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 21^st 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 21^st 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 49^th 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 13^th 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 5^th), Forestry (ranked 1^st) 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 ¾ in particular, the Extension Service, Agricultural Experiment Stations, and the Central Oregon office ¾ 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 growth in faculty and grad students		Done
Intelligent infrastructure lab			Opens
Electronic design and packaging lab			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.