Professor Frank Barnes Honored for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education

Frank Barnes, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, was awarded the National Academy of Engineering’s top educational honor in 2004, the Bernard M. Gordon Prize.  The $500,000 award recognizes Barnes “for pioneering an Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program that produces leaders who bridge engineering, social science, and public policy.”

The Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program, which Barnes co-founded with George Codding Jr. of political science in 1971, was revolutionary in its approach to graduate education and has been a model for the development of other telecommunications programs nationwide.  It was built on the concept that engineers of the future would need more than a mastery of technical details—they would also need an appreciation of the policy and business aspects of industry.

“Key to its success is the program’s ability to attract people from a wide variety of backgrounds,” says William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering.  “That diversity has produced graduates with a valuable range of perspectives on engineering, policy and economics.”

Over the years, the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program has attracted students from 68 countries around the world with backgrounds ranging from economics to international affairs to engineering.   The program has opened up the opportunity for non-engineering graduates to learn things vital to participation in the telecommunications industry and, at the same time, broadened one part of engineering education to include aspects of policy and law.

"I believe that our program has made many successful careers possible," says Barnes. "Hundreds of graduates from this program have gone on to do important things."

Barnes has long been a leader at the University of Colorado at Boulder, serving as interim dean, distinguished professor, chair of the electrical and computer engineering department for 17 years, and a founder of electrical engineering departments at other CU campuses.  He has been a CU faculty member since 1959 and was named a distinguished professor by the University of Colorado Board of Regents in 1997.  He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001.

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