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Fong K. Mak

  • Professor
    Electrical & Cyber Engineering
  • Professor, Cybersecurity
    Cybersecurity

Received BS in Electrical Engineering from West Virginia University in 1983.  Worked in Singapore as a Design Engineer before coming back to United States to obtain Master and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and 1990, respectively.  Joined Gannon University in 1990 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  Became an Associate Professor in May 1996 and Full Professor in May 2009. Appointed as an Acting Chair from 2000 - 2001. Successfully led the Electrical and Computer Engineering department through the ABET accreditation with flying colors in 2005 and 2011, respectively. Served as Co-Chair for the Gannon's Middle-States Self-Study committee from 2010 till 2013. The committee has 105 members that include board members, administrators, faculty, staff and students. Led the committee through a two-year preparation effort in writing the self-study report that resulted in Gannon receive its most successful accreditation record in 2013.

With his extensive knowledge and experience in outcomes assessment, he founded MAKTEAM Software; and created EvalTools®, the most comprehensive online assessment tool that covers learning management, outcomes assessment, continuous improvement management, survey and institutional-wide self-study.  In addition, he worked with K12 schools to create AdamTools® for K12 school districts to manage their student information from admissions to graduation as well as special education to handle Intervention Assistant Team (IAT), Multi-Factor Evaluation (MFE) and Individual Education Program (IEP).  His most recent work is the creation of a School Management System based on 7-Pillar principles that allows a district to analyze effectively its management and academic achievement performance.  The 7-Pillar School Management System is currently being used in 18 school districts in Ohio.
  • Professional Engineer, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1992 - present
  • Wrote self-study and Led successful accreditations for Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Gannon University in 2005, 2011, and 2017. 
  • Led successful accreditation for Middle State Self-Study for Gannon University in 2013. 
  • Who’s Who Among Americans Teacher’s, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
  • “EEDP Instructor 2004-2005”, awarded by GE Transportation EEDP, 2005.
  • “Objective Evidence of Outcomes Achievement Award,” awarded by Gannon University, 2009.
  • “2010 Minority Achievers”, Talk Magazine’s 36th Salute to Minority Achievers, 2010.
Ungraduate Courses:
  • Introduction to Engineering (ENG101)
  • Engineering Tools and Applications/Lab (ECE105/ECE106)
  • Digital Logic Design/Lab  (ECE140/ECE141)
  • Circuits 1/Lab (ECE228/ECE329)
  • Circuits 2/Lab (ECE240/ECE241)
  • Test and Measurement (ECE243)
  • Electric Machines/Lab (ECE324/ECE325)
  • Electromagnetism.(ECE335)
  • Electric Drives (ECE327)
  • Electric Drives Lab (ECE328) 
  • Power Electronics (ECE465) 
  • ECE 357 and ECE 358 Senior Design (ECE357/ECE358)
  • Power Experience (ECE381)
  • Modeling and Analysis of Electric Drives (ECE466)
  • Control of Electric Machine (ECE327)
  • Modern Control Theory (ECE488)
  • Digital Control (EC489)

Graduate Courses:

  • Introduction to Electric Drives (GECE527)
  • Modern Control Theory(GECE528)
  • Digital Control (GECE529)
  • Power Electronics (GECE565)
  • Modeling and Analysis of Electric Drives (GECE566)
  • Control of AC Drives (GECE673)
  • Modeling and Simulation of Dynamic Systems (GENG648)
  • University of Illinois, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.  May 1986   January 1990. GPA: 5.0/5.0 Thesis title: Analysis and Control of Voltage Dynamics in Electric Power Systems.
  • University of Illinois, M.S. in Electrical  Engineering.  January 1985   May 1986.  GPA: 4.9/5.0 Thesis title: Instantaneous Torque Control of Switched Reluctance Motors Using Floquet Theory.
  • West Virginia University, B.S.E.E. (Summa Cum Laude) in Electrical Engineering. 1980 1983.  E.E. GPA: 3.9/4.0; Overall GPA: 3.8/4.0. Senior design project was to design a microprocessor based test set that can continuously monitor the performance of protective devices for power centers.
  • Nuclear Institute, Malaysia. Received Full Technological Certificate in Telecommunication and Computers from the City and Guilds of London Institute.
Academic Experience:
  • Interim Program Director, Cyber Enginereing and Cybersecurity Programs, Gannon University, 2018-present
  • Co-Chair, Middle States Self-Study Committee, 2011 - 2013.
  • Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer (ECE) Engineering, Gannon University. July 2001 – December 2014.
  • Program Director, GU/GE Transportation Embedded Software Graduate Program, Gannon University, Sep 2001 - December 2014
  • Acting Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University. July 2000 – June 2001.
  • Full Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University, July 2009 - present
  • Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University. May 1996 – June 2009.
  • Assistance Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Gannon University. August 1990 – April 1996.
  • Professional Engineer, Commonweath of Pennsylvania, 1992 - present.

