Message from the Dean - January 2008
Dear Friends of Engineering,
All top engineering schools have close ties to their communities, and the UW is no exception. Luckily, the Puget Sound region has a booming technology sector and is a fast-growing hub for biomedical research. As dean of the college, I'm increasing those ties, encouraging collaborations in biomedical projects and developing new ones in materials science, renewable energy, and humanitarian service.
Those efforts received a boost this fall when NSF granted an additional $18 million for the Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research, an eight-institution consortium based at the UW. The center is a national leader in materials science, one of only 11 NSF-funded science and technology centers. They're aimed at enhancing America's economic strength and are being watched by leaders around the country. The UW center already has ties to more than two dozen companies and its work will help the Pacific Northwest become the center of a new photonics industry. Our new Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology will also be a catalyst for industry spinoffs.
We also need to move more technologies from lab to marketplace. To that end, I'm moderating a speaker series, Nanophotonics for Breakfast. Sponsored by local companies, trade groups, and UW colleges, it brings together local venture capitalists, private-sector scientists and UW researchers. The first meeting drew an overflow crowd, and we've regularly had 90 people attend these monthly networking and investment opportunities.
The Pacific Northwest is a growing hub for new ideas in environmentalism. The college's new BioEnergy graduate training grant, described in this issue, aims to create new leaders in renewable energy. The BioEnergy program will be just one of our contributions to the new UW College of the Environment. Engineering's alternative-energy and environmental experts will work closely with other UW researchers to help translate scientific understanding into environmental solutions.
Seattle is becoming an international leader in global health and humanitarian service. As part of that effort, UW Engineering is involved in several projects, from a lab-on-a-chip diagnostics funded by the Gates Foundation enabling molecular diagnostics in remote locations, to a Humanitarian of the Year award from Technology Review magazine (October 2007 issue), to a video series on engineering lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina (this issue).
And on that note, we are thrilled to co-host the international Engineers Without Borders conference March 27 through 30. Engineers will share their experiences and learn about research at the UW and in the region. See this issue for details, and if you're in the area, please think about joining us.
Thanks, too, for taking time to learn more about the College with the January 2008 issue of Washington Engineer. We welcome your thoughts, questions, and comments.
Sincerely,
Matt O’Donnell
Frank and Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering
