The efforts of the Materials Engineering Department (MATE) to incorporate service learning into the curriculum have netted a President's Service Award.

The President's Service Award recognizes students, faculty and staff for their contributions to the quality of life in San Luis Obispo and spirit of civic involvement. Professors Kathy Chen, Linda Vanasupa, Will Hughes, Trevor Harding, and Rich Savage received the award at the 22nd Annual President's Community Service Awards on May 15.

In presenting the award, Cal Poly President Warren Baker said, "Collectively, [these faculty members] have transformed their department by integrating service-learning and project-based learning in half the courses that the department offers, setting a new standard for a ‘service-learning-engaged department.'"

Spurred by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation Grant, in 2005 MATE developed and adopted a revamped curriculum that recognizes the need for engineers to serve as agents of change. The broad goals of the department were to "effect a greater awareness of engineers' professional responsibility to apply their knowledge to benefit society," and to "create a greater level of awareness of global challenges and design constraints that include ethical, social, political, health and safety, environmental, sustainability and manufacturing issues."

In studying the outcomes of its service learning emphasis, MATE has found that "students who had the new curriculum demonstrated a greater awareness of global challenges and a greater sophistication in their understanding of how the work of an engineer contributes to society."

"Just as important," says Dr. Kathy Chen, department chair, "service learning gets both freshmen and upperclassmen excited about the field of engineering."