Growing ECS Graduate Research Programs

Board of Advocates WorkshopSeptember 19, 2014

Facilitator: Dr Ken Van Treuren

Growing ECS Research

• Summary/Status of PhD Programs

• Potential Challenges for Growth

• Possible Topic Areas of Interest

• Brainstorming Future Paths– Present background information first– Then spend majority of time on this topic

Computer Science

• PhD proposal is being finalized 10 year plan• Current: 18 faculty (4 lecturers)• Proposed: 5 new tenure-track (23 total)• Degree: 75 hours past BS• All Big 12 schools have PhD in CS except

TCU and Baylor• 42 PhD students (at least 6 grads per year)• 5 year enrollment for degree• One core area: Informatics

Computer Science Funding (ASEE)

Year Fed/Nat Industry Priv/Non TOTAL

2013 $278,374 $392,747 $0 $671,121

2012 $122,000 $0 $231,000 $353,000

10 Year Target: $1.8 million annually ($112,500 per research faculty)

Computer Science• Informatics – Data Mining, Machine Learning,

Big Data (Data Scientist)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• PhD: Began Fall 2010 10 year plan• Current: 14 faculty (2 lecturers)• Proposed: 10 new tenure-track (24 total)• Degree: 60 hours past BS (minimum)• 30 PhD students – graduate 5/year• 3 year enrollment for degree (minimum)• Two core areas

– Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)– Power and Energy Systems (PES)

Electrical and Computer Engineering(ASEE)

Year Fed/Nat Industry Priv/Non TOTAL

2013 $124,689 $271,277 $12,669 $408,635

2012 $164,000 $0 $47,000 $211,000

5 Year Target: $2.0 million annually ($100,000 per research faculty)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

• PhD: Began Fall 2014 10 year plan• Current: 17 faculty (4 lecturers)• Proposed: 7 new tenure-track (24 total)• Degree: 78 hours past BS (minimum)• 22 PhD students – 45 MS students• 3 year enrollment for degree (minimum)• Three core areas

– Thermophysics and Energy Engineering (TEE)

– Natural and Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME)

– Biomechanics Experiment Design Simulation (BEDS)

Mechanical Engineering(ASEE)

Year Fed/Nat Industry Priv/Non TOTAL

2013 $63,357 $290,601 $21,583 $375,541

2012 $394,000 $0 $175,000 $569,000

10 Year Target: $3.737million annually ($196,000 per research faculty)

Comparison GroupTotal Research Funding (ME, ECE, CS)

School 2012 2013

Baylor University $1,133,00 $1,455,297

Notre Dame $21,515,755 $24,595,589

Rice $23,736,556 $25,064,485

Duke $30,769,440 $42,481,334

Vanderbilt $34,822,000 $39,160,000

SMU $4,720,658 $5,079,692

Texas Tech $7,005,005 $6,033,272

Mechanical Engineering

Challenges for Growth

• Faculty Size– Necessity to teach required courses

• Core gradate courses must be taught independent of size• Undergraduate courses only offered one semester

– Student teacher ratio • CS desired 16.4:1 (peer group 11.9:1)• ME desired below 20:1 (current 30:1)• ECE desired below 20:1

Challenges for Growth

• Enrollment Management– Undergraduate Enrollment

• CS – below 230• ME – below 400• ECE – below 250 or so

• Teaching Loads (Research Faculty)– Currently 2/2 (two courses per semester)– Interim 2/1– Desired 1/1

• Space – BRIC is helping

Challenges for Growth

• Continue to Hire Outstanding Research Faculty• Undergraduate Involvement in Research• Diversion from Undergraduate Teaching Excellence

– Use of RA/TA to teach courses/labs

• Finding Qualified Graduate Students– Many students from our program– Nationally 60% of graduates students are international– Much higher international percentage in engineering

Topic Areas of Interest

• Size of Graduate Program? (Peer Institutions)– Faculty?– Students?– Funding?– Space?

• Marketing• Online Courses• University Engineering Alliance