Over the past year, we have set new records in research excellence, with three new national centers and the highest level of research funding ever. We have grown our undergraduate enrollment and become the largest engineering college among the nation’s top 10. We have also received $176 million in philanthropic support, the highest in our history. Thank you all.

As a public land-grant university, we are proud of our scale. We also aspire to attain the “Pinnacle of Excellence at Scale.”

We will provide diverse, innovative choices and support the highest academic standards for each student, even at scale. We will make online learning not only scalable but also effective.

We will become the best engineering college in the world at the interface of virtual-physical engineering, by leveraging long-standing strength in “what-we-touch” engineering and growing “what-we-code” engineering.

We will be the best engineering college in the country in engaging industry in all areas, including curriculum innovation, workforce development, research impact and entrepreneurship.

These efforts are gaining momentum. Enthusiastic support from our 93,000+ alumni and many partners is essential. On the 2018 Purdue Day of Giving, your generosity broke the record of single-day gifts to one college: 2,406 gifts were provided to enable the future of Purdue Engineering.

As we enter the final year of the Ever True campaign and our University’s sesquicentennial celebration, your gifts help transform our space and programs. The “Gateway Complex” anchors our ambitious 10-year engineering campus plan with multiple new buildings for learning and discovery. Recruiting the brightest graduate students, critical for both the creation and dissemination of knowledge, also needs your continued support.

We understand that learning does not stop when you graduate, and your intellectual engagement with Purdue Engineering can continue wherever you are. At the 2018 Homecoming that launched Purdue’s 150th anniversary, we announced “One Course Higher,” an evolving library of online educational content that engineering alumni can access for free, for life.

Having been to about 20 cities to meet alumni over the past year, we will take the intellectual conversations to many more places with Boilermaker engineers. The pride and passion you have shared about Purdue is truly inspiring.

So are the stories between the covers of this issue of Imprint magazine. You will meet Ed and Beatriz Schweitzer, whose philanthropy for ECE includes an endowed professorship and a research institute. In addition, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories has broken ground to build an engineering facility in the emerging Discovery Park District and to create 300 high-tech jobs. You will also read about Bob Kirk, who donated Purdue’s now iconic Armstrong statue and nearby moonboot footprint path.

I also encourage you to read about Patti and Eric Poppe’s unique advocacy for our female engineering students as well as Anthony and Glenna Thornton’s support for minority students. And, unusual for their youth and unique method of giving, Sujata and Andrew Offenbacher helped fund their favorite student organization.

Your support makes a difference to the people in Purdue Engineering, who will continue the proud heritage of each individual taking personal “giant leaps.” As a College, we will be more eager, more agile and more visible, as we propel Purdue Engineering to the Pinnacle of Excellence at Scale together.

Boiler up!