Transformative leadership

Professor Charalambides served two consecutive terms as the Department Chair during the 2002-2008 period. The list of accomplishments below provides a “small window” into Professor Charalambides’ leadership as the Department Chair.

Accomplishments while Department Chair

• Increased undergraduate enrollments from about 200 majors in 2002 to 515 during fall 2008.
• Increased graduate enrollments from approximately 50 in 2002 to over 80 during fall 2008.
• Secured critical enrollment pressure university funds that led to the hiring of two full time lecturers.
• Increased research funding expenditures from approximately $500,000 in 2002 to over $4,000,000 during AY 2006, 07 & 08. Expenditures include STEM grant activities.
• Secured over 10 graduate fellowships (GAANN, TEPP, LSAMP, Meyerhoff, NSF)
• Diversified faculty by recruiting 3 women on tenure track faculty positions. Recognized by the UMBC ADVANCE program through the 2004 ADVANCE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.
• Expanded the undergraduate course offerings from 42 to close to 60. Renovated curriculum by introducing design realization through 3D RP printing. Introduced Industry sponsored capstone design projects in the ENME444, ENME471, ENME489L and ENME489S courses. Team projects have been supported by Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, BP Solar and Pratt and Whitney corporations.
• Supported extracurricular students projects such as the SAE Mini Baja and ASME sponsored Solar splash
• Organized bi-annual research poster competition events in Mechanical Engineering.
• Helped transform the departmental culture to more research oriented while maintaining commitment to undergraduates.
• Received full ABET 2000 accreditation during the on-campus 2005 visit.
• Invited to give a talk on “How to Transform a Department.” at the 2007 ASME Department Heads Educational Conference held in Dorado, Puerto Rico. (See accompanied Power-point presentation.)
• Spearheaded the delivery over the last two years of our Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program at the Shady Grove campus.
• Exercised critical leadership in bringing the Project Lead The Way initiative to Mechanical Engineering at UMBC. Through this initiative, over 100 high school teachers receive summer training at UMBC preparing them to deliver a series of four to five pre-engineering courses in high schools each year.
• Received three NSF CAREER awards, one NIH R01 award, one NSF STEM grant, multiple single PI and other collaborative awards, one NSF MRI grant, and acquired a major SEM microscope.
• Developed new tenure and promotion guidelines for tenure track faculty in Engineering Education.

Former Dean of The College of Engineering and Information Technology (COE&IT), Professor Shlomo Carmi sates;

“As Chair, Panos was methodical and analytical in his method of evaluating the contributions and success of his faculty, staff and the department overall. In his evaluation of his faculty and staff, and in deriving annual salary increases, Panos employed a rather refined merit index scheme agreed upon by the faculty. The evaluation scheme involved 17 parameters of performance in the areas of teaching, research and service. Performance parameters such as the number of courses taught, quality of teaching as measured through student evaluations, M.S. and Ph.D. students advised and graduated, number journal papers, funding expenditures, proposals submitted, committee service and administration and service to the profession were included in this evaluation method.

I believe by the end of his second year term, Panos had compiled 8 to 9 years of merit data. In fact, Panos used this data to assess the overall contributions and growth of his department by integrating the data within the teaching, research and service categories. Remarkably, the effects of his transformative leadership are clearly captured by the overall departmental merit data plotted by category over the period of 9 years encompassing Panos' chairmanship. His leadership and transformation of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UMBC was recognized nationally. To that effect, Panos gave an invited talk on Transforming Mechanical Engineering Departments, during the 2007-Mechanical Engineering Department Heads Educational conference held in Puerto-Rico. “

Former Department Chair, Professor Christian von Kerczek states;

“During his chairmanship, the Mechanical Engineering Department at UMBC experienced impressive growth. For example, the undergraduate enrollment increased from approximately 200 in 2002 to over 500 during Fall 2008. Similarly the graduate enrollments increased from approximately 45 to over 85 during Fall 2008 while the department's overall funding expenditures increased from approximately $0.6 million in 2002 to over $4.5 million in 2008. During this impressive growth period, the department introduced new and exciting technologies into the undergraduate curriculum such 3D solid modeling and rapid prototyping while also providing industry sponsored capstone design experiences to our graduating seniors. The department received a full 6 year ABET accreditation following a related review during Fall 2005. Panos' leadership was also critical in recognizing the importance of scholarship in Engineering Education by recruiting tenured track faculty members in this area. He also demonstrated his commitment to the advancement of diversity and women faculty by recruiting 3 tenure track women faculty (one African American) during his tenured as a Chair. His efforts in the above areas have in fact been recognized by the UMBC community by receiving the UMBC NSBE Faculty of the Year award (2008) and the UMBC ADVANCE Achievement award for outstanding success in recruiting and advancing women faculty (2004).”

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