Indiana State University Newsroom

An Indiana State University professor received an award this month for a presentation he gave during a technology conference last year.

Phillip Cochrane, assistant professor in the department of applied engineering and technology management in the College of Technology, received the award from the American Society of Engineering Educators during a conference this month in San Antonio. He was among the four recipients who were given the award for the session of presentations they gave during the group's Conference for industry and Education Collaboration in February 2010. Cochrane's presentation, "Motorsports at Indiana State University," included a program overview, along with challenges and successes of the initiative.

"I'm hoping that it reflects positively upon ISU and the College of Technology," Cochrane said of the award. "We have some programs here that attract attention, and it does me a little proud to kind of boast about them."

He first learned last fall that he won the award for the conference session "Faculty Scholarship, Research, and Development in Engineering Technology." Conference attendees judged the presentation sessions on different factors that included each presentation's scholarship, technical accuracy and message clarity. The presenters with the highest-ranked sessions received awards.

"I like it because it's from my peers," Cochrane said. "It's my peers saying ‘You did a good job.'"

His presentation at the conference in San Antonio earlier this month updated progress on the motorsports program at ISU, which includes efforts to inform students from a variety of technological backgrounds that motorsports can provide them with additional learning and professional opportunities.

"One of our challenges is to make the mechanical engineering and electronics students realize that hey, the vehicle is actually a rolling laboratory available to everybody," Cochrane said. "It's not exclusively the domain of automotives, because we want students of all silos to participate."

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Other/Headshot-Proofs/2007-New-Faculty/cochranephil0125/195569468_d3kFC-L.jpg
Phillip Cochrane

Contact: Phillip Cochrane, assistant professor, department of applied engineering and technology management, College of Technology, Indiana State University, 812-237-3978 or phil.cochrane@indstate.edu.

Writer: Austin Arceo, assistant director of media relations, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3790 or austin.arceo-negrich@indstate.edu.