Advancement and Outreach

Development: The School of Engineering Advancement team raised over $26 million in FY21, easily achieving its fundraising goal of $10.3 million. This is the fifth year in a row of raising eight-figure philanthropic support for the School, thanks to an incredible donor base. During the campaign there has been an increase in donors in all gift ranges up to $5 million, which speaks to the strength of the School’s outreach and the belief in its educational mission. The School of Engineering exceeded its updated Brighter World campaign goal of $100 million, raising $124 million. Over 8,800 donors have contributed to the School in this campaign with an increase in all gift ranges.

Corporate and Foundation Relations: This year, corporate and foundation achievement for the School of Engineering totaled $2.8 million. Funding included a $1 million award to Research Associate Professor Merredith Portsmore, director of the CEEO, for her research on playing with robots to build STEAM capacity. For the fifth year in a row, New Harvest renewed its support of graduate students conducting research on bioengineering food for the future in the lab of Stern Family Professor of Engineering David Kaplan (BME). Professor of the Practice Eric Hines (CEE), Kentaro Tsutsumi Faculty Fellow, received a $200,000 gift from Kingsbury, Inc. to support a newly hired faculty fellow researching tribology in wind turbines.

Alumni Outreach: The Office of Alumni Engagement, University Advancement, and University Communications and Marketing provided a number of digital engagement opportunities for engineering alumni this year, including faculty webinars and Brighter World campaign events. The Tufts Entrepreneurial Network hosted virtual discussions on topics ranging from radical innovation to women in entrepreneurship.

Career Center: Tufts Career Center continued to help engineering students prepare for the workplace, with advisors providing consultations to engineering undergraduate and graduate students. With events moving online this year, the Career Center was able to connect more students and alumni than ever at the annual Engineering Student-Alumni Networking Night.

The School of Engineering received a transformational gift of $10 million from Jack and Jan Derby to name Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts and the Jack and Jan Derby Lobby in Joyce Cummings Center Through her work as director of the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Research Associate Professor Merredith Portsmore focuses on how K-12 students engage in learning engineering and in learning to design solutions to ill-defined problems