ECE Faculty and Staff Living the Values

Electrical and Computer Engineering’s culture of innovation, excellence, collaboration, and social equity is expressed in the work of nine recipients of this year’s College of Engineering Incentive Award.

The awards were created to reward staff who consistently demonstrate the College’s vision, mission and values, and who have demonstrated creativity, innovation and daring in helping the College build its culture.

This year’s recipients include faculty and staff who have given individually from one to 25 years of service to the mission of ECE in a variety of roles. They embody a relentless pursuit of excellence, creative approach to problem solving, and willingness to work for a positive environment for all.

Kathy Austin

ECE Research Manager

Kathy is recognized for her work as a change agent for research administration. She attends national conferences and shares the information she learns with the rest of the team in ECE. She serves on several teams and uses her influence to improve research administration in a variety of ways, and she is currently working to improve reporting for faculty in a way that serves both faculty and administrators.

John Feldkamp

ECE Student Recruiter

John is recognized for his efforts in recruiting of undergraduate and graduate students to Electrical and Computer Engineering. He travels regularly to professional conferences, works with local middle and high schools, runs the Electrify Tech Camps during the summer, and gives tours to individual throughout the year. John has improved the student Ambassador Program, and is an active member of the ECE Positivity Committee.

Hayley Hanway

Communications Coordinator

Hayley has made a significant impact in just her first year here at Michigan. In the midst of helping launch a new website, keeping pace with a new job that is fast-paced and demanding, she has stepped up and contributed as a leader and agent for social equity. She has offered in-house how-to presentations to staff, and created a video series of graduate student profiles featuring a diverse group students. She has made a real and positive impact at professional conferences.

Cindy Finelli

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Cindy is responsible for creating a new research community focused on Engineering Education Research (EER). As the founding director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering, Cindy cultivated a nationally recognized research community at Michigan that enables new research discoveries in Engineering Education and by faculty across engineering and the School of Education. She also spearheaded the creation of a new graduate program in EER within the College. Cindy is an inspiration to us who seek new ways to understand and to improve our educational mission through innovations arising from the research conducted within this growing field.

Jennifer Honeycutt

Purchasing Associate Supervisor

Jen led a newly-formed ECE Administrative Burden Reduction Team and found several areas for improvement that were implemented. She also took it upon herself to plan the renovation of an odd little space in the EECS Building so her team could move out of the cramped space they had been inhabiting for many years into this new attractive area. Jen often takes the lead in planning special life events for staff in ECE, making them unique, personal, and memorable.

Catharine June

ECE Communications and Marketing Manager

Catharine was a key leader in the transition, redesign, and revised architecture of the new EECS website. The project involved moving from one platform to another, consulting with a variety of individuals from different units, and working with consultants and temp workers to build the site and transition decades of information and stories. The new site is modern, attractive, and designed for a targeted audience.

Raj Rao Nadakuditi

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Raj created EECS 505 “Computational Data Science and Machine Learning.” As of Fall 2019, the course attracts about 280 students from more than 80 different majors across campus. The course employed innovative ideas of a “living” textbook and gamification to scale up the instruction. By requiring virtually no prerequisite and teaching by doing, the course is able to serve students of very different backgrounds, most of them not from engineering.

Linda Randolph

DCO Senior Computing Consultant

Linda serves both ECE and CSE divisions, and always goes the extra mile to ensure faculty and staff MAC computers and AV equipment needed for a wide variety of events are in tip-top shape. Her calm demeanor and customer service focus is invaluable to those who need her assistance. She has made a positive impact on both the ECE Student Education Enhancement Team and the CoE Staff Professional Development Team.

Barb Rice

ECE Research Manager

Barb has a very demanding job and is responsible for managing the largest research unit (in dollars) in the department, yet goes out of her way to improve the culture in ECE. She is a key member of the ECE Positivity Committee, going above and beyond to ensure full participation by her staff and ensure that all details are covered. Barb also engages in a wide variety of university and departmental initiatives.