Growing ECS GraduateResearch Programs
Board of Advocates Workshop
September 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 exceptTCU 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 ComputerEngineering(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