College
of Engineering at Oregon State University
Ronald L. Adams,
Dean
November 2000
Resources Needed
to Create a Top-25
Engineering College for Oregon by 2010
Executive summary
The State of Oregon needs a top-tier engineering program in order
to sustain the growth of its vital high-tech industries and ensure a strong
economy in the 21st century. The College of Engineering at Oregon
State University has the state’s single opportunity to meet this need and
committed to this goal in its strategic plan dated April 1999. We propose to
match $48 million in State funds invested over a five-year period with $132
million in private and industrial contributions. Our proposal to create a
top-tier engineering program has been endorsed by the State Board of Higher
Education and included in the 2001-2003 higher education budget request. The investment will be used to significantly
expand our research program and to meet industry needs better than anyone else.
We will enlarge our facilities, hire outstanding new faculty, attract the most
talented graduate and undergraduate students, and create the OSU Technology
Center headquartered in the Portland metropolitan area. This center will
deliver life-long learning services to engineers (graduate education and short
courses), conduct applied research relevant to industry needs, and serve as a
conduit for technology transfer, all in seamless collaboration with PSU, OGI, U
of O and OHSU. These actions will
result in: a top-25 college of engineering; delivery of world-class joint
research, technology transfer, graduate education, and continuing education
opportunities to Oregon’s industry; and exciting new research programs. The
research programs will not only provide the impetus for new start-up companies,
but will also increase the growth curve for Oregon’s existing companies,
incubate the technologies that will propel Oregon into the 21st
century, and facilitate Oregon’s transition into the new economy. In short, the
investment in Oregon State University’s College of Engineering will
substantially strengthen the State’s economy, leading to a higher standard of
living for Oregon’s citizens.
1. Background
The foundation of Oregon’s economy has shifted. Technology
companies are sprouting throughout the State, and existing companies are
remaking themselves to take advantage of the explosion in information
technology. Accompanying this combination of economic growth and corporate
transformation is an increasing demand for sustainability.
Maintaining the pace of economic growth will be difficult,
however, unless current workforce trends can be reversed. Oregon currently
ranks 49th nationally in the production of high-tech degrees per
high-tech worker, forcing our industries to look outside of Oregon for the
majority of their entry-level employees. This effect extends well beyond the
high-tech industry itself. Other Oregon companies run the risk of falling
behind because they, too, depend on technically savvy graduates to support
their increasingly technology-based businesses.
The shortage of college-educated technology workers could
eventually eliminate many businesses’ demographic justification for locating in
Oregon. Over the past few years, numerous software start-ups have originated in
Oregon, then moved on to other states when their growth was stifled by the
shortage of computing professionals. HotData, for example, moved from Corvallis
to Austin, Texas, where it could tap into a larger supply of software
engineers. If Oregon is to be the home of new, high-tech companies of any
significant size, we must expand our capacity for producing high quality
graduates in engineering, computer science, and engineering technology. We must
also increase opportunities for professionals in these fields to receive
advanced and continuing education.
2. Oregon Needs a
Top-25 College of Engineering
A 1999 study by the Milken Institute reports that the
high-tech sector of the economy is “increasingly determining which metropolitan
areas are succeeding and which are failing.” Its analysis shows that the level
of high-tech activity can explain 65% of the differences in economic growth
among metropolitan regions during the 1990s. Significantly, the Milken
Institute reports that “research centers
and institutions are undisputedly the most important factors in incubating
high-tech industries.” These institutions provide companies with two vital
ingredients for success: cutting-edge knowledge and smart labor.
The Milken Institute has identified the top twenty high-tech
metro areas in the United States, based on their real output of goods and
services. With the exception of Dallas, all have at least one top engineering
college within 100 miles.
Creating a top-tier college of engineering will have six
important benefits for the citizens of Oregon:
When our children graduate from this
college, they will be able to compete effectively for the best jobs in Oregon
and worldwide. They will not need to
study at MIT or Stanford to access all of the opportunities the world has to
offer.
Companies will be able to hire locally
educated professionals with confidence, knowing they will have the skills and
talent to become their future leaders.
