Strategic
Plan for Penn Engineering
January
9, 2004
INTRODUCTION
Today’s Penn Engineering fulfills the original vision
of Benjamin Franklin, one of our country’s first engineers.
The School of Arts, Mines and Manufacture founded in 1852
evolved into a vibrant institution where both the useful and
the ornamental thrive. Undergraduate students receive an education
that is both professional and liberal, drawing from the resources
of the entire University. They are well prepared for the practice
of rewarding technology-based careers. Research-oriented faculty
carry out cutting-edge well-funded work while highly engaged
in the School’s educational mission. The School’s
professional masters and research-based PhD programs are among
the finest in the nation. Penn Engineering is poised for a
further rise in stature. This plan is the roadmap for making
it possible.
Both engineering and applied science deal with technology,
the main result of human activity, the driver of our country’s
economy, the key determinant of the quality of our lives and
of their duration, and a major component of contemporary culture.
Penn Engineering is proud to be the home of technology on
the Penn campus, and is the technology-rich partner in a myriad
of collaborations with the other Schools of the University.
In turn, the presence and proximity of those Schools represent
its own major strategic advantage. Other tangible advantages
include the world-class quality of faculty in a number of
areas, the talent, inquisitiveness and diverse backgrounds
of its students, the proficiency and professionalism of its
staff, its Philadelphia location, its ties to local and regional
technology-based corporations and the successful careers of
its alumni.
Because of Penn Engineering’s strong interactions
with the rest of the Penn campus, this strategic plan is strongly
interdisciplinary and is consistent with the goals of the
University’s strategic plan, “Building on Excellence:
The Leadership Agenda.” It also aims to capture the
entrepreneurial spirit inherently fostered by Penn in each
of its Schools through its management system of responsibility
centers.
PENN ENGINEERING’S GUIDING
PRINCIPLES AND IDENTITY
The name of the School, “Engineering and Applied Science,”
captures the dual nature of academic engineering in the U.S.
Engineering builds on its indispensable foundations in mathematics
and the natural sciences that lead to our understanding of
the physical world. At the same time, engineers strive to
apply that understanding, to generate new methods, new devices,
new materials and new systems. Engineering is a profession
of builders, rarely practiced individually but often by teams,
a profession that rarely deals with isolated phenomena but
often with complex systems of interacting elements. It never
limits itself to the understanding of processes and the creation
of technologies but is always concerned with their application,
their management, the entrepreneurial activities that make
them a reality, and the ethical issues that may ensue from
them.
Penn Engineering seeks an optimal balance between fundamental
science and professional practice. This balance is expressed
by the curricula of the School’s degree programs, by
the opportunities lent to both undergraduate and graduate
students to attain and express technical creativity, and by
the students’ exposure to design activities, to teamwork,
to training in technology management and to the consideration
of engineering ethics issues. The balance between engineering
and applied science is also fundamentally expressed through
the choices made by the School in faculty hiring, in its promotion
and tenure criteria and in its faculty reward structure. It
is managed through the School’s attention to the scholarly
quality of its research and at the same time to its impact,
visibility and translatability.
MISSION STATEMENT of PENN ENGINEERING
1. The creation and dissemination of scholarly research
in both basic and applied arenas to be an international
center of engineering excellence and the regional catalyst
for technological innovation; and
2. The design and delivery of engineering education known
for its rigor, breadth and relevance to prepare its students
to become global leaders in technology-based fields.
GOALS of PENN ENGINEERING
The primary goal of Penn Engineering is to be internationally
known for our scholarly research and our exceptionally trained
students, and to be ranked with the top engineering schools
of our size. We will recruit and develop exceptional faculty,
recognized as among the finest in the nation. We will develop
and build on unique research strengths to be ranked among
the top engineering schools of our size. We will create a
differentiated engineering education so that our programs
are nationally known as models of excellence.
1. To recruit and foster faculty
to maintain Penn Engineering as a premier School in the nation.
The enhancement of academic excellence is inseparable from
the process of building, developing, and retaining an outstanding
faculty of committed educators and scholarly researchers.
The School will strive to develop and maintain a stimulating,
supportive, and collaborative faculty culture that values
a diverse faculty body. An outstanding faculty must be well
supported by the organization, infrastructure and services
provided by Penn Engineering and the University.