Industrial Experience:

  • Mentoring Faculty, General Electric Transportation System, Erie, Pennsylvania. This is a work-study program that Gannon participates with General Electric Company.  In this program, the student is enrolled full-time at Gannon (9 credits per semester).  The student also works on industrial projects under the direction of a Gannon professor for 20 hours per week during the semester and 50 hours per week during summers.   These projects are located at the local General Electric Company where the student is a student intern and receives a stipend from the company ($25,000 per year).  As a mentor, the task is to train students in three components: technical skills, communication skills and leadership skills. At its peak, there were 20 students in this program. November 1993 – present.
  • Consulting Engineer, General Electric Transportation System, Erie, Pennsylvania. Consulted on projects and helped build real-time simulators for aid in design and development of control schemes for the GE locomotives. Projects involved the development of dynamic models such as auxiliary alternator, traction alternator, traction motor, full-wave rectifier, dc link, inverter, induction motor, equipment blowers, cranking scheme, shorted-diode model, shoot-thru model, cycle skipper, etc. for locomotive design and analysis. Duties involve providing consultation to other engineers as needs arise. November 1993 - present.
  • Consultant to a project done at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, on software implementation of a nonlinear excitation control scheme to electric power systems.  January 1991   January 1992.
  • Design Engineer, TRIO TECH International Ptd.  Ltd., Singapore.  Designed Z80 based controlled clock generator for a burn in system.  Supervised and completed the initial assembly process of a power-supply sequencer and a bias power control for the dynamic burn in system. March 1984   December 1984.
  • Research Aide, Physics Department, West Virginia University.  Under contract with U.S. Department of Energy in Morgantown, wrote and executed FORTRAN and PLOT10 computer program modules to predict coal surface segregation. May 1982   October 1982 and June 1981  January 1982.
  • Electronics Technician, Singapore Electronics and Engineering Ptd. Ltd.. Calibrated and repaired a wide variety of electronic instruments. November 1979   July 1980.
  • Faculty Advisor, Iota Nu Chapter, Eta Kappa Nu, National Electrical Engineering Honor Society.  1996-2000.
  • Member, National Golden Key Honor Society.
  • Member, Phi Kappa Phi, National Engineering Honor Society
  • Member, Tau Beta Pi, National Engineering Honor Society
  • Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Member, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • Fong Mak, Ram Sundaram, “Teaching of design of experiment to the first year electrical engineering students,” ASEE 123rd Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, LA, June 26-29, 2016.
  • Wajid Hussain, Fong Mak, Mohammad Addas, “Engineering program evaluations based on automated measurement of performance indicators data classified into cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning domains of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy,” ASEE 123rd Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, LA, June 26-29, 2016.
  • Fong Mak, Ram Sundaram, “Integrated FCAR model with traditional rubric-based model to enhance automation of student outcomes evaluation process,” ASEE 123rd Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, LA, June 26-29, 2016.
  • Lin Zhao, Fong Mak, “Flip the tradition way of teaching on electric drives laboratory with design of experiment,” Frontiers in Education 2016, Erie, PA, October 12-15, 2016
  • Wajid Hussain, Fong Mak, “Quality improvement with automated engineering program evaluations using performance indicators based on Bloom’s domains,” Frontiers in Education 2016, Erie, PA, October 12-15, 2016
  • Yong-Kyu Jung, Fong Mak, Fnu Qinggele, Idrees Alzahid, “WEX-HIL: Design of a wireless extensible hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulator for electric vehicle application,” Frontiers in Education 2016, Erie, PA, October 12-15, 2016
  • Q.Zheng, P.Lin, F. Mak, R. Sundaram, and L. Zhao, “Work in progress: curriculum integration for the ECE undergraduate core courses in electronics,”  Processing of the 43rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, pp. 1115-1117, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, October 23-26, 2013.
  • Estell J., Mak,F, Morrison, B., John-David, Y. “Improving upon best practices: FCAR 2.0” 120th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, June 23-26, 2013, Atlanta.
