User:Joemharris

Joseph Marcus Harris (1976- ) was educated at the University of New Orleans from 1994-2004. He majored in Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Urban Studies and Planning. He received a Bachelor of Science in Urban Studies and Planning, with a concentration in landuse management and GIS. There he was known for many activities: Chapter President of the National Society of Black Engineers (1995-1997), UNO Men's Basketball Team Manager (1997-1999). He was known for his innovative approach to student organization leadership. He went on to work several internships with the New Orleans City Planning Commission, and author the book Quest the Journey Within by Joe M Harris (2009)

His current activities and membership is a "Shoutband" trombonist for United House of Prayer. He also have performed several roles as an actor for Mystery Playhouse Dinner Theatre in Virginia Beach, VA (2008).

As mentioned, he served as an Address Editor from June 2001 – March 2002. The address editor position serves the New Orleans City Planning Commission as a land use surveyor. The NOCPC manages Orleans Parish, LA’s built environment. He worked with a team of students to conduct an onsite survey of the neighborhood land parcels to note its current day usage. The project was coordinated by the Planning Commission’s GIS Department to update the city’s land use records. A land parcel is an area of land (public or private property) of various acre lengths. Along with an assigned partner, He visited the assigned neighborhood, recorded and photographed the land parcel by street address and land use classification. The data was recorded using an handheld computer, (Jornada). The processed was repeated along every adjacent property within the assigned neighborhood. At the end of each daily shift we download the photographs into the team assigned laptop computer. The Jornada and laptop was periodically checked by the GIS dept so that the data would be reviewed and submitted to the NOCPC database. The surveying process was also carried out using Sandborn maps. The maps contained information denoting the parcel address. Although the maps weren’t as informative as visiting the actual site, it was used in the interest of project time efficiency, especially when poor weather conditions prevented fieldwork. Arcview GIS and Arcpad were the softwares used in the position. Work shifts were unsupervised, and un-assigned.

He also worked as a Site Design Review Intern from January 2001 – May 2001. This position was a college – credit position within the NOCPC. It was coordinated between the University of New Orleans College of Urban and Public Affairs (UNO CUPA). The duties centered on understanding the land use planning process. Joe Harris was responsible for reviewing site plans and blueprints for local zoning law compliance, whereas a report for submitted for Senior Planner review. In addition, he accompanied the site review team for field inspections of sites in review. On these tours, the address and land classification were verified. The senior member of team noted important aspects of the site relevant to their study. The site review team is composed of certified city planners. His duty on the tour was to conduct the same study, in which his critique of the site was compared with their official report for accuracy. The ending project for this position was to create a visual information display of the NOCPC departments for the 2001 National American Planning Association Convention, held at the Hyatt-Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, LA. He performed this duty by researching information from each of the departments and preparing a Power Point Slide Show that provided a visual display of the collected information. Each slide was printed on 2 by 3 feet boards, processed by Kinko’s printing company. The final project was displayed at NOCPC booth, along with a miniature version of the entire display printed as brochures.

Joe Harris served as an Help Desk Lab Consultant for the University of New Orleans during his studies in engineering from November 1998 – May 2001. This position served the University of New Orleans Student and Faculty community to provide on-site computer assistance at the student computer labs. He was responsible for providing aid and task solutions to students and faculty using the lab. In addition, he maintained the student and faculty password accounts; issuing and resetting the users password needed to access their computer account. Microsoft Office (97-2000), Arc view, Fortran programming language, SPSS, Netscape Composer and Internet search browsers were are a few of the software programs that were used.

National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)

Joe Harris joined the University of New Orleans Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers under the current chapter President, Natasha Moore in 1994. He was assigned the position of Chapter Communication Chair, whereas he served from September 1994 to July 1995. In August of 1995, he was unanimously appointed Chapter President. The Chapter was categorize by the New Orleans NSBE community as being "Virtually non-existent." His newly elected task as Chapter President was to redevelop the Chapter to be a functional organization of not just the national organization of NSBE, but of the University Student Organzations community. The development process included developing, or understanding a purpose, scouting and/ or developing talent within or outside the organization, and training the talent to compliment each other in order to produce to the best service to the community that we served. NSBE is a national organization that is designed to help engineering, math, and science students to make the transition from a college student to professional within those fields. His duty was to reestablish UNO’s chapter to become a functional organization. He was faced with the challenge of reestablishing policies and training his peers, newly appointed students to become officers within the chapter before the voting process could take place. This training took place by sharing his expertise of NSBE policies on a regional and national level, networking with the executive board of other chapter’s officers within the New Orleans city and Gulf Coast region, and coordinating their trips to NSBE National and Regional Conference. This was year long process, which proved valuable in the long run.

His second term was equally challenging. However, he was able to coordinate the talents of newly overhaulled chapter executive board incubents to developing a functioning general body. They concentrated on program development tactics for the chapter, public relations with UNO’s student community, and earning a reputable contribution status with the rest of the chapters in the Southern Louisiana area; working with schools such as Tulane University, Xavier-New Orleans, Louisiana Tech, LSU. At the end of his presidency, UNO’s chapter of NSBE developed a Pre- College Initiative Program (PCI) for high school students aspiring to become professionals in math, science, and engineering. The program earned scholarship grants from Exon-Mobile Corporation, contributed to UNO’s College of Engineering for the development of minority students majoring in the college engineering disciplines. His administration also completed the governing legislature, the Chapter Constitution, to guide them through the next two years of service. It was highly honored and respected by UNO’s faculty, staff, and student community. The following year, UNO”S NSBE won first place in the PCI’s national science competition and received the chapter of the year award for NSBE Region V. Following that year, they hosted the 1999 Spring Regional Conference, whereas all UNO’s NSBE officers, past and present (back to his period of incumbency), work together to make it a great event.

It was noted by the former chapter executives, whom are now managers for companies such as Entergy Louisana Inc., Exxon Mobile Corporation, and other companies throughout the U.S. that NSBE at that time did not issue training manuals for chapter development. The process for the chapter re-developent was of trial and error, spearheaded by Mr. Harris. His insight on how to acquire the best out of individuals, confidence in tackling challenging situations,and ability to incorporate a team for one purpose was the foundation of the University of New Orleans Chapter of NSBE success from 1995-1999.

References ==

Our History, NSBE at UNO (2007)