Dear Members of the Brown Community,
Having an engineer’s perspective means not being content with simply identifying problems: we are driven to find solutions. At the School of Engineering, we develop solutions by bringing together multiple points of view in an environment that fosters exploration and innovation. Over the past year we’ve made progress, positioning the School to contribute to addressing societal issues across many dimensions.
Below, I write to share some of the School’s recent milestones and to invite continued engagement in the year ahead with colleagues across the Brown community.
Expanding Interest, Cultivating Community
A priority for me, the School of Engineering and for Brown has been to invite and welcome increasingly diverse students, faculty and staff and offer an environment where individuals and ideas can flourish. This has included creating pathways that encourage the interest of individuals who have been historically underrepresented in engineering.
This year, as a result of curricular changes and reimagining courses such as Systems Thinking to be grounded in contemporary issues, there has been a 40% increase over recent years in sophomores who have declared engineering as their concentration. The response to the new Design Engineering concentration has been especially strong. This track complements our graduate level Master’s in Design Engineering (MADE) and Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME) and positions Brown to be a leader in the increasingly important area of design engineering.
Equal to our commitment to inviting a wider range of students to consider engineering for their careers is providing resources to support success. For example, we’re partnering with Analog Devices to pilot industry-supported capstone projects. Enrolled students will build, program, analyze, and document a wireless communication system with the goal of making radio development more accessible. This summer, we will launch the Summer Transition Engineering Program (STEP), which will provide academic resources to students who are interested in engineering but may not have had some of the requisite preparation during high school, so they are ready to fully engage in the fall.
This same thoughtful and innovative approach is shaping graduate education, including incorporating experiential learning with industry into master’s programs to enhance professional preparedness. We’re seeing results here too. Master's applications increased by 15% across all programs, and master's matriculations increased 30% over last year. We also received the highest number of PhD applications ever - which is a 42% increase from last year. The incoming cohort of PhD students is 56% women, a 40% increase from the current class.
Powerful Partnerships
Conducting impactful research enabled by competitive sponsored funding is fundamental to our mission, and we have cross-cutting priorities that guide our efforts in areas ranging from A.I. and human health to environmental degradation and energy resiliency. Building partnerships within and beyond Brown is a growth strategy that reinforces our commitment to inviting an array of perspectives to advance innovative research.
This approach is working. We have a number of interdisciplinary centers, initiatives and institutes that are engaged in exciting, path breaking work. This year, faculty leading the Mechanics of Undersea Science and Engineering Center (MUSE) received $5.5 million in supplemental funding from the Office of Naval Research to build on existing research aimed at addressing technical challenges in undersea mechanics. In addition, faculty connected with the Institute for Biology, Engineering and Medicine (IBEAM) received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the diversity of biomedical engineering faculty.
Our faculty are also poised for partnerships with newly established regional initiatives such as the Investor Catalyst Hub, which is designed to translate research to improve health outcomes.
It's About the People
Brown’s School of Engineering is fueled by the intellectual drive and resolve of faculty, staff and students, and we devote substantial resources to attracting, retaining and supporting excellence. This year, we welcomed exceptional new colleagues, including Professor Francis J. Doyle III, an accomplished chemical engineer who also serves as Brown’s provost. And together with the Division of Biology and Medicine, we recruited Assistant Professor of Engineering Theresa Raimondo, a powerhouse in the field of immuno-engineering and RNA delivery. We also successfully recruited several outstanding faculty members: Peipei Zhou, Joy Zeng and Indie Garwood will join Electrical and Computing Engineering, the Initiative for Sustainable Engineering, and Neuroengineering, respectively.
Competition for talent is fierce, and part of the attraction to Brown is our highly accomplished faculty. This year, we celebrated a number of honors and achievements, with elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Faculty also earned the NSF Career Award, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, Society for Engineering Science G.I. Taylor Medal, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Early Career Scientist Prize, among others.
Our students, too, have excelled in the classroom, lab, and in their co-curricular endeavors. Among them, undergraduates Elizabeth Polydefkis ’25 and Clara Tandar ’25 were named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars, and Brendan McMahon ’24 and Ben Schornstein ‘24 received Fulbright scholarships. In addition, graduate student Eva Erickson, Angelina Schorr ‘24 and Joseph Urban ’21 were each awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
Engineering staff are essential partners in the work of faculty and students. Over the course of the last year, staff collaborated with students, supported a significant increase in grant awards and proposals, contributed to planning new facilities, hosted high-school students interested in STEM, and played key roles in all critical activities.
Essential Infrastructure
Opened in 2017, the Engineering Research Center was the first new engineering building since the 1960’s and allowed the school to address significant research and student needs. Additional space is essential to meet burgeoning interest in design and innovation across Brown, and to enable cutting-edge research. We have plans for both.
At their recent May meeting, the Corporation of Brown University approved moving forward with architect selection and design to reimagine and renovate Prince Lab to serve as a hub for innovation and design at Brown. The building has significant capacity to support the growth of project-based learning, fabrication, rapid prototyping and research, and a potential renovation is being made possible through the generous support of alumni and parent donors.
In addition, the School of Engineering is a lead partner — along with the Division of Biology and Medicine and the Carney Institute for Brain Science — in the Integrated Life Sciences at Brown research facility, to be located in the Jewelry District.
In the near term, Engineering will lease space for two new labs at 225 Dyer Street, which is also home of Brown’s School of Professional Studies. This will enable state-of-the-art laboratory environments in close proximity to the Warren Alpert Medical School and our affiliated teaching hospitals.
Extended Community of Support
As a private university, we rely on philanthropy to propel our mission. We are so fortunate for the dedicated donors whose investments make possible competitive student scholarship and stipend funding, vital research tools, space and equipment, and endowed chairs — such as the Howard M. Reisman Assistant Professor of Engineering named chair, to which Lucas Caretta was just appointed. I’m thrilled to announce that the School concluded FY 2023 with an impressive total of nearly $1.6 million raised for the annual fund, and this year to-date we have received more than $1.1 million in cash and pledges toward the annual fund. Thank you to those who made a difference.
Finally, my thanks to the many, many individuals who have worked so hard over the last year. Progress in curricular enhancements, research growth and cultivating a vibrant and inclusive community is the result of the deliberate efforts of engineering faculty, staff and students. In addition, we could not have achieved these milestones without the inspired leadership of President Paxson and Provost Doyle, and the support of so many partners across the University.
It is a privilege to be part of this community, and to work with remarkable scholars who are driven to make a difference in the world through engineering. We have much to do and much to build upon in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Tejal Desai