Winter 2019 Newsletter of the Christian Engineering Society

President’s Corner

by Steve VanderLeest (CES President)

Growing up, my parents never made me stand in the corner as a disciplinary measure. Some of my friends received such a punishment, but this penalty always seemed a bit odd to me. I suppose for an extrovert, isolation in the corner of the room might be unsettling, but for an introvert like me, it appeared to be a rather lenient sentence. Standing aside for a moment would give one time to think and reflect. The corner might even be desirable, a safer spot than the middle of the room. I’ve never been the life of the party, and as an adult, I find myself migrating towards the edges of a crowded room, even more so as my hearing has degraded in recent years. Despite wearing high-tech hearing aids with multiple microphones and digital signal processing, in a loud room full of the competing voices of the crowd, I still have trouble distinguishing the one voice I am trying to follow in conversation. I prefer discussions off to the side -- by necessity in order to hear better, by preference because it seems more personal. I’m hoping that an occasional “President’s Corner” in the newsletter can give you a more personal sense of the nascent society we are building. I hope our society gives you someone in your corner to support your calling to be fully faithful to Jesus Christ and fully engaged in your technical discipline. I welcome your feedback and ideas for this column in our newsletter, you can contact me by email: Steven.H.VanderLeest AT gmail.

Your Brother in Christ,

Steve VanderLeest

Invitation to the 2019 Christian Engineering Conference

by Justin Vander Werff (Justin.VanderWerff@dordt.edu)

We hope you are making plans to join us at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, on July 11-13 for the 2019 Christian Engineering Conference--click here for the preliminary program schedule. We have received a record number of abstract submissions and many of you have just participated in the review process. Thank you for involvement! We are in the process compiling a great program that will include the content and fellowship we have come to expect with CEC along with a little innovation as well. In particular, Dordt’s engineering program has close connections with a thriving manufacturing sector in close proximity to the campus, so we are working to utilize these relationships to allow all of us to dig a little deeper into what it means to truly practice holistic engineering as a disciple of Christ in the day-to-day world of engineering into which God calls practicing engineers.

Fitting with this theme, we are excited to announce Mike Adams as our keynote speaker. Mike is a graduate of Dordt engineering and is the president of Adams Thermal Systems, where he has been diligent and intentional about establishing ATS as an integrally Christian business enterprise. In addition, Mike has led meaningful overseas kingdom-building work with Adams Thermal Foundation, a unique missions-oriented arm of his business. We trust that Mike’s interaction with us will be challenging and formative in thinking about and doing engineering as disciples of Christ. We also are planning to include a panel session involving Christian leaders in engineering, a continuing education session on Christian ethics in engineering for licensed engineers seeking professional development hours, and some optional industry tours prior to the beginning of the conference.

The conference will, of course, feature the great things you’ve come to expect such as times of praise and worship as fellow Christ followers, promotional opportunities for Christian engineering-related organizations, and a great slate of papers and presentations on a variety of topics related to engineering and technology.

Finally, for those of you in the know, the use of the word “University” in the first line of this article was NOT a typo. The official name change from “Dordt College” to “Dordt University” will take place on May 13, so Dordt University will indeed be the home for the conference. Look forward to the registration details rolling out in just a few weeks, and we hope you will be able to join us!

Information on Institutional CES Membership 

by Melani Plett (mplett@spu.edu)

Thank you for your current and/or past participation in the Christian Engineering Society. As the treasurer, I am writing to update you on changes that the CES leadership have made regarding the intersection between institutional membership dues and individual membership dues. 

1. At the time of payment, the institution may identify up to six faculty from the same institution who will be assigned CES membership for the same membership year. [It is the member institution’s role to notify its faculty members of this benefit. The CES treasurer is not able to take on this role.]  [Also, note that Faculty dues will no longer count toward the institutional membership fee. This was too confusing to implement consistently.]

2. 50% discounts will still be given for individual memberships for those belonging to member institutions who pay their dues AFTER the institutional membership is in place for the current membership year. The member institution must inform its faculty of this option. [The CES treasurer cannot take on that role.]  Please alert the faculty at your institution of the following link at which they can pay the dues for their individual memberships at half price:  https://sites.google.com/a/christianengineering.org/ces/home/membership/individual-membership-at-institutions-who-are-members.

3. All dues received after Jan 1 will count toward the remaining current year and also the subsequent year. So, any membership dues received between now and Dec 31, 2019, will count toward the remainder of this membership year and continue membership through June 30, 2020.

