RSO Highlight: Tau Beta Pi

October 7, 2010

Tau Beta Pi is the Engineering Honor Society which invites initiates based on academic achievement, according to the Tau Beta Pi website.

The organization is designed to develop communication and leadership skills and provide scholarships, fellowships, networking and career opportunities to distinguished engineering students.

“My favorite thing about Tau Beta Pi is witnessing the power and prestige of our network,” said David Fryauf, current Tau Beta Pi president. “Many successful and influential engineers both in professional fields and in academia are members of Tau Beta Pi, and they always recognize the achievement and commitment it takes to become a member of this organization.”

TBP is the only society representing the entire engineering profession and was founded in 1885 by Edward H. Williams Jr. The University of Arkansas chapter began December 14, 1914.

Membership requires having earned a distinguished scholarship, academic rank in the top 1/8 of the junior engineering class or the top 1/5 of the senior engineering class and having exemplary characteristics of integrity, adaptability, breadth of interests and a record of unselfish service, according to Tau Beta Pi posters.

To become an official member and participate in the initiation ceremony on November 18, “initiates must participate in the required service events and one social event, make a plaque, collect student and faculty member signatures, and thoroughly learn the history and details of Tau Beta Pi,” Fryauf said.

Tau Beta Pi has three required service events each semester, which is followed later in the semester by social events and other, optional service events.

The first service event this semester is a coordinated creek cleanup, which involves choosing a local creek or river and picking up trash.

“We also pick up trash in our highway pickup along Exit 62 off of I-540,” Fryauf said. This year’s trash pickup is October 19.

The third, required service event is the annual fall Tau Beta Pi canned food drive, Let’s Can Hunger, which takes place October 25-29. All collected food will be donated to the local NWA foodbank, to help feed families in need in the region.

“There are two parts to our canned food drive: the neighborhood door-to-door food drive, and the inter-departmental food drive competition that the engineering departments compete in,” he said. “The recipient of our donated food changes from year to year, and this year we are partnering with Students of Free Enterprise (SIFE) and Campbell Soup Company.”

In addition to the service events, President Fryauf plans to add several social events to the TBP calendar, including a few pizza-and-ice cream dinners and a baseball game tailgate party.

The end of the spring semester brings the traditional Spring Banquet, which includes all active members, new initiates, and family members, to recognize the individual member accomplishments.

Tau Beta Pi Officers for the 2010-2011 school year are equally divided between juniors and seniors, but the majority of the officers have been members for at least one semester.

President Fryauf, Vice President Thomas Rembert and Treasurer L. Patrick Doyle are electrical engineering majors.

Recording Secretary Rachel Townsley and Program Chair Natassia Taylor are industrial engineering majors.

Corresponding Secretary Stanislav Boboyvch and Service Chair Andrew Tackett are Computer Engineering majors and Initiate Trainer Kristin Gangluff is a Mechanical Engineering major.

In addition to the typical officers of an organization (pres., v.p., secretary), Tau Beta Pi has an Initiate Trainer, to help new members get started on TBP activities. “The initiate trainer is responsible for all communication and assistance given to the students who have chosen to become members of Tau Beta Pi,” Fryauf said.

This is no simple task for an organization with a distinguished membership and a hefty list of requirements for initiation.

Not only is the Initiate Trainer responsibility to account for the member requirements (participation in service events, social events, member plaques, signatures), she also offers assistance to the initiates if they need help.

Tau Beta Pi Chief Adviser is Dr. Alan Mantooth of the Electrical Engineering department. He earned his electrical engineering bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Arkansas, then secured his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology . Mantooth provides strong leadership, with much experience in device modeling, published articles and multiple patents on software architecture and algorithms for modeling tools, in addition to titles of 1996 Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Analogy, 1999 Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Electrical Engineering Faculty Award and the Arkansas Academy of Electrical Engineers Outstanding Faculty Award 1999-2000, Outstanding Teacher in Electrical Engineering in 2000-2001.

Even still, Mantooth is not alone in guiding Tau Beta Pi. There are an additional four official advisers of TBP. TBP members are chosen for distinguished qualities and at the University of Arkansas, the membership has seen a steep rise.

“For the past several years, our active student membership has been around 70,” Fryauf said. “We are always striving to increase this number, and we have an initiation class of 37 this semester, which is the highest we have seen in years."