Leah Jamieson facts for kids

Leah H. Jamieson, born on August 27, 1949, is an American engineering teacher and leader. She is a special professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. She helped start a cool program called Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS). This program lets engineering students use their skills to help communities. She also won the Gordon Prize for her work. From 2006 to 2017, she was the head of the Engineering school at Purdue.

In 2005, Leah Jamieson was chosen to be a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. This was because of her new ideas in combining engineering education with helping communities. In 2007, she was the President and CEO of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is a very important group for engineers.

About Leah Jamieson

Her Early Life and Education

Leah Jamieson was born in 1949 and grew up in New Jersey. She studied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned her first degree in 1972. Later, she went to Princeton University and earned more degrees, including her Ph.D. in 1977.

Her Work as an Engineer and Professor

Since 1976, Professor Jamieson has worked at Purdue University. She studies how computers can understand speech and recognize voices. She also works on parallel processing, which is about making computers do many tasks at the same time. This helps with things like digital speech, image analysis, and signal processing.

She has written many papers and helped edit books about these topics. At Purdue, she held several important roles. She was the head of the Electrical Engineering graduate program and later the Associate Dean of Engineering for undergraduate students. From 2006 to 2017, she was the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering at Purdue. This means she was in charge of the whole engineering school.

Helping Communities with Engineering (EPICS)

What is the EPICS Program?

In 1995, Leah Jamieson and her colleague Edward J. Coyle started a program called Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS). This program lets engineering students use their design skills to help people in their communities. It's a way for students to learn by doing good.

How EPICS Helps Communities

The EPICS program started at Purdue, but now it's available at 18 universities. Students from different engineering fields work together in teams. They partner with non-profit groups in the community. These teams create technology solutions for problems faced by these groups.

For example, at Butler University, an EPICS team created the Spanish In Action project. This is a computer game that helps students learn Spanish words. Another team at Drexel University worked on the Sensor Network Air Pollution Monitoring project. This project helps measure how much pollution is in the air in different neighborhoods.

Awards for EPICS

Because of their great work in starting and running EPICS, Professor Jamieson and her colleagues Edward J. Coyle and William C. Oakes received the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology in 2005.

In 2008, the EPICS program also started EPICS High. This program lets high school students join the engineering design teams. It's a great way for younger students to get involved in engineering and community service.

Leading a Big Engineering Group (IEEE)

What is IEEE?

In 2005, Leah Jamieson was elected to be the 2006 President-elect of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). IEEE is the world's largest group for technical professionals. It focuses on electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, and related fields.

Her Time as IEEE President

Leah Jamieson served as the President and CEO of IEEE in 2007. During her time as president, she worked hard to improve how IEEE plans for the future. She also started a program to make IEEE more visible to the public. Other important things she did included expanding IEEE's programs for engineering education before college. She also reorganized one of IEEE's main boards to better serve its members around the world.