Dean's Message Summer 2013
Congratulations to the Class of 2013! The Design, Build, Fly Team ended the year on a high note by taking first place in a national competition. Our commencement celebration featured nearly 100 senior design project displays and demonstrations. Families and friends witnessed their graduates accepting the obligation of the Order of the Engineer and a stainless steel ring.
As this academic year comes to an end, we can feel great about the many accomplishments we have made in the previous year. Just to highlight a few:
- Novel Partnerships: We have established a Corporate Partners Program to better help companies engage our students and faculty. Our partnership with the Paul Merage School of Business has culminated with an inaugural class of students in our Masters of Science in Engineering Management. Our partnership with Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences continues to grow with merged services in facilities and advancement. Globally, we established new partnerships with Tel Aviv University and Salman Bin Abdulaziz University culminating in two joint research conferences and an undergraduate trainee program.
- Research Enterprise: We've made tremendous progress in improving our support for the research enterprise with six new programs aimed at helping faculty secure more awards. Our Small Business Innovative Research program has been incredibly successful with more than 32 submissions this year, more than triple our previous high. We have also initiated new relationships with Sandia National Labs, Lawrence Livermore National labs, Los Alamos National Labs and HRL.
- Reinvent and Retool: Our program to restructure our School has been a great success we have completed a significant overhaul of our promotion and tenure process with focus on increasing quality. Most notable of these accomplishments is the implementation of the Academic Personnel Advisory Committee, which has already had a profound impact in improving our academic promotion and tenure processes.
- Competitive Distinction through Experiential Learning: We've launched our first year engineering program giving more than 100 engineering freshmen a design build, and test experience. We have also restructured our student projects and internship programs giving our students much more experience at every academic level and increasing their attractiveness to industry. Finally, we have launched a summer "hands on" learning laboratory program for 60 seventh and eighth graders called FabCamp.
With the 2013 graduates on their way, we turn our attention to the incoming class - the largest in our school's history. More students are making the Samueli School their choice for an engineering education like none other. As we gear up for a new academic year, we look forward to continued growth in enrollment, research, new initiatives and productivity.
Warmest regards,
GW!