Norma Slepecky Memorial WISE Seminar to feature international engineering education expert

Norma Slepecky Memorial WISE Seminar to feature international engineering education expertApril 13, 2004Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Caroline Baillie, a leading materials engineer and internationally renowned expert on higher education, will be the keynote speaker during the Norma Slepecky Memorial Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Seminar at Syracuse University on April 23. Baillie will speak on “Different or Equal: Transforming Science and Engineering Education” at 4 p.m. in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages. The seminar is free and open to the public.

The annual seminar is held in memory of Norma Slepecky, a professor of bioengineering and neuroscience in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) and member of the Institute for Sensory Research. Slepecky, who died in 2001, was known as a passionate researcher and mentor for undergraduate students seeking research experience. To honor her memory, her family, friends and colleagues joined together to endow the Norma Slepecky Prize for Undergraduate Research. The $750 prize will be awarded at a reception following the lecture.

Baillie, DuPont Canada Chair in Engineering Education, Research and Development at Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario, focuses on the improvement of the entire engineering education experience by exploring the engineering education process to discover more effective ways for student-teacher interaction. She has produced more than 100 publications in engineering education.

SU’s WISE chapter is sponsored and supported by ECS Dean Eric F. Spina, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Cathryn R. Newton, the Eastman Kodak Corp. and Blasland, Bock and Lee Inc.