One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax July 14, 2015 Buddy LeTourneau BLT Consulting 325 Doolie Road Mooresville NC 28117-5801 Dear Search Committee:
I am delighted to have been identified as one of potential candidates for the position of Dean of College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. It is an exciting time of growth for UTC and it would be an honor to lead the college through opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as the university seeks to become a leader of higher education in the state of Tennessee, the nation, and the world.
I am Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the largest engineering department, at the University of Texas, San Antonio. I have been responsible for leading the department with 32 faculty members, five staff, and roughly 850 students with managing budget of $6M and a research enterprise of over $3M annually. As Chair, I am responsible for the delivery of quality academic programs, stewardship and management of human, physical, and fiscal resources, alumni and philanthropy relations, recruitment, development, and
evaluation of faculty and staff, and community outreach. I have built and managed successful educational programs, developed a multi-million dollar research center, and worked with researchers, engineers, and policy makers in the government, industry, and academia.
Before joining the University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA), I served as an assistant, associate, and full professor at the US Air Force Academy for seventeen years. At the Air Force Academy where teaching excellence is emphasized, I was honored to be nominated by the Academy and was selected by the Carnegie Foundation as the Carnegie Colorado Professor of the Year for excellence and innovations in teaching. My teaching philosophy revolves around my belief in education of the whole person through developing skills for life-long learning. I encourage students to develop their knowledge and skills not only as engineers, scientists, problem solvers, innovators, and contributing members of our society but also as true professionals and leaders. I cherish, among the academic recognitions I received, the Academy Educator Award and the Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society) Professor Award, as the recipients of the awards were selected based on evaluations by colleagues and students. At the Academy, I was a member of the overall Academy curriculum committee, led the efforts to establish the computer engineering program (2003), and served for several years as the chair of the curriculum committee for both electrical and computer engineering programs.
Still at the Academy, soon after my arrival in 1995, I started the Sensor-based Intelligent Control Laboratory within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. This program was highly successful and led to the eventual establishment of the Air Force Academy Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Research, where I served as the Founding Director. As the Director, I oversaw the unmanned systems research performed throughout the Academy by faculty, students,
researchers and engineers from nine different departments. The center managed and coordinated UAS activities with an annual budget exceeding $2M; I’ve personally acquired over $1M annually in research funding on cooperative multiple unmanned air vehicles projects from a variety of government and
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
industry partners as PI or Co-PI with the total funding of over $10M and published over 130 technical journal and conference papers in addition to a number of book chapters and five embedded systems textbooks. As a result, I was honored to receive the prestigious Frank J Seiler Research Award and the Exemplary Civilian Award from the Air Force. It has been my good fortune to work on a number of high level, high visible research projects and to have established a network of researchers, administrators and policy makers throughout the country and the world.
At the University of Texas, San Antonio, my leadership skills were enhanced and broadened with opportunities to lead departmental, college, and university level efforts. These opportunities include development of strategic plans, establishment and management of programs, recruitment of students, staff and faculty, design and implementation of policies, and management of promotion, programs,
performance evaluations, space and IT. The opportunities also included working with college and departmental External Advisory Council members, establishing a local professional chapter, developing plans with university administrators to increase retention and graduation rates, collaborating with development officers, and searching for a new dean, building rapport with industry leaders, alumni, faculty, students, and staff. Through these activities, I have gained valuable experience of optimizing program and service delivery with limited financial resources, while establishing and implementing strategic plans for furthering success with engaged faculty, staff, and administrators.
I have been fortunate to lead the department during its recent growth in almost every aspect of the operation. I was recently reappointed as the chair for a second three-year term with an overwhelming support of the faculty, Dean, and the Provost. The department currently administers seven degree programs (BS in Electrical Engineering, BS in Computer Engineering, MS in Electrical Engineering, MS in Computer Engineering, MS in Advanced Materials, PhD in Electrical Engineering, and BS/MS
Integrated program) and is in the process of preparing to launch a MS program in Cloud Computing and a PhD program in Computer Engineering. During my tenure as the chair, the student enrollments in the department programs grew from 450 undergraduate, 128 Masters, and 54 PhD students to over 500 undergraduate, 235 Masters, and 89 PhD students. The annual research expenditure grew from $1.2M to over $2M. The annual research fund awarded also grew from $1.5M in 2011-2012 academic year to over $3M in the past academic year. I hired eight new faculty members in strategic areas to the current faculty strength of 27 tenure-track or tenured, five non-tenured, and four adjunct faculty members. Five
departmental staff and over 15 college staff support the departmental operation and activities.
