner.

“I am in love with the very idea of metaphor. To me, that’s what teaching is about. It’s about finding an area of relatability. When you’re teaching, the challenge is to find that space of mutual understanding,” Wade said. “I ask a lot of questions in my classes. Call and response resonate with me. It’s my job to find out where the knowledge is lacking.”

Wade makes no apologies for her candor and brings her entire existence to the classroom – the place she endearingly calls, “the center.” She is a firm believer that education must be about its root word, “educaria,” which means, “to bring out what is within.”

For even complex issues like making students understand the importance of knowing why they are in college and finding their purpose, Wade made the entire class stand and then had seven of each 10 students sit down to illustrate the University’s current graduation statistics.

“I believe in active learning. Each class session is a new journey. The more you can discuss with students how you are thinking, the more engaged they will become. An engaged student is a student ready for any challenges,” Wade said. “As an instructor it is important for me to be both present and aware. When you are, it’s a little different. (The classroom) is then not on autopilot.”

Recently, Wade was asked to tell one of her stories at an event. Each time she tells a story, she weaves in inspiration and energy from the audience that transform a basic framework into new and different horizons. That night, she told the story of the journey one takes to find their purpose for which she titled, “Hidden In Plain Sight.” She recalled that while telling the story, she experienced an epiphany that made her instantly think of the students she teaches: “That’s exactly how I want my classes to be remembered,” she said.