John of IEEE Pikes Peak Section

The IEEE Pikes Peak Section will be starting a new initiative in STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts/Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Mathematics), led by Dr. John Santiago, past IEEE Faculty Advisor of the IEEE Colorado Technical University (CTU) Student Branch (2007-2019), IEEE Pikes Peak Section Chair (Jan 2019 – Feb 2023), IEEE PPS webmaster (2015-Present).

The first monthly meeting will be held on:

Date: 11 Feb 2025

Time: 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Location: Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD)

21^st Century Library, Room B6,

1175 Chapel Hills Dr.

Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Snacks will be provided.  The room can accommodate only a maximum of 16 people, so please register.  Once 16 individuals have signed up, registration will immediately be closed.  There will be other opportunities to attend these meetings and will keep track for those who are unable to attend this meeting.

The end goal of these monthly meetings is to prepare 10 workstations for the ‘What-If’ Festival to be held during September 2025.  Most of the workstations will leverage the past demonstrations created by former students of Dr John Santiago.  The IEEE Pikes Peak Section plans to participate in other STEM/STEAM events when more details are brought forth, including:  Cool Science, Engineering Summit, Space Foundation – Summer of Discovery, Job Fairs and others.

The agenda includes:

•      Demonstrations of Squishy Circuits (making circuits with Play-Doh)

o   Develop STEM/STEAM kits

o   Demonstrate and Brainstorm other ideas/lessons using Squishy Circuits.

•      Description and Demos of Past Student Projects/workstations (tracking scare crows using Arduino, flying drones, simple and handmade motors, solar stem kits, and many others). 
•      Please visit https://r5.ieee.org/stem-demos and https://r5.ieee.org/pikespeak/student-activities a
•      AI applications to increase productivity
•          Develop agenda for future monthly meetings

The initiative attempts to be aligned with IEEE Region 5 priorities/goals, namely:

•         Build the student to Young Professional pipeline
•         Develop leadership among the section and active volunteers
•      Increase engagement with industry

The above goals/priorities are also aligned with the IEEE Pikes Peak Section strategic goals developed during 2020 (https://r5.ieee.org/pikespeak/about-the-section) given as: 

•      Enhance professional skills
•         Increase member engagement
•      Assist improvement in workforce
•        Invest in STEM education

Biography:

Dr. John Santiago served 26 years in the U.S. Air Force as a research and development engineer, as well as an engineering manager, gaining leadership & technical experience in many engineering disciplines, systems & missions: large flexible space structures, communications, electro-optical systems, high-energy lasers, missile seekers, image recognition, information technologies, space, air & missile defense & homeland defense.

He retired again during 2019 from an 18-year career as a full-time professor, including over 4 years at the USAF Academy. John is continuing to work with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a collaboration of 40+ universities & colleges while publishing several papers at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) using the KEEN framework.

The framework combines the technical skill sets & the entrepreneurial mindset, to revolutionize the teaching of engineering.

As a professor of electrical & systems engineering, he taught 40+ courses in engineering, physics & math including 12 graduate courses, authoring 50+ papers, presentations & receiving several educator awards. 

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