College of Engineering & Computing Case Statement

COLLEGE OF

ENGINEERING & COMPUTING

THE CAMPAIGN FOR FIU Next Horizon—The Campaign for FIU is the University’s groundbreaking fundraising effort. The campaign’s $750 million fundraising goal is ambitious and representative of just how high FIU has set its sights. The College of Engineering & Computing plays a critical role in achieving this goal.

Through the campaign, we will secure the investment necessary to improve the future of every FIU student, our Miami home, and those we reach across the world through our teaching and research in the College of Engineering & Computing.

The Next Horizon of discovery and innovation; health and society; environment and resilience; influence and enterprise; and community, arts, and culture will be achieved by focusing on two pillars—student success and research excellence—and attracting investments in the following campaign objectives:

• INCREASE SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT SUPPORT • OPTIMIZE 21

-CENTURY TEACHING

ST

• ADVANCE A VIBRANT, HEALTHY MIAMI • ACCELERATE RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES • ESCALATE DISCOVERY TO ENTERPRISE

1

FIU IS A RESEARCH ENGINE. WE PRODUCE TOMORROW’S THINKERS AND CHANGEMAKERS WHO WILL DEVELOP NEXT-GENERATION SOLUTIONS TO TODAY’S TOUGHEST CHALLENGES. At the College of Engineering & Computing, we are problem solvers.

Our students and faculty are relentless in pursuing big ideas that will lead to better lives and economic growth in South Florida and beyond.

One of the largest engineering colleges in the country (#32 in ASEE 2017 Ranking)—and one of the largest in enrollment of Hispanic students at a majority-minority institution—we are driven to improve student success through evidence-based engineering and computing education.

We are also accelerating research and patent generation. And we are partnering with colleges across the University, and with industry, to create interdisciplinary centers in strategic areas such as neurotechnology nanomedicine, reverse engineering of the brain, secure communications and cybersecurity, construction, smart cities, and sustainability, just to name a few.

Fueled by FIU’s $750 million Next Horizon campaign, we will be counted among the nation’s top public engineering and computing colleges and recognized as a global leader in educational innovation, research, and entrepreneurship.

2

$250K Nearly $250,000 per faculty member in annual research expenditures

44

patents issued in 2018

13%

of faculty with NSF CAREER Awards

$50M College of Engineering & Computing Next Horizon Goal

THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING The College of Engineering & Computing provides top-notch education, groundbreaking research, and community engagement with local, national, and global relevance. With nearly 120 faculty members, 50 instructors, and more than 6,000 students, we are one of the largest colleges of engineering and computer science in the country. We are also diverse: we are the largest producer of Hispanic engineers and one of the top producers of African American engineers.

As an educational leader in a changing economic, technological, and social environment, we are proud of our innovation and growth. Our research expenditures have increased more than 40 percent in the past five years, and the number of patents awarded to our faculty has increased almost six-fold.

Through the campaign, we seek partners who will accelerate this progress. Your philanthropy can help the College of Engineering & Computing build on our strengths to reach preeminence across all metrics that make a college great.

Your support will advance the entrepreneurial activities and research that will lead to better, healthier, and more productive lives here in South Florida and around the world.

“In a rapidly changing technological era, we are pushing innovations in education and research that are interdisciplinary and lead to entrepreneurial endeavors. Above all, we are committed to creating a dynamic environment that offers students every opportunity to pursue their dreams and be the leaders of our community.” ― JOHN L. VOLAKIS Dean, College of Engineering & Computing

4

#1

#9

#3

of Hispanic engineers in the country

of African American or black engineers in the country

of engineers in Florida

LARGEST PRODUCER

LARGEST PRODUCER

LARGEST PRODUCER

Motorola Nanofabrication Research Facility, part of the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute (AMERI)

5

22%

19%

of College of Engineering & Computing undergraduate students are the first in their families to attend college

of undergraduates are female

6

PRIORITY INITIATIVES INCREASING SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT SUPPORT The College of Engineering & Computing is committed to providing our students the best in a Worlds Ahead education. Everything we do is about fueling their passions, enabling their dreams, and launching them on to fulfilling careers. Through the campaign, you can help us in these efforts by strengthening funding for these priority initiatives: TOP-STUDENT RECRUITMENT: Recruiting the very best students to FIU is key to our community’s future success. Our talented students are invited to present research at regional and national conferences as well as participate in competitions.

Campaign gifts can support top-student recruitment scholarships for undergraduate students and fellowships and research awards for high-achieving graduate students, as well as travel and registration fees at conferences and other invaluable activities—rich learning experiences for students that also help raise the College’s profile.

