Francis A. Di Bella, PE

Francis A. Di Bella, a registered engineer, currently serves as the Director of Engineering Technology at Northeastern University. He worked in corporate and contract Research Development at Thermo Electron Corp for 25 years before joining the faculty of The School of Engineering Technology as Assistant Professor in 2000. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Di Bella has had extensive experience in applying his engineering background to environmental issues. He developed applications to innovative energy systems that utilize renewable or recoverable energy resources such as energy recovery and generation from man-made and naturally occurring geo-physical structures and integrated, off-shore wind turbines-and-ocean wave power generating systems.

He is committed to helping engineers go beyond the "art and science" of design and to appreciate the importance of ethical behavior, character, and culture in personal and professional life. In this regard, he recently presented a paper at the meetings of the Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration on "Integrating Ethics in an Engineering Technology Curriculum Using Practice Oriented Education and the Industrial Cooperative Experience" and a second paper on "Integrating Ethics Instruction into the Capstone Senior Design Project Course" at a recent meeting of the American Association of Engineering Education. Di Bella also collaborates with colleagues in business and engineering to develop a School of Technological Entrepreneurship at Northeastern University. The school will promote professional and ethical thinking in the development of new products such as those used by the elderly and disabled.