As the semester progresses, we hope that you stay healthy, and that in case quarantine is needed for either a student or an instructor, online learning will be deployed as the backup option. 

 

Indeed, whether as a complement to residential learning or as a primary pathway for those seeking online graduate degrees and credentials, we continue to innovate and scale up online education. This year’s U.S. News and World Report's ranking of online graduate engineering programs again placed Purdue Engineering among the top 3 in the U.S., with electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering online master’s programs ranked No. 1 in their fields. This is a reflection of our faculty’s innovation in (1) virtual labs, (2) educational digital twin, and (3) machine learning for human learning. We also continue to scale up the range of degrees and credentials offered and the reach of university/industry partners as well as individual students. And as always, we strive toward maximizing the efficacy and quality of learning online. 

 

Virtual format has also allowed us to reach out to many alumni in flexible ways. Since March 2021, we have been carrying out a roughly monthly series of "virtual fireside chats," each time thematically featuring a group of faculty or students. We have two coming up: March 2 at 3 p.m. we will feature a panel of Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellows, interdisciplinary postdocs selected globally and in honor of Lillian Gilbreth. On March 16 at 3 p.m., Liz Thompson (BSEE '85) and Don Thompson (BSEE ’84, University Trustee) will have a virtual roundtable with Thompson Scholars. Thompson Scholarship was one of the new programs established last year to recruit a diverse demographic of students. I hope you will join us along with alumni from around the world. 

 

Back here on the West Lafayette campus, we have been having conversations about each school, department and division’s undergraduate curriculum. We thank all the instructors, teaching assistants, and advisors who dedicate themselves to the residential learning experience for more than 11,000 undergraduates in our College. One part of these discussions focused on providing more flexibility and orchestrated electives to students, while innovating pedagogy and technology simultaneously. Another part focused on coordination and integration with co-curricular activities in GRIT: Global, Research, Industry internship/co-op, and Project-based learning. During some of these meetings, an idea was proposed to host a College-wide showcase of senior design projects every April. Associate Dean Alina Alexeenko will make further announcements about this event.

 

Mung