Professionals will have easy access to
the world’s best continuing and graduate education opportunities they need to
improve their job skills. Top
professionals will see these benefits as a leading reason to relocate in
Oregon.
Companies will have local access to top-level
research from an organization committed to serving their needs better than any
other.
Exciting new businesses (and their
high paying jobs) will be drawn to Oregon.
They will see a vibrant engineering college with unmatched service to
local industry.
The research performed at this college
will stimulate the creation of local start-ups. The OSU Technology Center will help make this happen.
In short, a top-25 college of engineering will help create
sustainable growth in a sustainable enterprise: the knowledge-based economy.
3. Oregon State
University Is the Logical Choice
For many reasons, the College of Engineering at Oregon State
University is the logical choice as a top-tier institution:
OSU has the only comprehensive
engineering college in the State. It has the only degree programs in chemical
engineering, for example, a field that is of vital importance to semiconductor
manufacturers. It also has the only degree programs in construction engineering
management and environmental engineering, fields necessary to build and
maintain the infrastructure for sustainable development.
OSU’s College of Engineering is ranked
number 70 among graduate programs and number 74 among undergraduate programs (U. S. News and World Report, see Appendix A). Also, its Nuclear Engineering program is
ranked 13th among U.S. News
and World Report’s “Best Undergraduate Engineering Departments with Ph.D.
Programs.”
Our College’s production of graduate
degrees is the highest in the State. The production of Ph.D.’s is already
comparable to top-50 institutions.
OSU’s College of Engineering has an
existing infrastructure of facilities and equipment with a replacement value of
about $200 million.
The reputation of a college of
engineering depends to a great deal on the reputation of the institution as a
whole.
OSU is one of only two Carnegie
Research I universities in the Northwest (the University of Washington is the
only other in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, or Wyoming).
OSU already has three top-tier
colleges: the College of Forestry, the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Sciences, and the College of Agricultural Sciences. The engineering program will benefit from OSU’s already known
methods to reach top tier.
In short, OSU’s College of Engineering is the only
engineering college in Oregon that has the solid foundation, support,
management, and organization needed to reach the top-25 with the resources that
reasonably can be made available.
OSU’s College of Engineering cannot achieve top-tier status
through collaboration with other institutions. The entire research and
educational enterprise has to be attributed to a single institution in order to
be recognized by the agencies that perform the rankings. In order to gain
visibility, the institution must reach a certain level with respect to research
activity, number and quality of graduate students, size of the faculty, etc.
4. OJGSE Funding:
Investing in OSU Engineering Has Paid Off
In the early 1990’s the Legislature appropriated funds to the Oregon Joint Graduate School of Engineering (OJGSE) for the purpose of hiring new faculty members in key growth areas. OSU’s College of Engineering received $1.1 million per year, with which it hired eight tenure-track faculty members. (The remaining funds were used to provide these faculty members with matching funds for grants.) An examination of the faculty hired shows how well the College leveraged that funding.
The eight professors have done a great deal to increase the national and international visibility of OSU’s College of Engineering. They perform such roles as testifying before Congress, serving as members of advisory boards for the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense, and serving as chairs of international meetings. They also perform the other, more typical research tasks that keep OSU’s name in the limelight: writing peer-reviewed journal papers, presenting papers at national and international conferences, mentoring graduate students, developing research collaborations with industry, and bringing their innovations into the classroom.
Collectively, the eight faculty members bring about $2.5 million annually in research funds and grants to the College of Engineering at OSU. They also make important contributions to our undergraduate and graduate educational programs.
Clearly, the OJGSE investment in OSU has had a positive impact. It has helped move us from an unpublished U.S. News and World Report rank of 83 up to 70 over the past 12 months. But $1.1 million per year is not enough fuel to propel OSU’s College of Engineering to the top tier. To catch the leaders, we need a State investment ten times larger, matched with a private investment twenty times larger. The eight OJGSE professors are already as productive as typical faculty members at top-25 institutions. The infusion of $180 million in “jump start” research funds over five years will give OSU Engineering the big push it needs to attract other faculty of similar caliber in order to reach the top 25.
