Since 2001, we have doubled the number of tenured or tenure-track female engineering faculty in the college. I'm thrilled to report that the UW now has the highest percentage of women in tenure-track engineering faculty positions among the nation's top 50 engineering schools — 22.4 percent.

That number isn't nearly high enough, but in this edition of Washington Engineer you'll read about one of our initiatives to recruit, retain and support women faculty. Our Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity (LEAD) workshops have helped department chairs — who can have an outsized influence on departmental culture and job satisfaction — create inclusive and diverse workplaces. An online toolkit under development will soon allow other universities to re-create these STEM workshops at their home institutions.

I'm also pleased to share that UW's Department of Computer Science & Engineering recently won the National Center for Women & Information Technology's inaugural national award for promoting women's participation in undergraduate computing. One-third of our undergraduates who received degrees in computer science this June were women, more than double the national average.

Finally, we report an exciting partnership with China's Tsinghua University to develop the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX), a signature initiative in our Innovation Imperative. GIX will pioneer new models of teaching and learning, combine rigorous university research with entrepreneurial know-how, and prepare students to be global thinkers and problem solvers. By fostering collaboration between UW Engineering and the world's leading companies, universities, and nonprofits, we can develop innovations that improve people’s lives, propel our economy and make the world a better place.

Thank you for reading Washington Engineer.

Michael B. Bragg
Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering