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CUA Establishes Engineering Collaborative Programs with Universities in Vietnam and Taiwan Dean Nguyen signed MOUs with Director Ying and President Yang at St John’s University. The CUA School of Engineering has signed memoranda of understanding with several universities in Vietnam and Taiwan as part of an effort to expand academic and research programs and foster collaboration between these institutions and the CUA School of Engineering. On June 23, 2005, in Saigon, Vietnam, Dean Charles Nguyen and Truong Quang Mui, Ph.D., chairman of the Board of Management of the Saigon Technology University (STU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for collaboration between STU and the School of Engineering. STU is a private technical university with a current student body of approximately 6,000. The first technology university established in the south of Vietnam, STU offers bachelor degree programs for all engineering majors. Under the terms of the CUA-STU agreement, STU students could transfer to CUA after two years of study at STU. Students would participate in undergraduate degree programs developed jointly between the two universities. STU students having earned an approved bachelor’s degree at STU would be eligible to earn a master’s degree at CUA. CUA engineering faculty will assist the STU faculty to develop an undergraduate program that will facilitate this 2+2 transfer program. The two schools will collaborate on potential joint research proposals, sabbatical leave and joint authorship of technical papers. The agreement with STU was the product of Nguyen’s exploration of Vietnamese universities during his several trips to Vietnam from 2004 to 2005 as a member of the Vietnam Education Foundation’s board of directors. On his first trip back to his homeland after 33 years, the dean had the opportunity to meet with officials at 15 Vietnamese universities and to learn about their academic programs. Dean Nguyen traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, in March 2006 to sign agreements for engineering collaboration with three prominent universities. CUA civil engineering professors Frank Pao and S. C. Ling accompanied the dean on the one-week visit; the delegation also visited National Central University to explore possible collaboration with this university. During their visits to Fu Jen Catholic University (FJCU), Chung Yuan University (CYCU) and St. John’s University (SJU), the CUA delegation met with each university’s president, as well as deans and engineering professors. Dean Nguyen offered presentations about CUA, its academic programs and partnership opportunities to each school. He presented an Agreement of Academic Cooperation signed by Very Reverend David M. O’Connell, C.M., CUA’s president, to FJCU president for his signature. This agreement renewed one that expired and will serve as a foundation for the development of cooperative research between the faculties and students of the two universities. Highlights of these proposed collaborations include a 2+2 program, a 4+1 program, graduate degree programs, student-exchange programs and faculty-research collaborations, including sabbatical leaves and jointauthorship. Approximately 70 percent of the visited universities’ faculty members earned their advanced degrees at major U.S. universities. As a first follow-up to these agreements, two FJCU faculty members visited CUA in June 2006 to meet with Nader Namazi, Ph.D., chair of the CUA Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and members of his department. Since that visit, the two departments have been working to develop a collaboration agreement on student-exchange as well as faculty and research collaboration. The CUA engineering school now boasts official relationships with four international universities, the first of many steps toward creating global information-sharing between undergraduates, graduate students and professors at CUA and institutions around the world. Dean Nguyen and STU students working on a robotic project. 6 | cuaengineer
Risk-Based Decision-Making for Environmental Cleanups Jeff Giangiuli, director of engineering management and instructor of related courses at CUA. To expedite cleanup of its contaminated training, industrial and Base Realignment and Closure, (BRAC), sites, the Department of Defense (DoD) has instituted an array of risk-based decision principles and management reforms that are saving time and money. DoD restoration efforts for active, BRAC and excess bases began three decades ago to ensure appropriate, cost-effective cleanup that makes DoD property safe for human health and the environment. The BRAC property, in particular, had to be cleaned up quickly to support local redevelopment and minimize potential economic effects on the community. While actual cleanup progress lagged in the DoD program at its inception, recent performance has been markedly improved due to the institutionalization of new decision-making principles and management reforms — namely performancebased contracts (PBCs) and environmental services cooperative agreements (ESCAs). PBCs are a contracting mechanism that requires the contractor to