Section 1:
Undergraduate
Education

Among the plan’s many strategies for improving undergraduate education at the Clark School, several concern the essential tasks of introducing students to the real-world engineering challenges
they will soon face, so that they leave the Clark School ready to lead. As an alum, what would you suggest in this regard?

Goal I.5:   The Clark School will do more to ensure that our students are better prepared to face the challenges immediately presented to them upon obtaining their degrees and entering the professional world.

Greg Moores, B.S. ’80, mechanical engineering (ME) and vice president of engineering for DeWalt, Inc., a division of Black & Decker and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of industrial power
tools, says 25 percent of Black & Decker engineers are recruited from the Clark School. He attests to their skills and job readiness.“The Clark School focuses on the practical application of engineering
and teaches students how to apply engineering principles. When students graduate, they are ready for the workplace,” says Moores, a member of the Clark School Board of Visitors.

Black & Decker plays a key role in making this happen, and in doing so provides a model for many industries. The company
is actively involved in ENME 371 Product Engineering and Manufacturing. There,

Strategy I.4.C:   Develop a junior/senior year… design course in which faculty members from several departments assist students in projects (that) focus on high-level challenges requiring integration of
several disciplines…

Did you do projects with students and teachers outside your department when you were in school? Strategy I.4.C places older, more knowledgeable students from different majors in a design experience
analogous to—but more challenging than—the ENES 100 class, which creates teams of freshmen to build and race an
autonomous hovercraft. “Students from multiple disciplines will take on a high-level problem in teams, as in a professional setting,” says Avi Bar-Cohen, ME professor and chair. “Employers want students with experience in teamwork and communication, ready to lead early in their careers,” adds Joe Schork, chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “This plan will provide that experience.”

Linda Schmidt, an ME associate professor who has been honored for her design work, envisions projects ranging from harnessing water power to generate electricity, to tracking the sun for solar arrays. She says, “It’s fun to work with students as they design and build prototypes and test them against requirements. Throughout the process, students have ‘eureka moments’ when
their engineering skills manifest to push the project forward.”

Students enjoy project-based work because “it really excites them,” says David Bigio, ME associate professor and

director of the department’s undergraduate studies. “They are eager to see if their ideas can actually be used by companies.”

Bar-Cohen builds on that point. “Many of our students generate intellectual property, but too often they leave ideas on the table when they graduate. A course like this could help us capture these assets for the benefit of the student and the university and ultimately address one of society’s unmet needs.”

Section 2: Graduate
Education

Were you, as an engineering graduate student, well prepared to enter the academic world and succeed as a researcher and teacher? Or to work in the corporate world with engineers outside your area of specialization? Two strategies in the plan’s Graduate Education section address these questions.

Strategy II.4.B:   Continue to offer the Clark School’s Future Faculty Program, including training in writing and presentation skills, grantsmanship and a mentored teaching experience, for students who plan academic careers.

“As a leading academic institution, the Clark School has a responsibility to help produce great engineering teachers for future generations,” notes Professor and Associate Dean Mark Shayman. “We created the Future Faculty Program to increase the number of highly qualified teachers the Clark School produces and to prepare participating students to achieve career-

long success in the academic world as teachers and researchers.”

The new program has begun to yield promising results. Fellow Enlu Zhou recently accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois. Fellow Omar Abdel-Aziz cites the value of the class interaction and student feedback he experienced in the program’s teaching practicum. Fellow Anand Veeraragavan has broadened his understanding of the typical assistant professor’s daily life: “You serve on various academic committees, teach, conduct
research and write proposals for funding almost simultaneously. It has to be a perfect juggling act.” Strengthening and expanding the program, which now accepts 20 new fellows annually, will require additional resources.

Strategy II.I.G:   Encourage the development of new interdisciplinary programs... to reflect the actual needs of much contemporary research and development.

Many people would agree that solutions for the world’s most complex problems will not come from any one engineering discipline, and that graduate education should thus include interdisciplinary experiences. A good model is the Clark School’s new sustainable energy engineering degree program, which “was created in less than a year to meet the growing demand for sustainable energy engineers worldwide. The response has been tremendous,” says George Syrmos, executive director of the school’s Office of Advanced Engineering Education. “The program is truly interdisciplinary, bringing
together mechanical engineering, chemical and biomolecular
engineering, nuclear engineering, reliability engineering and systems engineering, and provides real breadth and depth in the subject.”

In developing programs, Syrmos notes, “We have a sense of the needs of the engineering community, and we approach the private and public sectors and look at national and international trends to identify promising areas.” Syrmos signals bioengineering, nanotechnology, infrastructure security and management of technology as key areas that could

provide interdisciplinary opportunities in
the future. What programs would you envision?

Section 3: Research

George Syrmos’s sense of potential new graduate programs (see above) is in full alignment with the Clark School’s research priorities, as spelled out in the strategic plan’s research section:

Strategy III.2.A:   Develop national and international research leadership in biotechnology, nanotechnology and sustainability engineering systems, critical research areas that encompass work in all departments…

In each of these areas, the plan recommends building on the successes
of the school’s related centers: the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, the Maryland NanoCenter, and the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (see related story, p. 5). Do you
agree with these priorities? What else might be considered?

