Penn Engineering
Penn Engineering 2030, the School’s strategic plan, is moving from vision to action. Since its launch, Penn Engineering has advanced its priorities and established four key committees designed to harness the creativity, ambition and collaborative spirit of our community toward the plan’s implementation. These committees recently presented their progress to the Dean’s Council and Advisory Boards, generating strong enthusiasm and support for the next phase of development.
The four Strategic Planning Committees — comprising faculty, staff and students — have been meeting regularly to refine goals, shape initiatives and identify “Lift-Off Ideas,” which are opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Each committee is led by Penn Engineering Committee Champions who are guiding discussions around the School’s core priorities, from advancing research and innovation to strengthening education, community and impact.
Students are a vital part of this process, bringing fresh ideas and new energy to the table. Students are active co-creators of Penn Engineering 2030. Undergraduates, through the Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board (EDAB), are leading an exploration on Student Study Spaces (Pillar D3) and a Hybrid Learning Deep Dive (Pillar A2), grounding recommendations in real student data and experience. Graduate students, via the Master’s and Doctoral Advisory Boards, are contributing ideas across all pillars, informing near-term Lift-Off actions and longer-range investments in graduate education, research partnerships, student well-being and data-informed operations.
Penn Engineering is making steady progress on a broad set of initiatives designed to strengthen education, research, community and long-term resilience across the School. Together, these efforts reflect our commitment to innovation, student success and living our values in meaningful ways. We have begun work on 22 different initiatives focused in the following areas:
In education, we are expanding experiential and industry-connected learning, modernizing undergraduate and graduate curricula, and piloting new approaches that thoughtfully integrate AI into advising and instruction. These initiatives aim to deepen student engagement, improve instructional quality and better prepare students, at every level, for a rapidly changing world.
In research, Penn Engineering is investing in bold, interdisciplinary work through the Big Ideas initiative, strengthening partnerships with industry, and updating frameworks that support collaboration, commercialization and real-world impact. New models for corporate engagement and industry-connected doctoral training are helping position our research for greater societal relevance and external support.
Across our community, we are intentionally operationalizing our core values of Excellence, Respect and Impact. New campaigns, recognition programs, surveys and shared events are helping make our values visible, actionable and embedded in daily work, all while strengthening belonging, well-being and professional development for faculty, staff and students.
Finally, to ensure institutional resilience, we are improving how we make decisions and deliver services, through better data foundations, streamlined research and administrative workflows, centralized service support and flexible funding mechanisms that allow us to respond quickly to emerging priorities.
Collectively, these initiatives represent a coordinated, multi-year effort to move Penn Engineering forward, supporting our people, amplifying our impact and building the systems needed to thrive now and in the future.
Chambrel Jones and CJ Taylor
Boon Thau Loo and Robert Ghrist
Vanessa Chan and George Pappas
Mike Matthews and Kristofor Varhus
Rebecca Hayward and Eleni Rengepis Koumenis
We continue to welcome ideas and feedback from across the Penn Engineering community. The strategic planning process is designed to evolve, incorporating input and inspiration from all corners of the School.
We’re building momentum. In the months ahead, we’ll continue expanding our Lift-Off Ideas portfolio, share regular updates on our progress, and spotlight new initiatives and early successes as they take shape.
Updates will be provided on this page on an ongoing basis.
