Dr. Douglas Cooper Chosen as Professor of the Year
December 2, 2004 The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized Dr. Douglas J. Cooper, Control Station Founder and Chief Technology Officer, as 2004 Professor of the Year. Dr. Cooper was selected from college and university faculty across the State of Connecticut for this prestigious award which recognizes excellence in education.
My work has focused on equipping individuals with the tools they need to solve real-world problems, commented Dr. Cooper. As Founder of Control Station and a professor of chemical engineering, I see technology as a means of simplifying those problems and of empowering individuals to apply practical solutions. I am honored that the foundation has chosen me for this award.
According to the Carnegie Foundation, the award program was created in 1981 to increase awareness of the importance of academic instruction. The State Professors of the Year Award Program selects outstanding educators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dr. Cooper, Department Head and full professor at the University of Connecticuts School of Chemical Engineering, was chosen from thousands of college and university faculty across the state.
Doug Coopers industry knowledge and instructional expertise are invaluable assets, stated Dennis Nash, the company’s President. His skill as an instructor has helped thousands of industry professionals and university students to understand and apply complex control theory. And his approach to product innovation has led to the development of technology that is easy to use and delivers tangible value. This award highlights each of those important qualities.
Dr. Cooper’s background in teaching has been instrumental to Control Station’s success. Software development began in 1989 as Dr. Cooper sought to incorporate industry level applications in university curricula. Control Station software has since become a valued tool among industry professionals as well as academics. The technology has evolved into a powerful suite of solutions capable of optimizing the performance of plant control systems and providing customers with a sustainable competitive advantage. Control Station software is currently used by commercial enterprises across the process industries and at over 150 universities worldwide.
Control Station recently launched its 4.0 Product Suite, a portfolio of process control solutions that facilitates the modeling, tuning, and simulation of complex process systems. Under Dr. Cooper’s direction, all 4.0 software products were developed with ease of use as a primary performance objective. The 4.0 Product Suite is intuitive and enables rapid optimization of process controllers. Control Station software can increase plant production up to 10% and reduce process-related energy consumption up to 15%, delivering a positive return on investment with the tuning of as few as three primary process loops.
The company also offers a two-day training course called Practical Process Control. The course focuses on hands-on experience by combining lectures with demonstrations and workshops. Oriented towards the needs of industry practitioners, courses accelerate the learning process and help companies to realize a rapid return on their training investments. Courses are regularly conducted at regional sites across the United States.
About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an Act of Congress, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center whose charge is “to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education.
The Foundation is a major national and international center for research and policy studies about teaching.