5. An Example of Success:
The University of California at San Diego
The Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of
California, San Diego has risen in the U.S.
News and World Report rankings in each of the past six years. Indeed, its
reputation is rising faster than any other engineering school in the
country. While the Jacobs School has an
undergraduate student population similar to OSU’s, it has 30% more faculty, 50%
more graduate students, and a research program seven times larger ($84 million
annually).
Over the past five years, UCSD has increased its faculty size from 92 to 130 and increased research expenditures from $33 million to $84 million. Meanwhile, its ranking has jumped from 40 to 15. Research revenues rose rapidly because UCSD attracted many senior faculty members (and their research programs) to its campus by offering them high salaries and prestige in the form of endowed chairs.
Just five years ago the college of engineering at UCSD was seen as “very good.” Now it is considered “one of the best in the nation.” A significant investment in an engineering college can produce a remarkably fast rise in national rankings.
6. Current Research
Strengths Are the Foundation for Future Success
OSU’s College of Engineering has research excellence in four
principal areas, each with numerous sub-disciplines. Research leaders in these
areas exceed or meet the performance of the average professor of a top-25
engineering school (see profiles in Appendix B).
Integrated microsystems design and
manufacture
Electronic materials
Microelectronics processing and
testing
Microscale energy, chemical, and
biological systems
Thermal issues
Wireless/IC design
Information technology
Database mining and decision support
Data security
Networking
Software reliability
Sustainable infrastructure technology
Zero waste manufacturing
Waste remediation
Materials and design technology for
infrastructure
Energy systems
Biomedical technology
Bio-materials
Biomedical systems and processes
The availability of “jump start” funding will allow us to
significantly expand these research areas, thereby:
leveraging expertise of our current
and new-hire faculty
increasing opportunities to interact
with Oregon companies
increasing opportunities for federal
funding, particularly through multidisciplinary centers
maximizing potential for significant
breakthroughs that could lead to licensing opportunities and the creation of new
companies
Potential multidisciplinary target areas include intelligent
manufacturing, geographical information systems, microscale systems for
toxic-waste cleanup, and cooling technologies for portable electronic devices.
7. Actions to Achieve Goal
The results of OSU’s ability to leverage public and private
investment to achieve nationally ranked programs are evident in our top
programs in Oceanography (ranked 5th), Forestry (ranked 1st)
and Agricultural Sciences (ranked in the top 15). These programs were built through a strong focus on industry
(e.g., forestry and agriculture), by growing research through investment in
proven top talent (e.g., oceanography only hires professors that have proven
ability to succeed), and by fully committed leadership. These best known
methods along with benchmarks of other engineering schools that have made the
leap (see Appendix C) will guide us as we propel engineering into the top
ranks.
In order to be recognized in the top tier, OSU’s College of
Engineering must be performing at or above the level of programs already there.
The infusion of research “jump start” funds into the College will enable us to
take the following steps to that goal (listed in order of priority):
A. Attract outstanding faculty members from top-tier
programs. Attracting the most exceptional faculty members is difficult,
particularly in computer science and electrical and computer engineering, where
there is a significant national shortage of Ph.D.’s. To woo new faculty
members, we must offer endowed chairs with competitive salaries, start-up
packages, and matching funds for grants and contracts. If at all possible, we must attract entire research groups that can
bring millions of dollars per year in grant funding with them, and we must
attract the highest potential rising stars from other top programs. We must
also hire dynamic up-and-coming researchers to complement the work of the
senior “stars.”
B. Attract graduate students from the top
undergraduate programs in engineering and computer science. The best
universities compete aggressively to attract top graduate students. Since these
students make up the primary labor force supporting research, OSU must obtain
more of them in order to ramp up its research activities. To attract top
graduate students to OSU, we will begin offering two-year graduate fellowships
paying competitive stipends.
