February 1, 2002 Executive Summary SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING FY03 PERFORMANCE PLAN Rensselaer s School of Engineering enters the 21 st century as one of our nation s premier engineering institutions. Our consistent top twenty-five ranking in the U.S. News and World Report Undergraduate Rankings (#17) and Graduate and Research Rankings (#25) recognizes the exceptional quality of our faculty, staff and students, our heritage of excellence and innovation in undergraduate engineering education, and the impact of our scholarship and research. The School of Engineering, however, is at a crossroads. As competition with more highly resourced institutions intensifies over attracting the best undergraduate and graduate students, recruiting topnotch faculty, growing sponsored research, and building corporate partnerships, our position among the very best is being seriously challenged, and our goal of moving forward to not only remain among, but also advance within the nation s top-tier engineering programs is being made increasingly formidable. Although the School of Engineering and the Institute must strive to continually enhance the excellence and innovation of its undergraduate instructional programs, if we are to remain competitive with our peer institutions and further advance our reputation and ranking toward the top ten as we must it is most imperative that we energize and significantly expand our research enterprise. The Rensselaer Plan is the map and compass that will guide the Institute for the next decade as it strives to achieve the goal of becoming a world class technological research university with global reach and global impact. The Plan clearly recognizes the importance of Rensselaer providing an absolutely first-rate undergraduate education, and promoting excellence across the Institute. However, the most compelling statements made and the boldest goals proposed in the Plan unequivocally focus on the critical need for Rensselaer to advance rapidly and aggressively in research. Our School of Engineering Performance Plan likewise places a strong emphasis on this requirement. This FY03 School of Engineering Performance Plan describes goals, strategies and actions for the second year of a rolling, three-year Performance Plan. The Plan builds upon that of FY02, and details the specific means by which the School will implement existing and new strategies and actions required to accomplish the Institutional goals presented in the Rensselaer Plan. As in the FY02 Plan, specific goals identified and recommendations made in the Plan are selective and based on the fundamental premise that excellence in education and research can only be achieved through focus, prioritization, and selective investment in those areas that have the potential to be recognized as being among the very best. Following a review of the School s Mission and Vision, and summary of School activities that will support FY03 Institute First-Year Highest Priority Initiatives, this document presents School priority goals that support achievement of the Institute s six overarching goals. A summary of progress made to date toward achieving these goals via the FY02 Performance Plan precedes the presentation of updated and some completely new goals, strategies and actions for FY03. Performance measures that have been employed in setting specific goals and that will be used to track progress are also provided. Finally, School of Engineering reinvestment and new Institute investment required in FY03 to support stated strategies and actions are summarized. EDUCATION is our core business, and we must strive to strengthen further our renown for excellence and innovation in undergraduate and graduate engineering education. The key to providing excellence in our academic programs is an outstanding faculty. Several FY02 hires have been made to strengthen the Computer Systems Engineering program, as was planned, and a significant number of additional hires still will be made in FY02, and are proposed for FY03, to ensure strong instructional support in all academic programs and to significantly grow research. Maintaining our excellence and reputation in undergraduate and graduate education will demand new innovations in pedagogy and the application of Information Technology-based learning tools. It will further require the formal and rigorous assessment and continuous improvement of our academic programs and in particular of our innovations so that their effectiveness and efficiency may be optimized. Our curricula must provide students with key fundamentals and practical skills that will serve them in the 21 st century s engineering workplace, and therefore we propose to selectively initiate a rigorous, quantitative course in Biotechnology for Engineers that could ultimately be a requirement of most engineering majors. A goal of integrating entrepreneurship principles and practices across the undergraduate curriculum has also been established. Consistent with our institutional goal of integrating education and research, it is our goal to support the Undergraduate Research Program such that every interested student can participate in a meaningful research experience. We will create an Advising Task Force to examine our undergraduate advising programs across the School and develop new approaches to better meeting this
critical requirement. In graduate education, we must develop programs that attract high quality domestic and international graduate students, and examine ways to appropriately reduce the length of time to obtain a doctoral degree without lessening the quality and integrity of the degree. As the flagship School of the Institute, we will lead the Institute s expansion of the RESEARCH ENTERPRISE through the hiring of rising-star senior faculty and high-potential junior faculty in 6 Institute Constellations in Biotechnology and Information Technology, and in 7 School of Engineering Key Research Focus Areas (Nanotechnology; Biological Engineering; Modeling, Simulation & Design; Information Systems; Electronics, Photonics & MEMS; Engineering for Civilization; and Energy), many of which strongly complement and enable the Institute Constellations. To date in FY02, the School of Engineering has hired 8 new junior faculty in ECSE, CHME, MS&E and MANE who support high priority Key Research Focus Areas, and is