Dear Colleagues,
It’s a busy time of year here in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture. Students are working on projects, studying for midterms, and applying for summer internships and jobs. Our faculty and staff are preparing lectures and finals, advising students, and writing proposals and papers.
With all this activity, we can occasionally lose sight of just how much our work changes lives for the better. In our rapidly changing world, our Voiland College faculty, staff, and students are tackling our society’s biggest challenges and solving real-world problems.
Our faculty continue to be leaders in innovation. They are conducting research in critically important areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, materials discovery, or energy resources that have long-lasting repercussions for our society.
Professor Yong Wang was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his work in catalyst discovery, design, and reaction engineering. His election to the nation’s group of leading scientists demonstrates his leadership and important contributions to his field. The work that he and his colleagues are doing in the Voiland School is critical in many energy and environmental applications that are used daily in industries around the world.
I’m also pleased to announce that three of our faculty have recently been named faculty fellows, including Diane Cook to the Association for Computing Machinery, John McCloy to SPIE, and Changki Mo to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Meanwhile, our researchers are conducting life-changing work every day in areas from wildfire evacuation planning to nuclear waste clean-up. In the past year alone, our research expenditures increased by nearly 20 percent to $40 million.
Our students are also getting essential training to be the workforce of the future. They recently had the chance to use AI skills in our AgAID hackathon, applying themselves to real-world issues for the agriculture industry around the U.S. In cybersecurity, we recently received a National Science Foundation grant that will support scholarships and education to train our future workforce in that important field.
Of course, whether through scholarships, faculty research support, or private funding for new buildings, our alumni and donor support is key to making a difference and changing lives. I’m excited to think that in a short time, students will walk into Schweitzer Engineering Hall on the Pullman campus and see Glen Hower Hall. Many of you know that longtime faculty member Glen Hower helped to change the lives of so many students over a generation. We’re grateful to Edmund and Beatriz Schweitzer – and to all our supporters – for continuing that legacy for the next generation of students and problem solvers.
Go Cougs!
Partha Pratim Pande, FIEEE
Interim Dean and Professor
Boeing Centennial Chair in Computer Engineering
Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
pande@wsu.edu
509-335-5593