his is the fourth issue of our second year of the KlipschSpeaker. As you read on you will learn that J. Derald Morgan is resigning as Dean of the College of Engineering and that Jay Jordan has been appointed Interim Dean until a national search for a new Dean can be completed. Highlights of this issue include a look at the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium's Rocket Summer Institute in which teams comprised of students and teachers learned about engineering through building and flying rockets, collecting flight data, and extracting physical data. Also included are features on programs designed to bring power system education to practicing engineers in New Mexico, development of an indoor experimental range for wireless communication and wireless networking, research programs to enhance supercomputing resources on the NMSU campus, Klipsch School Endowment and giving, and the agenda for our annual Electrical and Computer Engineering Academy meeting.

KLIPSCH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT

We hope you enjoy reading the KlipschSpeaker and have noted with pride all of the exciting activities that the students, faculty, and alumni have been engaged in during the past year. Your generous support, as well as that of other alumni and Klipsch School friends continues to make the Klipsch School the most exciting, dynamic organization at NMSU.

October is the month for our annual fund campaign. As we've previously mentioned, the Klipsch School has formulated a five-year strategic plan to develop endowment focused on three areas of support: scholarships for freshmen, undergraduate and graduate students; undergraduate laboratory equipment acquisition, replacement, and maintenance; and creation of endowed chairs in each of the seven Klipsch School areas of specialization. As you read in the Spring 1998 KlipschSpeaker, upon his death, Prof Brown donated his entire estate of approximately $800,000 for the endowment of the PROFESSOR HAROLD BROWN SCHOLARSHIP IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING resulting in about $40,000 per year for scholarship support of Klipsch School students. This wonderful gesture and legacy has enabled us to focus our emphasis on seeking development of endowment support for laboratory equipment and endowed chairs. Your generous support this past year has enabled us to upgrade nearly 50 PCs in our computer laboratories from 33 MHz Intel 486 processors to 200 MHz Intel Pentium II processors.

Each of you, as one of over 2800 Klipsch School alumni and friends, play an important role in what we are able to offer our students. Your gifts for all forms of support are critical to our continued quest for excellence. There are many giving options and your gift will be used precisely as you wish. If you have any questions, call Jay B. Jordan, Head, or Javin M. Taylor, Associate Head, at 505 646-3115. Thank you for your support.

JAY JORDAN SELECTED AS INTERIM

DEAN OF COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Klipsch School Head, Jay Jordan has been appointed Interim Dean of the College of Engineering effective January 1, 1999. A search has begun for a permanent dean and one will be selected prior to the start of the fall 1999 semester. During Dr. Jordan's tenure as Interim Dean, Dr. Steven Castillo will serve as Interim Head of the Klipsch School.

DEAN J. DERALD MORGAN TO RETURN

TO KLIPSCH SCHOOL FACULTY

J. Derald Morgan, Dean of NMSU's College of Engineering since 1985, has announced he will resign as dean effective January 1, 1999. Dr. Morgan will be on sabbatical leave until June 30, 1999, and then return to the faculty as a professor in the Klipsch School.

"The College of Engineering has gone through an unprecedented period of growth and development under Dean Morgan's leadership," said NMSU President William B. Conroy. During his tenure as Dean, Dr. Morgan has helped establish eight major programs in the College of Engineering, including the Advanced Manufacturing Center, the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium, and the Nondestructive Bridge Test and Evaluation Center. Annual research expenditures have increased from $1 million to more than $20 million.

Derald Morgan received his BSEE from Louisiana Tech University in 1962, his MSEE from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1965, and his PhD from Arizona State University in 1968. Prior to joining NMSU he was Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Dr. Morgan is a Registered Professional Engineer and IEEE Fellow. His specialty is high voltage electrical power systems.

