New Fire Protection Engineering MOOC Available

James A. Milke

The first fire protection engineering course offered in the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) environment, “The Effect of Fires on People, Property and the Environment,” was launched by the University of Maryland (UMD) last week and will start on August 1, 2016. This is an introductory course that provides an overview of fire protection engineering. Included are elementary discussions on fire behavior and fire safety systems as well as an overview of the profession of fire protection engineering.

This course attempts to accomplish two items. The first is to raise people’s awareness of fire safety issues in a manner that is not technically intensive. This increased awareness should result in improved attention to fire hazards and fire safety measures, leading to increased safety for course participants and their families.

The second purpose of this course is to make people aware of the discipline of fire protection engineering, and raise the intellectual curiosity of course participants in the scientific and engineering principles which dictate fire behavior and the performance of fire safety measures. Optimistically, this increased interest will lead course participants to consider pursuing a degree in fire protection engineering and membership in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).

A team of individuals have contributed to the lectures provided in this course. The lead instructor, providing lectures for three of the six lectures is Dr. Jim Milke, Professor and Chair of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland. Contributing one week of lectures each are:

Dr. Erica Kuligowski, Fire Protection Engineer, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Mr. Eric Rosenbaum, MSc., P.E., Vice President, Jensen Hughes
Mr. Chris Jelenewicz, MSc., P.E., Technical Director, Society of Fire Protection Engineers

Course contributor biographies are provided below:

Dr. Jim Milke, P.E.

James A. Milke, P.E., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and B.S. degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. In addition, he has a B.S. degree in Physics from Ursinus College. Dr. Milke has served as a Research Fire Prevention Engineer at the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, as the Fire Protection Engineer for Fairfax County, Virginia. Dr. Milke is a Fellow and a past president of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and is a member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), UL Fire Council and International Association of Fire Safety Science. He is a past member of the NFPA Standards Council.

Dr. Erica Kuligowski

Dr. Erica D. Kuligowski is the Leader of the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Group in the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr.Kuligowski holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a B.S. and M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Kuligowski's Ph.D. dissertation focused on occupant decision-making and behavior performed during the pre-evacuation period of the 2001 World Trade Center disaster. Her research interests are human behavior in emergencies, including preparedness, response and recovery behaviors, behavioral modeling, and the modeling of social systems. She received U.S. DOC Gold Medals for her contributions to the federal investigation of the 2001World Trade Center Disaster and the May 22, 2011, Tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Dr. Kuligowski also received the U.S. DOC Bronze medal for her contributions to the federal investigation of the 2003 Rhode Island Night Club Fire. At present, Dr. Kuligowski was previously part of a team developing the Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems at NIST.

Eric Rosenbaum, P.E.

Eric Rosenbaum, PE, is Vice President at JENSEN HUGHES, a consulting specialty engineering firm. He is a registered Fire Protection Engineer with over 30 years of experience in fire safety. Mr. Rosenbaum is also a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and a Registered Professional Engineer in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Eric is a member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and also serves on its Board of Directors. He chaired the Life Safety Code Technical Committee on Fire Protection Features for nine years and is on the NFPA Technical Committee on Health Care Occupancies and Technical Correlating Committee of the NFPA Life Safety Code. Mr. Rosenbaum received the Committee Service Award, for distinguished service in the development of NFPA codes and standards, from the National Fire Protection Association, and has been the recipient of the Hat’s Off Award from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers multiple years.

Chris Jelenewicz, P.E.

Chris Jelenewicz graduated from the Fire Protection Engineering Department with a BS degree in 1987. He currently serves as the Technical Director with the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and is the Technical Editor for SFPEs Fire Protection Engineering magazine. He is an SFPE Fellow and is a licensed fire protection engineer in the states of Maryland and California.

Published July 20, 2016