From the Dean: June 2019


Dear Purdue Engineering Community,

The first few weeks of summer have been eventful and impactful at Purdue Engineering:

At its meeting today, with the funding in place, the Board of Trustees approved the commencement of Gateway I construction. We are also delighted to announce that the first building of the Gateway Complex will be named Dudley Hall, in recognition of a generous naming gift from Bill and Marty Dudley. Bill Dudley, a proud alumnus of Purdue Civil Engineering, was previously the President and CEO of Bechtel Group: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q2/william-bill-dudley---doctor-of-engineering.html

As announced by President Daniels two days ago, we welcome an ECE alumna, Dr. Theresa Mayer, back to Purdue as the new Executive Vice President for Research and Partnership and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Theresa received an ECE Distinguished Alum Award last year, and will "fill the big shoes" of our Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Suresh Garimella. Earlier it was also announced that Dr. Eckhard Groll will become the new William E. And Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Alina Alexeenko, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will become the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education. Furthermore, Dr. Bill Crossley is named the J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics. We sincerely thank Dr. Anil Bajaj and Dr. Tom Shih for their leadership of ME and AAE, respectively.

We are excited to report that last week, along with the State of Indiana and private sector partners such as AT&T and Verizon, we unveiled the Indy 5G Open Acceleration Zone. Indy is speedy: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/News/Spotlights/2019/indianapolis-stakes-claim-as-the-center-of-5g-innovation

In the same week, IARPA announced a major new research center at Purdue for the project High Assurance Compositional Cryptography: Languages and Environments (HACCLE), with a team of Computer Engineering and Computer Science faculty colleagues led by Dr. Milind Kulkarni, Associate Professor of ECE: https://purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2019/Q2/protecting-privacy-at-the-ballot-box-secure-multiparty-computation-work-could-do-this-and-more.html

Then, earlier today, Purdue and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, announced the creation of Center for Secured Microelectronics Ecosystem. President Daniels and Secretary Ross of the U.S. Department of Commerce provided their remarks: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/News/Spotlights/2019/purdue-and-tsmc-the-worlds-largest-semiconductor-manufacturer-collaborate-to-research-secured-microelectronics-ecosystem

In addition to the pinnacle of research excellence at scale, especially at the virtual-physical interface, we continue to innovate in learning and teaching, including in our graduate engineering program that is one of the best and the largest in the nation. For example, the Professional Master’s programs flourished recently, quadrupling its enrollment in the past two years and serving a wide section of students with quality education. With the generous philanthropic support from many and as a campaign priority, we also increased the available number of Ph.D. fellowships in the College by about 40% in the past two years. Last semester, we were honored to announce the visionary naming gift from Ernest and Monica Gambaro to the AAE Graduate Program, one of the top 5 in the nation: https://engineering.purdue.edu/AAE/spotlights/2019/2019-0216GambaroGraduateProgram

Across all graduate programs, we are carrying out a systematic plan to act on further improving the recruitment, education and placement of Master’s and Doctoral students in our College. In this public, land-grant institution, we are truly inspired by stories such as Salvador Rojas’: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rojas-college-admissions-scandal-different-path-20190609-story.html

Boiler up!

Mung

Mung Chiang
John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering
Purdue University



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