A Message From the Dean

We see a world of incredible opportunities and enormous challenges ahead of us. Our most intricate problems — energy, the environment, health, economic prosperity — require scientific and engineering breakthroughs implemented in a practical way.

At the College of Engineering, our vision of the future addresses these issues by focusing on three aspects: creating new engineering knowledge to address societal problems, educating the next generation of engineers and proactively engaging with industry, government and other stakeholders to impact the real world. We aspire to the highest level of global preeminence so that our college will become a strong magnet for the most talented students and faculty from all over the world.

The societal problems mentioned above do not fall neatly into academic disciplines. Indeed, they require combinations of disciplines for solutions to be meaningful and effective. For example, by combining advances in neuroscience with engineering expertise, we may be able to find solutions to diseases such as epilepsy. And the energy challenge can only be met by a multi-disciplinary approach combining mechanical, nuclear, materials, chemical and agricultural engineering with appropriate business and regulatory policy changes. New business creation is at the heart of economic growth and prosperity. Entrepreneurial activities fueled by technological advances will create the Intel and Microsoft of tomorrow. We firmly believe we should educate our students to have a deep commitment to the highest ideals of truth, goodness and beauty so that technology improves the human condition.

Undergraduate education, graduate education and research should not be separate. Rather, we are driven to fully integrate these three facets of our daily academic activities. Thriving research laboratories inspire young undergraduate students with a thirst for advanced knowledge. Outstanding faculty with international research reputations attract the brightest graduate students. Highly talented graduate students enrich the undergraduate experience.

We have enormous aspirations to realize the vision outlined above. We know our students, faculty and staff are entirely dedicated to achieving the highest levels of excellence. We live in an era of fierce global competition for talented students and faculty and require ever-improving facilities to conduct our educational and research activities. We seek your support, which is absolutely critical in accelerating our progress toward reaching our goals.

Sincerely,

Pramod P. Khargonekar
Dean, College of Engineering