SPONSORED SENIOR DESIGN PROJECTS: From a back-saving patient transfer system to a smart sensor that detects babies or pets left inside of a car, our engineering students have bright ideas ready for commercialization and the talent to solve problems for industry. Through corporate-sponsored senior design projects, our students can team up with faculty to find design solutions to real-world, real-time engineering problems presented by sponsors. The design team experience teaches critical soft skills and deepens industry knowledge while sponsors benefit from fresh, innovative product development.

STUDENT SUCCESS INITIATIVES: The College’s new School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education (SUCCEED) is the nation’s first engineering education department at a minority-serving institution. SUCCEED is researching evidence-based approaches to teaching that improve success for all engineering and computer science students. Campaign investment can support entrepreneurial learning in SUCCEED. Gifts can also help our students help their peers succeed by funding our tutoring program, which provides free one-on-one tutoring in key courses, or our undergraduate Learning Assistant (LA) program, which provides peer-facilitated instruction in the classroom.

COMPLETION SCHOLARSHIPS AND EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE SCHOLARSHIPS: These funds will help students facing financial barriers that threaten to interrupt their education. Awards can be used for tuition needs beyond financial aid as well as for books, housing, transportation—any unanticipated challenge that would lead students to drop out of school.

FIU’s Most Impactful Research Programs

ACCELERATING RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES The College is home to nearly 120 faculty members, nearly 15 percent of whom are fellows in their societies. They offer a wealth of research expertise in cutting-edge areas, from cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and energy to infrastructure, automation, sensors and sensing, neurotechnology, and cell engineering. Their work is critical in advancing the national and global reputation of the College of Engineering & Computing.

The competition for the best engineering and computer science faculty is fierce. To continue to attract and retain top scholars, we need to create endowed chairs and funds for faculty research.

Recruiting more faculty will help in our efforts to achieve a more competitive student-faculty ratio. Endowed research funds will also spark entrepreneurial investigations and interdisciplinary collaborations, as well as novel approaches to engineering education through SUCCEED.

The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security designated FIU as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense.

Preeminent Programs at FIU are multidisciplinary and collaborative endeavors that the University recognizes for their extraordinary success in providing unique learning opportunities, pioneering research, real-world solutions, and best practices. Emerging Preeminent Programs at FIU address critical issues of growing national and global concern.

The College of Engineering & Computing is home to the Institute for Resilient and Sustainable Coastal Infrastructure Preeminent Program, developing engineering solutions and innovative technologies to address the challenges of aging infrastructure, including transportation, sewage, water, and electric system resilience. College faculty also conduct multidisciplinary research through other programs that span several colleges and disciplines, including the Extreme Events Institute Preeminent Program, a globally recognized center for research, education, and training in natural hazards and disaster risk management, and the following Emerging Preeminent Programs: • Brain, Behavior, and the Environment Exploring the role of environmental factors in neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, in collaboration with the colleges of public health; medicine; and arts, sciences, and education.

• Cybersecurity@FIU - Mitigating the vulnerability of digital systems by combining the College’s strengths in cyberphysical systems, Internet of Things, and cloud computing and storage with information security, online fraud, e-business, law, and policy expertise at the colleges of business and law and the school of international and public affairs.

• Translational Molecular Discoveries Developing new therapies for cancer and drug-resistant superbugs; exploring predictive biomarkers to advance personalized medicine; and controlling diseases, such as Zika virus and Chagas disease, in collaboration with the colleges of public health; medicine; and arts, sciences, and education.

8

4

The College is home to four faculty who are members of the prestigious National Academy of Inventors: SHEKHAR BHANSALI, the Alcatel-Lucent Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, whose inventions include an integrated nanowire/ microelectrode array for biosensing, a method for fabricating magnetoelectric nanoparticles, and a hydrogen sensor SAKHRAT KHIZROEV, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of the FIU Center for Personalized Nanomedicine, and a world-renowned inventor in the area of nanotechnology RAM IYENGAR, Director of the School of Computing and Information Sciences and one of the principal pioneers in sensor networks and image processing and co-inventor of the Cognitive Information Processing (CIM) Shell RANU JUNG, the Wallace H. Coulter Eminent Scholar and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, who holds six patents related to the development of neural-enabled prosthetic hand systems

Sakhrat Khizroev, Director of the FIU Center for Personalized Nanomedicine

9

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE The most up-to-date teaching and learning in engineering and computer science need cutting-edge spaces.

At the College, this includes the following: A NEW ENGINEERING BUILDING: The College seeks to build a state-of-the-art facility equipped with active learning classrooms to support our STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curricular reforms, research laboratories to accelerate cross-disciplinary collaboration, and collaborative space to spark innovation and entrepreneurial activity.

