Gregory L. Fenves
Jan. 10, 2012
As the year begins, it's a good time to reflect on the past one, celebrate our accomplishments and look toward an even more successful year ahead. Is the Cockrell School on track for achieving its goals, and where are improvements needed? Our three-part mission stands firm: educate engineering leaders, create knowledge through use-inspired research and distribute that knowledge in effective, usable ways. Our goals, including those achieved in 2011 and those planned for 2012, are directly focused on this mission for the benefit of our students, our Longhorn alumni and — most importantly — for society.
The following is a glimpse back and a sense of what is on the horizon:
Evolving Engineering Education
Understanding ever-changing needs, leading discoveries of new technologies and incorporating these developments into the engineering curriculum are the most exciting challenges for our faculty and students. One of the primary ways we inject new ideas into the classroom is through hiring new faculty. The Cockrell School had a very successful recruitment year in 2011, with 14 new faculty members joining our seven departments, including the new Mechanical Engineering Department Chair, Dr. Jayathi Murthy. For 2012, our goal is to hire 17 new professors in a range of priority strategic areas.
Another success in 2011 was the addition of a new undergraduate class that inspires innovative and entrepreneurial experience: 1 Semester Startup, co-taught by Engineering Professor of Innovation Bob Metcalfe, along with counterparts from the university's Computer Science Department and the McCombs School of Business. Bob's class was a huge success and it will continue for students wanting to learn about technology innovation.
Creating Knowledge through Research
The past year ushered in many exciting research discoveries at the Cockrell School, in areas such as energy, healthcare, and infrastructure. As you'll see in the video, these advances are made through collaborative research efforts between our faculty and students working across disciplines.
I know a video alone can't capture the impact of all of our research at the Cockrell School, so I hope you'll continue to follow our research and educational accomplishments in UT Engineer and on our Web site.
Distributing Knowledge
The Cockrell School was proud that the first "Inventor of the Year" awards at The University of Texas at Austin went to engineering faculty Drs. John Goodenough and Adam Heller. The celebration of these outstanding inventors and the recognition of many of the faculty-inventors in the Cockrell School emphasize the close relationship between engineering knowledge creation and commercialization opportunities, which allow technologies to benefit millions of people. The Office of Technology Commercialization continues its support of engineering faculty with an ongoing series of workshops about the many facets of the commercialization process.
Progress on the Engineering Education Research Center
The Cockrell School's top priority is to provide the tools necessary to fulfill our three-part mission. One tool is the planned Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC) that will provide urgently needed teaching, student project and interdisciplinary research space. In 2011, we reached several milestones toward that goal. One was The University of Texas System Board of Regents' approval of $105 million in funding for the EERC to come from the university's Permanent University Fund. This was a huge vote of confidence for our project by Chairman Gene Powell and the entire Board of Regents.
In addition, 2011 marked generous donations by the Cockrell School's Engineering Advisory Board members and friends of the Cockrell School. While our fundraising progress has been good, there are still important milestones that need to be met in 2012 to complete the funding requirements and break ground on the EERC.
In closing, I wish you a very Happy New Year. I greatly appreciate the incredible support of our alumni and friends to our students, faculty and programs. These are exciting times to be a part of engineering education and research, and we could not achieve the successes we do without your help.
