IAB Meeting October 2007

Industrial Advisory Board Directory

The Department of Chemical Engineering Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) visited Michigan Tech on October 4 and 5, 2007.

The focus of the meeting was on moving the departmental undergraduate and graduate programs forward to the next level. The board paid considerable atten-tion to the undergraduate enrollment trends. Over the period from 2001-2005, MTU ranked 15th with 363 total gradu-ates. It was the general consensus of the board to grow the undergraduate program. Discussions of ways to improve and grow the undergraduate program centered around establishing an endowment for the Unit Operations Laboratory so that it can remain one of the best facilities in the world. Furthermore, the IAB was suppor-tive of a proposal to develop a Process Diagnostic Center to provide real-life design experiences to undergraduate stu-dents.

The IAB also provided valuable feedback for the assessment of the under-graduate program. This is instrumental in the department’s accreditation process. Finally, the IAB charged the department with investigating where our students come from, how to improve the student recruit-ing process, how to improve student reten-tion, and how to develop a diverse student population. Instrumental to this growth is the recently announced university strategic hiring initiative within the general frame-work of sustainability. Furthermore, the department is seeking to fill two faculty openings: one as the James and Lorna Mack Chair in Bioengineering and the other at the assistant professor level. The IAB provided input through a meeting with Dr. Tim Schulz, in his first year as Dean of Engineering as well as a discussion of research initiatives with the department during a working lunch.