More details about both individual and institutional membership are available at: http://www.christianengineering.org/home/membership. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

An Invitation to Teach North Korean Students Using Online Lectures

by John Spyralatos (ezisjer@hotmail.com)

My name is John Spyralatos. I am a Greek-American. I got saved in the early 1980’s—when I was a student at Alfred University in New York. I am now involved with Christian work in Western Greece. However, I am also indirectly involved with a work that is taking place in North Korea. Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is a private Christian university that operates in North Korea. They are looking for instructors to teach the following courses:  

Computer Networks, Integrated Circuit Processing, Algorithm and Data Structures, Circuit Analysis, Antenna Engineering

As you can see, these all fall into the discipline of Electrical Engineering. The professors must have at least a Master’s Degree. The teaching of these courses is in English; classes begin in early March. The professors teach on a volunteer basis meaning that there is no salary. The initial commitment is for one semester. It would be nice if we can find Christians to teach. The teaching would take place via the internet. If this is of interest to you, please let me know so we can discuss this further. I can call the USA for free via my laptop. Thank you for your time.

A Note from California Baptist University

by Frederick Pontius (fpontius@calbaptist.edu)

Christian Engineering Society members who live in or are visiting Southern California are invited to visit the new home of the Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering at California Baptist University (CBU). The 100,000 sqft state-of-the-art Dennis and Carol Troesh Engineering Building opened for the Fall 2018 semester. Starting in 2007 with only a handful of students its first year the college of engineering has grown to over 600 students. CBU offers 10 undergraduate engineering degrees, 13 engineering minors, and 5 graduate degrees. For more information contact Dr. Fred Pontius (fpontius@calbaptist.edu) or visit https://calbaptist.edu/college-of-engineering/.

A Book Introduction from the Author

by Yoni Adonyi (yoniadonyi@gmail.com)

The book is a mix of speculative fiction, memoirs, and opinions on the oppression of technical creativity of engineers, as well as their prevailing tactics to succeed in spite of these obstacles, all from a Judeo-Christian ethical and moral perspective. The title makes reference to the antagonism between the creative, innovative and ingenious engineer and his oppressive spiritual nemeses, as well as to the ongoing supportive angelic interventions. The book uses autobiographical experiences from several cultures, in particular, Romania, Hungary, Israel, and the United States. Highly recommended for youth interested in engineering careers, engineering educators and humanities majors interested in the way engineers think and operate.

Moderating the CES List of Books and Articles 

by David Che (ched2@asme.org)

Are you a Christian who happens to be an Engineer? Are you an Engineer who is also a Christian? Have you ever thought about integrating the two roles into one? These are tough questions to ask and answer. Fortunately, many Christian engineers and scholars had mulled over the same questions over the years and they are willing to share their thoughts with you! One of the main reasons for CES' existence is to help you think through these issues. In addition to offering bi-annual conferences and making conference papers available online, CES also maintains on its website a rich compilation of books and articles that reflect the integration of engineering and faith. We welcome CES members to contribute articles or suggest new books to be added to this growing body of literature. For more information, please contact our new CES resource curator Dr. David Che.

CES Membership

The officers of the formally organized Christian Engineering Society have determined our membership guidelines, which are posted on the CES website. The guidelines provide for individuals to become members of the society and for institutional membership. We will continue to publish the website and newsletter for anyone interested, even if not an official member. However, we hope you will prayerfully consider joining the society in a formal way to show your commitment and interest to this important subject. In order to encourage this, we have set the membership dues at a very low amount compared to most other professional societies.  We now have two options for you to make the membership purchase.  You can send a check to our treasurer, or you can subscribe via PayPal.  

US citizens can also make a tax-deductible donation to the society, either by sending a check or by using the Pay Pal link on the main page. Questions or comments? Feel free to contact any of the four officers. 

Seeking Engineering and Christianity Activities

If there is a project or activity at your institution/organization that relates engineering with faith, missions and/or service, we’d like to include it in a future CES newsletter. Please contact Ted Song (tsong@jbu.edu) or Steve VanderLeest (Steven.H.VanderLeest at gmail dot com) with a description of the project/activity. Thanks!

Newsletter Sign Up and Article Contributions

This newsletter is a publication of the Christian Engineering Society, distributed no more than once per month. You can sign up to receive an email notification when a new newsletter is available. Ted Song of John Brown University is the moderator and editor of the newsletter. Sometimes email filters will block mass distributions like the newsletter announcement, so be sure you whitelist the address "ces-announce@calvin.edu" to allow the newsletter announcement to get through. 

If you have questions about the newsletter, send an email to Ted at tsong@jbu.edu. Society members are encouraged to submit announcements and contribute articles!  (Editor reserves the right to make the final decision on inclusion of all content.)

Resources & Career Opportunities

For resources and career opportunities, click here.