2024 Strategic Priorities Update

July 1, 2024

I’m very pleased to share progress on implementing the College of Engineering’s 2021-2025 Strategic Priorities. As many of you know, in 2021, following a College-wide planning process, we established four key priorities focused on 1) undergraduate education; 2) our graduate students; 3) research and innovation; and 4) supporting a diverse and inclusive engineering community.

To ensure progress toward these goals, the College formed four new committees, one for each goal, each chaired by an Associate Dean and including representatives from all five of our engineering departments. The committees help set desired outcomes under each goal, and the College tracks key results and progress. I’m grateful that our College has taken great strides in advancing these priorities. The following are some highlights.

This priority was driven by a clear desire across the College to offer more support and flexibility for engineering students to ensure that all students can realize their full potential. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, chaired by Michael Ryan, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Academic Affairs, helps support this priority.

Following an evaluation of the undergraduate engineering curriculum, student experience, and outcomes, we harmonized the curricula and degree requirements across all departments, reduced credits required for undergraduate degrees to a maximum of 128, and made it simpler for students to earn a minor. In a bold effort to expand experiential learning, the Engineering Innovation Hub (EIH) was opened in August 2021. The EIH became a focal point for introducing engineering design to all first-year students as well as a resource for departments and student clubs.

To expand mentoring in support of each student’s personal discernment and post-graduation aspirations, we increased the engineering undergraduate advising team from 2 to 5 individuals. We also designed and introduced ACES (Academically Collaborative Engineering Spaces) to provide study rooms and small group tutoring for core classes.

To increase College-level support for student co-curricular and extracurricular activities, Kerry Meyers was appointed Associate Dean for Student Development. Among her first accomplishments was the launch of a pilot program to increase student access to formational undergraduate research experiences for credit.

We also established the E-SURE (Engineering Summer Research Experience) program, directed by Shreya Kumar, Assistant Teaching Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. E-SURE affords important summer research opportunities for both our Notre Dame undergraduates and others around the country. The College organized faculty workshops on inclusive classroom pedagogy and on the instruction of inclusive laboratory and project classes, as well as auxiliary math summer programs for rising sophomores. 

This priority was motivated by our commitment to ensuring that graduate students can excel in meaningful and fulfilling careers, deepening their knowledge and skills through interdisciplinary research opportunities, mentoring, and training. We also seek to significantly improve graduate student recruiting, support, and placement.

A key effort in this area was the creation of a new role, Associate Dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (Jason Hicks) to support Ph.D. student recruitment as well as current engineering graduate students and postdocs. Jason chairs the graduate studies committee that supports this priority. Another new role, Graduate Program Director (Amber Li) supports Ph.D. student recruitment and enhances engineering graduate student life.

The College established a minimum 12-month stipend for Ph.D. students of $40,000 (starting August 2024) thanks to support from the Graduate School and our Provost. Also, in collaboration with the Graduate School, we set an annual stipend of $45,000 for Ph.D. students who gain prestigious external fellowships over the period of the fellowship, to reward students and encourage students to apply for such opportunities.

Thanks to Kerry Meyers and Associate Teaching Professor Todd Taylor, we introduced a new two-part course aimed at second/third year Ph.D. students, focusing on career discernment and opportunities and leadership development. We also introduced a new two-part course aimed at fourth/fifth year Ph.D. students, focused on entrepreneurship and translation of research knowledge to action (a joint venture with the College of Science and the IDEA Center). We partnered with a Care and Wellness Specialist (James Tull) to offer additional resources to all engineering graduate students.

This upcoming academic year, Kerry Meyers and Todd Taylor will pilot a series of monthly events to build community among our incoming graduate students. In addition, we are collaborating with the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning to provide training support for all graduate student TAs.

This priority grew out of the College’s desire to lead in research that addresses important challenges facing humanity, discovering new knowledge, and pursuing its translation into engaged and ethical solutions. We began by analyzing the College and University research portfolio to identify strategic connections and opportunities in our research themes (Human Health and Well-Being; Sustainability of the Built and Natural Environment; and Fair and Equitable Systems and Technologies).

