Engineering Education "Today in History" Blog: Supersonic Concorde makes its last flight
by Alice Agogino
closeAuthor: Alice Agogino
Name: Alice Agogino
Email: agogino@berkeley.edu
Site: http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/agogino/
About: Alice M. Agogino is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and is affiliated faculty at the Haas School of Business in their Operations and Information Technology Management Group. Her research interests include: community-based design; sustainable engineering; intelligent learning systems; information retrieval and data mining; multiobjective and strategic product design; nonlinear optimization; probabilistic modeling; intelligent control and manufacturing; sensor validation, fusion and diagnostics; wireless sensor networks; multimedia and computer-aided design; design databases; design theory and methods; MEMS/NEMS synthesis and computer-aided design; artificial intelligence and decision and expert systems; and gender/ethnic equity.
She has served in a number of administrative positions at UC Berkeley, including Chair of the Faculty Senate, Associate Dean of Engineering and Faculty Assistant to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost in Educational Development and Technology. Prof. Agogino also served as Director for Synthesis, an NSF-sponsored coalition of eight universities with the goal of reforming undergraduate engineering education, and continues as PI for the NEEDS (www.needs.org) and SMETE.ORG digital libraries of courseware in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.
Prof. Agogino received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering (1978) from the University of California at Berkeley and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). Prior to joining the faculty at UC Berkeley, she worked in industry for Dow Chemical, General Electric and SRI International. She has authored over 150 scholarly publications; has won numerous teaching, best paper and research awards; and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). At NAE she served on the Committee on Engineering Education, working on the Technologically Speaking and the Engineer 2020 projects. She is currently a member of the National Research Council's Board on Education and the Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee. She has supervised 66 MS projects/theses, 26 doctoral dissertations and numerous undergraduate researchers.See Authors Posts (387) · November 26th, 2007 · Add a Comment
Today in History – November 26, 2003 – The Concorde, the most successful supersonic passenger jet in history, is completely retired from flight. Although successful as a collaborative technical effort, it did not survive the marketplace; it was too expensive to maintain, demand was not high enough at the prices required and the public put many constraints on flight paths due to the noise pollution of the sonic boom.
For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on the Concorde, supersonic flight and aerospace engineering. Curricular resources and events can be found on the Aerospace Engineering Education Community site.
Also on this date in history in 1789, the first national Thanksgiving in the United States was proclaimed by President George Washington. The holiday that Americans celebrate annually on the last Thursday in November commemorates an event on the Virginia Berkeley Plantation on December 4, 1621. Although saved by the charity of the local Native Americans who supplied much of the food for this “thanksgiving” event, the clash of Native and European cultures was to lead to bloodshed on all sides. The “Indian Massacre of 1622″ led to the abandonment of the Berkeley settlement as surviving colonists withdrew to Jamestown and more secure settlements. Future thanksgiving events were tainted by scores of deaths of Native Americans from smallpox and other diseases brought by the Europeans. It is no wonder that Native American engineers are extremely rare; the numbers are low in the general population and the hard technology approaches are at odds with their more organic view of human’s role in nature. AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) and ACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) are professional societies dedicated to encouraging Native American and Chicano/Latino students to pursue education in science and engineering, develop leadership skills, and prepare for professional and teaching careers at all levels. For more educational information see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on Native American and Hispanic engineers and scientists.
Tags: Aerospace Engineering · Broadening Participation · Mechanical Engineering
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