Penn Engineering will continue to uphold the highest educational
and scholarly standards in faculty recruitment and promotion.
Departments will plan for faculty additions strategically
to balance core strengths and emerging research areas, while
fulfilling their educational missions. Penn Engineering will
endeavor to hire a substantial number of very successful associate
professors or young full professors whose intellectual leadership
would make them catalytic intellectual leaders in Penn Engineering
and at Penn.
While individual faculty members will contribute in their
unique ways to the educational and research mission, Penn
Engineering will ensure that the contributions of each are
maximized. Educational contributions include teaching, educational
initiatives, undergraduate student advising, and service to
the School or University pertaining to educational issues.
Research contributions include scholarly output, funding,
graduate student advising, and service to the School, University
or wider community pertaining to the technology arena. Faculty
contributions will achieve levels of excellence and productivity
that are comparable to the best departments or programs in
the nation.
Even the brightest and most motivated faculty requires appropriate
infrastructure and services to excel and these will be coordinated
primarily at the School level. Research space and facilities,
outstanding library facilities and electronic resources, teaching
space and equipment, and computing infrastructure and support,
are vital to faculty productivity. With the impact of scholarly
output increasingly being more closely linked to technology
transfer and visibility in society, Penn Engineering will
continue to increase its investments on personnel and infrastructure
for technology transfer and industrial outreach. Penn Engineering
will also play a major role in ensuring that our educational
prowess and engineering achievements are appropriately publicized
to a broader audience and acknowledged by coordinating nominations
for national and international awards. Finally, Penn Engineering
will continue to seek organizational structures and investment
opportunities that enable faculty to excel as educators, technological
innovators and researchers.
2. To build upon differentiating
research strengths to be nationally ranked among the top engineering
schools of our size.
No other field is as much a basis for the work and vitality
of humankind as engineering, and no other field is in more
demand than engineering is today. Penn Engineering has strong
intellectual ties to a large number of Departments and Schools
within the University, and is a catalyst for growth and change
in our surrounding community and region. It must capitalize
on its own special strengths and must take advantage of the
strengths of its environment.
Over the last decade we have developed strengths in important
interdisciplinary areas, including bioinformatics, cognitive
science, computational mechanics, embedded software systems,
molecular and cellular engineering, image processing, information
science, nano-scale characterization, neuro engineering, networking
and telecommunications, robotics, soft materials, and systems
theory. This has led to a steady climb in rankings at the
departmental and School levels. The last NRC survey ranked
our Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science and Engineering in the top ten, and our
per capita research expenditure has more than doubled over
the last five years.
Overall, Penn is internationally known for its leadership
in the large and aggressively growing field of medicine and
health care. Engineering sciences are quickly emerging as
the disciplines with the enabling tools for this growth. Biomedical
engineering and health care present unprecedented opportunities
for the University and for Penn Engineering in particular.
The emergence of new technology for micro- and nano-fabrication
and the improved understanding of biological, chemical and
physical phenomena at small time and length scales points
to a paradigm shift in engineering that will range from novel
materials and new techniques to new devices and novel applications.
The intellectual and physical proximity between Penn Engineering
and partnering departments in SAS and SOM offer a unique synergy
that is available in very few campuses.
The School will build around core strengths in engineering
science fostered by our investments over the last decade,
while leveraging strengths in other parts of the campus. We
will strategically target opportunities that will differentiate
our position among (typically larger) top ranked peer institutions,
while further strengthening core departmental needs. Our priorities
lie in the following three research thrusts involving faculty
from all six academic departments.
Information Science and Technology
The next five years will see the transformational impact of
information science and technology in all fields of engineering,
reaping the benefits of our recent investments in information
science and information technology. We will position ourselves
as the leaders at the intersection of life science and information
science, by leveraging our strengths in algorithms, control
and systems theory, databases, imaging, machine learning,
networking, programming languages, and signal processing.
Understanding how to model, analyze, and design networked
systems involving biological, chemical, information, and physical
components will be critically important. We will target opportunities
in computer and network security and invest in the computing-communication-information
infrastructure that will be the cornerstone for information
technology in the next decade. Special attention will be given
to the integration of research and educational programs across
Penn Engineering departments as well as with other Schools
on campus.