seeking 6 additional new and 13 replacement faculty hires within the most highly prioritized Research Focus Areas. In addition to replacing all vacancies, we propose to hire 32 new faculty over the next three years, including potentially 8 new faculty in Institute Constellations. With this major faculty investment, and a commensurate enhancement of the physical and support research infrastructure, the School should achieve a 50% increase in research expenditures and 75 doctorates per year in FY05. The development of policies that make faculty research proposals more competitive, including the continued phasing out of faculty charge-out, which has already begun, new cost-sharing incentives, and increased technician support will enhance our research competitiveness and productivity. All engineering undergraduate students will be educated in the principles and practices of SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP. In partnership with the Lally School, entrepreneurship will be integrated across the engineering curriculum from the freshman year to the MDL capstone design experience. In FY02, for example, the School is supporting innovative entrepreneurship-focused projects in the MDL that develop and assess Institute intellectual property for commercialization. Faculty engagement in entrepreneurship will be expanded through the education and mentoring of faculty, the targeted hiring of entrepreneurial faculty, and the development of policies and a user-friendly infrastructure that support these activities. We will make entrepreneurship a distinctive feature of the School. Following the successful hiring of women and underrepresented minority faculty in FY02, the School will promote DIVERSITY by increasing hiring targets and taking full advantage of the Dean and Provost Partnership Faculty Hiring Assistance Program. In all of their searches, School and department search committees will aggressively search for highly qualified women and underrepresented minority faculty candidates, with a special emphasis on the attraction of rising-star full professors who can serve as role models and magnets to attract women and underrepresented minority junior faculty. We will also invest in new programs that significantly grow our population of women and underrepresented minority graduate students. The School and its leadership will continue to strongly support the building of COMMUNITIES, including the strengthening of research and workforce education partnerships with U.S. and international companies with a strong regional presence that are moving in the same technological directions as the School such as GE, IBM, Kodak, and United Technologies. This will include our leadership of a significant research presence at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut, in collaboration with Rensselaer at Hartford, UTC, and other regional companies. Increased local partnerships with Albany Medical Center, Wadsworth Laboratory, and companies such as Albany Molecular will also be important as we seek to expand our research in Biotechnology. We must extend our presence internationally through the selective development of education and research partnerships and collaborations, concentrating on areas of greatest opportunity and potential for success. We will grow our Web presence to facilitate continuous interactions with our Communities on and off campus, and we will increase the engagement of our alumni with the School. We will continue to revitalize and optimize our ENABLING ACTIVITIES. New investment and reallocation of resources will continue to occur in a highly selective, prioritized manner that will build in identified Key Research Focus Areas. Disinvestments will occur in areas of lower priority. Department restructuring that occurred on July 1, 2001, will promote greater synergies between programs, improve efficiencies, and facilitate the near and longer-term change and transformation required to achieve the vision and strategic goals of an evolving Performance Plan. The School will continue to proactively support in the development of processes, methodologies and tools that assure the effective implementation of an activity-based budget across all administrative levels. The School will strive to enhance its involvement and effectiveness in advancement, and in particular its key role in the Capital Campaign, through the hiring of an experienced staff member to coordinate Advancement and External Affairs. Finally, the School will implement new guidelines for promotion and tenure, and for faculty annual performance evaluations, support activities that encourage and enable faculty and staff professional growth, and develop programs for recognizing and rewarding faculty excellence in teaching, research and outreach. 2
Section I. Mission and Vision of the School of Engineering As the flagship school of the Institute, it is appropriate that our Mission and that of the Institute be one, and that our Vision build upon that of the Rensselaer Plan. Our Mission: To educate leaders of tomorrow for technology-based careers; to celebrate discovery, and the responsible application of technology; to create knowledge and global prosperity. Our Vision: To be a top tier school of engineering with global reach and global impact committed to technological excellence by integrating research and education, and in educating for career success. Section II. Institute-Wide First Year Highest Priority Initiatives School of Engineering activities that will support Institute-Wide First Year Highest Priority Initiatives are summarized in bullet form below. These activities are described in greater detail in Section III under each of the six Institute overarching goals, and are indicated by an asterisk. University Positioning School of Engineering faculty and administrators will continue to work with the Institute Constellation search committees and Institute-level offices to aggressively seek outstanding senior and junior faculty for the six Institute Constellations in Biotechnology and Information Technology. The to be formed School of Engineering Space Assessment and Planning Committee will work closely with Institute committees and offices to assess School space requirements and to develop specific action plans that will ensure the provision of satisfactory office and laboratory space for existing faculty and staff, and