Where people, ideas, and possibilities intersect to serve our learners and our community! This newsletter highlights the ways PCE faculty and staff are building on our strong history of education and engagement and finding innovative ways to prepare the problem solvers of the future. 

It's been an exciting month as the academic year has gotten off to such a positive start!

From our classrooms and labs to events with our external stakeholders, the excellence of PCE has been on full display. Sharing and celebrating our successes is important, both internally and externally. With that in mind, I'm happy to share with you our newly relaunched newsletter, which has been crafted to give you and all of our alumni a quick update on some recent highlights. 

PCE is in the top 20% of undergraduate engineering programs and our top story shows that others are taking notice! Our  status as a public university allows us to provide this high quality education while also providing great value to our learners, their families and our region. 

I know that these past few weeks are just the beginning of what will be a great year. Thank you for all you do to contribute to our excellence. 

Bayo Ogundipe,

Padnos College of Engineering Dean

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2027 Best Colleges rankings and PCE comes in at #55 on the list of Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (no doctorate). PCE climbed more than 20 spots in the rankings this year and is the leading public university in Michigan in this category. 

"The Padnos College of Engineering is committed to preparing engineers with the skills and mindset to build the future," said Bayo Ogundipe, Padnos College of Engineering dean.

PCE comes in third overall in the state and is in the top 20% nationally in our category. 

On September 10, the GE Aerospace Foundation launched the Next Engineers program in Grand Rapids in partnership with the Padnos College of Engineering. 

West Michigan was chosen as the latest location in this worldwide program. PCE is receiving a five-year grant from the foundation to coordinate opportunities for thousands of K-12 students to explore engineering fields through mentoring and project-based programming. PCE Dean Bayo Ogundipe spoke at the event and highlighted the ways in which the program will work alongside current outreach from GVSU.

Students, faculty, and industry partners gathered during Tech Week Grand Rapids at the Shape Corp. Innovation Design Center, for the launch of Blue Spark, PCE’s new “innovation sandbox.”

Blue Spark is a space in which industry partners and entrepreneurs can collaborate with PCE to turn ideas into realities. Community members can engage with PCE faculty and students to brainstorm, refine, test, and problem solve. Featured speakers highlighted the impact of PCE students and graduates on community projects and businesses. As Dean Ogundipe said, “We are opening up our doors to the community.”

Starting college can be intimidating! But incoming freshmen who took part in the STAR (Scholarly Training for Academic Resilience) Camp this summer were ready to hit the ground running this fall.

Over four weeks, a group of incoming students lived on campus and worked on two projects, which they presented during the Engineering Design Conference. The summer program, funded by an NSF grant, also provides scholarships that will support the students through graduation.

The first six weeks of higher ed are crucial to a student's chances for long-term success and PCE faculty and staff put countless hours into this work. They are encouraged by this year's results and already working on next year!

An Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) student is being celebrated as a success story when it comes to student support.

Jason Murray (Class of 2027) was hooked on OSH after having conversations with alumni and faculty about the different aspects of the field. Murray is the inaugural recipient of the Ron E. Averill '89 Occupational Health and Safety Management Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Ron E. Averill graduated from GVSU and spent his career working in occupational safety. 

Murray is the subject of a profile in the latest issue of Horizons, GVSU's Institutional Advancement newsletter. In the piece, Murray says he is "a lot more confident in knowing that I'm capable of doing whatever I want to do.”

The 2026 Wooden Shoe Regatta was the 25th edition of the event and had an extra level of celebration. In addition to saluting the Fluid Mechanics students who created nearly 70 wooden sailboats, the 2026 gathering recognized PCE professor Shirley Fleischmann, who brought the Regatta to GVSU and is retiring at the end of the 2026-2027 academic year. 

The 2026 boatmakers joined the hundreds of students who, over the past few decades under Fleischmann's instruction, have designed and built boats that were christened with champagne and judged for style and speed. 

Do you have news about a PCE student or alumna that you would like to share?