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The College of Engineering has undergone a fundamental transformation in the nearly 40 years I have been associated with it and is now poised to achieve even more going forward. We have excellent faculty, dedicated staff, and engaged students and alumni. The College of Engineering at UMass Amherst is ranked as the best public engineering school in New England. We have a physical plant of eight buildings, including our five-year-old ELab II with its gleaming laboratory spaces, research facilities, computer labs, and graduate offices. The College’s network of living alumni numbers more than 16,000 around the globe. Enrollment in the College of Engineering has increased steadily in the last five years. Our undergraduate enrollment now numbers more than 1,300. Our mean SAT score and GPA are the highest on campus, with the academic quality the best in college history.
An Engineering Career Planning & Student Development Center prepares students for professional opportunities and provides a place where engineering students, faculty, and employers can meet and develop mutually beneficial relationships. On average, 25 percent of sophomores and 50 percent of juniors participate in summer internships or undergraduate research. Within six month of graduation, 89 percent of the Class of 2008 found employment or started graduate school.
For academic year 2009-10, engineering undergraduates received over $350,000 in scholarship awards from 47 endowed scholarship funds and 73 annual scholarships. The average scholarship award was $1,640. More than 59 percent of College of Engineering undergraduate students qualify for need-based aid. The college also hosts 15 professional and honor societies, along with an active chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and one of the oldest Multicultural Engineering Programs in the country.
In academic year 2009-10, there are 95 tenured and tenure-track faculty in the College of Engineering. This includes four endowed professorships in the areas of electrical and computer engineering, entrepreneurship and innovation, measurement science, and professional development. Extramural research has reached $22.6 million in expenditures in a total budget of $41.2 million. We operate several national research centers, including the $40-million-plus Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere. Twenty-three faculty members have won the NSF’s most prestigious honors for young academics, the CAREER or Presidential Young Investigator awards. In fiscal year 2009, we had total private gifts and pledges amounting to about $3 million.
I am honored to be leading the college at this time, mindful of the current challenging financial situation, but really excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.
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Dr. Theodore Djaferis
Dean
College of Engineering
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