for many new hires. This will include issues related to the new Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Building, the Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center (e.g., relative to advanced visualization facilities) and the renovation of the Ricketts Building. Based on assessment information from the inaugural, student-organized Engineering Discovery Week held in October 2001, the program will be enhanced and modified with a primary goal of increasing student participation. An endowment is actively being sought to support the program. A School of Engineering Task Force lead by Core Engineering and comprised of faculty and students will critically evaluate undergraduate advising from the freshman to the senior year and develop new approaches to optimize this critical activity. The School of Engineering will coordinate with Institute-level initiatives in graduate student and new faculty orientation particularly focused on women and underrepresented minorities. 3
Process and Management In collaboration with the Office of the Provost and the Office of Finance, the School of Engineering will continue to proactively support the development and optimization of new budget processes and methodologies that achieve the overall goals and requirements of an activity-based budget, and that fully integrate department budget processes with those of the School and the Institute. This will be accomplished in part through the development of electronic tools and mandatory education and training. New approaches developed during FY02 that provide incentive-based budget components to faculty, departments and centers will be fully implemented. Improved guidelines and processes for promotion and tenure, annual faculty performance evaluations, and compensation adjustments, which are being developed during FY02, will be fully implemented. Section III. Portfolio Highest Priorities: Strategic Goals, Strategies, Action Plans and Performance Measures Succeeding with Rensselaer s goal of achieving greater prominence in the 21 st century as a toptier world-class technological research university with global reach and global impact will demand that we successfully accomplish each of the six overarching goals that have been articulated in the Rensselaer Plan. The School of Engineering must play THE key and major role to assure such accomplishment. This section of our Performance Plan is presented in the framework of these six Institute-wide goals. For each overarching goal, a set of School of Engineering goals is presented. Strategies and action plans required to achieve these goals are subsequently described. Actions that directly support the Institute s First Year Highest Priority Initiatives are indicated by an asterisk. Finally, performance measures are described that both correspond to specific proposed goals, and that will be utilized to track progress toward achieving these goals. GOAL 1: Enhance national leadership in innovative learning and teaching by providing outstanding and distinctive EDUCATION for resident undergraduates and graduate students, and for working professionals. Background and Context: It is the School of Engineering s vision to be a leader in educating a high quality and diverse student body at every level, i.e., resident undergraduate, resident graduate, and non-resident career professionals, to be tomorrow s leaders of technology. As indicated above, we have been extremely successful in achieving this vision; however, we can and must do better. We must more rigorously and formally assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the innovations in pedagogy and learning technology that we have implemented in the past, and those that we will continue to introduce in the future, thereby assuring their continuous improvement. We must manage innovation rather than rely on it energizing by serendipity. We must further assess the relevancy and sufficiency of what we teach, and be prepared to incorporate new requirements into the curriculum to enhance the preparation of our graduates. Finally, we must have the faculty, staff and infrastructure resources required to assure the 4
provision of a high quality instruction at all levels, while we meet demands for excellence in our other missions. FY02 Progress Toward Achieving Goal 1: The highest priority for FY02 was the hiring of Computer Systems Engineering faculty in ECSE to support the unprecedented high student demand in this curriculum, and to perform research in priority IT-related areas. To date, three outstanding junior Computer Engineering hires have been made, and two additional junior faculty are being sought. Additional faculty members have been hired in ECSE and CHME, the latter in Biotechnology, that will strongly support instructional programs in those departments. Searches within each academic department are aggressively seeking additional faculty, primarily at the junior level. The search for a senior faculty member to provide leadership in Engineering Education Pedagogy and Assessment, which is being coordinated by Associate Dean Robert Messler, is also well underway. In response to the School s ABET visit in early October, the School s ABET Assessment Committee, in conjunction with department chairs and faculty, and external stakeholders, is working to improve and further strengthen current academic program assessment and continuous improvement tools, methodologies and processes. School of Engineering goals to enhance EDUCATION: Offer a rich but increasingly selective portfolio of courses and curricula that range from the traditional engineering disciplines to progressive interdisciplinary programs, including programs joint with other schools, that creatively blend courses from across the campus as with our research portfolio, invest only in those areas of high relevance and visibility that can be among the very best; Provide an effective, user-friendly system to advise students from the freshman year to the senior year in order that they may optimize their learning experience at Rensselaer. Optimize assessment/continuous improvement (i.e., closing the loop ) tools, methodologies and processes that assure that each academic program rigorously meets an appropriately detailed and comprehensive set of program educational objectives broaden involvement of faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders in these processes; Strengthen our widely-acknowledged leadership position as an innovator of quality undergraduate engineering education through the creation of new pedagogies and interactive learning tools, and through the continuous, formal assessment and optimization of these pedagogies and tools; Graduate students who are not only well-educated in scientific and engineering principles, but who can also think for themselves in creative, innovative ways, communicate with others, lead interdisciplinary teams, and deal constructively with change individuals who are prepared to be 21 st century technology leaders. Improve the rankings of both our undergraduate and graduate engineering programs; Be a benchmark institution at the integration of research and education; Selectively grow our Rensselaer at Hartford and distance delivered programs for working professionals in areas of high demand, e.g., Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems. Increase the selectivity of all students entering the School of Engineering; Improve the match between student demand and faculty distribution. 5
Strategy 1: Provide faculty and infrastructure resources required to effectively support our instructional mission while meeting goals of increased research productivity. Action 1:* Over the next three years, increase full-time faculty by 32 to approximately 180, with hiring performed selectively in concert with requirements to support Institute Constellations and School Key Research Focus Areas. Action 2: Add studio classroom space and instructional equipment commensurate with course offering requirements. Action 3: Add technical staff to support laboratories, studios, computing resources, and other educational delivery technologies. Action 4: Add state-of-the-art, hands-on equipment for instructional laboratories. Strategy 2: Optimize processes for formally and systematically assessing the quality and effectiveness of all academic programs, including instructional pedagogies and interactive learning techniques and that implement corrective actions that effectively close the loop in the assessment process. Action 1: Broaden role, responsibilities, reach and size of existing ABET Assessment Committee; retain current ½ time staff member to support School assessment activities. Action 2: Require that all permanent curricular changes to be supported by assessment data. Action 3: Support faculty in the development of sponsored research proposals in engineering education pedagogy, interactive learning, and assessment. Strategy 3: Incorporate new topics of study and application into the curriculum that are highly relevant and critical to the career success of our graduates in the 21 st century. Action 1:* Reinforce our core engineering program by selectively initiating an elective or required core course that will introduce to all engineering students the fundamentals of Molecular Biology and/or Biotechnology in a rigorous, quantitative manner. Action 2: Integrate across the engineering curriculum principles and practices of engineering entrepreneurship. Action 3: Expand the Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory experience for seniors within capstone design courses to encompass not less than 400 (of approximately 650 seniors) in not less than 6 engineering programs including BMED, DSES (IME s), ECSE, MANE (ME s), and MTLE. Action 4: Introduce Professional Development Speaker series to augment topics taught in curriculum that highlight high priority research areas, including special focus on speakers who will attract women and underrepresented minorities. Strategy 4: Expand research opportunities for undergraduate students. Action 1: Support the Undergraduate Research/Senior Thesis Program such that all interested students can participate. Action 2: Recognize and showcase in appropriate forums and facilities, and reward both students and faculty for their participation in undergraduate research expand the Undergraduate Research Forum campus-wide and conduct every year seek endowment support for this program. 6
Strategy 5:* Optimize Engineering Discovery Week program to inform freshman and sophomores about engineering career opportunities and consider extension to undergraduate research. Action 1:* Seek endowment funding to support EDW program. Strategy 6: Enhance the effectiveness of undergraduate student advising and mentoring. Action 1: Establish a School of Engineering task force comprised of faculty and students that will assess current advising processes across SoE Departments, benchmark best practices, and make improvements to optimize this critical activity. Action 2: Create a corporate mentoring program to provide interactions between students and professionals in the field. Strategy 7: Increase doctoral student productivity. Action 1: Increase enrollment and improve the balance between U.S. and international students through aggressive recruitment. Action 2: Increase enrollment by offering competitive stipend levels. Action 3: Examine current impediments and seek appropriate ways (including revision of Institute policies) to reduce the length of time to obtain a doctorate degree. Action 4: In support of the One Rensselaer philosophy, collaborate closely with Rensselaer at Hartford and local industry in the establishment of part-time and full-time doctoral programs at Rensselaer at Hartford. Performance measures for enhancing EDUCATION: Student selectivity; National rankings; A Teaching Quality Indicator (TQI) to assess the quality, effectiveness, and productivity of our faculty as teachers (including IDEA form averages, number of publications on educational methods and tools, and external funding support for innovations in education); An Alumni Satisfaction Indicator (ASI) based on assessment of preparedness vs. importance in key areas (like math and basic sciences, core engineering fundamentals, disciplinary courses, problem-solving, design, humanities and social sciences, communication, leadership, and ethics) from senior and graduate student exit surveys and from alumni surveys. GOAL 2: Significantly expand the RESEARCH ENTERPRISE and associated graduate education by creating new Institutional Initiatives in Information Technology and Biotechnology, building on and enhancing existing core research strengths, and supporting additional critical priorities in areas that offer opportunities for research leadership. Background and Context: The reputation of a technological university and engineering school is in large part based on the quality, content and impact of its research and scholarship activities, and there is every reason to believe this will continue to be the dominant metric of the future. As the Institute s flagship school, the School of Engineering has traditionally led and conducted the majority of research at Rensselaer, and although we fully anticipate significant growth in the volume of research conducted by our partner schools, and an increase in cross-school research 7
