  | ||||
| ||||
 Engineering News Home | |
From the Dean
GREAT!" Lately this has been my response when friends and acquaintances ask, "How's it going at the Engineering School?" Of course, like any other academic organization, we have a number of problems and challenges facing us. However, thanks to our "stakeholders" -- alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, friends in business and industry, and more -- things are going GREAT!  At Commencement ceremonies
on May 8 for the 1998-1999 academic year, the Engineering School conferred
321 undergraduate degrees, 79 masters degrees, and 22 PhDs. In August,
we welcomed the undergraduate class of 2003. This group of 228 men and
98 women is the best qualified incoming class in Engineering School
history with an average SAT score of 1312. Across the board, the undergraduates
in our School are terrific -- they have great ability, and they are
mature and articulate. Additionally, we have welcomed a new group of
graduate students who will study at an advanced level in their fields
and join with the faculty in pushing research frontiers.In July, the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer
Science merged to form the new Department of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science. I am convinced that the E-School will be much
better positioned to meet the needs of our students in the computing
disciplines and to compete in the development of stronger information
technology activities as a result of this alignment. Information technology
spans the teaching and research activities of the programs involved
in this change: electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer
science. The 21st century is being proclaimed by many pundits as the
information age. The Engineering School must be positioned to be a leader
in information technology if we are to realize our ambitions for national
prominence.Throughout the year,
engineering research programs at Vanderbilt continued to grow in quality
and strength. Our faculty have been very successful at gaining external
research support in a very competitive environment. We recently have
seen important "wins" in bioengineering, software engineering, solid-state
electronics, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering. In each
case, our faculty is carving out new, non-traditional research areas
and developing some really exciting collaborations between departments.
One benefit of a strong and growing research program is the ability
to attract top talent as new faculty. We are excited about the new faculty
members who have joined the Engineering School in the past few years.
They bring excellent research skills from other top research programs.
I anticipate this trend will continue, resulting in new programs and
new opportunities for engineering research and engineering education
in our School.And finally, a very
special "GREAT!" The School has raised sufficient funds to win Vanderbilt
administration and Board of Trust approval for its first major building
project in more than 25 years. The building will bring to the School
a great improvement in facilities for engineering education and research.
You will find more about this in this edition of Engineering News.
We owe a lot to our alumni and to friends of the Engineering School
who, truly, make this possible.So, you ask, "How are
things going"? I say -- "GREAT!" Kenneth F. Galloway Dean of the School of Engineering
Engineering News Home | School of Engineering
Homepage | Vanderbilt University
Homepage | ||
