From the Interim Dean: August 2022

Dear Purdue Engineering Community,

As we wrap up the summer and prepare for fall semester, I want to share a few thoughts on excellence and impact.

Over the course of my career at Purdue, Purdue Engineering has gotten better and better and better. July’s Purdue Engineering Monthly, which you all received recently, is an example of the steady stream of amazing accomplishments, and there is much more to come. But our goal is excellence at scale – excellence in comparison to the very best programs in the nation, and amazing things are happening at those institutions too.

Some weeks back, Dean Chiang initiated a study of eight top engineering programs, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Michigan, MIT, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and U.T. Austin. At the Engineering Leadership Team’s retreat last month, we spent the day learning with an open mind what makes our peers so strong. It will take a while to digest it all and determine what opportunities and innovations make sense for us. One part of this exercise was to define for ourselves a few indicators of research excellence and impact. The School-specific data is available to each of our Heads. I hope that it sparks thoughtful discussions about how we reach our goal – the pinnacle of excellence.

Over the last 10 years, Engineering has made enormous progress, and as President Daniels hands the baton to President-elect Chiang, the future is promising. Now is the time to think deeply – and critically – about how we position ourselves for even greater successes.

Mark Lundstrom
Interim Dean, Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University