  • Eltayeb, M., Mak,F, & Soysal, O. “Work in Progress: Engaging Faculty for Program Improvement via EvalTools ®: a New Software Model.” 2012 Frontiers in Education Conference, October 2012, Seattle, Washington
  • Qing Zheng, Ramakrishnan Sundaram, Fong K. Mak, “Work In Progress: Design and Delivery of the Graduate Course on Electronic Systems Integration” In Proceedings of 41th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, October 12-15, 2011, Rapid City, SD.
  • Zhao, Lin. and Mak, F.K., “Building learning bridges among undergraduate courses of electronics, power electronics and electric drives lab” Proceeding of Frontiers in Education Conference, October 27-30, 2010, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Mak, F.K. and Kelly, J., “Systematic means for identifying and justifying key assignments for effective rules-based program evaluation” Proceeding of Frontiers in Education Conference, October 27-30, 2010, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Lee, W. and Mak, F.K., “Work in progress – exploiting high-altitude ballooning as a framework of ECE senior design projects” Proceeding of Frontiers in Education Conference, October 27-30, 2010, Arlington, Virginia.
  • Fong Mak, Ram Sundaram, and Sunil Tandle, “Laboratory setup for real-time study of electric drives with integrated interfaces for test and measurement,” in the Proceedings of the Frontiers in Engineering Education Conference, Saratoga Springs, New York, October 22-25, 2008.
  • Fong Mak and Ram Sundaram, “A Matlab-based teaching of the two-stub Smith chart application for electromagnetic class,” in the Proceedings of the Frontiers in Engineering Education Conference, Saratoga Springs, New York, October 22-25, 2008.
  • Ram Sundaram, Fong Mak, and Sunil Tandle, “Virtual instrumentation interfaces for real-time control and display of electrical machine drives,” in Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference & Exposition, June 22-25, Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Wookwon Lee and Fong K. Mak, “A case study: a new course on engineering project and management for first year graduate students in electrical and computer engineering,” in Proceedings of the 2008 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference & Exposition, June 22-25, Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Fong K. Mak and Stephen T. Frezza, “Collection, Maintenance, and Validation of a Set of Effective Objective Evidence,” in Proceedings of the 2006 International Symposium on Engineering Education (ISEE) Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico,  July 23-28 2006. (peer-reviewed)
  • Fong K. Mak and Stephen T. Frezza, “Using student learning outcomes assessment to assure EC2000 program effectiveness,” second acceptance and published in Proceedings of the ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education, 2005, Star City, Sydney, 26-29 September 2005.
  • Fong K. Mak and Stephen T. Frezza, “Using student learning outcomes assessment to assure EC2000 program effectiveness,” in Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon, June 2005. (peer-reviewed)
  • Fong K. Mak, “Streamlining ABET EC2000 Preparation Using an online Assessment Tool,” Best Assessment Processes VII Symposium, Terre Haute, Indiana, April 2005.
  • Fong K. Mak and Stephen T. Frezza, “A web-based outcome assessment tool: EvalTools,” in Proceeding of the Fourth IASTED International Conference on Web-Based Education (WBE 2005), Grindelwald, Switzerland, February 21-23, 2005. (peer reviewed)
  • Fong K. Mak and Stephen T. Frezza, “Process to Identify Minimum Passing Criteria and Objective Evidence In Support of ABET EC2000 Criteria Fulfillment,” in Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City, UT, June 2004. Nominated for best paper. (peer-reviewed)
  • Fong K. Mak, Wook-Sung Yoo, and Stephen T. Frezza, “Enhancing ABET EC2000 Preparation using a web-based survey/reporting tool”, in the Proceedings of the Frontiers in Engineering Education Conference (FIE'03), Boulder, CO, November 2003. (peer-reviewed)
  • Fong K. Mak, Wook-Sung Yoo, and Stephen T. Frezza, “Web-based Course-exit Survey for ABET EC2000”, in Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Nashville TN, June 2003. (peer-reviewed)
  • Mak, F., Frezza, S., Yoo, W.S., “Web-based course-exit survey for ABET EC2000,” ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Nashville, TN, June 2003.
  • Mak, F, Yoo, W.S., Frezza, S., “Enhancing ABET EC2000 preparation using a web-based survey/reporting tool,” ASEE/IEEE 33rd Frontiers in Education Conference, Boulder, Co, November 2003.
  • Fong Mak, “DC locomotive real-time simulator,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, June, 1998