C. Meet the needs of Oregon’s businesses
better than any other educational institution in the world: the academic
“vendor of choice.” The number one
need of Oregon businesses is local access to the nation’s best engineering
graduates: Oregon’s top-25 engineering program will meet this need. Additional needs include access to lifelong
learning and technology. We will create the OSU Technology Center headquartered
in the Portland metropolitan area; its sole purpose will be to ensure that we
respond to these additional needs. The unit will be entrepreneurial by design,
so that it can anticipate and respond quickly to market forces. It will be
flexible with respect to the services it provides, flexible with respect to the
location of these services, and flexible with respect to the people it will use
to provide these services. Through its association with OSU, the OSU Technology
Center will be able to take advantage of campus resources and the talent of its
faculty members. However, it will also be
free to harness the skills of others (such as faculty members at Portland State
University and the Oregon Graduate Institute), who are able and willing to
participate in its activities. The OSU Technology Center will accomplish
the following:
Deliver a broad range of educational
services, ranging from one-day short courses to complete graduate programs.
Provide not-for-credit classes on demand, so that educational needs can be met
as soon as they are identified. We will
help local industry improve the skills of design teams, on demand, by
delivering world class training on the latest tools and education on
cutting-edge technology at the cusp of use in products and services. We will enable working professionals to
complete graduate degree programs in any of the fields available at OSU and our
Portland-area collaborators (PSU and OGI).
Dramatically increase the level of
collaboration between OSU faculty and industry. The OSU Technology Center will broker research collaborations
that connect faculty expertise to industry needs and leverage federally-funded
research into commercial applications.
Increase the flow of information
between companies and faculty members by fostering joint meetings and projects.
Conduct advanced development that
bridges the gap between government-funded academic research and product
development. The OSU Technology Center
will identify opportunities and assemble advanced development teams that will
deliver the first prototype of new products and services. These teams will be staffed by students and
research associates.
Serve as an incubator of new products
and companies, and facilitate the transfer of commercially-viable technologies
from OSU engineering to commercial ventures.
Link with OSU’s other statewide
programs ľ in
particular, the Extension Service, Agricultural Experiment Stations, and the
Central Oregon office ľ
to meet the high tech and engineering needs of the entire State.
The Center will have an industrial board that will provide
strategic direction and help facilitate technology transfer. This board will complement the industry
advisory board that already exists for the College of Engineering as well as
the boards for every department within the college. These boards will continue to be connected through dual
memberships.
D. Add laboratories and office space to
accommodate the significant growth in faculty and graduate students. We are
undertaking a private campaign to raise funds for new engineering facilities (a
new building and transformation of existing space). The funds requested by this
proposal supplement that campaign by providing matching funds for facilities.
E.
Improve the
quality of our public-relations effort so that our achievements are recognized
nationally.
8. Measures of Success
In 1998, we adopted high-performance management practices
from the high tech industry to help assure success (see Appendix E). Our progress during the last two years is summarized
in Appendix D. The following goals have
been established for the next decade:
Increase total research revenues from
$12 million annually to $70 million annually
Increase average research funding per tenure-track
faculty member from $150,000 annually to $500,000 annually
Increase average GRE scores of
incoming graduate students (quantitative + analytical) from 1350 to 1420
Increase the number of Ph.D. graduates
per year from 40 to 100
Increase the number of faculty who are
members of the National Academy of Engineering from 1 to 7
Increase the average SAT scores of
incoming freshmen from 1175 to 1300
|
Milestones on the Road to Top-25 Status |
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2000 |
2002 |
2004 |
2006 |
2008 |
2010 |
|
New Facilities |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upgrade
networking |
|
Done |
|
|
|
|
|
High tech
interdisciplinary lab |
|
Opens |
|
|
|
|
|
MECS labs |
|
Opens |
|
|
|
|
|
New offices to
accommodate |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Intelligent
infrastructure lab |
|
|
Opens |
|
|
|
|
Electronic
design and |
|
|
Opens |
|
|
|
|
New engineering
building |
|
|
|
Opens |
|
|
|
Endowment |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chairs and professorships |
6 |
6 |
15 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
|
Graduate
fellowships |
0 |
0 |
25 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
|
Research and
Graduate Program |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research
expenditures |
$12M |
$15M |
$20M |
$30M |
$45M |
$70M |
|
Ph.D.
