Engineering and Computer Science Update

Dennis L. O’Neal, Ph.D., P.E.Dean

ECS Board of Advocates April 11, 2014

What we’ll will cover this morning

• Dean’s update• Divide into committees

– Development/Corporate Relations– Undergraduate Program– Computer Science – ABET preparation

• Report from three committees

Update on staff hiring:• Director of Communications and External Relations

– Kathryn (Kate) Amaya• Currently at Compassion International (Colo. Spgs.)• Marketing experience in publishing & non-profits• Baylor graduate - communications• Starts early May

• Server Administrator– Patrick Clancy

• Instructor at TSTC• Tarleton graduate – IT Systems

Staff hiring – cont’d• Hired two undergraduate advisors

– Jessica Kelly• Experienced elementary school teacher• Started early April• Howard Payne graduate

– Caroline Clark• Finishing MS at Baylor• Starts in May

• We now have a full complement of advising corps to handle all freshmen & sophomores

Update on faculty searches

• Computer Science had two searches– Data Mining – position just filled – King-Ip Lin– Game development – offer made

• Electrical & Computer Engineering– Power Systems – negotiations underway

• Mechanical Engineering– 4 positions – negotiations underway

Update on Space

• Regents approved re-purposing of Cashion & Hankamer– ECS was top on the list for space– Expect to move CS and ECE to new space – Spring

2016• Interim – We keep the annex (~6k sq. ft.)• New engineering faculty get space in the

BRIC

Other items since our last meeting

• Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. program was approved by the Regents

• Recruiting of domestic graduate students was ramped up significantly and has shown results

• Excellent visits of HR from Lockheed Martin and Halliburton to campus

Things that didn’t go so well this year

• ECS Alumni Reunion before the UT game– Ice storm forced cancellation

• Foreign language proposal– Provost office wants to wait until new vice-provost

for global engagement is here to re-consider

Looking at the big picture

Aspirations - where I would like ECS to be in 10 years

• Overall– Is the leader in Christian based engineering and computer science programs– Has a diverse faculty and student body– Is where major companies come to acquire top talent

• Undergraduate Program– Offers a broad range of degrees relevant to national needs– Has retention and graduation rates approaching aspirational private programs– Has student-to-faculty ratios approaching aspirational private programs– Graduates are competitive with those from the best programs in the state

Aspirations - where I would like ECS to be in 10 years

• Graduate Program– Offers doctoral degrees in every department– Has departments that are competitive with most Big XII schools– Is a destination for top graduate students

• Faculty– Are nationally and internationally recognized in their fields– Conduct research that addresses critical societal and technical problems– Lead the university in research funding to help Baylor meet Pro Futuris

aspirations

• Staff– Are adequate and technically skilled to support the academic and

research mission of the school

• Facilities– Have infrastructure in place to support major research programs– Have a building large enough to house the School– Have state-of-the-art academic and research laboratories

• Development – Endowments that support recruitment of top students and faculty – Alumni giving reaching national averages for private programs– Has a large cadre of corporate partners that invest in our

programs

Aspirations - where I would like ECS to be in 10 years

We should grow ECS into a more comprehensive school offering a broader range of degrees

• Biomedical engineering– Historic ties of Baylor with health science programs. – Chance to partner with science – This is the “century of biology.”

• Materials science and engineering – Driving innovation in engineering– Cuts across all engineering disciplines

• Chemical engineering– Tremendous opportunities in traditional industries in the State and Gulf Coast– Growing pharmaceutical industry

• Aerospace engineering– Large Aerospace industry locally and within the state

• Manufacturing/Industrial engineering– Few programs in the state– Large manufacturing base in Texas

• Informatics – “Big Data” is the hottest area of Computer Science– Computer Science Ph.D. proposal is in this area

What are some potential programs that ECS can offer?

PROGRAM Require New Department?