At the academy, I contributed towards ABET accreditation efforts resulting in three successful six-year accreditation ABET visits, and currently leads the ABET visit preparation at UTSA. I should also mention that I recently became an ABET program evaluator. For recruitment and hiring of faculty, I work closely with search committee chairs for the entire process and make final negotiations with
candidates. I lead other significant administrative roles for the department including managing promotion and tenure process, annual assessments of faculty, department by-laws, office and lab spaces, selection of graduate teaching assistants, scholarships and awards, student forums and committees, and academic student clubs.
The growth in size and prestige of the department is the result of capable individuals working together with a common goal. To that end, I led the department by setting a clear departmental vision and goals for all to embrace, constructing by-laws, establishing mechanisms to recognize outstanding faculty and students, and encouraging dialogues among faculty, staff, and students. As a result, the department initiated student success programs, including outstanding graduate and undergraduate excellence awards,
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
outstanding TA awards, bi-annual student forums, distinguished lecture series, research seminars, an unmanned systems working group with SouthWest Research Institute, a non-profit research institution in town with over $500M annual research expenditure. To facilitate research activities and efforts of graduate students, I led the changes in reduction of course requirements for both the MS and PhD programs and changed the format of the PhD qualifying exams to give an added emphasis on evaluating research capabilities of students. My open door policy also contributed toward creating an inclusive environment for people to flourish.
To strengthen and improve student experiences, I replaced adjunct professors with full-time teaching focused faculty, increased the number of core course offerings, established a student tutoring center operated by honor society students, renovated teaching laboratories, established a certificate program in power systems, and launched an integrated BS/MS program to encourage first generation college students to pursue graduate degrees. We are taking an approach to popularize the five-year BS/MS option to retain scholarly students for graduate degree programs and to attractive engineers from local companies to the program. We are also working with the College of Business to increase the role of entrepreneurship in the engineering curriculum. To improve teaching quality of new faculty members, I started a mentoring program for junior faculty in the department, before it became a requirement
throughout the university. The student learning was also improved through newly established internal TA orientations, teaching workshops, and hybrid/online courses, which I established.
To further enrich student experiences, knowing the importance of solving real-world engineering problems as a licensed professional engineer, I increased the internship and co-op opportunities of our students by working with local and national industry partners, such as Freescale, National Instruments, Union Pacific, and Texas Instruments. Our students regularly participate in local and national technology competitions sponsored by International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
industry, and the Department of Defense. For the college, I initiated and led the efforts to create and execute annual Technology Symposium, a venue used by senior capstone design students from all engineering departments along with senior students from School of Business to present their year-long projects to faculty, project sponsors, industry participants, local high school students, and the public. During the last spring, the event grew to fifty-four student teams engaging with over 500 visitors and attendees.
I am a firm believer that diversity strengthens an institution and have supported hiring faculty and staff to reflect my belief. I played a key role in establishing endowed cloud computing professorship in the department and subsequently worked with faculty and administrators across colleges to launch the celebrated Open Cloud Institute, an institute created with industry and 80/20 foundation partnerships. Throughout my career, I have participated in one type of mentoring program or another including the McNair Scholars Program (assisting low-income, under-represented minority undergraduate students) in undergraduate research and one-to-one counseling programs for at-risk students.
To increase global reach of the university and to help students to embrace a global perspective of engineering, I personally established eight cooperative agreements with foreign universities and oversaw four more initiated by faculty members. I co-established an annual workshop and an undergraduate joint project program at two universities abroad. For both marketing and outreach purposes, I started an annual departmental report, titled Elements.
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
of research in cyber-physical systems. Currently, the laboratory hosts projects worth over $1M, sponsored by Army, Navy, and Air Force, in addition to industry partners. In my professional communities, I serve as an editor-at-large or associate editor of three international journals, steering committee or executive committee member of multiple international conferences, program or conference chair of international conferences, and proposal evaluator for government organizations, as being recognized as one of the leading figures of unmanned aerial systems. Other professional administrative activities are found in my curricula vitae.
