Spring Break
Department head nominated for IEEE
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: News
|
"These are not opponents; these are colleagues. We have worked together before and we will work together afterwards," Kam said.
Kam cited one reason he was running as the current changes in the scientific, technological, and business fields.
"We [IEEE] need to be vigilant in the [scientific] environment to be able to react fast in order to remain at the forefront of the scientific community," Kam said.
Kam also said he was worried about IEEE's method of managing affairs.
"I'd like to make sure we are equally focused on internal matters as well as external matters," Kam said.
According to Kam, the lack of focus on external matters is a problem even though the IEEE has excelled in creating a strong internal body.
Kam also expressed concerned with the increase of sophistication of IEEE publications due to these publications being at the forefront of the scientific community, thereby leaving many other engineers lying in the dust.
"We need to know how to serve people who are not at the forefront of the community, but are still excellent engineers and mathematicians," Kam said.
His last reason concerned the younger generation, or as Kam put it, "the decrease in the propensity of young people to focus on engineering and the sciences."
"We have young people, especially young women, who think early on that engineering is not for them," Kam said.
Kam's main concern with the youth is the ways they base their decisions on rumors and other people's perspectives without actually understanding the field of engineering.
"There is a humanitarian aspect, such as the problem of electricity in rural areas, and we need to perceive [engineering] as humanitarian," Kam said.
Concerning Drexel, Kam expressed how beneficial being a part of a large organization such as the IEEE is for the University.
"It provides me with a very large number of connections that helps Drexel. [Being president or vice president] reflects very well on the University," Kam said.
Also running was Joseph Lillie, a retired engineer for BellSouth Telecommunication, and Roberto DeMarca, a professor at Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Be the first to comment on this story