The Robert A. Hoffer Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology

Fellow of the Polytechnic Institute Transdisciplinary Studies in Technology Degree

Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education

Robert J. Herrick is Purdue University’s Robert A. Hoffer Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology. He served as the Department Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Department at Purdue University 2001-2010 and its Assistant Department Head in the 1990s. Formerly he has served as the Engineering Technology Department Chair and EET Program Leader at the University of Toledo in the 1980s. He held the positions of Senior Member of Technical Staff at International Telephone and Telegraph’s Advanced International Technology Laboratory, and as Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories in the 1970s developing the early generations of digital electronics switching systems.

He is currently leading the Purdue Polytechnic Institute’s Assessment and Accreditation Team in developing and utilizing learning outcome rubrics, integrating online assessment tracking and continuous improvement documentation through the Purdue TracDat computerized assessment application system.

He has held leadership roles on the following executive boards: Tau Alpha Pi (president); ETLI (chair, secretary); ETD (treasurer); ETC standing committee chair of the ET National Forum (co-founder); IEEE Press Editorial Board (Editor-in Chief, Electronics Technology Series Editor); FIE Steering Committee (chair); North Central and Illinois-Indiana Section conferences (program co-chair, proceedings co-editor); and Purdue’s Teaching Academy (charter executive board member). He serves as a TAC of ABET program evaluator for IEEE and has served as an ASEE campus representative at Purdue University and the University of Toledo.

He has been recognized with national, regional, university, college, and department awards for outstanding teaching and professional service, including: Fellow of ASEE for unusual professional distinction and is conferred upon an ASEE member with outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in engineering or engineering technology education or allied field, who has made appropriate and important individual contributions; ASEE’s McGraw Award for outstanding service in engineering technology education; ASEE’s Fredrick J. Berger Award for recognizing and encouraging both programmatic and individual excellence in engineering technology education; Purdue’s life-time Murphy Teaching Award for outstanding undergraduate teaching; induction into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers (an honor reserved for only 267 faculty in the history of Purdue University at the time of his induction); Purdue Teaching Academy Fellow and Executive Board (charter member); the Ronald Schmitz Award for Outstanding Service to FIE; the ASEE IL-IN Outstanding Campus Representative; the ASEE Hewlett Packard Award for Excellence in Laboratory Instruction; the ASEE IL-IN Outstanding Teaching Award; Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, in America, in Engineering and Science, and in Education.

He has been an active advocate for outstanding teaching and education through his leadership in ASEE, IEEE, and FIE; The Art and Technology of Teaching workshops at invited inter/national conferences educational institutions, authored educational publications including the textbook DC/AC Circuits and Electronics: Principles and Practice, and is now engaged in eTextbook development/publication, an enriched active classroom environment, online problem-solving learning, and student learning outcome assessment.

He has received two major grants from the US Department of Education totaling $600,000 for undergraduate semester exchange with Ireland and Germany, and Dual Concurrent Masters program with Ireland and Germany involving a total of 96 students.