In summary, I believe my experiences and record meet the preferred qualifications described for the Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UTC. I also believe the core values, high expectations, and ideals acquired throughout my education and career at the Arizona State
University, Harvard, Purdue, US Air Force Academy, and UTSA prepared me well to live out the vision, mission, and core values laid out in the 2015-2020 UTC strategic plan. The four goals of putting students first, inspiring scholarship, faithful stewardship, and embracing diversity resonate strongly with me. It is my desire to lead your College in developing a cooperative and engaging environment that celebrates integrity and excellence in teaching, research, and service. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely Yours,
Daniel Pack, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor and May Lou Clarke Endowed Chair Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering The University of Texas at San Antonio
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
Dr. Daniel Pack
Summary of Experience and Accomplishments
In response to the qualifications described for the UTC Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, the following is a summary of my administrative, academic, and research experiences and accomplishments. • Demonstrable experience and success creating, building and/or leading a successful department or
function within an Engineering or Computer Science College – getting associates to think, plan, and act together in a cohesive and cooperative manner.
1. As a faculty member at the Air Force Academy, I established and served as the founding director of the Academy Center of Excellence in Unmanned Aircraft Systems Research. In that capacity, I oversaw research related to unmanned aircraft systems throughout the Academy with faculty,
students, researchers, and engineers from nine different departments with annual budget of over $2M. 2. As Chair, I led the departmental growth in both undergraduate and graduate program enrollments, the
number of annual graduates, research publications, research awards and expenditures, student activities, internship opportunities, and the number of under-represented students including females.
3. As Chair, I established an associate chair position within the department, created a departmental by-laws, developed rules and policies, and restored faculty governance through committee activities. 4. As Chair, I worked with colleagues to create a new integrated BS/MS program, a certificate program
in energy, and Open Cloud Institute. We are in the process of creating a MS program in Cloud Computing and a PhD program in Computer Engineering.
• An established track record of creating a sense of community, collegiality, and trust within his/her units of responsibility.
1. Before becoming Director of the UAS center, I started a sensor-based robotics laboratory with a core group of four engineers and post-doctoral fellows. By the time, I left the Academy, the four member team grew to over 25 faculty members, six engineers, and five post-doctoral fellows, working on projects from AFOSR, NRL, AFRL, MITRE, Raytheon, NSA, and others.
2. At the end of my first term as Chair, as part of an evaluation and reappointment process, faculty and staff in my department were asked to assess my leadership abilities and accomplishments
anonymously based on the past three years’ record. An overwhelming majority (80%) of the respondents rated my skills and accomplishments as either excellent or outstanding, 10% marked above average, and 10% responded negatively. Repeated comments on the outstanding quality from the survey were about trustworthiness and transparency of my leadership style.
• Experience leading a team in building a strategic plan that integrates into the larger university plan, and then directing and guiding its successful execution.
1. As Director of Research in the electrical and computer engineering department and the Founding Director of the unmanned aircraft research center, I led the strategic plans for both the departmental
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
research and the ones for the center. The plans were implemented over five year periods with the growth in the departmental and center research revenues by roughly 200% and 1000%, respectively. 2. As Chair, I implemented the 2000-2015 strategic plan formulated before my arrival at UTSA. We
met majority of the goals set forward. I am part of two university level strategic planning committees and co-lead the one for the college. The college plan was developed to align its goals and objectives with the ones set out for the university.
• Ability to structure an effective and productive research operation, including acquiring grants and other forms of financial support, while maintaining an institutional focus upon teaching and student success.
1. As Director of UAS center, I led the center efforts in research productivity. The center’s annual operating budget, all from soft funding sources, was over $2M, of which I personally brought in over $1M research funding.
2. At the Academy, I won departmental, institutional, and national teaching awards for teaching excellence and innovations.
3. As Chair, I established outstanding student awards (Outstanding TA Award, Undergraduate Excellence Awards, Graduate Research Awards) to encourage student success.
4. As Chair, I implemented course assessment procedures including compilation of course portfolios for all courses.
5. As Chair, I established Unmanned Systems Laboratory and brought in over $1M funding and oversaw the annual departmental publication output of over 200 publications.
