Dean’s Message
We have had an outstanding academic year, one filled with accomplishments, progress, and recognition for our faculty, students, alumni, and friends.  Last fall we had a successful engineering and technology career day with more employers and students than we have ever had attending the career fair.  The number of research proposals submitted by the college of engineering faculty was the highest it has been in six years.  Our faculty have been the recipients of fellowship recognition, research, and education awards from IEEE, ASME, and SME.  Fred Vetter received the National Science Foundation Career Award.  Kate Moran of Ocean Engineering, who also holds a joint appointment in Graduate School of Oceanography, was the leader of the $12.5 million Arctic Coring Expedition which was covered by the New York Times, Science, and the National Geographic.  Engineering faculty hold 50% of the patents issued to the University of Rhode Island over the past five years.  Income from patent royalties from engineering patents exceeded $500,000 during calendar year 2004.
 
Our academic programs in mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering have seen significant growth in enrollment, 6.9% and 29%, respectively.  Our students received several national fellowships including the Caldwell Award, and a fellowship from National Institutes of Health.
 
We are working towards a vision of global leadership in engineering education and research.   Our journey towards this goal is supported by many of our alumni through their generous support of the College of Engineering programs.  I would like to share with you some recent examples of the generous support we have received:
 
  1. •Harry Zervas ‘83 pledged $25,000 to establish the Harry Zervas Endowment in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Zervas works at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center and is also involved in luxury home development in northern Rhode Island.  
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  3. •Nina Saberi ‘82 will contribute $50,000 to create the Nina Saberi College of Engineering Program Support Fund. A member of the COE Advisory Council, Ms. Saberi is the founder and general partner of Castile Ventures, a venture capital firm in Waltham, Mass. She also serves on the boards of numerous communications and technology companies.
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  5. •Lindell C. Northup ‘68 and William J. Northup ‘64 and family pledged $15,000 to establish the William C. Northup Memorial Engineering Scholarship, in honor of the late William C. Northup ‘33, who enjoyed a long and distinguished career as an engineer.
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  7. •Francis (Duke) Ducharme ‘61 pledged $15,000 to establish the Ducharme Family Endowment in Civil Engineering. Mr. Ducharme, who credits his success as an engineer to his education at URI, established the fund to provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to pursue a degree in civil engineering.
 
This issue of URI Engineering brings you highlights of the achievements of our faculty, students, alumni, and programs during fall 2004.  I hope that you will enjoy reading this publication and encourage you to comment on those topics that interest you.
 
We have an exciting array of events planned for the fall 2005, including the annual Golf Outing, Career Day, Alumni Day, and the Awards Banquet (to recognize outstanding faculty and staff performances and new inductions into the Engineering Hall of Fame and Founders Club).  I invite you to join us for the upcoming College events that are listed on the back cover of this issue.
Dean’s Message
Mar 2, 2005