 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
Cover Story
|
|
|
 The previous academic year was another good one for the College of Engineering. Our graduates, faculty, staff, and students achieved numerous successes despite continued budget cuts that left all of us with fewer resources. The current year is off to a good start as well. Enrollment for fall 2002 was up for the seventh consecutive year. We have over 4,900 undergraduate students and more than 900 graduate students. Our engineering student body has 208 national merit scholars—more than the entire University of Iowa. We climbed two notches in the rankings of engineering colleges by undergraduate enrollment. We are now the seventh largest engineering college in the U.S.; fewer than 300 students separate us from the fifth and sixth largest programs.Our faculty and staff continue to receive local, national, and international recognition for their work. Patents were recently awarded to 16 of our researchers; three others received the prestigious faculty early career development grant from the National Science Foundation. In addition, more than 100 faculty members received honors from various professional organizations. Our students also captured regional and national attention: An engineering graduate student was honored for his leadership as a minority in engineering. One of our undergraduates was named a Tau Beta Pi laureate—one of only three so honored in the nation. These achievements—and others too numerous to mention here—are the reasons I feel so confident about our newly launched initiative to become one of the top 20 engineering programs in the U.S. by 2012. It’s a stretch objective for us, one that will require resolve and hard work, but it’s something we can do. In fact, it is something we must do. My rationale for the objective, a discussion of the work it will require, and some of the benefits of reaching the goal are outlined in a document titled “Reach for the Top; A Bold New Initiative for the College of Engineering.” I hope you will take time to review the document and then share your comments with me. (“Reach for the Top” is available online at www.eng.iastate.edu/Reach. To request a hard- copy version, please contact Pam Reinig, 515-294-0261. Please send comments on the initiative to Dean Melsa at melsa@iastate.edu.)  |
|
|
|||
 |
|
 |
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