collaboration, it is our full expectation that Engineering s primary role and responsibility will continue well into the future. Consistent with the goals set forth in the Rensselaer Plan, we will seek to markedly improve the quality and size of our research activities through the hiring of outstanding, risingstar senior faculty and high-potential junior faculty in strategically-identified and opportunistic areas, including Institute-defined Constellations in the fields of Information Technology and Biotechnology, other Institute research focal areas such as Nanotechnology, and complementary School of Engineering Key Research Focus Areas. We will also dramatically grow our research infrastructure with full-time researchers more characteristic of the major research universities with which we compete. Strong research infrastructure growth in terms of technical support staff, equipment, and facilities will further be required not only to accommodate this growth, but also to attract top-notch new faculty, and to retain our current high-performing faculty. Our overriding strategy is to create an environment that attracts, supports, and develops the very best people in their chosen fields. More specifically, the School of Engineering will seek national recognition and ranking dominance by achieving at least 4 departments in the top 10 rankings by FY10. The School aspires to triple doctoral graduate output, to 150 graduates per year, over this same period. Research expenditures by the School of Engineering will double in FY08, to over $60M/year. These goals, which are specified below, are formidable for Rensselaer. Based on the expenditures/faculty, the doctoral enrollment/faculty, and the doctoral degrees/faculty as the three primary metrics of those schools of engineering ranked above us in USNWR, the School of Engineering will need to grow to a tenure track faculty size of at least 200 to achieve these goals, or an increase in size of about 65, or almost 50%. As shown in Table 1, and as will be discussed in detail in a subsequent section of this plan, we propose a faculty growth of 12 in FY02, 15 in FY03, 11 in FY04, and 6 in FY05, with the remaining 20 distributed over the next 6 years, or an average of about 3/yr. We anticipate that at least 8 senior and junior faculty of the planned 65 will originate from the Institute-defined Information Technology and Biotechnology constellations. Further, this faculty constituency, considering its other academic responsibilities, will need to be strongly supported by a cadre of 50 full-time research faculty and postdocs, i.e., one for every two faculty, to be supported on external research. Moreover, doctoral productivity will need to be specifically emphasized across our Key Research Focus Areas, as well as in the Biotechnology and Information Technology focused Institute constellations. FY02 Progress Toward Achieving Goal 2: The hiring of Constellation faculty is a top Institute and School priority for FY02 and FY03. School faculty and administrators are actively participating on both the Biotechnology and Information Technology Constellation search committees. The Dean meets periodically with the Provost, Vice President for Research, and search committee chairs to coordinate actions that will expedite the hiring of outstanding senior and junior faculty members into these key positions. To date in FY02, 8 outstanding junior faculty have been hired who will support Institute in Biotechnology and Information Technology thrusts, and complementary School Key Research Focus Areas, including an ECSE junior faculty member in Imaging, 3 ECSE junior faculty members in Computer Engineering, and a CHME junior faculty member in biochemistry. A Key Research Focus Area committee comprised of 13 faculty members representing each academic program, and co-chaired by Associate Dean Lester Gerhardt and MANE Professor Prabhat Hajela, met extensively over the past summer and fall. Based on input and discussions with department chairs and faculty, the School of Engineering Advisory Board, and 8
department research priorities articulated in department Performance Plans, the group identified, defined and prioritized 7 Key Research Focus Areas: Nanotechnology; Biological Engineering; Modeling, Simulation & Design; Information Systems; Electronics, Photonics & MEMS; Engineering for Civilization; and Energy. These overarching focus areas, and 24 sub-areas, exhibit strong potential for national and global leadership and impact, a strong interdisciplinary nature, and offer significant opportunities for external research support, and collaborative teaming with government, industry and other universities. In many instances these focus areas build upon our existing core engineering research strengths, and effectively support and leverage our undergraduate and graduate academic programs. Table 2 lists the Key Research Focus Areas and sub-areas, and proposed new and replacement hires across all departments that will support these areas in FY02 and FY03. All hires made in the School of Engineering, including those listed as being At Large, from both focus area and department standpoints, will be made to support these focus areas. As shown, 7 new and replacement faculty have initiated employment in FY02 to support these research focus areas, with an additional 30 hires planned for FY03, both numbers exclusive of Institute constellation hires. Additional research-related actions that have been taken in support of School of Engineering FY02 Performance Goals include: 1) the creation of a School of Engineering Research Committee that will establish and administer an awards program to recognize faculty and staff excellence in research; 2) the support of and participation in both Research