News

By John D. McDonald
Founder/CEO, JDM Associates, LLC, Duluth, GA, USA
IEEE Foundation Director & VP Development
IEEE Life Fellow, Member National Academy of Engineering, CIGRE Honorary Member

A noteworthy event recently touched my personal and professional life and, because it also illuminated the lives of electrical engineering students and their support network, I’d like to share my experience.

In September 2024, I was honored to participate in the dedication of the new IEEE-HKN Beta Chapter Lounge at my alma mater, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. (I earned my BSEE at Purdue in 1973 and my MSEE in 1974.)  As you’re probably aware, the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN) Honor Society recognizes EE students of exceptional academic merit, character, and attitude and provides them with a community of their peers that, in turn, is supported by a network of professors, mentors, and donors wherever IEEE-HKN chapters are established.

Currently boasting 280 chapters worldwide, what’s since evolved into the IEEE-HKN Honor Society got its start in 1904 at the University of Illinois (the Alpha Chapter) as a way to help EE graduates find employment and gain footholds in their careers. Purdue’s Beta Chapter was chartered two years later in 1906.

I arrived at Purdue as a freshman in 1969 and plunged into honors courses. The HKN Lounge had been established the prior year by enterprising HKN members who voluntarily staffed Basement Room 24 in Purdue’s EE Building to sell snacks and coffee. (“The cheapest coffee on campus,” then and now.) Naturally, this offer attracted a broad swath of Purdue students from all academic majors, but it especially offered a physical community space for EE students such as myself and my cohorts. 

I was always intrigued by the energy and industry exhibited by the students who ran the HKN Lounge, and I made it a point to stop in when I could.  My academic advisor, Professor Ahmed H. El-Abiad (co-author of Computer Methods in Power System Analysis, which revolutionized our industry), recommended that I join IEEE in 1971, which I did. That same year, my academic record qualified me for HKN membership, which boosted my confidence tremendously and represented the start of my more than half-century of HKN membership – and still counting. 

Though I didn’t fully participate in HKN-related activities until well into my professional career, I ultimately recognized the need to give back to the institutions that enabled my success and became a mentor, which has provided great personal and professional satisfaction. (I expound on this topic in “The Mentor and the Mentee: A Little Philosophy, Lots of Practical Advice” on the IEEE USA Insight website).   

In 2009, Purdue recognized me as an “outstanding electrical engineer,” and my connection with Purdue and its HKN Honors Society chapter grew. I was subsequently asked to teach seminars in professional and career development and executive leadership to EE undergraduate and graduate students. A few years later, after IEEE and HKN merged, IEEE-HKN Director Nancy Ostin asked me to meet with IEEE-HKN Beta Chapter student leaders at Purdue and play a role in IEEE-HKN workshops, which has enriched my life.

More recently, the EE Building underwent a renovation, and the IEEE-HKN Lounge was moved to a first-floor, sunlit space—a definite promotion from its subterranean past. Purdue’s IEEE-HKN Beta Chapter student president, Jack Blowers, and his student team made it their priority to establish the new lounge and organize its dedication ceremony, and I was honored to be asked to participate in that dedication.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Blowers and his fellow student chapter officers as well as with EE professor Milind Kulkarni, Ph.D., who serves as the Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Professor of  Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Steven D. Pekarek, Ph.D., the Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer III Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Purdue and the Beta Chapter Faculty Advisor.

I was so impressed by the number of students and faculty who made the effort not only to participate in the lounge’s dedication but also to genuinely share in the celebratory atmosphere. The dedication of the new IEEE-HKN Lounge also coincided with the original HKN Honor Society’s 120^th Anniversary, a historic milestone that was celebrated with a custom logoed sheet cake, for which I served as the official—and proud—cake cutter.

Purdue’s new HKN lounge was made possible through a generous legacy gift from Purdue alumnus Don Heirman, a Forever Generous  IEEE Goldsmith Legacy League member who passed in 2020. The IEEE Foundation serves as a vehicle for supporting all things IEEE, which includes the worldwide network of IEEE-HKN chapters, scholarships, and more. Thanks to the unforgettable experience I had at Purdue in September 2024 and the invaluable contributions made by generous and visionary donors, it’s clear that the future of electrical engineering education is up to all of us. An investment in the Foundation is an investment in our shared future.  

Photo Caption: John McDonald, second from left, prepares to cut a celebratory cake at the Purdue HKN Lounge dedication in mid-September 2024. From left to right: Faculty advisor Niraj Menon, McDonald, Jack Blowers, student president of the IEEE-HKN Beta Chapter, and Professor Steven D. Pekarek, faculty advisor of the IEEE-HKN Beta Chapter.