Most of the schools that make up the College are located away from the central campus. The new Engineering Building will be located on the main campus in the proximity of the colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health, facilitating cross-disciplinary research that is essential for breakthroughs in health sciences and for training the next generation of engineers and scientists.

This new space will also enable us to graduate 500+ more engineers and grow our faculty. As the nation’s leader in graduating minorities with engineering degrees—#1 in producing Hispanic engineers and #9 in producing African American engineers in the continental U.S.—the College will expand its capacity to meet the national need for more diversity in STEM. The Engineering Building will also increase FIU’s research and development expenditures, drive more patent applications and commercial spinoffs, and create hundreds of new jobs to fuel economic growth in Florida.

REVAMPING COLLABORATION AND INNOVATION SPACES: Our goal is to incorporate active learning into courses throughout the curriculum. To that end, we are remodeling classrooms to include flexible seating that facilitates active and group learning along with peer-assisted instruction. We also seek to create more common spaces that encourage students to work together on research and entrepreneurial activities outside of classes. Revamped spaces and construction of the Engineering Building will increase capacity in our maker spaces, where students can use a variety of tools to design and prototype their own creations.

3 SCHOOLS:

4 DEPARTMENTS:

School of Computing and Information Sciences; Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability; and School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education

Biomedical Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Electrical and Computer Engineering Mechanical and Materials Engineering

10

The Future of Construction Education at FIU A $10 million gift to the College of Engineering & Computing by alumnus Chad Moss ’94, executive vice president of Moss & Associates, through Moss Foundation, Inc., created the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability. It also sparked a greater vision for the future of construction education at FIU. Through the Next Horizon campaign, this transformative investment begins a new era of construction talent development and innovation focused on building a sustainable infrastructure for the urban environment. Leveraging this gift and our heightened visibility as the Moss School, we seek to inspire champions who will fund scholarships to recruit more students and help them graduate on time, champions who will invest in emerging priorities that will further elevate the Moss School’s profile.

Architectural rendering of the Engineering Building

11

JOURNEY WITH FIU TO THE NEXT HORIZON At the College of Engineering & Computing, we are preparing our students for the jobs of the future. We are training tomorrow’s diverse workforce while transforming the education of engineers and computer scientists today. Our entrepreneurial faculty are pushing the boundaries of discovery, developing cuttingedge solutions to pressing problems here in South Florida and around the world.

Now we need your passion and philanthropy to take these efforts to new heights. Working together— alumni, family, and friends—we will secure the College’s role as the Next Horizon in innovation and student success. With your generous support, we will realize our vision of being a top public engineering and computing college, a globally recognized research institution, and a bold leader in engineering and computer science education.

12

CAMPAIGN FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES STUDENT SUCCESS

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

INCREASE SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT SUPPORT

ACCELERATE RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES

• T op-Student Recruitment Scholarships • F irst-Generation Undergraduate Scholarships •M erit-Based Undergraduate Scholarships • C ollege Completion Scholarships • E mergency Assistance Scholarships • T ransfer and Retention Scholarships • U ndergraduate and Graduate Research and Fellowship Awards

• I nternships and Career Readiness Programs

• S eed Funding for Emerging Research • S UCCEED (School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education)

•N ew Engineering Building • L aboratories and Advanced Equipment •M ultidisciplinary Faculty and Research Teams • G lobal Research Initiatives • F aculty Chairs • P rofessorships • U ndergraduate and Graduate Research Infrastructure (travel, equipment, labs)

ROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS THROUGH THE P COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTING L earning Assistant Program

• • O ne-on-One Tutoring in Key Courses • S tudent Attendance at Conferences and Competitions

• R evamped Collaboration and Innovation Spaces • S enior Design Project Sponsorships OPTIMIZE 21ST-CENTURY TEACHING

• R ecognizing Excellence in Teaching (Teaching Incentive Program)

• S tudent Consultants of Teaching Program • T echnology-Enhanced Classrooms • C ourse Enhancement Grants for Faculty Innovation

• C ourse Design Institutes • F aculty Fellowships

• T op-Student Recruitment Fellowships and Research Awards

• P ostdoctoral Fellowships • Preeminent Programs • I nstitute for Resilient and Sustainable Coastal Infrastructure

• E xtreme Events Institute • Emerging Preeminent Programs • B rain, Behavior, and the Environment • C ybersecurity@FIU • T ranslational Molecular Discoveries ESCALATE DISCOVERY TO ENTERPRISE

• E ntrepreneurial Development and Support • R esearch Commercialization AND OTHERS

13

FIU FOUNDATION, INC. MMC 11200 SW 8th Street, MARC 5th Floor Miami, FL 33199 305-348-6298 NextHorizon.FIU.edu Publication Print Date: March 2019