6. As Chair, I established teaching seminars for faculty and TAs.
• Specific experience and success with Development and Advancement efforts and programs, and an ability to develop friends and philanthropic relationships among supporters, alumni and community members.
1. As Director of UAS center, I led efforts to establish a research gift fund sponsored by ITT. 2. As Chair, I led the effort to establish an integrated BS/MS program and a certificate program in
power.
3. As Chair, with the help of development officers, I worked with an 80/20 foundation, an offshoot of Rackspace, an international open cloud computing company, to establish two research assistant professor positions in the department.
4. As Chair, representing the college, I co-led the effort to establish the Open Cloud Institute with over $5M initial funding at UTSA.
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
• Expertise and success in building and growing productive ties into the community, and from this platform, show illustrations of successful fundraising/development, internships, experiential learning and executive education, and strong alliances and partnership arrangements.
1. As Director of UAS research, I worked with industry partners (Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin) to establish senior capstone project sponsorships.
2. As Chair, I increased the internship opportunities by establishing working relationships with industry partners such as Freescale, National Instruments, Union Pacific, and Texas Instruments.
3. As Chair, I expanded the External Advisory Council membership to include local (and national) leading figures in the academy, industry, and the government. Current members include Vice President of Southwest Research Institute, Director of Joint Bio-informatics Division at Brooks AFB, and Prof. Mandi, a member of the National Academy of Engineers. We expect the relationships we build with the members will open doors for our students and faculty for future scholarly and community engagement opportunities.
4. As Chair, I initiated a joint international senior project program with KyungPook National University and an engineering workshop program for students with ChunBook National University both in Korea. I also co-led a graduate research joint program with Fachhochschule Brandenburg University in Germany.
5. As Chair, I worked with colleagues to establish a certificate program on energy. We are also in the process of developing a certificate program and a MS program in Cloud Computing.
6. As Chair, I initiated and executed for three years a college level capstone design project event, named Technology Symposium, where capstone projects from all four engineering departments are
presented to attendees made of project sponsors from industry and government agencies, faculty, UTSA students, high school students, and the public. During the 2015 Spring, 54 teams presented their work and more than 500 guests attended the event. To encourage the entrepreneurialism among students, the Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship (CITE) $100K Student
Technology Venture Competition, sponsored by the College of Business, was held as part of Technology Symposium. By putting students from both engineering and business into teams, the experience helped students from both colleges to gain complementary knowledge about technology and business. I worked with the center to protect and market the intellectual properties students developed during the project periods.
• The ability to insinuate oneself within the discussion, analysis, and decision-making activities of community partners and supporters, thereby becoming a trusted ally whose input is solicited. 1. As Chair, I work with both college and departmental External Advisory Council members on a
number of joint projects. As one such project, I currently co-lead with the Vice President of
Southwest Research Institute to create a local IEEE professional joint chapter to promote professional activities and engineering entrepreneurships in the San Antonio region.
2. As an unmanned aircraft system expert, I have been working as a government advisor for a number of government unmanned aircraft system projects.
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
3. As a researcher working on multiple DoD projects, I was asked to be and am serving on the University of Texas Advisory Board for DoD matters.
4. As Chair, I worked with the local, state, and national representatives to strengthen the partnerships between the university and local energy, cyber, and biomedical industries. I also was part of the administrative team that hosted numerous campus visits by federal delegation. The visits are mainly to update the sponsored projects and to brief future opportunities to manage government projects.
• Experience balancing the conflicting and competing demands upon faculty time and attention, and creating successful support programs to assist/improve faculty productivity and performance. 1. As Chair, I designed and implemented a mentor program for junior faculty. In this program, each
junior faculty is paired with a seasoned faculty to provide opportunities for the new faculty to learn from an experienced individual through regular interactions and activities regarding teaching, research, and service. The mentoring lasts until the junior faculty meets his or her promotion board. 2. As Chair, I acquired and allocated a junior faculty travel fund to support junior faculty members’
travel expenses to encourage them to travel to meet program managers and academic and industry collaborators.
3. As Chair, I created a service blackboard with clear expectations for faculty service. Faculty members sign up service activities at the start of an academic year, knowing in advance the amount of time and dates they commit to departmental, college, and university service.