Degrees Offered

Faculty needed to

start

Cost - Personnel

Cost – Equipment

& SpaceBiomedical No, initially in

MEB.S., M.S.,

Ph.D.2 to 3 Small Moderate

Materials No, initially in ME

M.S., Ph.D. 2 to 3 (Joint with

Science)

Small Moderate

Chemical Yes B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

6 to 8 Large Large

Aerospace No, initially in ME

B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

2 to 3 Small Small

Manufacturing/ Industrial

No, initially in ME

B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

5 to 7 Large Moderate

Informatics No, in CS Ph.D. 3 to 6 Medium Small

Let’s shift gears to the undergraduate programs

Our growth in engineering has been dramatic over the past decade

A quote from Baylor’s online “Frequently Asked Questions”

Baylor's average classroom has 28 students, with a student/faculty ratio of 15:1.

   

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Undergraduate engineering looks too much like some of the state programs in the Big XII

School Undergraduates Faculty Student-to-Faculty Ratio

West Virginia 3406 105 32.4

Iowa State 6253 237 26.4

Baylor 764 29 26.3

Texas Tech 3541 137 25.8

Kansas State 2988 124 24.1

Oklahoma 2789 137 20.4

Texas Christian 220 11 20

Kansas 2045 109 18.8

Oklahoma State 2461 132 18.6

Texas 5276 286 18.4

We are almost twice the average of the rest of Baylor!

We have much higher engineering student/faculty ratios than all but one of our private aspirational peers

School Undergraduates Faculty Student-to-Faculty Ratio

BYU 1645 59 27.9

Baylor 764 29 26.3

Washington Univ. 1149 68 16.9

USC 1834 143 12.8

Vanderbilt 1203 95 12.7

Rice 1146 92 12.5

Duke 952 78 12.2

SMU 902 78 11.6

Notre Dame 945 99 9.5

Here’s some basic math• By 2020, both the ME and ECE programs

should have a combined 47 faculty• A reasonable undergraduate student-to-

faculty ratio is about 16– We currently have 764 students– We grew 16% from fall 2012 to 2013

• The math: 47*16 = 752 students

GOAL = 750 undergraduates within engineering

To achieve a goal of 750 students, ECS has to apply the brakes to admissions!

The question is, “How hard”?

We developed an enrollment management proposal in late fall 2013

• Focus included– Admissions of new students– Transfers into the program from inside and outside Baylor

• Built spreadsheet model to estimate growth of the program– Included admissions and transfer– Historic retention/attrition rates used– Forecast potential growth out to 2020– Split students into SAT/ACT “buckets” – Model started in 2001

Model did good job of matching historical growth

With 3%/yr growth in admissions, we would grow to over 1000 students in the base case

Assumes 3%/yr increase in growth in admissions for base case

Note: ECS has averaged 9%/yr growth for past 8 years

With 6%/yr growth, we would grow to nearly 1200 students in the base case

Assumes 6%/yr increase in growth in admissions for base case

Note: ECS has averaged 9%/yr growth for past 8 years

FALL 2015 admissions into engineering has been approved:

SAT – 1220ACT - 27

These requirements will be reviewed yearly to assess whether they should be raised or lowered to help us meet our goals for enrollment.

As soon as we put together a case for a higher SAT requirement, along comes a change!

Another focus of our efforts in the next decade will be to improve retention and graduation rates

I have tasked the ECS Undergraduate Committee to develop specific plans to increase retention and graduation rates. That will be part of the discussion in the undergraduate committee this morning.

Our graduation rates can be improved

Program 4 yr* 6 yr**

Engr. 22.8% 44.8%

Comp. Sci. 23.0% 29.1%* 4 yr based on students entering 2004-2009**6 yr based on students entering 2004-2007

Graduating within major

Graduating within university

Program 4 yr* 6 yr**

Engr. 37.2% 71.8%

Comp. Sci. 42.2% 63.2%* 4 yr based on students entering 2004-2009**6 yr based on students entering 2004-2007

Best private and public programs are above 80%

Would like to see these above 50% in 10 years.

We should be able to improve our first year retention

We are also working on the future of our graduate programs

• Computer Science is working on Ph.D. proposal in Informatics

• Strategically recruiting domestically• Will recruit internationally for Ph.D. students

in the engineering programs• Research laboratories are slowly being built

Structure of rest of the morning• Three committees

– Development & corporate relations (first floor)– Computer Science ABET (first floor)– Undergraduate programs (meets here)

• Each committee needs someone to take notes during the meetings

• Each committee will report back to the Board before lunch