Revitalization and New Initiative Seed Grant programs through the Offices of the Provost and Vice President for Research, respectively; and 3) utilization of Research Scientist support funds to hire an outstanding ECSE staff member (which also solved a two-body hiring problem that allowed us to hire a female underrepresented minority faculty member in ECSE). School of Engineering goals for expanding the RESEARCH ENTERPRISE: Place 4 academic programs in the top 10 by FY10; Graduate 75 doctorates per year in FY05 graduate 150 doctorates per year in FY10; Increase research expenditures by 50% in FY05 achieve a doubling of current research expenditures in FY08; Increase the proportion of faculty conducting sponsored research from 65% to over 80%, and increase overall research productivity in FY05. Strategy 1:* Hire rising star senior and high-potential junior faculty in the Information Technology and Biotechnology Constellation areas. Action 1:* Work closely with Institute-level IT and Biotechnology Constellation Search Committees, the Provost and the Vice President for Research to hire faculty in the following Institute Key Research Focus Areas: Functional Tissue Engineering; Future Chip Technologies Tetherless World; Biocatalysis, Metabolic Engineering and Bioseparation Technologies; Multi-scale Computation. Hire 8 faculty in Information Technology and Biotechnology Institute Constellations 2 senior and 3 junior faculty in FY03, 1 senior and 1 junior faculty in FY04, and 1 junior faculty in FY05. 9
Strategy 2: Hire appropriate levels and numbers of tenure-track faculty in School of Engineering Key Research Focus Areas, with a priority on those areas that support the Institute thrusts in Biotechnology and Information Technology. Action 1:* In FY03, hire key faculty in School of Engineering Research Focus Areas of Nanotechnology; Biological Engineering; Modeling, Simulation & Design; Information Systems; Electronics, Photonics & MEMS; Engineering for Civilization; and Energy. Action 2: The hiring program to support School of Engineering Key Research Focus Areas, as described in Tables 1 and 2, will consist of: The hiring of 20 faculty in FY03 (7 new and 13 replacement), 10 faculty in FY04 (6 new and 4 replacement), and 7 faculty in FY05 (3 new and 4 replacement). The additional hiring of 3 women and minorities in FY03 and FY04, and 2 women and minorities in FY05, through the Provost and Dean Partnership Women and Minority Hiring Program into Key Research Focus Areas (these positions are described as At Large in Table 2). Strategy 3: Create School of Engineering research centers, and research centers joint with other schools as appropriate to encompass selected Key Research Focus Areas (some of which may evolve into Institute-level research centers). Action 1: Provide planning funds to support center startup, center director, and other initial infrastructure costs, initially for the new joint center on Pervasive Computing and Networking. Action 2: Establish a major research activity/center joint with the School of Science and Rensselaer at Hartford in collaboration with UTRC at Rentschler Field to support Fuel Cell Technology. Action 3: Implement as appropriate preliminary recommendations of the Environmental Science and Engineering Task Force to establish an Institute-wide organization to coordinate activities in Environmental science, engineering, policy, management, etc. Strategy 4: Develop policies that make faculty research proposals more competitive and provide for an environment that better supports major research activities. Action 1: Identify, assess and implement approaches for phasing out faculty charge-out. Action 2: Provide competitive, attractive start-up packages for new hires. Action 3: Provide competitive sponsored-research proposal cost-sharing budgets; Action 4: Assess effectiveness of Provost Research Revitalization Seed Grant Program and Vice President for Research New Initiative Research Seed Grant Program. Action 5: Working with the Vice President for Research, establish provisions and policies to insure maximum flexibility for initiation, performance evaluation, and sun-setting of research centers. Action 6: Provide administrative support to faculty for proposal preparation. Strategy 5: Provide infrastructure personnel and research space that supports excellence in current and anticipated future activities. 10
Action 1: Hire at least 15 full-time research staff over next three fiscal years support 100 full-time research staff by external research by FY10. Action 2: Hire 2 additional technical staff each year in FY03, FY04 and FY05 12 in 5 years. Action 3: Co-locate the ECSE and CS departments in an IT Corridor to enhance collaboration. Action 4: Create a School of Engineering Space Assessment Committee to assess requirements and develop action plans locating faculty from Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and other departments in the new Biotechnology building, and to address other space-related requirements associated with ongoing significant faculty growth and upcoming major campus relocations (e.g., Chemical Engineering in the Ricketts Building). Action 5: Obtain a School of Engineering average net increase of approximately 1000 sq. ft. of space/ new faculty member and full-time research staff member hired. Strategy 6: Develop an effective, efficient and well-coordinated working relationship between the School of Engineering and the Office of the Vice President for Research in order to optimize the research success of the School and the Institute. Action 1: Continue to meet with the Vice President for Research to coordinate research programs and activities, and develop appropriate procedures, policies, protocols, etc. Performance Measures for expanding the RESEARCH ENTERPRISE: Total annual dollar expenditures for sponsored research; Number of major research awards (i.e., exceeding $1M/yr exclusive of equipment); Research expenditures/faculty/year; Doctoral degrees granted/year; Time to degree for doctoral students; Number of NAE faculty; School graduate ranking (USNWR); Departments ranked in Top 10. GOAL 3: Increase SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENTEPRENEURSHIP across education, research, technology commercialization, new venture creation and economic development. Background and Context: Building upon its tradition of translating scientific discovery into practical application, and in partnership with the Lally School of Management & Technology, the School of Engineering must be globally recognized as a leader in technological entrepreneurship. School of Engineering graduates are becoming increasingly involved in the creation of start-up companies and in leadership roles of dynamic small and medium-sized companies. Their roles and responsibilities in these organizations typically extend well beyond that of the traditional engineer, and demand strong communication, business and leadership skills. We believe that these and other entrepreneurship skills will further contribute to the success of our graduates. 11