Biological Engineering
Biology is taking its place along with physics and chemistry
as a fundamental engineering science, influencing almost all
engineering disciplines. Penn Engineering will build on its
recent investments in bioengineering, and its current strengths
in biomaterials, biomechanics, biomolecular engineering, modeling
and simulation, neuroengineering, and signal and image processing,
while targeting key opportunities in bioengineering and biotechnology.
Strategic hiring in this area will focus on expanding programs
connected to the health science Schools and to the School
of Arts and Sciences in such areas as bioinformatics, biosensors,
biotechnology, cellular and tissue engineering, drug delivery,
imaging, neuroengineering, and systems biology.
Micro-Scale and Nano-Scale Engineering
Penn Engineering will build on our existing strengths in materials,
and invest in the infrastructure required to focus on analysis
of micro- and nano-scale phenomena and the engineering of
new materials and novel devices that operate at these length
and time scales. We will position ourselves for leadership
in bio-nanotechnology, an area that is at the interface between
physical and biological systems, differentiating ourselves
from other engineering schools with this special focus and
our unique approach drawing on Penn's special strengths. This
will require the creation of new physical infrastructure and
facilities that are critical for nanotechnology. By lowering
the barriers for entry into nano-scale science and engineering,
we will be able to engage a larger cross-section of existing
faculty, providing them with new opportunities.
Penn is unique in its ability to nurture and sustain cross-cultural
interactions and innovative research directions. Penn Engineering
will seek to become the leader in developing and integrating
technologies that are at the center of these three thrust
areas by fostering research and educational activities at
the interfaces. This includes the integration of information
science and technology, biological engineering, and micro-
and nano-scale engineering to develop the research directions
and engineering artifacts of the future.
3. To define a differentiated
engineering education so that our programs are nationally
known as specific models of excellence.
Undergraduate Degree Programs
Penn Engineering will offer undergraduate programs recognized
among the finest in terms of educational excellence, innovativeness
and strength of faculty commitment. The School’s goals
include an increase in the number of applicants, a lower admissions
rate, a higher matriculation rate, a continued growth in student
quality and diversity, and an increasing level of student
satisfaction with the programs, choices, and prospects. The
School will seek a nuanced balance between rigorous engineering
science and the needs of professional practice. Programs will
seek to provide a broad and rigorous education, giving students
the tools to work on the technologies of today and preparing
them to master the technologies of tomorrow. Students will
be encouraged to develop and express technical creativity
through immersion in design activities throughout the curriculum,
the stressing of hands-on teamwork, and the exposure to opportunities
for undergraduate research in cutting edge thrusts.
The School is committed to undertaking a critical examination
of its undergraduate degree programs, to construct an improved
set of curricula, entitled “Engineering the Future,”
with the following objectives:
• Rigor, by challenging Penn Engineering students
to reach their highest possible scholastic achievements
in mathematics, fundamental engineering sciences, information
science and technology, and the core engineering topics
appropriate for each degree program.
• Relevance, by preparing students for the real careers
of today and also for the careers of tomorrow, through an
awareness of the current state of technologies.
• Innovation, by creating programs that are nimble,
responsive to technological evolution and cross disciplinary
while drawing from our three major research thrusts.
• Intellectual breadth, by exposing students to an
interdisciplinary engineering environment to enable them
to work productively with individuals from other disciplines.
• Professionalism, by building communication skills,
an understanding of ethical issues, leadership and team-work,
a sense of technology stewardship, and awareness of the
global and multicultural environment in which the students
will be called upon to practice their profession.
“Engineering the Future” curricula will benefit
from strong faculty support, an intellectually stimulating
environment, and excellence in advising. Such characteristics
offer Penn Engineering a unique opportunity for differentiation.
The School will promote its degree programs as communities
worthy of support and cultivation, endowed with leadership
by faculty champions and cohesively supported by the faculty,
and resulting in an intense socialization of the student cohorts.
Professional advisors will support the work of the faculty
by guiding students and coordinating activities related to
the major.