graduates/year |
40 |
50 |
60 |
70 |
80 |
100 |
|
M.S.
graduates/year |
150 |
160 |
170 |
180 |
190 |
200 |
|
Average GRE
score |
1350 |
1364 |
1378 |
1392 |
1406 |
1420 |
|
Undergraduate
Quality |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average SAT
score |
1175 |
1200 |
1225 |
1250 |
1275 |
1300 |
9. Budget
In our plan for reaching top-25 status, State funds will be
used to target approximately 50 new faculty members (along with supporting clerical
and technical staff), research start-up funds, matching funds for grants and
contracts, graduate fellowships, facility expansion and improvements, and to
start the OSU Technology Center. The
State Board of Higher Education has recommended the state-fund investments
shown below, along with a ramp in additional operating funds, continuing at
$9.33/yr. in year 6 and reaching $12.44M/yr. by year 7. These operating funds will cover the ongoing
expenses of additional faculty, staff, graduate students, and program costs.
The OSU Technology Center will be responsible for all
aspects of the relationship between OSU Engineering and companies. This
includes educational opportunities of all kinds, ranging from one-day short
courses to graduate-degree programs. It also includes increasing
faculty-industry interactions, ranging from informal information-sharing
meetings to consulting arrangements and research contracts. Additionally, the
Center will help bridge the academic research-to-product development gap and it
will be a conduit for technology transfer and commercialization. Some of those activities, such as the
delivery of short courses and applied research, will pay for themselves;
others, such as graduate-degree programs, will not. The budget includes funds
for leasing space in the Portland area, hiring staff, marketing, and
subsidizing graduate-level courses.
|
Use
of $48M in State Funds for Push to Top-25 Status (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
New faculty and staff |
$ 600 |
$ 1,800 |
$ 3,600 |
$ 4,800 |
$ 6,000 |
|
Research start-up funds |
$ 1,000 |
$ 1,310 |
$ 2,620 |
$ 1,420 |
$ 2,000 |
|
Match for grants, contracts |
$ 250 |
|
|
|
$ 1,330 |
|
Graduate fellowships |
$ 600 |
|
|
|
|
|
Facilities & equipment* |
$10,000 |
$10,000 |
|
|
|
|
OSU Technology Center |
$ 660 |
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL: |
$13,110 |
$ 13,110 |
$ 6,220 |
$ 6,220 |
$ 9,330 |
*Part of Oregon University System capital request
State funds will be matched 2.7 to 1 with funds attracted
from private sources. OSU has made high technology its top priority for private
fundraising. The initiative is focused on a partnership between the Colleges of
Engineering and Business, a natural alliance that will help create Oregon’s
future entrepreneurs and has the complete support of the entire University, top
to bottom. The private fundraising will
be conducted by the OSU Foundation, a seasoned team of 70 having a track record
of success with assets approaching $400M.
The campaign will first focus on raising funds for engineering
facilities, including a new building, then on research seed funds for faculty
start-up, research matching and fellowships. This will allow the College of
Engineering to accommodate the planned growth as additional faculty and
graduate students join the research program. The other objectives of the
fundraising campaign are to create 19 endowed chairs (16 in engineering and 3
in business), 50 endowed graduate fellowships, 100 endowed undergraduate
scholarships, and an innovation seed fund.
So far, private industry and individuals have committed over $45M toward
the $132M goal.
