Engineering and Computer Science Update

Dennis L. O’Neal, Ph.D., P.E.Dean

ECS Board of Advocates September 19, 2014

Welcome!

• We have a new candidate for the Board of Advocates– Tom Ayers

• Chief Operating Officer – Offshore Business Unit, Technip USA

• 1991 Baylor BS Engineering graduate• 1993 MSME from the other university

on the Brazos

What we’ll will do this morning• Dean’s update/conversation• Divide into committees

– Development/Corporate Relations– Undergraduate Program– Graduate Program/Research

• Reports from three committees

The wind of changeBlows straight into the face of time…*

The winds of change can provide opportunities for us in ECS

* Lyrics by the Scorpions

We have seen some major changes since last Spring at Baylor & ECS

Provost (Elizabeth Davis) left to become President of Furman University

• Architect of Pro Futuris• Supporter of ECS

David Garland is now the Interim Provost

• Engineering background from Naval Academy• Supporter of ECS

Change in the air – ECS Development

• Kristen Box, ECS Director of Development has been promoted within Baylor Development

• Search is underway for new development officer

• This will be third year in a row with a new development officer!

Change in the air - ECS• ECS Assistant Dean for Undergraduate

Programs is leaving ECS• Becoming Associate VP for

Constituent Engagement• Critically important position within

ECS because of undergraduate• Recruitment• Retention• Graduation• Student life

Change in the air - ECS• Kate Amaya, our new Director of Marketing and

External Relations started in May• Tasked with developing marketing strategies to

increasing visibility of ECS• Extending our outreach to companies • Working on a complete revision of our web site• Engaging social media• Starting regular e-newsletter• Directly engaging the challenging internal

obstacles within Baylor

We have some new faculty in ECS!

Two new faculty joined ECS in Computer Science

Dr. King-Ip “David” LinAssociate ProfessorPh.D. – Univ. of Maryland

Dr. Matthew FendtLecturerPh.D. - NC State

Four faculty have joined us in Mechanical Engineering:

Dr. Jonathan RylanderAssistant ProfessorPh.D. – Stanford Univ.

Dr. Joseph KuehlAssistant ProfessorPh.Ds. – Univ. of Rhode Island

Four new faculty in Mechanical Engineering:

Dr. Jill KlentzmanLecturerPh.D., Southern Methodist Univ.

Mr. Stanton GreerLecturerM.S., Baylor University

Our current faculty numbers are still low for the size of our undergraduate programs

Program Faculty Size (full-time) Approximate Number of Undergraduates

Computer Science & Informatics

15 290

Electrical & Computer Engineering

15 250

Mechanical Engineering 17 575

Baylor advertises a 15-to-1 student/faculty ratio – We still have a ways to go!

We will continue to grow our faculty

• Three tenure-track positions approved for ECE• One tenure-track position approved for ME• One clinical professor of engineering practice

approved for EGR– Will help both ME and ECE

2014 – Highlights• Spring 2014 - Largest ECS graduation ever –

100 undergraduate & 5 graduate students!• Largest freshmen class in Baylor history – 3625• Largest numbers in ECS history

– Freshmen – 400 (SAT avg = 1294)– Undergraduate students – 1124 (8% growth)– Graduate students – 67

• 18 Ph.D. students

2014 Highlights – Faculty Recognition

Awarded the Medal of the University of WarsawMay 2014 “In recognition of your encouragement and efforts in building the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest and expanding the competition worldwide in service to gifted students, academia, industry, and the global community"

Drs. Bill Poucher and Jeff Donahoo Dr. Robert Marks

Named #28 in “The 50 Most Influential Scientists in the World Today” for his work in computational

intelligence

The BestSchools.org – February 2014

2014 – Highlights• Fall 2014 - First Ph.D. student in

Mechanical Engineering

Sarah Stair

Fall 2014 – Highlights• Largest STEM Career Fair in Baylor history

– 59 employers– 800+ students

Growth of the career fair is important to our program

Year Recruiters Students Attending

2010 Canceled – only 7 recruiting companies

n.a.

