Administrative Accomplishments

Director of CURENT - an NSF/DOE ERC 2011-present

• Research and strategic planning
• Center had direct research support of $4.6M 1st yr; $6.0M 2nd yr, $6.0M 3rd yr, $7.0M 4th yr, $7.0M 5th yr
• Implemented full proposal and planning process
• Industry and innovation
• Industry members - 30 members signed
• IAB by-laws approved
• Instituted annual industry conference and regular project review process
• Three patent applications and eight invention disclosures
• Implemented full proposal and planning process
• Education and outreach
• CURENT students: 130 graduate and 50 undergraduate
• Pre-college program - approximately 20 YSP and 5 RET per year
• Summer REU - approximate 15 per year
• Common CURENT course across campuses
• Engineering family night (K-5 program for kids and parents)
• Middle school girls science camp
  
• Numerous seminar and workshops
• Infrastructure
• Oversaw 7500 sq. ft. laboratory renovation at UTK
• New faculty hires at all partner schools

Head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UTK 2008-2013

• Oversaw merger of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments.
• Oversaw completion and move into the $37.5M new MHK building.
• Annual research expenditures steadily and significantly increased to $14M (2013) compared to $12.5M (2012), $12.1M (2011), $10M (2010), $8.5M (2009), $8.3M (2008). 
• Filled professorships positions increased from 3 to 8.
• Successful hiring of ten faculty (two senior hires and eight junior hires - one joint with Math). These hires include four females and one African-American, helping to improve diversity.
  
• Guided 11 successful tenure and promotion cases for EECS faculty.
  
• Successfully competed for the first ERC ever awarded to UTK. Established UTK as one of the leading power programs in the world.
  
• Initiated new program of graduate fellowships and graduate admissions process that greatly increased the percentage of offers that were accepted and improved the selectivity of admissions.
• Completed major curriculum revision of CS and CE program that brought requirements in line with CoE programs and addresses a number of concerns.
• Revised advising procedures to address previous shortcomings and increase faculty involvement with goal of improving retention.
• Department graduated 106 Ph.D. students during the five years.
• Decline in undergraduate enrollments were reversed with Fall 2012 enrollment around 480 students. There were 95 BS degrees awarded in 2011-2012.  This was an increase of 15% prior to the merger and 73% over the trough in 2008 when I joined UTK.
• Requirements in the graduate program were unified across programs.
• Successful completion of THEC review in 2010, which was extremely positive about department programs.
• Successful first time ABET accreditation for CS program and renewal for CE and EE programs in 2012.
• Resolved 20 year history of cost overruns in research and department budgets.
• Addressed numerous morale and competency problems in office staff.
• Established new communications position and increased visibility of department.
• Established an Industry Advisory Board to help provide department directions.
  

Program Manager in ECCS Division at NSF 2005-2006

• Managed $3M research program in the area of power systems and electronics.
• Developed IREE program for international research experiences for graduate students.
• Oversaw MRI program for ECCS division.