Engineering School must adapt, says potential Dean

By Kurt Esposito
Summer Editor

The Schools of Engineering need to adapt a strategic plan to keep pace with the changes that will occur in the fields of engineering within the next five years, said the second finalist for the dean of the Schools of Engineering.

W. Kent Fuchs, head of the Purdue School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, took part in an open forum Wednesday afternoon where he told the one-third filled audience that "we have to encourage opportunity in the future."

Fuchs said Purdue should take advantage of new areas of research and the new resources available for this research.

"(Schools of) Engineering should be the leader in all of this and be an example for the rest of the (academic) schools," said Fuchs.

He said the new research centers that will be built in the next few years will provide the resources needed for growing fields such as nanotechnology, optics and photonics.

These are fields, he said, that Purdue needs to do more research in and fields that will have a large impact on many of the academic schools, including engineering, the School of Technology, the School of Science and the School of Veterinary Medicine.

He said engineering can utilize such research by working together across the various schools in engineering.

"There's still got to be strategic investments in interdisciplinary research and multidisciplinary research," he said.

He also said he would like to see the engineering schools have more endowments , more graduate fellowships and newer facilities that would provide the resources necessary for the changes.

Fuchs is one of the four finalists being considered to replace Richard Schwartz, the dean of the Schools of Engineering, who is stepping down on June 30. The finalists were chosen by a search committee of faculty, staff and students who conducted a national search that yielded 40 applicants.

Vincent Drnevich, a professor of civil engineering, asked how Fuchs would make sure the line between the Schools of Engineering and the School of Science did not become too blurred when it came to research.

Fuchs said he did not see a big problem with it because it allows different groups to able to work on the same problem.

Tom Downar, a professor of nuclear engineering, asked how Fuchs would a strong center point to link the separate Schools of Engineering as one.

Fuchs said the keys would be joint appointments and cross-cutting research between the schools.

Fuchs admitted that he can be viewed as a risk because some do not consider him to be fiscally conservative when it came to research. But, he said, sometimes when doing research one needs to be strategic and aggressive in order not to be left behind. "You can't stand still; You gotta take the risk."

• The third open forum for Way Kuo, professor of engineering in innovation at Texas A&M University, will take place 2:30 p.m. Monday in the Fowler Hall.

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Campus editor: Laura Pelner

Assistant campus editors: Kurt Esposito, Dave Stephens

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