THE ACADEMY

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Academy (ECEA) will hold their annual meeting at the Klipsch School during October 28-29, 1998. The Academy's Industrial Advisory Group (IAG) will meet on Wednesday, October 28. The agenda will include discussion of the health of the Klipsch School, a partial evaluation of the new curriculum that is being phased in, and an evaluation of the ABET 2000 Outcomes Assessment. The Academy will meet in the Klipsch School on Thursday, October 29. The meeting will include a financial report of development activities and fund usage, election of new Academy members, an Industrial Advisory Group briefing, and a detailed tour of the Klipsch School including visits with advisors, faculty, and students. The ECEA Banquet will be held at Picacho Hills Country Club the evening of the 29^th.

Information on the Academy including current membership with biographies, bylaws, eligibility for membership, etc., can be found in the Klipsch School home page at www.ece.nmsu. ece/ecea/ecea.html. If you are interested in knowing more about the Academy or Industrial Advisory Group, becoming a member, or wish to nominate someone, let us know. We will E-mail, fax, or mail the information to you.

KLIPSCH SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

In past KlipschSpeakers we've discussed how the rise and fall of Klipsch School enrollment is affected by the economy. Now with the economy booming, as expected undergraduate enrollment is up. College of Engineering freshman enrollment is up 4.8% for the fall semester. Klipsch School enrollment is up 11% -- +0.7% freshman, +33% sophomores, +6% juniors, and +12% seniors. Transfer enrollment is down 22%. With such good starting salaries for the BSEE, it's really tough to pass up the money and stay in school for the MSEE degree. So, Klipsch School graduate enrollment increased minimally - +1.5% at the MS level and +2% for the PhD. Total fall enrollment is 462 undergraduate students and 110 graduate students.

SUMMER ENRICHMENT PROGRAM

The New Mexico Space Grant Consortium's Rocket Summer Institute, a summer enrichment program, took place at the Klipsch School during the last week of July. The Space Grant office recruits high school teacher and student participants from high schools in New Mexico and West Texas and raises the funding to conduct the program. Participants built a high-power model rocket measuring four feet in length and four inches in diameter. The rockets used the same solid fuel as is used in the Space Shuttle solid rockets. Participants also built a computer-controlled data acquisition payload that collected data in real-time during the rocket flight. This payload has five sensors: three-axis accelerometers, an atmospheric pressure sensor, and a solar cell. The data acquisition system was designed by Dr. Stephen Horan of the Klipsch School's Telemetering Center. Participants are able to measure how the rocket accelerates in three directions, how the rocket rolls during flight, and how high the rocket flies.

The week was full of hard work, discovery, excitement, accomplishment, and success. The student and teacher teams spent Monday and Tuesday assembling their rocket and payload kits and debugging the electronics. To assemble the electronic kits, the teams needed to solder the components to a printed circuit board and verify correct operation of all sensors, power, and control switches. A total of 21 rockets were launched from the NMSU college ranch on Wednesday with all rockets successfully taking off and most landing correctly via their parachutes. Typical rocket altitudes were just over 2100 feet above the launch point. The highest rocket reached 2450 feet altitude. On Thursday, the teams spent the day recovering the data that was stored in the payload during the launch and analyzing the results. Analysis consisted of converting the measurements from analog-to-digital converter outputs to real values such as acceleration in g's and altitude in feet from barometric pressure. All analysis was performed using spreadsheets for the data conversion and plotting.

There were 56 people attending the institute, 28 teacher/student teams. The participants were from 21 high schools throughout New Mexico and West Texas, including: Alamogordo; Albu-querque--La Cueva, Career Enrichment Center, St. Pius X; Cloudcroft; Farmington--Farmington, Tibbetts; Gadsden; Thoreau; Las Cruces--Onate, Mayfield, Las Cruces; Truth or Consequences--Hot Springs; McCurdy; Navajo Prep; Wingate; Van Horn, Texas; El Paso--Father Yermo; Laguna-Acoma; and Tularosa. Included were three schools having a mostly Native American student body.

Instructors for the program included Dr. Stephen Horan of the Telemetering Center and Judy McShannon, Tomas Vasquez, Joylynn Watkins and Claudia Serna of the New Mexico Space Grant Office.

