Purdue invests $10.2 million to engineer better education

November 19, 2004

Purdue invests $10.2 million to engineer better education

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – As part of an effort to encourage American-born students to pursue engineering careers, Purdue University will earmark more than $10 million for engineering education.

Purdue's Board of Trustees today (Friday, Nov. 19) approved the use of $10.2 million from the Vincent P. Reilly Memorial Fund for Engineering Education, established with gift funds in 1970 to promote excellence in the field. The sum will be distributed among four engineering initiatives considered critical. These include undergraduate and graduate education improvement, faculty and staff recruitment, and raising the visibility of engineering research.

"Improvements in these four areas will encourage the best young minds to choose a Purdue engineering education, which has long been known as one of the finest in the world," said Linda P. B. Katehi, the John A Edwardson Dean of Engineering at Purdue. "The Reilly fund contribution will help us build on our strength in undergraduate engineering education while we improve our faculty and staff quality, improve the quality of graduate education and increase our research visibility. Achieving these goals is critical not only to the college of engineering, but to the university as a whole."

Earlier this year, Purdue also revamped and merged two departments to create a Department of Engineering Education as another step in this direction.

"One recent study showed that the number of high school seniors planning on careers in engineering has dropped more than 35 percent in the past 10 years," Katehi said. "At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor estimates that the number of jobs to be filled in engineering and science will grow at more than three times the rate of other professions."

The trustees allocated the funds to four areas considered strategic:

– $1 million to enhance undergraduate engineering education, supporting initiatives such as the Engineering Projects in Community Service and cooperative education programs; undergraduate marketing and recruiting; and programs that support freshmen, underrepresented minorities and women in engineering.

– $6.2 million to improve faculty and staff quality in an effort to remain competitive in the international engineering employment market. These funds will provide start-up packages to new faculty, provide discretionary funds for National Academy of Engineering members, increase funding for distinguished professors and enhance facilities.

– $500,000 to improve the quality of graduate education through recruitment and retention strategies, collaborations to increase the quality and diversity of graduate students, international programs for graduate student exchange, additional fellowships for top graduate students, and new curricula and degree initiatives.

– $2.5 million to increase research visibility, which will be used to provide seed funding for new research initiatives, leverage external and internal funding for research facilities, and provide funding for temporary space during the construction of new research facilities.

Vincent P. Reilly, who received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue in 1922, bequeathed approximately $4.5 million to Purdue in 1969 for promoting the achievement of excellence in engineering education. Since 1970 the Vincent P. Reilly Memorial Fund for Engineering Education has supported numerous educational endeavors in engineering.

The College of Engineering's long-term plan calls for $267 million in new construction, $81 million in new equipment and $60 million in renovations to meet anticipated needs for the next 15 to 20 years. The college has 13 academic programs and nearly 6,200 undergraduate students and is one of the largest in the nation.

Writer: Chad Boutin, (765) 494-2081, cboutin@purdue.edu

Sources: Linda P.B. Katehi, (765) 494-5346, katehi@purdue.edu

Chris Martin, financial affairs for engineering, (765) 494-5334, cjmartin@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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