|
Use of
$132M in Private Funds for Push to Top-25 Status (in thousands) |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
Research start-up
funds |
|
$ 690 |
$ 380 |
$ 580 |
|
|
Match for grants, contracts |
|
$
750 |
$
1,500 |
$
2,000 |
$
1,170 |
|
OSU Technology Center |
$
340 |
$
2,000 |
$
2,500 |
$
2,500 |
$
2,500 |
|
Graduate fellowships |
|
$
1,200 |
$
1,400 |
$
1,200 |
|
|
Facilities and equipment |
$
17,550 |
$ 8,750 |
$
10,000 |
|
|
|
Endowed chairs |
$
3,000 |
$ 1,500 |
$ 8,000 |
$ 15,500 |
$
10,000 |
|
Endowed graduate
fellowships |
|
$ 1,500 |
$ 5,000 |
$ 8,500 |
$
5,000 |
|
Endowed scholarships |
|
$
1,000 |
$
2,000 |
$
3,000 |
$
4,000 |
|
Endowed innovation
fund |
$
6,000 |
$
1,000 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL: |
$ 26,890 |
$ 18,390 |
$ 30,780 |
$ 33,280 |
$ 22,670 |
10. In 2010 OSU’s
Peers Will Be Top-25 Institutions
The investment of State and private dollars will transform
OSU’s College of Engineering, advancing it to the level of other top-25
engineering schools. The following table identifies the most important
characteristics shared by engineering programs rated in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report, and
indicates how the “jump-start” funding will enable us to achieve this status
for OSU’s College of Engineering. The action letters refer to the five specific
steps outlined in Section 7.
|
Plan for Attaining Each “Top-25”
Characteristic |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Typical “Top-25”
Program in 2000 |
OSU in 2010 |
Actions Leading to
Success |
|
|
|
|
|
$50 million in research |
$70 million |
A, B, C, D |
|
$400,000 research/faculty member |
$500,000 |
A, B, D |
|
70 Ph.D. students graduated/year |
100 |
A, B, D |
|
3 Ph.D. students/faculty member |
3 |
B, D |
|
5 NAE members |
7 |
E |
|
1420 GRE scores |
1420 |
B, D |
|
Top 50 rank by peers |
yes |
E |
|
|
|
|
While the primary goal is attainment of top-25 status at the
end of ten years, and the transforming capabilities and benefits that would
bring to Oregon, the expansion of OSU’s College of Engineering will yield many benefits
for the State of Oregon throughout the growth period. As new research faculty
members are brought to OSU, regional companies will benefit from
collaborations, consulting arrangements, and the availability of continuing
education in cutting-edge fields. As the number and quality of students
increase, Oregon employers will have the first chance at recruiting them to
stay in Oregon after completing their degrees. As research funding increases,
existing companies will be able to enjoy early access to key high-tech research
and development opportunities. Even before our goal is met, the combination of
a dynamic and successful high-tech research community and a pool of highly
qualified workers will not only have increased opportunities for spawning successful
start-ups, but also will be serving as an inducement for other businesses to
relocate to Oregon. Oregon’s substantial
investment in agricultural and forest research at OSU has provided great
benefits to the State’s natural-resource-based industries. Now is the time to
support the State’s information-technology-based industries with a similar
commitment to engineering and computer science research at OSU.
APPENDIX
A
U.
S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT
RANKING OF OSU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
1.
Summary of Methodology: Undergraduate
The ranking in this category is based completely upon
academic reputation. OSU engineering
has a published rank of 74th among Ph.D.-granting programs.
2.
Summary of
Methodology: Graduate
|
Metric |
Weight (%) |
OSU – 2000 Unpublished* |
Reputation (40%)
1. Academic 2. Recruiters |
25 15 |
66th 64th |
Selectivity
(10%)
1. Graduate
Record Exam Quant. 2. Graduate
Record Exam Anal. 3. Acceptance
Rate |
4.5 4.5 1.0 |
739 615 50% |
Faculty
Resources (25%)
1. Faculty
with PhD’s 2. Active
NAE Members 3. Ph.D.
per faculty Ratio 4. M.S.
per faculty Ratio 5. Total
Ph.D. graduates |
5.0 6.25 6.25 2.5 5.0 |
100% 0 (1 emeritus) 1.83 3.51 41 |
Research (25%)
1. Total
Expenditures (average over 2 yrs) 2. Expenditures
/Tenure-Track Faculty |
15 10 |
$12.28 $153,450 |
Total Points:
|
100
|
32 |
Rank:
|
|
70 |
* Only the
top 50 are published by U.S. News and
World Report. The OSU data were
presented to the editorial staff of U.S.
News and World Report who determined ranking. Academic reputation rank is determined through polling by U.S. News and World Report.
Web site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/bceng.htm