DISTANCE LEARNING - THE ELECTRIC

UTILITY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM ON TV

In the fall of 1994 the Klipsch School power systems faculty, Professors Bill Kersting, Satish Ranade, and Howard Smolleck, started a distance learning version of the highly successful Electrical Utility Management Program (EUMP) Masters Degree by making a commitment that all senior level elective and graduate electric power courses would be taught each semester on live TV and transmitted to students at the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) and Sandia National Labs. It took eight semesters, but last spring the final graduate power class was taught. Initially there were nine electrical engineers at PNM and four engineers at Sandia enrolled with the intention of completing the requirements for the MSEE degree. In addition to the power classes the Albuquerque students took at least two courses offered on site by the Industrial Engineering Department. With the eight power classes and the two IE classes the students fulfilled the 30 hours of courses required for the degree. The final step was to complete a Technical Report project. The project could be a company project that the engineer had or was working on.

Last spring Steve Conrad, Dick Curtner, Tom Duane, and Gene Wolf from PNM completed all of the requirements for the degree and passed their oral exams. It was a proud night for the spring commencement when three of the four "walked." John Rathbun and Dan Sherman from Sandia have completed their technical report projects and will be taking their oral exams in late October. At least two more of the PNM engineers should complete their projects in the spring.

This was the Klipsch School's first try at offering a complete graduate program using "distance" learning. The classes were taught live with the campus students sitting in the TV classroom and watching the professor and/or the monitors. The distance students could hear and see the professor. There was a very limited audio-only (telephone) link that the distance students could use to ask questions during the class period. For the most part, the distance students called the professor after class to ask questions. Great use was also made of E-mail homework assignments and exams to the distance students.

All of the classes were taped so that we now have all of the senior elective and graduate power classes available on tape. It is possible for distance students to register for a class and watch the tapes, do homework, take exams and earn graduate credits. More information about this can be obtained by contacting Prof. Bill Kersting at (505) 646-2434 or e-mail at wkerstin@nmsu.edu.

ORGANIZATION OF NEW MEXICO

RURAL ELECTRIC ENGINEERS

Three years ago Klipsch School Professor Bill Kersting was instrumental in creating an organization of engineers employed by New Mexico rural electric cooperatives. The purpose of the organization is to provide the engineers with a forum where they can exchange ideas with each other and to provide tutorials on current topics of interest. There are 17 cooperatives in New Mexico with about half of them employing engineers. In addition, several engineers from consulting firms in New Mexico are members since they do a lot of work with and for the cooperatives. With a few exceptions, the engineers are graduates of the Klipsch School so the meetings become informal alumni reunions.

The first meeting of the engineers was in 1995, on the NMSU campus and was used as an introduction of the Klipsch School and the power systems faculty. The second meeting was held in 1996, in Albuquerque where Klipsch School Professors Dr. Howard Smolleck and Dr. Satish Ranade presented a tutorial on power quality. Last fall the engineers met in conjunction with the rural electric cooperatives lineman's underground training school. The students attended classes with the linemen and among other things, learned how to splice cables. They also visited the training site on the NMSU campus near A Mountain and watched the vendors demonstrate equipment used to find cable faults. Last spring several vendors presented a seminar on modern metering in Albuquerque. This fall the engineers met at the Klipsch School during October 1-2. The major thrust of this meeting was centered around solar energy. Engineers from the NMSU College of Engineering's Southwest Technology Development Institute will be making the presentations.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS ARE DOING

Klipsch School students Bryan Davis, Monty Giles, and Jemma Gomez each received $2,000 International Foundation for Telemetering Scholarships for the 1998-99 academic year. Sharon Hoard and Edward Rede are on Co-Op and will receive $1,000 scholarships for the spring 1999 semester. Klipsch School students always have a strong showing and win many awards at the International Telemetering Conference. The following Klipsch School student papers have been submitted to this year's International Telemetering Conference: "Telemetry Data Collection from Oscar Satellites," Paul, C. Haddock; "Doppler Shifted Spread Spectrum Carrier Recovery Using Real-time DSP Techniques," Brad Scaife; "Link Analysis for the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector," Randal L. Barton.

