Faculty Collaboration and Textbook Publication at Purdue University Press

July 21st, 2022

As the scholarly publishing arm of Purdue University and a unit of Purdue Libraries, Purdue University Press is a proud partner for university faculty and staff, centers, and departments, wishing to disseminate the results of their research and otherwise advance learning, teaching, and engagement. Purdue University Press is pleased to announce the publication of three new textbooks in July 2022.

Foundations of Agricultural Education, Fourth Edition is designed for college students in agricultural education and others interested in agricultural education as fundamental preparation for the profession. Teachers of agricultural education and those in support roles will find this book to be a helpful resource. This fourth edition is updated to reflect current educational theory and practices and includes changed laws and initiatives since the third edition. This updated textbook is appropriate for both introductory and advanced courses.

Two of the five authors of this edition are associated with Purdue.

Dr. B. Allen Talbert is a professor of agricultural education at Purdue University. He currently teaches courses in School-Based Agricultural Education program planning, SAE/FFA, and student teaching. His research focuses on recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented minority groups. His engagement work is focused on professional development of agriculture teachers and service to FFA on all levels.

Dr. Sarah E. LaRose is an assistant professor of agricultural education at Purdue University. She began her career in agricultural education as a high school agricultural education teacher and FFA advisor in Woodbury, Connecticut, where she developed curriculum on local food production and extensively used agricultural teaching laboratory spaces to deliver instruction. Her research seeks to cultivate the development of agricultural educators who actively create student-centered, inclusive programs so that all students can experience the transformative benefits of agricultural education.

Productivity and Reliability-Based Maintenance Management, Second Edition is intended to provide a strong yet practical foundation for understanding the concepts and practices of total productive maintenance (TPM) management—a proactive asset and resource management strategy that is based on enhancing equipment reliability and overall enterprise productivity. The book is intended to serve as a fundamental yet comprehensive educational and practical guide for departing from the wait-failure-emergency repair cycle that has plagued too many industries, instead advancing a proactive and productive maintenance strategy. It is not intended to be a how-to-fix-it manual, but rather emphasizes the concept of a world-class maintenance management philosophy to avoid the failure in the first place. Universities, junior and community colleges, and technical institutes as well as professional, corporate, and industrial training programs can benefit by incorporating these fundamental concepts in their technical and managerial curricula. The book can serve as a powerful educational tool for students as well as for maintenance professionals and managers. In addition to updating the previous historical and statistical data and tables, the second edition expands on and adds to case studies based on current maintenance-related events. Several numerical examples and explanations are revised to enhance the clarity of the methodology. The second edition introduces the readers to the state-of-the-art concepts of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart sensors, and their application to maintenance and TPM.

Author Matthew P. Stephens is a professor and a University Faculty Scholar in the College of Technology at Purdue University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in facilities planning, statistical quality control, and productivity- and reliability-based maintenance management. Stephens holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Southern Illinois University and the University of Arkansas, with specialization in operations management and statistics. He spent nine years with several manufacturing and business enterprises, and he has been involved as a consultant with a number of major manufacturing companies. Stephens has numerous publications to his credit including several internationally adopted textbooks and another text published by Purdue University Press: Manufacturing Facilities Design & Material Handling.  This textbook is designed for courses in Plant and Facilities Planning and Manufacturing Systems and Procedures. This textbook is also suitable for graduate-level and two-year college courses.

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Practical Digital Design: An Introduction to VHDL  This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the syntax and the most commonly used features of VHDL, one of the two most popular languages used to design digital logic circuits. It also presents a formal digital design process and the best-case design practices that have been developed over more than twenty-five years of VHDL design experience by the author in military ground and satellite communication systems. Unlike other books on this subject, this real-world professional experience captures not only the what of VHDL, but also the how. Throughout the book, recommended methods for performing digital design are presented along with the common pitfalls and the techniques used to successfully avoid them. Written for students learning VHDL for the first time as well as professional development material for experienced engineers, this book’s contents minimize design time while maximizing the probability of first-time design success.

Author Bruce Reidenbach has almost forty years of professional experience designing custom digital integrated circuits and FPGAs for military ground and satellite communication systems. His early experience used the paper and pencil logic diagram design process. He transitioned to designing exclusively in VHDL in 1994. He retired from full-time engineering in 2018 and currently teaches an introductory VHDL class at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He continues to perform contract FPGA design services, primarily in the area of underwater sensor systems for use by the US Navy. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1982, and a master’s in business administration from Indiana University Fort Wayne in 1989. In his spare time, the author is a long-time volunteer on-air jazz program host on his local public radio station.