2011 29 270

2012 46 351

2013 57 676

2014 59 804

Our undergraduate numbers still look too much like a state program

School Undergraduates Faculty Student-to-Faculty Ratio

Texas Tech 3862 125 30.9

Iowa State 6839 245 27.9

West Virginia 3465 126 27.5

Kansas State 3139 125 25.1

Baylor 1124 47 23.9

Oklahoma State 2801 130 21.5

Oklahoma 3032 149 20.3

Kansas 2149 112 19.1

Texas Christian 223 12 18.6

Texas 5273 292 18.1

We had some well known companies at our STEM Career Fair last week

Unsolicited email on Tuesday

Dr. O’Neal: I was at Baylor last week for the STEM Career fair, recruiting for my employer. I had hoped to meet you while there but, unfortunately, I did not have the time. I am writing you now to congratulate you on the high caliber of engineers Baylor is currently producing. My colleagues and I were very impressed with both the quality and diversity in your students……

William D. Wray, PEBayer MaterialScience

Observations made during the fall 2012 BoA meeting

Let’s take a look back…

The rapid growth in ECS enrollment has jeopardized the quality of our programs

• Assessment: Still true: – 885 undergraduates in 2012, 1124 in 2014

• Student to faculty ratios are worse today than in 2012• Actions Taken:

– Engineering has taken aggressive steps to curb growth through raising admissions

– Computer Science – still studying issue– Hired ten faculty in last two years – net of 5 because of

retirements and attrition– Hiring of two more full-time advisors

• We should see progress in numbers next fall

There will be increased focus on retention (and graduation) of undergraduates by Baylor• Assessment: Making progress• Actions taken:

– Developed tools to better identify factors affecting retention

– Hiring of two additional advisors was necessary to develop early intervention strategies for students struggling

– Development of minimum admission standards to get better qualified students

• Will be able to make first assessments in a year

ECS is space constrained

• Assessment: Making slow progress• Actions taken:

– Secured continual use of the ECS Annex (~6k sf)– Been proactive about securing space in

Cashion/Hankamar• Plan is for CS and ECE to move• Should increase our footprint 80 to 100%• Will free up space in Rogers for academic laboratories

ECS is short on support staff• Assessment: Steady progress• Actions:

– Added two full-time advisors• Can now cover freshmen & sophomore classes for all

majors

– Added one IT support person– Have approval for two administrative assistants to

help the graduate program directors in ME/ECE• Evaluating future needs

• Technical and administrative are high priorities

Lack of Ph.D. programs in CS and ME will affect the growth of our graduate programs• Assessment: Making progress• Actions taken:

– ME Ph.D. program approved in fall 2013– First ME Ph.D. student started in fall 2014– CS Ph.D. proposal in process

• Note: ECS has grown from 56 (10 Ph.D.) graduate students in 2012 to 67 (18 Ph.D.)

Research infrastructure at Baylor needs to improve to support growth in research

• Assessment: very slow improvement• Actions:

– Baylor is slowly hiring key research support personnel• Export controls – done

– Other personnel needed:• Proposal preparer• Contracts negotiator

– Future BRIC build out is slow - tied to new faculty hires

• Notes: – Baylor lacks major equipment found in major research universities

• Clean rooms• Materials characterization

– We are developing recruiting strategies to build the graduate programs

ECS endowments and annual giving are insufficient to support a program of our size

• Assessment: Still true• Actions:

– Hired first full-time development person for ECS – Fall 2013– Baylor hired full-time corporate development officer last year– Continue to identify potential ECS alumni and friends who might be

substantial donors– Working within companies to identify concentrations of Baylor grads and

encouraging them to invest in ECS– Working with annual giving to get our story to alumni

• Challenges:– Turn over in development personnel– Small percentage of ECS graduates who give– Small number of ECS graduates in prime giving years– Poor tracking by Baylor of graduates

Lack of visibility of ECS with industry is hurting our programs

• Assessment: Making progress• Actions taken:

– Personal visits to dozens of companies in first two years– Appearances at Baylor network events– Hiring of Director of Marketing and External Relations

• Challenges:– Companies entrenched with hiring at existing schools

– A lot of effort to move them in our direction

– Focusing efforts on companies from an extremely large pool of potential employers

Upcoming Items• Computer Science ABET visit – October 5-7• Computer Science Ph.D. proposal• Possible Chemical Engineering proposal to the Board –

Feb?• Reevaluation of the minimum SAT admission

requirements– Currently 1220– Should we go higher?

• Filling positions in the Dean’s Office– Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs (Faculty position)– Director of Undergraduate Programs (Staff Position)

Structure of rest of the morning• Three committees

– Development & corporate relations (meets here)– Graduate program & research (first floor)– Undergraduate programs (first floor)

• Each committee needs someone to take notes during the meetings

• Each committee will report back to the Board before lunch