As the Institute and the School of Engineering rapidly grow the research enterprise, it will be critically important that we translate these discoveries into commercial products. Our success in these endeavors will demand faculty who exhibit strong entrepreneurial skills and an Institute infrastructure that supports and facilitates such activities. FY02 Progress in Achieving Goal 3: The School of Engineering is supporting an innovative MDL program aimed at developing entrepreneurship skills in engineering seniors. This new program, for which endowment support is currently being sought, involves students developing an existing Institute patent from both technical development/commercialization standpoints, and also from marketing and business development standpoints. Priority School of Engineering Goals for increasing SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Educate School of Engineering undergraduate students in the principles and practices of entrepreneurship; Increase to 25% the percentage of faculty who engage in entrepreneurship activities while maintaining excellence and productivity in teaching and scholarship; Create a School and Institute culture, environment and infrastructure that proactively supports and rewards student and faculty entrepreneurship activities. Strategy 1: Through close partnership with the Lally School of Management & Technology and the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, incorporate and integrate entrepreneurship principles and practices across the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Action 1: Incorporate entrepreneurship fundamentals into core engineering courses appropriate courses in the major, and capstone design courses including the Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory. Action 2: Establish forums where faculty, students, and successful entrepreneurs from outside the Institute can present and celebrate their entrepreneurship initiatives; support the participation of students and faculty in national entrepreneurship competitions; encourage and support involvement of student professional societies, e.g., IEEE, ASME, TMS, etc. Action 3: Strengthen and significantly grow linkages between student activities and entrepreneurial companies in the Incubator and Tech Park provide increased opportunities for students to work in these entrepreneurial settings. Action 4: Seek endowment funding to support entrepreneurship programs in the School of Engineering. Strategy 2: Encourage and support faculty entrepreneurship recognize and reward faculty for their entrepreneurial activities and successes, in particular their effective translation of research performed in Rensselaer laboratories to commercial application and the creation of new businesses. Action 1: Create an awards program that recognizes faculty and student success in entrepreneurship. Action 2: Establish School of Engineering sabbatical and leave-of-absence policies that support faculty entrepreneurship. 12
Action 3: In collaboration with the Lally School of Management, create mentoring programs, seminars, and training workshops that stimulate and educate faculty about entrepreneurship. Action 4: Working with Media Relations, celebrate and publicize student and faculty entrepreneurial activities. Action 5: Collaborate with the Office of the Vice President for Research in the review and revision of intellectual property policies. Strategy 3: Hire Entrepreneurial Faculty. Action 1: Include entrepreneurial experience as a criterion in the hiring of Information Technology and Biotechnology constellation faculty. Performance Measures for increasing SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Number of School courses that incorporate entrepreneurship principles and practices; % of students involved in entrepreneurial activities outside of the classroom; % of faculty involved in entrepreneurial activities; Number of alumni who see themselves as successful entrepreneurs; Number of research-related results translated to commercial products; Income derived by the Institute from new ventures; Number of successful start-up companies begun by Rensselaer faculty and students; GOAL 4: Achieve true intellectual, geographic, gender and ethnic DIVERSITY in our students, faculty, and staff, in order to draw upon the best talent available, and prepare our students to work and lead in a global economy. Background and Context: Rensselaer s graduates of the 21 st century will be the leaders of tomorrow in a global workplace environment that is increasingly diverse. Therefore, the School of Engineering must create a learning environment and campus culture that support, value, and demonstrate diversity of race, ethnicity and gender where diversity is seen as a major enabling component of advancing institutional excellence. Over the past decade, the School of Engineering has successfully grown its population of women students to over 22%, a level commensurate with our benchmark engineering schools. Furthermore, our innovative Women in Engineering Program has contributed to a high student satisfaction rate that has drawn national attention. However, in comparison with our peer engineering institutions we remain deficient in our population of female and underrepresented minority faculty, and to a lesser extent, our population of underrepresented minority undergraduate and graduate students. Our population of women and underrepresented minority faculty, which on a percentage basis is about one-half of our benchmark engineering schools, is especially problematic since faculty are highly visible members of the campus community, serve as important role models to undergraduate students, and play an important role in mentoring graduate students. Indeed, our ability to further increase the population of women students and underrepresented minority students, particularly at the doctoral level where faculty member/student interactions are the most important, may be strongly dependent on our ability to grow these underrepresented faculty populations. 13
