News

2009 Kauffman Award

	Fred Berry (right) and Andrew Clark (left)

Fred Berry, head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, has been named the Outstanding Entrepreneurship Educator for 2009 by the Entrepreneurship Division of the American Society of Engineering Education. The national award, sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was presented at the ASEE Conference in Austin, Texas.

Berry was recognized for leadership and innovation in engineering and high technology entrepreneurship education.

With the help of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, Rose-Hulman accelerated the development and implementation of a new four-course design sequence that prepares engineers and scientists for entrepreneurial careers. The sequence replaced the formerly offered single-discipline-focused senior design classes. The current esign sequence included a freshman-level engineering practice course, followed by a junior-year class covering the principles of design and two senior-level engineering design courses.

Berry has also supported the establishment of a Wireless Entrepreneurs Program which has electrical and computer engineering faculty at the Rose-Hulman and other institutions collaborating on undergraduate entrepreneurial projects in the area of wireless communication and radio-related fields. Student projects focus on developing interactive modules that visually depict and/or simulate the principles involved in cellular and PCS systems. Each team researches, proposes, and develops its own projects for a wireless application, starting in the teams’ junior years. The teams submit a proposal to a committee composed of industry and faculty.

“Fred has a broad perspective of the potential for using innovative technology that excites students and offers the intellectual horsepower for his students to deeply understand difficult concepts; in particular, concepts that involve wireless technology that are both hard to see and every harder to utilize,” stated Don Millard, director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Academic of Electronic Media.

Berry also serves as director of the Global Wireless Education Consortium (GWEC), a collaboration of wireless industry companies and academic institutions hosted by Rose-Hulman. GWEC is focused on expanding wireless technology curriculum in academic institutions worldwide. He has hosted GWEC Summit events for wireless educators and industry leaders during the past two years.

“Fred fully recognizes the value of collaboration and is selfless in his efforts, knowing that the results will yield curricular and programmatic innovation,” stated Susan Sauer Sloan, GWEC’s former chief executive officer. “Time and time again, Dr. Berry’s commitment to education and to enacting effective and positive change; his generous contributions of time, contacts and ideas; his visionary insight and his true spirit of entrepreneurialism have shown brightly.”

A member of the Rose-Hulman faculty since 1995 and department chair since 2001, Berry specializes in parallel processing, controls and power systems. He has served as a consultant to NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University, where he taught in the electrical engineering department from 1987-1995.

Previous Kauffman Award Recipients

• 2008: Robert Olsen and Denny Davis of Washington State University

• 2007: Steven Nichols, University of Texas at Austin

• 2006: Elizabeth Kisenwether, Pennsylvania State University

• 2005: Tom Byers, Stanford University

• 2004: Anthony Marchese, Rowan University

• 2003: David Barbe, University of Maryland