Campus is again bustling with the start of another school year, my first at the University of Washington. The energy and enthusiasm of our students are invigorating and remind me of our mission: to prepare the engineers of the future.
Our faculty continue to receive honors and media attention for breakthrough research. As you'll read in this issue, UW Engineering made a splash worldwide with recent research in neuroscience. Our research team successfully sent brain signals over the Internet to control the way another researcher moved his hand, representing the first-ever human brain-to-brain interface. This extraordinary discovery has a number of future applications, including helping people with disabilities communicate or helping a physician teach a complex skill such as surgery to a less-experienced colleague. Across campus, our computer science and electrical engineers have shown it's possible to operate wireless devices without the use of batteries. We're also improving signal processing to help cochlear-implant users hear music.
Our efforts toward gender balance within the college are showing results. Last year, UW Engineering had 47 female tenure-track professors, or 20 percent of our faculty. The national average was only 14 percent. Now, four of our five associate deans are women, and we continue to support our female faculty members through initiatives such as the ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change. In this issue, you'll read about Julie Kientz, recently named one of the world's top innovators under age 35.
We partner with industry, government, and other institutions to address the future of engineering. Earlier this month, we brought together dozens of stakeholders in an evening dedicated to discussing how to overcome challenges facing American engineering. Co-hosted by the National Engineering Forum, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, and UW Engineering, we had a lively dialogue that we hope will fuel renewed interest in engineering nationwide.
Thank you for taking time to learn more about UW Engineering and for reading Washington Engineer.
Michael B. Bragg
Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering