A Letter from the Dean
Amir Mirmiran: Dean - FIU College of Engineering and Computing
Dear faculty, students, alumni, and friends:What an incredible year, 2010-11 has been for the College of Engineering and Computing at Florida International University – a year filled with exciting accomplishments for our faculty and students, a growing enterprise of research and education, and an evidence of the strength of the College in the midst of global economic challenges.
Our College consists of one school (Computing and Information Sciences) and five departments (Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Construction Management, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Materials Engineering). We offer 12 academic disciplines (Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Construction Management, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Management, Environmental Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Telecommunication and Networking) through a total of 28 degree programs (9 BS, 1 BA, 12 MS, and 6 PhD degree programs). We also offer a number of overseas and dual degree programs.
The College welcomed two new department chairs in January 2011; Dr. Ranu Jung, Chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Atorod Azizinamini, Chair of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and has just announced two new additions to start in Fall 2011; Dr. Sitharama Iyengar, Director of School of Computing and Information Sciences, and Dr. Shekhar Bhansali, Chair of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The new leadership will be working with the faculty to build national prominence in their respective units. This past year, the College also welcomed eleven (11) new faculty members. Moreover, three (3) faculty members in the College received their tenure and/or promotion during this academic year, and seven (7) Instructors were promoted to Senior Instructors. The bios of the new faculty, instructors that were promoted, and those who received their tenure and/or promotion are included in this report.
The College has embraced Professional Science Masters (PSM) programs, initiating its professional MS in Engineering Management in January 2011. We have also expanded our online offerings with additional courses and programs. We significantly expanded our global reach by signing of the fifth cohort of MS Engineering Management at UTECH in Jamaica, and the first cohorts of MS in Construction Management both at UNIBE in Dominican Republic and at QLU in Panama. We also signed four (4) new dual degree agreements with universities in China, bringing our international dual degree agreements to a total of 17, with programs in Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Spain, and China.
The College enjoyed an 8% growth in its student body to 4,783 (3,963 undergraduates, 545 masters’, and 275 doctoral) students. This reflects a 10% increase in undergraduate enrollment, and a 25% increase in doctoral student enrollments over the previous year. The largest growth in student body was reflected in Biomedical Engineering (20%), Mechanical and Materials Engineering (18%), and Computing and Information Sciences (18%). The College graduated a record number of 868 students, an increase of 7% over the previous year, conferring 574 baccalaureate degrees, 252 masters’ degrees, and 42 doctoral degrees.
According to the 2010 ASEE Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges, the College ranked as 22nd largest undergraduate engineering program, the third largest in the state. Our Computer Science ranked as the third largest nationally after the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Washington, and claimed the first place in the state. Our Computer Engineering program ranked as the 24th largest undergraduate program nationally. Our faculty took pride in ranking 9th nationally (first in the state) for the number of BS degrees awarded relative to the faculty size.
Diversity of our student body continued to be a source of pride and distinction for our College. We continue to be the top producer of Hispanic engineers in the Continental US, according to the 2010 ASEE Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education also ranked our College as No. 1 for degrees awarded to Hispanics both in Engineering and in Computer Science. This past year, the College ranked 14th, jointly with Florida A&M University/Florida State University for awarding BS degrees to African Americans. The College ranked 8th nationally (first in the state) for the percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to women, 36th nationally (2nd in the state) for the number of BS degrees awarded to women, and 3rd nationally for the percentage of doctoral degrees awarded to foreign nationals.
Our research enterprise enjoyed a remarkable growth this past year. The new contracts and grants awarded during the year reached an all time high of $17.4M, the second highest after a record of $18.9M in the previous year. The external research expenditure was $13.5M, slightly higher than the previous year. The College also received funding for three industry-sponsored professorship this past year.
With the growth in enrollment, conferred degrees, and research awards, there is an equal dimension of quality as reflected in the scholarly work and faculty honors. Our dedicated faculty and our growing alumni base of close to 15,000 Golden Panther Engineers are going to make an incredible future for our young college, following the 2010-15 strategic road map ratified earlier this year by the faculty.
I invite you to take a look at the highlights of accomplishments of our faculty and students in various units of the College featured in this annual report. For more information, please visit the College website at www.cec.fiu.edu. Our quarterly E-Bulletin is also online at http://www.cec.fiu.edu/Enewsletter/. We have also launched our college page on facebook® in an effort to build an e-community of our stakeholders.
Amir Mirmiran
Professor and Dean