4. As Chair, I facilitated research project opportunities for faculty by inviting government research project program managers to the department for seminars and discussions with faculty.
5. As Chair, I initiated the departmental online/hybrid courses to optimize the teaching resources, enhance student learning, and to adopt the state of the art teaching tools.
• Experience in student success and development efforts, including activities that assist with life skills and prepare for professional licensing.
1. As Professor and licensed professional engineer, I taught a course to prepare students for the EIT exam.
2. As Professor at the Academy, I was faculty advisor for the student IEEE chapter.
3. As Professor at the Academy, I formed a PE study group of seven faculty members. The group studied together and all members passed the exam, becoming role models for students to pursue professional licensing.
4. As Chair, I mentored students in the McNair Scholar program, a program developed to encourage undergraduate, under-represented students to pursue PhD programs in STEM areas. I also serve as a mentor for honors students in the department.
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
5. As Chair, I participated in recruitment and selection efforts of top scholars, including hosting laboratory visits, arranging student classroom experiences, and interviews.
• Established organizational skills, a track record of developing strong interpersonal relationships among her/his team, an engaging personality, and a propensity to communicate actively and aggressively. 1. As Director of UAS center, I built a team who inter-depended each other for success. The members
of the center were unhindered to speak their minds and all good ideas were incorporated to final decisions.
2. As Chair, the first year was spent to build the relationships and remove mistrusts existed between my predecessor and faculty members. Through open door policy and frequent meetings at the
departmental, concentration area, and individual levels, I was able to convince faculty members and staff the value of teamwork and my commitment to transparency and fairness.
• An understanding of international student recruitment and management.
1. As a member of international relations committee at the Academy, I worked with governments of South America, Germany, France, Taiwan, Singapore, Spain, Korea, and Japan. The committee activities include host arrangements, periodic counseling, and extra curricular activities for exchange cadets.
2. As Chair, I led the college’s task force on recruitment of international students. As a result, we identified five countries and developed plans for student recruitments from those countries.
3. As Chair, I serve on the university’s international partnership committee to determine opportunities and develop plans for student recruitment, study abroad programs, joint research projects, student exchange programs, and dual degree programs.
4. As Chair, I participated in several efforts to establish partnerships with universities in China, Colombia, Mexico, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Turkey, Arjarbarjan, France to attract students to UTSA. These partnerships have also led student and faculty exchange programs and joint research programs.
• Experience recruiting students and engaging in complementary efforts to augment Enrollment Management programs, including developing programs with Community Colleges.
1. As Chair, I work closely with the Associate Dean of Academics at the college to establish program requirements and transfer credit requirements for students coming from Alamo Colleges, a
consortium of five local community colleges.
2. As Chair, I led efforts for outreach to non-traditional students such as working professionals lacking college degrees at military bases and local industry. The activities include information seminars and development of brochures.
• The ability to conceive and implement an organizational structure to enable the achievement of organizational goals.
One UTSA Circle • San Antonio, Texas 78249 • (210) 458-4491 • (210) 458-5947 fax
1. As Director of UAS research, I developed and implemented organizational structure to support research, engineering, and student mentoring successfully.
2. As Chair, I established a new Associate Chair position and reorganized reporting structure within the department to enable access to either Chair or Associate Chair by all. I also re-energized faculty governess by establishing departmental by-laws and giving committees to make departmental decisions.
• An understanding of and experience with successful ABET accreditation programs.
1. As Professor at the Academy, I contributed toward efforts to obtain three successful six-year accreditations from ABET visits.
2. As Chair, I am currently leading efforts for preparation of an upcoming ABET visit.
3. As an ABET program evaluator, I understand the requirements and processes necessary to obtain a successful accreditation.
4. As Chair, I led the departmental efforts for the accreditation from Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
• A demonstrated commitment to graduate education and student engagement in research.
1. As Chair, I initiated increasing graduate program core course offerings to reduce the faculty-student ratio.
2. As Chair, I increased the departmental research funding to over $3M with over 60% of graduate students receiving some form of financial support.
3. As Chair, I changed the graduation requirements for both MS and PhD programs to enable students to spend more time performing research.