FACULTY/ STAFF HIGHLIGHTS

Klipsch School Professor Dr. Russ Jedlicka and Dr. James P. LeBlanc have been awarded a three year $123,000 grant through the National Science Foundation's "Major Research Instrumentation" program. Entitled "WISTE: Wireless Indoor Space-Time Environment," this grant will provide NMSU with an indoor experimental range for investigating channel effects in both the spatial and time domain, with applications to wireless communications and wireless networking. A key component of this research will involve hardware construction and actual data analysis involving both graduate and undergraduate students in communications and electromagnetics.

Dr. Sheila Horan will teach a short course "Introduction to Data Compression," and Emeritus Professor Frank Carden will teach a short course "Introduction to Application of Convolutional Coding" at the October International Telemetering Conference in San Diego.

A team consisting of the Klipsch School, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science Departments has received a $1.2 million five-year grant from the National Science Foundation Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate to improve the basic research computing infrastructure in computer science, computational science, and engineering. Funds will be used to purchase several state-of-the-art symmetric multiprocessor computer systems (SMP) for use in teaching and research, as well as to attract more Native American students into graduate programs in computer science, computational science, and engineering. Additionally, a state-of-the-art one Gigabit-per-second research network backbone will be installed between the Klipsch School, Computer Science Department, and Mechanical Engineering Department. The research team consists of Dr. Steven Castillo of the Klipsch School, Drs. Bahram Nassersharif and Rich Hills of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Art Karshmer of Computer Science.

Klipsch School Professors Dr. Steven Castillo and Dr. Eric Johnson teamed with Professor Art Karshmer, Head, Computer Science Department, to successfully compete for a grant from the National Science Foundation to connect NMSU to the new high-speed VBNS network. NMSU's current connection to the Internet consists of four 1.44 Megabit-per-second T1 lines. The new connection will initially be at 46 Megabits-per-second with plans to go to 144 Megabits-per second within a year. The new connection will eliminate a serious bottleneck for NMSU faculty and staff performing research at remote computing sites such as Los Alamos National Laboratories and Jet Propulsion Laboratory

KLIPSCH SCHOOL NOTES

We now have the KlipschSpeaker on our web site. Locate http://www.ece.nmsu.edu/alumni/ alumni. html, select KlipschSpeaker and bring up the issue you want.

It's important to us that all of the Klipsch School alumni receive the quarterly KlipschSpeaker. We get our mailing labels from the NMSU Alumni Association, but we know there are Klipsch School alumni who are not members of the NMSU Alumni Association. We want to put these alumni in a Klipsch School database, but we don't know how to find them. Please send us addresses of alumni not receiving the KlipschSpeaker.

We can also provide the KlipschSpeaker as an attachment to an E-mail message for those alumni who prefer electronic service. This may be especially attractive to foreign alumni. If you want E-mail delivery, send your name and email address to jtaylor@nmsu.edu. Indicate any special requirements.

If you haven't already, please check the Klipsch School's web page at http://www.ece.nmsu.edu. Our web page tells about the Klipsch School students, faculty, programs, and research. Look us up. The NMSU web page address is http://www.nmsu.edu. You can get to our web page from NMSU's or directly at the address above. The University has a calendar of events web page at http://www.nmsu. edu/general/calendar. If you want to get in touch with us, obtain additional information, or tell us something about you or other alumni, contact the Klipsch School Head, Dr. Jay Jordan at 505-646-3115 or E-mail to jjordan@nmsu.edu, or Dr. Javin Taylor, Associate Head and KlipschSpeaker editor at 505-646-1239 or E-mail to jtaylor@ nmsu.edu. Or use the Klipsch School fax number, 505-646-1435.