David Olwell, Ph.D.

Background

After ten years at SMU as Dean of Engineering and one year as Dean of Arts and Sciences, I am now serving as interim Provost.  My role is to support the vision of the President and Chancellor by enabling the success of our students and faculty.  To that end, I will work this year on improving our academic processes that serve both students and faculty.  Particular focus areas are supporting the review and revision of the Core curriculum, continuing the work to improve advising and registration for students, revising the faculty handbook to better serve all constituents, and to promote a stable, peaceful, efficient, and just working environment for faculty and academic staff that fully reflects our Benedictine values.  My primary measurable outcomes will be increased effectiveness of the Core as measured in Core assessments; improved retention, persistence, and graduation rates of students; increased faculty satisfaction; increased academic productivity; and a faculty handbook revision approved by both faculty and the board.  

Previously, I was Professor of Systems Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School.  I chaired the Department of Systems Engineering for five years, and was the campus-wide elected Chair of the NPS Faculty under our shared governance model. I am a successful research entrepreneur, having served as the principal investigator in over  $6M in sponsored projects in the past five years. My research areas have been reliability engineering, systems engineering foundational issues, and engineering curricular development. I have served on four doctoral committees. I have been the thesis or capstone advisor for over 90 masters students. I am a commissioner on the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission following service as an alternate member of the ABET Board of Directors, and have chaired five ABET visits, and have been assistant chair for two WASC visits. I am a Fellow of the American Council on Education.  I have served on the board of advisors for the Department of Systems Engineering at the Military Academy. I am on the Corporate Advisory Board for INCOSE and also serve on its Academic Council.

Select publications

• Judge’s Commentary: The Outstanding National Water Strategy Papers. David Olwell.  The UMAP Journal.  Vol 34 . Nos. 2&3, pp. 189-196. 2013.
• The Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge V1.0.  Ed. Art Pyster and David Olwell.  Castle Point, NJ:  Stevens Institute, 2012.  (www.sebokwiki.org)
• The Graduate Reference Curriculum for Systems Engineering V1.0. Ed. Art Pyster and David Olwell.  Castle Point, NJ:  Stevens Institute,  2012. (www.bkcase.org/grcse-2/)
• Statistics and Counter-Terrorism.  Ed. Alyson Wilson, Gregory Wilson, and David Olwell.  New York:  Springer.  2006.
• Cumulative Sum Charts and Charting for Quality Improvement.  Douglas M. Hawkins and David H. Olwell.  New York:  Springer Verlag. 1998.

Areas of interest (professional/personal):

Knights of Columbus