8/29/2025

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to take a moment to share some unfortunate news regarding the upcoming ASEE North Midwest Section Conference.  At yesterday’s section officers meeting, we made the difficult decision to cancel the October conference.

This decision was not taken lightly.  Our primary goal has always been to ensure that your time at the conference is both productive and valuable, providing meaningful opportunities to present your work, engage with colleagues, and foster professional growth.  We also recognize the importance of using your limited institutional funds wisely, especially given the financial constraints many engineering programs are currently facing.

To meet these goals, a critical mass of quality presentations and attendees is essential.  While the quality of submitted work has been commendable, we’ve seen a significant number of paper withdrawals, both in the full paper category and the work in progress category, since approving abstracts earlier this summer.  This has left us without enough content to justify the travel and logistical expenses for many participants and raised concerns about the overall financial viability of continuing event planning.

After careful consideration—balancing your needs for publication, networking, and professional advancement—the board concluded that the best course of action is to cancel this fall’s conference.

Looking ahead, the section board will continue to evaluate future options for the conference.  No decisions have been made yet regarding upcoming events.

For those of you who submitted papers currently under review, I will be returning reviewer comments to help you strengthen your work for submission to other conferences or workshops, including the ASEE annual conference which will be held next summer in Charlotte.

Thank you again for your interest and support of the ASEE North Midwest Section Conference.

Warm regards,

Walt Schilling

Local Conference Chair