FY02 Progress Toward Achieving Goal 4: Two outstanding women faculty (one who is also an underrepresented minority) were hired during the Summer of 2001 as part of the Provost and Dean Partnership Women and Minority Hiring Assistance Program. Professor Alejandra Mercado, a computer engineer, joined ECSE, and Professor Susan Sharfstein, a biochemical engineer, joined CHME. Current searches are actively seeking women and underrepresented minority candidates, and several of these individuals have visited campus during Fall 2001 and are strong candidates. It is anticipated that at least two additional women or underrepresented minority faculty members will be hired this academic year. This success rate has resulted in the raising of our diversity goals versus the FY02 Performance Plan. Priority School of Engineering Goals for achieving DIVERSITY: Hire at least five women faculty and three underrepresented minority faculty in the School of Engineering over the next three years to a level commensurate with our benchmark Institutions emphasizing the hiring of rising-star full professors who will serve as magnets to attract women and underrepresented junior faculty and students; Retain our women and underrepresented minority faculty; Recruit, support and retain to graduation double the number of women and underrepresented minority graduate students. Strategy 1: Develop programs that provide strong financial incentives to departments to proactively seek qualified women and underrepresented minority faculty. Action 1: Expand the Provost and Dean Partnership Women and Minority Faculty Hiring Assistance Program in which the Dean s and the Provost s Offices equally share the salary and benefits of highly qualified women and underrepresented minority faculty who are identified and recruited by the School or its departments. Action 2: Aggressively seek to hire rising-star women and underrepresented minority faculty at the full professor rank seek endowed chairs to support these positions. Strategy 2: Increase visibility of Women in Engineering program on and off campus. Action 1: Highlight and promote WIE events, activities and programs, including scholarships, on a prominent WIE web site. Action 2: Introduce quarterly newsletter that highlights WIE activities and events that are of professional and personal interest to students. Strategy 3:* Establish a formal mentoring program for all new women and underrepresented minority faculty to assist in their adjustment to Rensselaer, and their journey through the promotion and tenure process. Action 1: Create a School of Engineering committee to develop and oversee this program. Action 2:* Strengthen our welcoming program for all new faculty, with emphasis on providing for the special requirements of women and underrepresented minority faculty. Strategy 4: Working with the Graduate School, and Offices of Enrollment Management and Institute Diversity, develop programs that promote interest and the enrollment of women and underrepresented minority graduate students in the School of Engineering. 14
Action 1: Provide funds to support recruitment trips for outstanding women or underrepresented minority doctoral student candidates. Action 2: Aggressively seek corporate funding to support new and innovative programs that expose potential graduate students to the campus. Action 3: Establish new collaborations and partnerships with historically minority and women s colleges and universities. Strategy 5: Develop programs and activities that reconnect School of Engineering alumnae with the campus for the purposes of mentoring students, developing networking opportunities among themselves and with students, identifying and attracting potential faculty members, etc. Action 1: Establish Women in Engineering advisory committee comprised largely of alumnae who are senior technical managers to review and evaluate WIE programs, recommend new directions, provide ongoing financial support for WIE programs and to mentor and network with students. Performance Measures for ACHIEVING DIVERSITY: % of women faculty; % of underrepresented minority faculty; Number of rising-star women full professors; Number of rising-star underrepresented minority full professors; Promotion/tenure and retention rates of women and underrepresented minority faculty; % of full-time women graduate students; % of full-time underrepresented minority graduate students. GOAL 5: Draw vitality from, and add vitality to our diverse COMMUNITIES on campus, among alumni and friends, and in the city, region, state, nation and around the globe. Background and Context: The success of the School of Engineering will be critically dependent on our ability to develop strong, mutually-beneficial partnerships with members of the campus community and with our many and diverse external stakeholders. Key to our success in education and particularly in research will be our development of strong, strategic partnerships with business and industry. In the past, the School of Engineering has been recognized as a national leader in industry collaboration primarily through research. In the future, our relationships with companies must become more comprehensive, interdependent, and viewed as being of strong mutual benefit both in the near-term and strategically. We must initially focus our efforts on global companies with strong regional presence that are moving in the same technological directions as the Institute and the School, and then expand our horizons to develop similar relationships with other companies across the nation and the globe. A key to our success in building external communities will be our effective communication and marketing using stateof-the-art electronic technologies. Finally, a requirement for the success of our private institution will be the much enhanced engagement of our alumni and friends directly with the campus, through their activity on the School and department advisory committees, visiting committees, and by their formal recognition and award. 15