Although Tufts' School of Engineering (SOE) is part of a liberal arts university, Dean of the School of Engineering Linda Abriola has drafted plans to make the School more competitive with national research universities.
As part of this plan, Abriola said she hopes to boost Tufts' profile in the research areas of bioengineering and environmental sustainability.
According to Abriola, the ultimate goal is to heighten the reputability of the institution by "improving the graduate education and research parts of the School."
Abriola also said she plans to strengthen a variety of areas within the graduate studies program. To this end, the School has already introduced a doctorate program in Biomedical Engineering as well as an interdisciplinary program called "Water: Systems, Science, and Society."
A revitalization of the curriculum and expansion of the breadth of courses offered at the School are also in the works. Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Lewis Edgers, also the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curriculum Development, said that there is a discrepancy between the traditional courses offered at the school and the unconventional students who register to take them.
"Engineers are doing all kinds of weird stuff that you don't think of engineers as doing," Edgers said. He said that minors in Architectural Engineering, Musical Instrument Engineering and Multimedia Arts programs are typical examples of the interests of these unorthodox students.
Apart from planning to offer more nontraditional courses, Edgers said she also hopes to make the curriculum more comprehensive. In order to do this he is leading a task force of faculty, students, and other overseers who hope "to improve [the curriculum] as Tufts changes and grows" by integrating math and science courses more effectively.
Edgers also said there is interest in wanting to increase engineers' exposure to the international community into the curriculum. "We like to think our engineers have a breadth you don't see at technical schools," he said.
In accordance with the Tufts philosophy, Edgers asserted that Tufts engineers truly have "a sense of global context."
Sophomore Alexis Allegra, an electrical engineering major, said that the school needs to push engineers more toward self-motivation.
"We're not being pushed to work outside of the classroom and outside of laboratories," she said. "If you don't push engineers outside of class, then they get lazy."
As an electrical engineer, Allegra is a member of the department with the lowest representation of women. The SOE, however, is notable among other engineering schools for its unusually high percentage of female students - 32 percent of the students in the School are female, or double the national average.
"A lot of students know they'll be able to double major, so [the School] attracts women who have broad interests," Abriola said.
Abriola said, however, that the same applies to men as well, though she also said that the School has a high number of women faculty, including herself and Associate Dean Kim Knox. Sixteen percent of the faculty are female, a figure that is four times the national average.
Despite the high number of women studying and teaching at the SOE, the number of ethnic groups still remains low in comparison. In order to mitigate this problem, the Center for Diversity and Inclusive Leadership in Engineering and Science (DILES), a group that strives to increase the number of underrepresented ethnic groups and women in the sciences, has been established.
Abriola, as well as several faculty members from departments such as Physics and Chemistry within the School of Arts and Sciences, are members of the group.
Abriola said she considers the symbiotic relationship between the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences to be a unique one.
"We care about liberal arts and social sciences, and we want our engineers to learn about them ... and we hope liberal arts students will want to learn about science and engineering," Abriola said.
According to Edgers, approximately 25-50 percent of the enrollment for the SOE's introductory half-courses such as "Microbrewery Engineering" and "Prototyping Home Robots" consist of School of Arts and Sciences students. While the School will certainly continue to offer the introductory classes, Edgers' task force will continue to look at how to update the content utilized by instructors.
In addition to renewing the material that is offered, Abriola said she also aims to hire additional faculty. Eight new faculty members, half of whom are women, were hired this year alone.
Computer Science Professor Sarah Frisken joined the faculty in January after working at Mitsubishi Motors. Frisken said she liked that the SOE is "a smaller environment," allowing her "to get to know the students better."
In anticipation of the imminent changes, Allegra said that there is a sense of overall satisfaction with the School. "You get a real sense that you're on the edge of things and on the next step of where the industry is moving," Allegra said.