We partnered with the College of Science to propose a theme – The Future of Health at the Crossroads of Science and Engineering – for a new interdisciplinary research building. This led to the successful funding of the new McCourtney Hall II Building (MCH2), anticipated to open Winter 2025. We also partnered with the College of Science on a proposal for the new Bioengineering and Life Sciences (BELS) Initiative to amplify and expand current expertise in bioengineering, medical, and health-related research. BELS has been raised to a University-level priority under the University Strategic Framework. Paul Bohn, the Arthur J. Schmitt Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has been named the founding director.

Mark McCready was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs. His new role is to support the research areas called out in the College’s Strategic Priorities as well as new research initiatives, research space planning, and the development of an international research strategy. Mark also chairs the research committee that helps support this priority.

We piloted — again with the College of Science — the STIR (Seed Transformative Interdisciplinary Research grants) to support new interdisciplinary “high-risk, high-reward” research efforts. The university has now made available grants for faculty to pursue new research and scholarship in alignment with the major university-wide priorities. Not least, we developed a proposal for Equitable Energy Transitions that is enabling growing support for faculty hiring and Ph.D. students. A senior hire, who will be the inaugural Richard and Ellen Stanley Endowed Chair in Engineering, is planned for this academic year.

This priority centers on efforts to be a place where all students, faculty, staff, and alumni can thrive, and where our actions reflect our commitment to the University’s values. The first step taken was the establishment of a DEI Task Force that led to the College of Engineering’s Action Items for DEI.

We created the role of Director of DEI (Yvette Rodriguez), and this position was recently endowed as the Wilma Sanchez Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Engineering. We established a College-level DEI Committee chaired by the Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity (James Schmiedeler) and created directors of DEI in each department to become part of departmental leadership.

For students, we developed the ELITE (Enhancing Leadership through Intentional and Transformative Experience) Engineers program to support leadership development for all undergraduate engineering students, especially those currently underrepresented in STEM. We also partnered with Admissions to re-envision the St. Joseph’s Scholars program to provide annual professional development funds as well as financial aid to high-achieving undergraduate students currently underrepresented in engineering — making Notre Dame more competitive for attracting and recruiting such students.

To strengthen the pipeline of students considering engineering, we added two EIH-based pre-college engineering programs to our existing portfolio of summer high-school programs, with an emphasis on engaging our local South Bend high-school students. 

For faculty, we initiated hiring workshops to allow Engineering Faculty Search Chairs to share best practices on broadening applicant pools. The Edison Lecture Series and Future Faculty Workshops brought to campus potential faculty candidates who could increase representation in engineering.

A College of Engineering Climate Survey for engineering faculty highlighted a need to improve the climate for, and recognition of, staff in the College. We established an annual Staff Excellence Award, and a Staff Engagement and Culture Committee was formed to provide input in this area. We introduced a number of events for faculty and staff to help support a culture of community and inclusion, including a Welcome Back Reception at the start of the Fall Semester, an annual Town Hall in the Spring Semester, an End-of-Year Celebration just before Commencement, and an annual event celebrating faculty promotions and staff awards.

Looking ahead, we will continue striving to meet our four goals. This Fall semester, with the valued support of our colleagues in IRIS (Institutional Research, Innovation, & Strategy), we will revisit some of the objectives under each goal and determine whether they need to be reimagined, updated, and/or replaced. We will do this by considering our progress as well as our important role in supporting the University’s Strategic Framework.

I look forward to engaging our Notre Dame Engineering community in this exercise and also to the next four years of progress as we all work toward a common goal of building A Better World for All.

Sincerely,

Patricia J. Culligan
Matthew H. McCloskey Dean
College of Engineering

257 Fitzpatrick Hall of Engineering
Notre Dame, IN 46556
engineering.nd.edu

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