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 change
Blows 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” Lin
Associate Professor
Ph.D. – Univ. of Maryland
Dr. Matthew Fendt
Lecturer
Ph.D. - NC State
Four faculty have joined us in
Mechanical Engineering:
Dr. Jonathan Rylander
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. – Stanford Univ.
Dr. Joseph Kuehl
Assistant Professor
Ph.Ds. – Univ. of Rhode Island
Four new faculty in Mechanical
Engineering:
Dr. Jill Klentzman
Lecturer
Ph.D., Southern Methodist Univ.
Mr. Stanton Greer
Lecturer
M.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
Drs. Bill Poucher and Jeff Donahoo
Awarded the Medal of the University of Warsaw
May 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"
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, PE
Bayer MaterialScience
Let’s take a look back…
Observations made during the fall
2012 BoA meeting
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