When John Junge was applying to college as a teenager in Jackson, Michigan, he assumed he would have to go to community college first because of financial constraints. But he won a scholarship to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor instead. After learning about the Dearborn campus's cooperative education program, he transferred so he could earn money in his chosen profession while finishing his studies.

Now he's giving back. Junge, a member of the class of 1964, recently announced a 350,000 gift to establish a scholarship for high school students who want to major in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

 

"Being privileged to attend the University of Michigan is a blessing, and it's a further blessing sometimes to be able to give," Junge said via video at an event honoring him with a Distinguished Alumni Award to recognize his leadership, community service, and personal accomplishments. "So I'm announcing here today the endowment of the Junge Family Scholarship to study industrial engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn."

In recognition of his roots, the Junge Family Scholarship will be directed toward qualifying students from the state of Michigan and from the Jackson area, if applicable. Junge owns All-Star Inc., a San Diego-based company that provides management and operations service to government and military facilities in 18 states and Germany.

The Junge family has previously made other gifts to the university, most notably to the athletics programs. The Junge Family Champions Center in Ann Arbor is named in their honor.

The advisory board meeting of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering department was held on November 14, 2008. Eleven faculty and five advisory board members attended the meeting. Following a brief welcome note from the Dean Sengupta, the meeting activities commenced with a tour of Vehicle Ergonomics Laboratory. Drs. Bhise and Rodrick demonstrated three on-going projects during the tour. Both advisory board and faculty members provided their comments and suggestions on the current human factors and ergonomics research.

Following the tour, the attendees convened in PEC 1410. Acting chair Dr. Orady talked about the department that included history, mission and objectives, enrollment, research activities and external funding, new graduate programs, and focus research areas.  Dr. Kridli presented the last academic year's ABET assessment of undergraduate courses. Dr. Bhise presented the findings of a survey on faculty perception of offering undergraduate IE and Manufacturing Engineering programs in distance learning mode. Also, some faculty members made brief presentations on selected externally funded research projects. Meeting concluded with the dinner, during which both faculty and advisory board members exchanged views on faculty research activities and industry-specific potential research areas.

For this event photos click here.

The College of Engineering & Computer Science is now offering offer its Industrial & Systems Engineering graduate program (MSE-ISE) via distance learning technologies.

I&SE courses scheduled for the Fall semester include Human Factors & Ergonomics and Probability & Statistics. Students currently enrolled in the campus-based program are eligible to register for these courses. Prospective students that would like additional information about this or other distance learning programs offered through CECS may contact Susan Guinn at 313-593-4000, by email at sguinn@umich.edu or visit http://dln.engin.umd.umich.edu.