Purdue News

February 16, 2001 Purdue engineering dean: School on track to become No. 1 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.– A committee of the Purdue University Board of Trustees today (Friday, 2/16) heard a report citing progress, plans and opportunities for the Schools of Engineering. "Our schools' building plans include more than brick and mortar," Richard Schwartz, dean of the Schools of Engineering, told the trustees' academic affairs committee. "We're also building a top educational opportunity." Schwartz said several signs indicate the schools are well on their way toward their vision of becoming the best in the nation: • Employers as well as academics rank Purdue among national leaders. For example, in U.S. News and World Report's recent survey, recruiters rank Purdue graduate students third in the nation. Six of the Purdue engineering schools rank among the top 10, while the graduate program ranks ninth overall. • Purdue engineers are among the university's graduates making their mark in management. Forbes magazine recently reported that among public universities, Purdue has the most graduates serving as chief executive officers among the 800 largest public companies. When compared with all universities, Purdue ranked sixth. • Engineering is working to diversify its faculty and students, Schwartz said. Of the 17 new faculty hired in the fall, six are women and one is African-American. The university has graduated more women engineers than any other school in the country. Currently about 22 percent of Purdue engineering undergraduates are women, compared to 19 percent nationwide. • The school is in its fourth year of offering two programs to promote multicultural and gender diversity through workshops for faculty, staff, alumni, student leaders and visitors. To date about 40 percent of the schools' 270 faculty have taken part in at least one of the three-day workshops. • Continuing Engineering Education offers distance education to 500 graduate students in eight states and four countries. • More than 20 multidisciplinary teams of engineering students are helping Greater Lafayette non-profit organizations solve problems. Working through Purdue's Engineering Projects in Community Service program (called "EPICS"), one team of undergraduate engineering students is developing a database to link Lafayette community service organizations that provide shelter, food, counseling and other support for the homeless and working poor. The database will allow the agencies for the first time to share information electronically about people who ask for help. In addition to the homelessness database, other projects include designing computer-controlled toys for children with disabilities and developing devices to help students with a disability to live more independently. More than five other universities have modeled programs based on the Purdue success. • More companies, alumni and friends than ever are investing in Purdue engineering. In the 12 months ending last July, their support brought in $19 million in gifts and pledges. In the seventh month of this fiscal year, giving has exceeded $28 million. The gifts will support, in part, the engineering master plan, unveiled a year ago, which will expand physical space by 60 percent. The outgrowth of more than three years of comprehensive planning, engineering's master plan expansion/improvement project includes approximately $250 million in new construction, $100 million in new equipment and technology and $60 million in renovations. The project is expected to meet anticipated needs for the next 15 to 20 years, Schwartz said. The plans include: • A new 250,000-square-foot multidisciplinary building at the corner of Northwestern and Stadium avenues. The building and the utility upgrades that support it are expected to cost $57 million. Purdue has asked the state to fund all but $10 million dollars, with the rest to come from private donations. Among the schools and programs it will house are the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the department of Freshman Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering, as well as the Women in Engineering and the Minority Engineering programs. Vacated areas in many buildings now housing other engineering disciplines will be available for remodeling and reassignment. • Expansion of the buildings that house the schools of Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering and the renovation of these and eight other buildings. • A new research complex that will include facilities for nanotechnology and other types of interdisciplinary research involving high-performance, large-scale projects, perception-based engineering and others. With an undergraduate enrollment of nearly 6,000, graduate enrollment of about 1,800 and a faculty of about 270, Purdue's engineering program is one of the largest in the United States. It encompasses 13 schools, departments and divisions: aeronautics and astronautics; agricultural and biological; biomedical; chemical; civil; construction engineering and management; freshman; electrical and computer; industrial; interdisciplinary; materials; mechanical; and nuclear. Source: Richard J. Schwartz, (765) 494-5345; schwartz@ecn.purdue.edu Writer: Grant Flora; (765) 494-2073; gflora@purdue.edu Related Web site: U.S. News and World Report rankings To the Purdue News and Photos Page