Ford Named Delegate, Director-Elect of IEEE
Ralph M. Ford, director of the School of Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has been elected Region 2 Delegate/Director for IEEE (previously the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) With 357,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is the leading professional organization for the advancement of technology.
Ford will serve as Region 2 Director-Elect in the years 2009-2010 and as Director in 2011-2012. IEEE Region 2 has over 32,000 members and encompasses Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and West Virginia.
Ford previously has served as chair of the IEEE Erie Section and as conference coordinator for Region 2. Ford joined the Penn State Behrend faculty in 1994. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clarkson University and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, both in electrical engineering, and previously was a senior associate engineer at IBM in East Fishkill, N.Y., where he developed machine vision systems for semiconductor packaging inspection. His research interests are in digital signal processing, digital image processing, and engineering design.
In 2005, Ford spent a six-month sabbatical as a Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic, teaching and conducting research at Brno University of Technology. He also is the author of the book Design for Electrical and Computer Engineers (McGraw-Hill).
“Engaging practicing engineers in IEEE activities and services that support their careers is critical, given the rate of technological change and increased global competition,” Ford says. “There is also momentum in many states, including Pennsylvania, to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, which IEEE can build upon using existing resources and programs. I believe it’s vital to our national competitiveness that we increase the pipeline and diversity of students who pursue degrees in engineering.”
The School of Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, offers three associate and seven bachelor’s degree programs, as well as one minor. Each program is accredited by either the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) or the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Students have access to 11 student chapters of honorary and professional organizations, such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The School of Engineering and the Sam and Irene Black School of Business are co-located in the college’s $30 million, 160,000-square-foot Research and Economic Development Center, making Penn State Behrend one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to house its engineering and business schools together in the same facility.