To define specific research activities within these and other important areas, the plan calls for two parallel approaches. First,
the school should establish an advisory group (Strategy III.1.B), and, at the same time, the school should encourage research ideas to arise from its faculty

members and their labs (Strategy III.2.B), including innovative cross-disciplinary efforts.

Sarah Bergbreiter, ME assistant professor, has been encouraged by the school’s receptiveness to new research ideas and the collaboration she sees among faculty members. She recently won a Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, given to rising stars in university microsystems research, for her work on microrobots.

“Some of my most interesting research is occurring at the boundaries of computer science, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. They all need to mesh to achieve research goals,” she says. “When you collaborate, you are more likely to find yourself in new research areas, and you are able to
answer questions in interesting ways.”

André Marshall, associate professor of fire protection engineering, believes the school must take formal steps to establish
interdisciplinary research centers and help faculty form research connections. He has been instrumental in planning the meeting of the Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute, involving faculty from mechanical, fire protection and aerospace engineering. “This activity is a way young faculty can interact and demonstrate strength in their areas of expertise, and is important in enhancing their reputations,” says Marshall.

Strategy III.I.C:   Allocate and invest Clark School Incentive Funds to support new, unfunded research by faculty groups that will lead to new, large, multidisciplinary research centers…

Ultimately, whether they come from the top down or the bottom up, most new research ideas will require support in their early stages. The proposed Clark School Incentive Funds would help pay for new research in the hope that preliminary success will lead to further support by major government funding agencies.

David Fischell, M.D., chief executive officer of Angel Medical System, Clark School benefactor, a trustee of Cornell
University and chair of the advisory board for its Department of Bioengineering, is a champion of such funds. “Seed grants have
the potential to support transitional projects that take the science and engineering disciplines into medicine,” says Fischell, who has founded 10 medical device companies. “There is significant
potential for technological transfer.”

Fischell explains that to gain government funding, research must be underway and, in some cases, must have preliminary results. “It is nearly impossible to find money to conduct research in a compelling new area. With seed funding, if the research is successful, you have established a baseline to get regular government grants,” he explains. “Seed grants of less than $500,000 can yield more than $3 million in follow-on government grants and continued projects. There is almost nothing that will yield a greater return.”

Section 4: State,
National and
International
Engagement

To prepare students to master opportunities and challenges anywhere — Maryland, Malaysia or Madagascar—and to find new partners for mutually beneficial initiatives, the Clark School has developed a set of proposals for expanding our engagement with the world at state, national and international levels. Do you think foreign study is important for engineering students? Do you think the school should be more involved in state, national and international challenges?

Strategy III.2.C:   Encourage strategic partnerships with other schools, government agencies and corporations that combine research and education…

Models for such partnerships include the Clark School’s creation of an M.D./Ph.D. program with the University of Maryland
School of Medicine, in which the two

organizations have a single point of contact in joint research proposals and place students in each other’s labs; and the pilot program, involving the Clark School, the Naval Air Warfare Center, College of Southern Maryland and Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, to explore joint activities leading to aerospace and mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree programs in proximity to the Patuxent
Naval Air Station. Do you know of other partnership opportunities the school might pursue?

Entrepreneur and Clark School Board of Visitors member Brian LeGette, B.S. ’89, electrical engineering, envisions members
of the board working with peers from other schools in the university and from corporations and government organizations to develop collaborations to solve society’s most pressing social and economic problems and “to put the Clark School even more in the center of the action.” As the school identifies major research interests, board members “can put out feelers to individuals and companies they know.” What types of challenges do you think the Clark School and its partners might take on?

Strategy IV.2.D:   Hire adequate staff to develop for both students and faculty members new international internships and expanded exchange programs with
top universities abroad…

Stephen J. Woerner, senior vice president for gas and electric operations
and planning with Baltimore Gas and Electric Company and a Clark School Board of Visitors member, is an advocate for study and work abroad. “International internships offer meaningful work opportunities and accelerate the transfer of learning,” he says. “The sooner students have the experience, the more they can do to make a difference in the world, resulting in a higher level of student engagement and a more complete learning experience.”

“Students see there are many ways to learn and approach work
and decision-making. Working abroad, students gain an understanding
of different cultures, beliefs and lifestyles,” he adds.

Board of Visitors member Ram Mukunda, B.S. ’79, math and EE, M.S. ’81, EE, and chief executive officer of India Globalization Capital, Inc., believes the Clark School should pursue internships with organizations such as NATO, government agencies and U.S. military bases abroad. In addition, “We should
establish programs with the best schools in the world and look at world-class multinationals like Nokia, Infosys and Siemens.”

He cites a number of long-term benefits. “The Clark School is already one of the country’s top engineering schools, and this could move us even further ahead. If students travel to Sweden to learn about sustainable urban planning or alternative energy, those students come back and can implement their ideas in the state
and in the region.”

Michel Cukier, ME/Institute for Systems Research associate professor, began a collaboration with the National Engineering School of Bourges (ENSIB), France, located 150 miles outside Paris, four years ago, capitalizing on ENSIB’s expertise in computer security and risk assessment. During the last academic year, 30 undergraduate students from ENSIB served internships at the Clark School.