Dean's message for the new academic year

Dear Colleagues,

The moving trucks and minivans filling the Yard can mean only one thing: the arrival of the new academic year. I know everyone at SEAS has been busy over the summer but I hope you have also had some time to get away and take a well-deserved vacation.  And, welcome to all who are just joining us at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences!

I am writing to provide a few updates stemming from the continued implementation of the strategic academic plan we developed last year.

Investing in faculty

In the coming years, we will continue to make essential investments in our faculty as some members will soon begin to retire. Toward our effort to ensure coverage in core academic areas, we are very pleased that five new faculty members have accepted appointments at SEAS.

• From the University of Toronto, Ryan Adams has been appointed as Assistant Professor of Computer Science, working in the field of machine learning and computational statistics.
  
• David Keith joins us part-time this year in a joint senior faculty appointment in energy and environment technology and policy with the Harvard Kennedy School. David will move to full-time over the next few years as he transitions from the University of Calgary.
• Hailing from UCLA, Eddie Kohler has joined our CS faculty as an Associate Professor. Eddie explores systems, networks, programming languages, and software engineering.
  
• Jelani Nelson, a theoretical computer scientist who is currently at MIT and slated to finish up two additional postdocs, will be on board as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science during the 2013-14 academic year.
  
• Conor Walsh, who taught the successful medical devices course last year, will join as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in January. Conor will also be a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute.

I am delighted to let you know that faculty members Todd Zickler and Kit Parker have accepted their tenure offers.

In addition, atmospheric sciences researcher Loretta Mickley has been appointed as a Senior Research Fellow and Jim Waldo, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice in Computer Science, was appointed as the University’s Chief Technology Officer. Last but not least, I want to wish a belated 80th happy birthday to CS faculty member Michael Rabin, for whom we had a marvelous celebration this week.

Enhancing our academic programs

I am thrilled by the increasing interest in SEAS by prospective and enrolled undergraduate students.  We must ensure that we provide them with a world-class, 21st-century engineering and applied sciences education.

As you may know, we have seen an increase in the number of undergraduate concentrators to a healthy 465; a spectacular rise in the number of women concentrating in computer science (nearly 50%!); and rising interest by prospective students (14.5% of admitted freshmen expressed interest in engineering and computer science, up by 60% from five years ago). At the graduate level, applications are at records highs, with nearly 2,000 applicants last spring.

This year, we will accelerate the development of our educational programs with leadership from Fawwaz Habbal, who will take on the newly created role of Executive Dean for Education and Research (see my prior note), and Gu-Yeon Wei, our new Associate Dean for Academic Programs.  Fawwaz and Gu are joined by a fantastic team comprising both new and seasoned members of SEAS.

Under the direction of Assistant Dean for Academic Programs Marie Dahleh, we are strengthening undergraduate advising. We recently welcomed Sujata Bhatia, as our new Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies for Biomedical Engineering. Given her industry experience, Sujata will also play a role in helping with design. She joined Margo Levine, who started as Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies for Applied Mathematics earlier this year.

SEAS-Wyss faculty member Neel Joshi will be the Director for Undergraduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering, and I will serve as the Area Dean for Bioengineering (former Area Dean Rob Howe is on sabbatical.)

Professors Yiling Chen and Eli Tizperman will serve as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Applied Mathematics in the fall and spring, respectively. With Michael Brenner on sabbatical, Tim Kaxiras has agreed to serve as the Area Dean for Applied Mathematics.

Harry Lewis will continue to serve as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for our increasing number of concentrators in Computer Science, and Evelyn Hu and Yue Lue will be the Directors of Undergraduate Studies for our Engineering Sciences concentrators.

David Malan, of CS 50 fame, has been appointed as a Senior Lecturer at SEAS and Director of Educational Innovation. In his new role, he will continue to teach CS50. He will also help SEAS faculty members create new CS courses and to use technology to enhance teaching and learning.

