Engineering School Dean says the fledgling bioengineering department has a bright future
During a presentation at Thursday's Faculty Senate meeting, Jim Plummer, dean of the School of Engineering, said he expects undergraduates from other parts of the university to join the school as bioengineering majors. The senate also heard presentations on the Committee on Research, presented by its chair Stephen Monismith, and a report on the Stanford Electronic Research Administration System project, presented by Anne Hannigan, associate vice president in the Office of Research Administration.
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
Within the School of Engineering, about half of its nine departments are always ranked in the top three departments in the country – and often claim the top spot, Jim Plummer, dean of the Engineering School, told the Faculty Senate on Thursday.
The other half are always ranked in the top five, except for the newest addition to the school – the Department of Bioengineering, which began admitting graduate students in 2004-05. The department is jointly supported by the schools of Engineering and Medicine.
Plummer said the new department, whose mission is "to create a fusion of engineering and the life sciences that promotes scientific discovery and the development of new biomedical technologies and therapies through research and education," is already ranked number 10 in the country.
"The prediction I would make is that it will be in the top three within just another few years," Plummer told the senate during its first meeting of winter quarter.
Displaying a slide showing the growth in undergraduate engineering majors over the past 15 years, Plummer said about 20 percent of juniors and seniors, or approximately 700 students, have declared majors in engineering.
"The big unknown here for us and for many others is the impact of the Bioengineering Department, because just this fall it started its new undergraduate major," he said. "We have a whole variety of predictions as to what might happen, but all of them point in this direction in terms of what's going to happen," he said, as a red arrow, pointing straight up, appeared at the end of the bar graph on the slide.
"Certainly some of this will come at the expense of other engineering majors, but we think actually there will be a net influx into the School of Engineering from other parts of the university for students who want to major in bioengineering," he said.
Plummer, who became dean of the Engineering School in 1999, is an electrical engineer who has been associated with Stanford – as a student, faculty member and administrator – for more than four decades.
He discussed a wide variety of topics during his 40-minute presentation and Q&A, including curriculum and research activities, and strategic initiatives, such as the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, also known as the d. school.
Plummer said the design school brings together interdisciplinary teams – engineers, business students and sociology students – to work together to create real solutions to real problems.
"If you have never taken an opportunity to sit in, listen in or participate in a class in the d.school, do it," he said. "When I get depressed or worried about something, I often wander over to the d.school, which is currently in Building 524, but will be in its new home in the Peterson Building within just a few months, and just hang out there for an hour or two."
He predicted that people who visit the design school will leave feeling good about life and feeling good about the projects Stanford students are engaged in.
Plummer was one of three people who gave reports at the Jan. 21 senate meeting.
The Committee on Research
In his presentation on the Committee on Research Annual Report 2008-09, Stephen Monismith, chair of the committee, said its "major, concrete activity" was a clarification of Stanford's policy on nondiscrimination in research, a proposal the senate approved a year ago.
"The proposed revision broadened the existing statement on nondiscrimination and structured it to state explicitly that Stanford University does not engage in research agreements that permit discrimination on the basis of any characteristic protected by law, and further, does not limit participation in research on the basis of citizenship," the annual report said. "The proposed policy then included a limited number of permitted exceptions in regard to citizenship restriction in research agreements, including U.S. training grants aimed at workforce development."
The revised language can be found in the section on Nondiscrimination in Research Agreements in the university's Research Policy Handbook.
Monismith, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, said that this year, the committee will continue discussing a Medical School proposal to expand the definition of a principal investigator to include postdoctoral trainees. He spent most of his presentation talking about that issue.
The Stanford Electronic Research Administration Project
Anne Hannigan, associate vice provost in the Office of Research Administration, gave a progress report on the Stanford Electronic Research Administration Project. She said the first module, a web-based form that will replace Stanford's paper-based Proposal Routing Form (SU-42), will go live on Monday, Jan. 25.
The project is a joint effort between the Office of Research Administration, the Dean of Research Office and Administrative Systems.
The full minutes of the Jan. 21 meeting will be available next week on the senate's website, http://facultysenate.stanford.edu/.