National Academy of Engineering Member Longya Xu, who is known for his work on high-performance electric machines and variable-speed drives for aerospace and wind turbines, is joining the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.

“I’m very excited to be joining the nation’s only joint college of engineering,” Xu said. “It’s a vibrant, growing institution and I’m looking forward to working with the students and faculty.”

When Norm Thagard left NASA in 1995 to join the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, he had one big question for his dean — What is my new mission?

Along with his role as a professor of electrical engineering, Thagard was the college’s director of college relations.

“I asked Dean C.J. “Marty” Chen, ‘What does a director of college relations do? What do you expect me to accomplish?’” said Thagard, an FSU alumnus. “He said he expected me to get kids turned on to engineering so we would one day see them as students coming into our college.”

Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineering alumni who were mentees of former dean Yaw D. Yeboah, Ph.D., have donated $215,000 of their $500,000 pledge to provide expendable and endowed scholarships for Florida A&M University engineering students at the joint college.

Leslye Fraser earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from MIT before going on to study law. She is a retired U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) environmental appeals judge. She met fellow chemical engineering student Darryl Fraser at MIT.

The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering welcomed one of its largest graduate enrollment classes in the history of the college.