Innovation will be in the air with help from the newly launched University-wide Innovation Lab (i-Lab) in Allston and the various SEAS-based efforts from Paul Bottino (TECH, I³) and David Edwards (The Lab).

Encouraging and supporting collaborative graduate and research programs

We fully embrace the idea of 1U, or one integrated university. This is clearly evident in our graduate and interdisciplinary research programs and efforts that span across Harvard.

The SEAS Academic Research Computing Group will provide help to our researchers and their collaborators with computational support and the tools needed to push advances across all fields.

Our Institute for Applied Computational Science (IACS) recently helped launch an exciting new graduate-level secondary field in Computational Science and Engineering, open to all students in GSAS. IACS is also in the early stages of developing a master’s program with a similar focus.

To quickly ramp up the efforts at IACS, and to round out our interdisciplinary teaching and research in computational sciences, we are bringing on new visiting lecturers and visiting professors.

Visiting lecturer Cristopher Cecka (from Stanford) is co-teaching a new course with Hanspeter Pfister, CS 205, “Computing Foundations for Computational Science,” and visiting lecturer David Knezevic (from MIT) is teaching AM 205, “Advanced Scientific Computing: Numerical Methods.”

Zhenyu Zhang, who is developing a new spring course, AM 275, “Computational Design of Materials,” is a visiting professor who holds faculty appointments at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Science and Technology of China. In addition, Ozlem Ergun, from Georgia Institute of Technology, will be a visiting associate professor of Applied Mathematics, teaching AM 221, “Advanced Optimization.”

To expand our reach even further, we are offering a number of new collaborative courses like “iLaw: Internet Technology, Law, and Policy” (taught by SEAS-Law faculty member Jonathan Zittrain) and “Health Care Computer-Assisted Innovations” (taught by Margo Seltzer in coordination with HBS). Woody Yang will teach “Commercializing Science,” also in collaboration with the business school. And CS 50 will be available to Harvard MBA students for the first time this fall.

Reviewing our progress, planning for the future

A number of external advisers will check in on our progress this year. In November, we will have an interim review of our Engineering Sciences S.B. degree from ABET, an accreditor for college and university programs.

To help us review our strategic planning, my office will help to organize a broad review of SEAS by our external Visiting Committee and Overseers in April, composed of some of the nation’s leading engineering educators. This self-study will serve as our academic planning exercise for the next few years.

We will also continue to use the sage advice of the Dean’s Advisory Group (DAG),  who will visit in the fall and spring.  The DAG is a selected group of leaders of science and engineering companies, alumni, and parents with ties to SEAS who provide me with candid and constructive advice.

Building community

Given all that you have just read, I think you will agree that we are off to a great start to what I believe will be another amazing year for SEAS. As we grow and mature, socializing and getting together as a community is important if we are to feel connected.

With that in mind, I recently hired Sandra Klemm, longtime event planner at the Harvard Faculty Club, as our new Director of Events. In her first few months here, she has already infused her fresh ideas into welcome receptions for new staff, faculty retreats, and alumni events.

I encourage everyone to attend the back-to-school BBQ on September 12, as well as the All Hands Meeting on September 23. In addition to the All Hands, and in response to suggestions by the SEAS Joint Council, I will host a specific meeting with all the staff in the spring.

The area deans and area administrators will continue to hold meet-ups and poster sessions to ensure that our research communities “click.” We will also continue to sponsor existing community-building programs such as the G1 faculty seminar series and faculty chalk talks for staff.

Everyone is invited to join in the celebration of Harvard’s 375th on the evening of October 14. (Get in touch with our 375th representative Michael Rutter, Communications Director, if you want to get involved with the planning.) Around the same time as the 375th event, we will host the Dean’s Advisory Group and present a Networks event for SEAS alumni.

I am very pleased with our recent progress and wish to thank everyone at SEAS for making SEAS one of the coolest and most exciting places on campus.

Best wishes,

Cherry Murray