  • Fong Mak, “Khazakstan locomotive system model,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, February 19, 1997.
  • Fong Mak, “Tertiary-winding alternator model,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, July 7, 1996
  • Fong Mak and Robert Fuda, “Simplified induction motor model,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, March 1, 1996
  • Fong Mak, “Three-winding alternator model,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, November 3, 1995.
  • Robert Fuda and Fong Mak, “Cranker model,” Internal company document of General Electric Transportation System, Erie, June 13, 1995
  • Fong K. Mak, "AC/DC/AC converter drives simulation using SIMNON," In¬ternational Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems (PEDS'95), Singapore, February 21-24, 1995.
  • Fong K. Mak, Marija D. Illic, "Classification of voltage problems in electric power systems," International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, The International Journal for Power Systems Computation, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd. Volume 15, Number 6, 1993. pp. 337 - 385.
  • Fong K. Mak, "Development of undergraduate power electronics laboratory,''  American Society for Engineering Education, University of Illinois at Ur¬bana  Champaign,  Illinois, June 1993.
  • Fong K. Mak, "Design of a nonlinear generator exciter using differential geometric theories,'' Proceedings  of the 31st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 1992. pp. 1149 1153.
  • Kenneth G. Black, Fong K. Mak, Electric Machinery Laboratory Manual, Version 5.0. Department of Electrical Engineering,  Gannon University. January   1992.  133 pages, Copyrighted 1992.
  • William D. Gregory, Fong K. Mak, et. al., "Sorting plastic  containers for recycling using frequency dependent  dielectric constant measurements,'' First year  report to the Plastics Recycling Foundation, United States, August 26, 1991. 184 pages, Copyrighted 1991.
  • Fong K. Mak, "Analysis and control of voltage dynamics in electric power systems,'' Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at  Urbana Champaign, 1990.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "Voltage dynamics of electric power systems in their closed loop operation,'' Proceedings of the 1990 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "A two level control coordination in interconnected power systems,'' Proceedings of the 29th IEEE  on Decision and Control, 1990.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "A new class of fast nonlinear voltage controllers and their impact on improved transmission capacity,'' Proceedings of the 1989 American Control  Conference, vol. 2, pp. 1246 51, 1989.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "Mid range voltage dynamics in electric power systems,'' Proceedings of the 1989 International Symposium  on Circuits and systems, 1989, pp. 1988 91.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "Mid range voltage dynamics modeling with the load controls present,'' Proceedings of the 26th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control}, Los Angeles, CA, December 1987, vol. 1, pp. 45 52.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "Mid range voltage instability studies of power systems subject to large disturbances,'' DOE project report, DE-AC01 84CE76249.
  • Marija Ilic, Fong K. Mak, "Nonlinear torque control of electric motor drives: part II,'' Proceedings of the IEE PESC'86, June 1986.
  • Fong K. Mak, "Instantaneous torque control of switched reluctance motors using Floquet theory,'' M.S. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, May 1986.
  • Search Chair, Cybersecurity Faculty Search Committee, 2019
  • ECE Faculty Search Committee, 2019 
  • Dean Search Committees, 2003, 2006, and 2008  
  • Graduate council meeting, 2001 – 2014
  • Program Director to Gannon/GE Transportation Embedded Software Graduate Program (ESGP), 2001-2014
  • Executive Advisory Board Member, Erie Technology Incubator (ETI), 2008 - 2011
  • Executive Advisory Board Member, CentralTECH (Erie City Career and Technical School), 2008 - present.
  • Occupational Advisory Board Member, Electrical Program, Erie County Technical School, 2009 – present.
  • Board Member, Engineering Advisory Board, Frostburg States University, 2011 – present.

Previously Served Committees:

  • Faculty Research Committee
  • Faculty Senate
  • College Level Rank and Tenure Committee
  • Graduate Dean Search Committee
  • Provost Search Committee
  • Graduate Advisory Council
  • Engineering Advisory Council
  • Chair, Faculty and Industry Relations Subcommittee
  • University Review Council
  • Organization, Admin & Governance Working Group, Middle States Steering Committee
Fong K. Mak

+1 8148717625
Office: IHK 210

Contact Fong Mak