achieve specific remediation objectives, for a fixed price, based on a performance work statement. ESCAs transfer DoD property and privatize the cleanup, giving more control to the local re-use authorities. From fiscal year 2002 to 2005, the implementation of performance-based contracting with one service — the Army — resulted in cost avoidances of more than $215 million during the life of the contracts. Based on the track record of performance-based contracting so far, the U.S. Army Environmental Center estimates that a minimum of $45 million in costs will be eliminated from the projected contract awards for fiscal year 2006. Because PBCs lock in the costs and completion schedules, they ensure that the Army will not continue to experience program cost escalation and schedule slippages. From fiscal year 2001 to 2005, ESCAs have assisted one service — the Army — with transferring thousands of acres of property and privatizing over $100 million worth of environmental cleanups. The use of the new cleanup and transfer mechanisms have expedited the completion of the BRAC mission and helped to get thousands of difficult-to-transfer acres off the DoD books. The decision principles and management reforms employed by the new thinkers within the DoD are some of the topics that are studied in the CUA Engineering Management Program. These processes are discussed and dissected to provide students with real-world examples of how to aid decision-makers and manage the risk of new initiatives within the courses CMGT 505 Decision Analysis and CMGT 562 Engineering Risk Management, taught by Jeff Giangiuli, director of the Engineering Management Program. Judge, Regalia and Sun Receive 2006 Kaman Excellence Awards Assistant Professor John Judge and Professor Phillip Regalia were honored with the 2006 Kaman Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching and Associate Professor Lu Sun with the 2006 Kaman Award for Faculty Excellence in Research. This is the fourth year the awards have been given. Mechanical engineering professor Judge received the 2006 Kaman Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching for his outstanding contributions to engineering education. He has revamped, improved and developed the curriculum for core mechanical engineering courses such as Engineering Mechanics II, System Dynamics, and Junior Design, as well as for advanced courses in vibration and structural dynamics. In each of these courses, his students cited his tireless efforts inside and outside of the classroom, in many cases working one-on-one with students to ensure that they understand key concepts. Frequently illustrating concepts with practical examples and demonstrations, Judge has been praised by students for making difficult material interesting and understandable. Judge also was a nominee for the 2006 Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching. Regalia, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was selected as a co-recipient of the 2006 Kaman Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching in the area of electrical engineering. In courses such as Signals & Systems, Analog & Digital Signal Processing, Linear System Theory and Information Coding and Transmission, he has integrated principles and applications from his research in advanced communications. He reinforces their application through student projects that use contemporary engineering tools. His courses generate high student interest and exceptional evaluations. Regalia is an IEEE Fellow and editor-in-chief of EURSAIP J. Wireless Communications and Networking. Sun, associate professor of civil engineering, received the 2006 Kaman Award for Faculty Excellence in Research for his productivity in research. During 2005–2006, Sun had seven peer-reviewed papers either published or in-press while guiding four doctoral and two master’s-level students. He also received funding from The Catholic University of America, National Science Foundation, Dongre Laboratory and the American Chemical Society for his research in traffic flow prediction and simulation, human driving behavior and response, and assessment of highway condition and maintenance strategies. The Kaman Awards for Faculty Excellence are funded by a generous endowment from Charles H. Kaman (B.A.E., 1940). Awardees for research are nominated by faculty, while teaching awardees are nominated by students and/or faculty. Award recipients are recognized at the annual year-end school luncheon and at the school’s diploma distribution ceremony. In addition, each award recipient receives a plaque and a monetary gift. fall2006 | 7
Page 1 and 2: INSIDE In their research, CUA profe
Page 3 and 4: Dean’s Message Welcome to the ina
Page 5 and 6: Pao Appointed Director of Developme
Page 7: Hidler Honored with Inaugural Provo
Page 11 and 12: ■ Lade, P.V., Yamamuro, J.A., and
Page 13 and 14: ■ ■ Wang, Y.J., Lee, J.J., Lloy
Page 15 and 16: Engineering Alumnus on Donald Trump
Page 17 and 18: NSWC Carderock Offsite Program Coun
Page 19 and 20: CUA Chapter of Engineers Without Bo
Page 21 and 22: Jobs and Internships Subject of Car
Page 23 and 24: Nick Berg’s Congressional Interns

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