GOALS: (1) To lead signature areas of research and economic development to drive breakthroughs that have societal impact, and (2) to train graduate students to become outstanding technical leaders and innovative researchers.

Focus and build on strengths of the college, in collaboration with centers, institutes, and other colleges/units

  1. Invest in strategic research areas of strength by targeted faculty hiring and fostering research collaborations and interaction with centers, institutes, other colleges and units, and industry.
  2. Maintain world-class research facilities; strategic investment in new infrastructure to enable research in current and emerging grand challenges in engineering.
  3. Actively coordinate writing proposals for larger, multidisciplinary research grants in identified research areas. 
  4. Increase number of research and graduate student training proposals in targeted research areas.

Maintain strong research funding and identify new sources of support for research/graduate programs

  1. Maintain strong numbers and sizes of research proposals submitted by faculty and research staff as PIs, MPIs, and co-Is.
  2. Continue to identify, monitor, and address barriers to student success.
  3. Expand access to pre- and post-award support.  

Reward/support faculty, staff and students for achieving excellence in research and contributions to mission of the college

  1. Develop a fair metric widely accepted by the faculty and staff that properly values diverse contributions of faculty and staff to the college/university mission.
  2. Develop a mechanism for broad appreciation of disciplinary and/or inter-disciplinary research contributions from faculty, staff, and students.

Focus on recruitment of a high-quality, diverse graduate student body 

  1. Increase the number of graduate students, especially PhD students.
  2. Improve recruitment practices of a high-quality, diverse graduate student body across the college.

Focus on the educational/research experience and training/professional development of graduate students 

  1. Facilitate inter-department collaboration and sharing of best practices for mentoring, enhancing URM and female student representation, professional development, social and leadership opportunities; writing support, etc.
  2. Recognize and credit graduate students for their achievements.
  3. Improve graduate student life in the college and university.

We can meet our research goals if we (1) maintain and enhance our leadership position on campus and beyond when confronting the grand challenges of the 21st century; (2) support a collegiate culture in which all faculty, staff, and students advance the research mission through their pursuit of excellence; and (3) enhance the quality, size, and diversity of the graduate student body while focusing on graduate student success.