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Hartley, Dr. Tom T. Endowed Fund

The Dr. Tom T. Hartley Endowed Fund was established in 2018 to honor Dr. Hartley’s

30-year teaching career as a University of Akron professor.  The Dr. Tom T. Hartley Endowed Fund will honor his passion as a professor, which inspired countless students to follow their own career dreams.

University of Akron alumni Ming Zhang, M.S in electrical engineering 1989, M.S. in mechanical engineering 1993; and Dr. Cindy Jiang, M. S. in electrical engineering 1988, Ph.D., in electrical engineering in 2013, established this fund with a gift through Interactive Engineering Corp.  Currently, Ming serves as president and Cindy as vice president.  Both had classes with Dr. Hartley, who also worked as an advisor with Jiang as she pursued her Ph.D.

Dr. Hartley earned a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and a B.A. degree in physics from Ohio Northern University in 1980.  He attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, earning an M.S. degree in physics in 1982 and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1984.

Dr. Hartley joined The °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a professor in 1984 and retired in 2014 after a fulfilling career, during which his focus on experiential learning impacted both students and faculty.

A recognized expert in fractional-order systems and with colleagues at NASA Glenn Research Center, Dr. Hartley solved fundamental problems in this area.  He has extensive experience in battery dynamics, modeling, and management.  During Dr. Hartley’s energy-related work with NASA Glenn Research Center, he was involved in International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and Constellation battery research.  He also served on a NASA Tiger Team studying the International Space Station batteries after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia.

Dr. Hartley began teaching the freshman Electrical and Computer Engineering Tools class in the fall of 2005, and reorganized it to incorporate more than 20 hands-on lab sessions.  He also advised the departmental undergraduate robotics and electric vehicle competition teams, including ASCE Construction in Harsh Environments, National Robotics Challenge, ChallengeX, Trinity College Firefighting Robot Competition, RoboGames, Automotive X-Prize, NASA Lunabotics, NASA Moon Work and the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition.  He received the College of Engineering Louis Hill Award in 1990, was chosen as the College of Engineering Outstanding Teacher in 2004, and Outstanding Researcher in 2010.  He received The University of Akron Outstanding Mentor of First Year Students Award in 2014.

The Dr. Tom T. Hartley Endowed Fund provides scholarships that are applied directly to student accounts to cover expenses such as tuition and fees.

Scholarship consideration will be given to full-time undergraduate or graduate °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ students pursuing an academic major in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who:

• participate in experiential learning opportunities, such as student design teams, student organizations etc., and/or

• choose control areas as their undergraduate or graduate research interest.

For students pursuing control area research, the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department may also use funds for lab needs such as, but not limited to, research tools, licensing fees and other items to help facilitate control research.

Recipient selection and scholarship amounts will be determined annually by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Scholarship Committee and the department chair.  The scholarship may be renewed at the discretion of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  The department chair has final discretion as to how the money will be utilized in any given year.