From the Dean: August 2021

Dear Purdue Engineering Community,

A warm welcome to the new academic year, especially to the new undergraduate and graduate students. It is exciting to see students arriving this past weekend and starting BGR. And thank you all for continuing the Protect Purdue Pledge, including masking indoors, as the largest number of students, faculty and staff return to campus. 

Over the last year, many schools in our College have been rolling out agile reform of their curricula. A Minor in “Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning” is being created, too. The free and optional coding course, Every Boiler Engineer Codes, is now open for registration. Outside of the classroom, a growing range of experiential learning options are being offered through GRIT+ (Global, Research, Industry, Team-projects, and More). These include a new modality of industry co-op: Learning While Working, and student project clubs, such as Formula SAE where the Purdue team placed #3 overall in the world in this year’s competition. 

This past summer, we had many interactions with alumni throughout the world via the monthly virtual fireside and other channels. We also hosted, for the first time in 18 months, an in-person alumni reception in Indianapolis. We know all the Boilermaker Engineers will make their own contributions, including the latest cohorts who graduated in the Spring and Summer Commencements this year. We also deeply appreciate the generous support from many alumni, e.g., the recently announced naming gift to Electrical and Computer Engineering, from alumnus William B. Elmore (BSEE’75, MSEE’76) and his family. This gift will help propel the largest school at Purdue to the Pinnacle of Excellence at Scale. 

Hundreds of faculty colleagues, thousands of graduate students, and dozens of undergraduates continued their research throughout the summer of 2021. For example, as part of Purdue’s Next Moves, we scored a hypersonic trifecta over the span of a week. Earlier this month, Purdue welcomed the largest single economic development investment in West Lafayette’s history, from Rolls-Royce in the areas of hybrid electric engines and high altitude testing. We hosted Hypersonic Summit 2.0, the first at-scale, in-person conference on campus since the Road School in March 2020. And President Daniels, along with Governor Holcomb and Senator Young, announced the launch of Hypersonic Ground Test Center, an independent, nonprofit consortium defined by industry members and hosted at Purdue. Along with earlier R&D investment and research partnership, we are turning Purdue's Zucrow Aerospace District into the epicenter of aerospace engineering in the U.S. 

Boiler up, and we look forward to seeing you soon! 

Mung

Mung Chiang
John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering
Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University