Eric Baumgartner, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President of Academics | Milwaukee School of Engineering
Milwaukee, WI, UNITED STATES
Prior to joining academia, Dr. Eric Baumgartner spent 10 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is an expert in higher ed leadership.
Spotlight
Education, Licensure and Certification (4)
Participant: Institute for Education Management, Harvard University Graduate School of Education 2016
Ph.D.: Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame 1993
M.S.: Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati 1990
B.S.: Aerospace Engineering, University of Notre Dame 1988
Biography
Dr. Eric Baumgartner is executive vice president of academics at MSOE. He provides strategic leadership and direction across academic disciplines and oversees institutional effectiveness, the Applied Technology Center (ATC), Walter Schroeder Library and Registrar’s Office, as well as the Pieper Family Endowed Chair for Servant-Leadership and the Uihlein/Spitzer Chair of Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining MSOE he served as dean of the T.J. Smull College of Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University. He previously was a senior member of the engineering staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Baumgartner also taught at UCLA and Michigan Technological University. His research areas of expertise include robotics and automation, higher education, and manufacturing.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Space Exploration
Higher Education
Robotics and Automation
Manufacturing
Accomplishments (3)
NASA Group Achievement Award, Mars Science Laboratory SA/SPaH Subsystem Development Team
2013
NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
2004
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Award
2008
Affiliations (2)
- Ohio Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Center : Board of Directors
- American Society of Engineering Education (ASME) : Member
Media Appearances (3)
Milwaukee School of Engineering ditches quarter system for semesters. Will it be better for students?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel print
2023-08-29
The move-in scene at the Milwaukee School of Engineering last week felt familiar, but this school year will stand out in one key way: After decades of operating on the quarter system, the school and its nearly 3,000 students are switching to a semester schedule. What may sound like a small shift overlooks the importance of the academic calendar on campus life. It dictates the rhythm of a university, signaling when students silo themselves away to study, when professors plan exams and when tuition bills are due. Different schedules can help or hinder learning, and play a role in internships, study abroad and transfer opportunities.
MSOE’s Newest Leader Knows How to Drive Robots – on Mars
Milwaukee Magazine print
2017-10-02
The Milwaukee School of Engineering’s new vice president of academics, Eric Baumgartner, includes on his resume a decade at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the storied spaceship-design center (small city, really) in the hills near Pasadena, Calif. – and the colorful camp of tech wizards portrayed in The Martian. As a senior engineer, Baumgartner was involved in developing a series of increasingly complex Martian rovers, peaking with the Curiosity Rover, which could (still can) scoop up chunks of Martian ground and examine them with sophisticated instruments. Baumgartner leaves a longtime job at Ohio Northern University to become chief academic officer at MSOE, bringing along an impressive background that will help in both guiding technology-related programs and wooing potential donors.
Former NASA engineer appointed VP of academics at MSOE
MSOE News
2017-02-07
“I am incredibly humbled and excited by the opportunity to serve as the next vice president of academics at Milwaukee School of Engineering. MSOE has a long-standing commitment to excellence in engineering, business and nursing education,” said Baumgartner. “I look forward to collaborating with the faculty and staff to continue the growth and development of the academic programs at MSOE so that both the institution and its graduates have a positive impact on the region and the nation.”
Selected Publications (5)
An RGB vision system for the automatic calibration of industrial robots
IEEE International Conference on Electro Information Technology (EIT)Khorbotly, S., Yoder, J.D., Baumgartner, E.T., Chaffin, T.R.
2016 Robotic vision is widely used to provide feedback for the calibration and operation of autonomous robots. In many situations, the automation of the robot requires tracking one or more points of interest on the robot or in its surroundings. In this work, we developed and tested a camera-based vision system that can detect multiple points of interest and discriminate them into up to three groups. This is achieved by exploring the Red, Green, and Blue color layers in a single video feed. The experimental results show the proposed system's ability to accurately locate and distinguish three points of interest mounted on an industrial robot.
Experiments comparing precision of stereo-vision approaches for control of an industrial manipulator
Experimental RoboticsYoder, J.D., West, J., Baumgartner, E., Perrollaz, M., Seelinger, M., Robinson, M.
2013 Despite years of research in the area of robotics, the vast majority of industrial robots are still used in “teach-repeat” mode. This requires that the workpiece be in exactly the same position and orientation every time. In many high-volume robotics applications, this is not a problem, since the parts are likely to be fixtured anyway. However, in small to medium lot applications, this can be a significant limitation. The motivation for this project was a corporation who wanted to explore the use of visual control of a manipulator to allow for automated teaching of robot tasks for parts that are run in small lot sizes.
Teachless teach-repeat: Toward vision-based programming of industrial robots
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and AutomationPerrollaz, M., Khorbotly, S., Cool, A., Yoder, J.D., Baumgartner, E.
2012 Modern programming of industrial robots is often based on the teach-repeat paradigm: a human operator places the robot in many key positions, for teaching its task. Then the robot can repeat a path defined by these key positions. This paper proposes a vision-based approach for the automation of the teach stage. The approach relies on a constant auto-calibration of the system. Therefore, the only requirement is a precise geometrical description of the part to process. The realism of the approach is demonstrated through the emulation of a glue application process with an industrial robot. Results in terms of precision are very promising.
Autonomous Go‐and‐Touch Exploration (AGATE)
Journal of Field RoboticsSeelinger, M., Yoder, J.D., Baumgartner, E.T.
2012 This paper presents work done to enable a mobile manipulator to autonomously place, its tool with high accuracy and reliability, relative to a visually distinctive target. The work is novel in that the cameras are not calibrated a priori, rather, the system calibrates the cameras by moving the manipulator through the field of view, and the algorithm combines motion of the mobile base and the manipulator in order to achieve the task. Although not creating a globally improved camera calibration, the method provides very high precision in positioning a mobile manipulator relative to a visually selected target. The work was motivated by a desire to increase the precision and efficiency of the Mars exploration rovers (MER), allowing more science to be carried out in the same span of time. In addition to the algorithm, the paper describes a large number of experiments used to show the effectiveness of the method. For the experiments described in this paper, the starting distance of the rover relative to the point of interest ranged from about 2 to 8 m. Depending on the distance of traverse required, the rover had to use one to three sets of stereo cameras. Over a large range of distances, and many experiments, the system was shown to be robust and accurate. The paper further breaks down the sources of error and examines their importance based on a large number of experiments.
Work in progress — Putting the “E” in STEM teacher preparation: A new Bachelor of Science degree with an engineering education major
Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)Reid, K.J., Baumgartner, E.
2011 The National Academies report “Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects” gives recommendations describing the importance of a necessary, systematic change in the incorporation of engineering within the K-12 education system. Existing efforts to introduce engineering into K-12 typically consist of in-service activities for teachers and summer camp experiences and/or single day events in classrooms. The effectiveness of reaching out to teachers and students as individuals is debatable, but these methods are certainly not sustainable. Systematic change will require a new paradigm - teachers who have a fundamental understanding of engineering will provide the most effective, sustainable solution for the implementation of K-12 engineering education. Ohio Northern University (ONU) has developed and introduced a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Engineering Education. This degree provides the graduate with a foundation in engineering, mathematics and education, qualifying the graduate for licensure as a secondary math teacher in the state of Ohio. The degree is similar to a General Engineering degree offered by some other Universities, expanding potential career opportunities to general engineering (sales, training, etc.) and unique opportunities in venues such as Science and Technology museums. This paper describes the fundamental structure of the degree program and the vision for those graduating with this major.
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