Boeing—the world’s leading aerospace company—selects BCoE aerospace professor for Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellowship Program
March 31, 2008
Boeing—the world’s leading aerospace company—selects aerospace professor for the Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellowship ProgramStarkville, Miss.—Dr. Masoud Rais-Rohani, an aerospace professor at Mississippi State University, is one of ten professors selected from around the world to participate in the Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellowship Program. Since the programs inception in 1995, only 120 faculty members have participated in the program.
“This is a highly selective program and Boeing believes it’s important to make this investment because these professors are educating our future employees,” said Lynn Brown from Boeing University Relations. “We’re giving these selected professors access to our technical and business systems, as appropriate, with the intention of helping them educate students, giving them the skills they will need to be successful in careers, such as engineering, business, manufacturing, and technology.”
Professors will spend the first week of the eight-week program in Seattle, Wash., where they will be introduced to their Boeing mentors, receive an introduction and overview of the company, tour the facilities, and participate in the kick-off festivities.
“Boeing has a variety of facilities located across the United States. Prior to the beginning of the program, the mentor/faculty teams will discuss each professor’s specialty area and their location assignment will be customized to each professor’s objectives and Boeing’s needs,” explained Brown.
The last week of the fellowship program will be spent in St. Louis, Mo., at Boeing’s Leadership Center, where faculty members will give individual and group presentations to Boeing executives and other employees.
“These professors are specialists in what they do. This program gives them the opportunity to share their ideas or insights for improvements within Boeing and share how they will use what they have learned while at Boeing in their classrooms—this opportunity is priceless,” said Brown.
The Welliver Fellowship program not only exposes a small number of competitively, selected professors to key elements of the aerospace world, but it offers them a network of contacts within Boeing.
“I’m going to meet and interact with a number of experienced engineers at Boeing, and I’ll be exposed to ongoing projects, such as the new Boeing 787, which is the first, mostly composite, commercial aircraft,” said Rais-Rohani. “This is going to offer me a view of Boeing that would be impossible to see or understand from the outside. It’s exciting to think I’ll be spending time on the inside getting to see their day-to-day operations and then be able to bring some of those experiences back to the classroom.”
The Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellowship Program is named in honor of the late A.D. “Bert” Welliver, Boeing Corporate senior vice president of engineering and technology. Mr. Welliver was recognized throughout the aerospace industry for his vision and leadership in promoting a close working relationship between industry and academia, and between engineering and manufacturing. He was also dedicated to supporting advances from the world of science and technology for the benefit of aviation and space endeavors.