Professional Masters Programs
Professional masters programs are but one component of the
life-long learning offerings of the School. They will continue
to offer excellent professional degrees, constantly enriched
by current engineering practice. In order to train graduates
in both fundamental knowledge and practical skills, Penn Engineering
will incorporate courses taught by highly capable adjunct
faculty of high professional stature recruited from industry
with those taught by core faculty in the curricula. In addition
to the current departmental masters and to the masters in
Biotechnology, Information Technology, and Telecommunications,
the School will explore opportunities for full-time masters
programs in Nanotechnology and in Product Development. In
these undertakings, the School will be highly sensitive to
the needs of employers and the employment market, while always
considering that masters and postgraduate extension courses
are key to its local and regional corporate relations. The
EMTM Program joint with the Wharton School will be reexamined
to consider the creation of separate tracks by discipline.
Doctoral Degree Programs
Penn Engineering is committed to excelling at one of its most
important and difficult tasks: attracting outstanding doctoral
students. To this end the School will work actively at expanding
faculty and institutional contacts with outstanding universities
worldwide and intensify personal recruitment efforts by faculty;
at creating centers of excellence in the various fields that
are magnets; and at enhancing the vibrancy of the research
atmosphere. The School is committed to providing doctoral
students with educational opportunities of the highest quality.
It commits itself to a careful examination of PhD programs
both from the point of view of its applicants and from the
perspective of corporate and academic employers of its doctoral
graduates. It will guarantee both depth and breadth in education,
continuing to create opportunities for every student to take
courses and learn from every department in Penn Engineering
and from the other Penn Schools. Certificates and similar
programs, based on the success of EMTM, will be offered to
graduate students to prepare them more effectively for success
in the corporate world. The School will pay special attention
to laboratory facilities for graduate students, to their quality
of life and to their morale.
THE ROAD MAP
Toward providing the capacity
for success
Penn Engineering will aggressively pursue growth in annual
revenues from both established and innovative revenue streams
including masters programs, summer and extension courses,
and technology transfer to support its faculty, staff, students
and facilities. The School will seek a major increase in its
fund-raising programs, while continuing to manage its resources
effectively.
Teaching loads and research
Penn Engineering is committed to a fair distribution of research,
teaching, advising and service loads. Ideally, every faculty
member will achieve a balance in his/her activities. Faculty
members not significantly engaged in research will be expected
to teach four courses per year or be engaged in equivalent
service to the School. At the same time, departments will
collectively devise methods to consolidate Penn Engineering
courses to maximize efficient use of faculty resources across
the School thereby providing greater opportunities to offer
electives and augment faculty time for research.
Strategic hiring
Three cross-departmental faculty committees will be charged
with developing a vision and a concrete plan for hiring in
each of the strategic thrust areas. They will balance the
need for buttressing departments and established research
areas with new opportunities that will allow Penn Engineering
to grow and differentiate itself from other engineering schools.
Space and infrastructure plan
It is critical for the School to provide the laboratory infrastructure
that is necessary for research, particularly for modern experimental
disciplines. The completion of Skirkanich Hall will add much
needed wet laboratories and space for device prototyping.
The School's plans will require a new, vibration-free and
field-free facility for the characterization of nanostructures
and for prototyping work in nanotechnology and bio-nanotechnology.
We have already embarked on a feasibility study that indicates
that a 40,000 sq ft structure adjacent to the LRSM could meet
these programmatic needs. In addition, we will focus on using
existing space more efficiently, with a goal of increasing
per capita research space by 50%.
Because Penn Engineering and the physical science departments
in SAS occupy the eastern end of campus, they have a special
stake in the planned developments of the Postal and related
properties. Of all Penn Schools, Engineering has the largest
interest in and commitment to the economic development of
the surrounding community in all areas of technology. The
growth and engagement of a corporate base is central to the
long-term success of the School. In particular, Penn Engineering
envisions the construction of one or more shared facilities
for translational research, probably located off-campus, to
further encourage technology transfer to the private sector
and the entrepreneurial instinct of students and faculty.
Engineering the Future
The School will immediately embark on a critical review of
its undergraduate and masters' degree programs, addressing
their relevance in our modern technologically oriented society
and their breadth in engineering and technology, supplemented
by training in communication skills, ethics, and teamwork.
A cross-departmental committee will be constituted to conduct
this review. This committee will seek input from our graduates,
from potential employers, and from educators in peer institutions.
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