Cooking up a course … A general education course on science and cooking, first thought up in 2008, has become an international phenomenon. Seven hundred students showed up on the first day in hope of grabbing one of the coveted 300 seats. Lines snaked around the Science Center and onlookers wondered if a rock band was in town. “60 Minutes” visited campus to shoot a segment on innovations in the culinary arts.

Flying high … Thanks to a $10 million National Science Foundation Expeditions in Computing Grant, “Robobees” (or Micro Air Vehicles) have taken off. One day, mechanical fliers may perform everything from pollination to even earthquake rescue missions. The project involves faculty and students throughout SEAS, departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Wyss Institute, and nearby sister institutions in academia and industry partners.

Engineering innovation … With help from programs and courses dedicated to fostering innovation, a team of students created a soccer ball that, when kicked, charges a battery. Another group programmed a mobile app that connects the campus with surrounding businesses and events. The sOccket ball won a breakthrough award from Popular Mechanics and the app was featured as a lead story in the Wall Street Journal. Moreover, events like the CS50 Fair and the newly created Laboratory at Harvard brought thousands of Harvard community members together to see
the results of hands-on learning first-hand.

Getting the call … I had my own personal surprise when I received a phone call from the White House requesting my participation on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. As I told a group of Harvard College admissions recruiters, being called by the President of the United States to serve as an expert is one of the fantastic things you get to do as a dean of engineering at Harvard.

As we think about how we want to best present ourselves to the world, being a place that offers surprising connections, conducts cross-cutting research that makes people stop and wonder, and offers courses that makes engineering “cool” and relevant for everyone may be right on target.

Coming Into Our Own

Guided by the excellent work of my predecessors—in particular, former dean Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti—and thanks to the dedication of the fantastic SEAS faculty and staff, we are truly coming into our own. Even better, we are not the only ones who think so.

Over the past year I had over 150 “encounters” with alumni and supporters, according to the calculations by our Office for Resource Development. The message I heard was clear: People are proud to be part of the school and are excited by what the school is doing and where it is going.

As our community grows, we constantly look to engage and reengage with our alumni and friends, no matter how recently graduated or previously distant.

Further, members of the extended SEAS community have been eager to get involved, whether by returning to campus like Sam Yagan ’99 did to speak to students about his experiences at mathematically-based dating site OKCupid or, as in the case of mechanical engineer and businessman Barry Griffin ’74, returning to his alma mater to help infuse our curriculum with design and active learning.

Perhaps most important, our increasing eminence has had a noticeable effect on admissions. Interest in concentrating in engineering sciences by prospective and current undergraduate students is up by 28 percent. In fact, applications from students interested in engineering have risen considerably more than applications as a whole.

The total number of concentrators is also at near-record levels, with 415 undergraduate students enrolled in our degree programs. We have seen a 30 percent increase in the number of applied mathematics and computer science concentrators and a 57 percent increase in the number of engineering science concentrators.

Our graduate programs also continue to attract the best and brightest from across the globe. Less than 10 percent of students who apply are admitted. The National Research Council rankings, released on September 28, also highlight the growing strength and reputation of our graduate programs.

Thriving in the New Normal

In light of the global economic crisis and the drop in the University’s endowment (and more directly, the payout percentage) the economic situation of Harvard and SEAS has, indeed, been challenging.

Thanks to much prudent and thoughtful planning prior to my arrival, SEAS has been weathering the storm. I am pleased to report that even with the tough economic pressures, we ended the year with a net surplus and added $3 million to our unrestricted reserve, to use in the challenging years ahead.

Sponsored research, thanks in part to stimulus funding, is at a healthy $42 million, a record level. Even more impressive, we consistently rank among our peers as having one of the highest levels of funding per faculty member.

All of us at SEAS have been working together to reduce our expenses across the board and to be more efficient. Always a lean-run operation, SEAS has been able to continue to make progress and remain ambitious, rather than retrench or retreat. In short, we are continuing to make progress towards renewing our faculty and enhancing our teaching and learning.

Ultimately, this means that as dean, I have to make sure we are fulfilling our role and promise as a school while ensuring that we are making prudent financial choices.

Thus, during my first year, I spent considerable time preparing for what will be our major tenets in the coming years and, in particular, as we gear up towards future fundraising.

A Year of Planning

I am, by nature, a planner. With help from a newly formed Steering Committee, we focused on realigning our academic structure to better meet the needs of teaching and research. 

Putting teaching & learning first

The outcome of our academic planning boils down to putting teaching and learning first—as both a philosophical and an organizing principle.

As a school, we are grounded in the liberal arts and provide bridges to the professional schools. This is a fantastic role to play.

We help students discover, apply knowledge, and innovate. Our primary aim is to educate what I call T-shaped individuals: individuals who have depth, or expertise in a chosen field, as well as breadth, or the ability to reach out to other areas.

To ensure that we are enabling this ultimate aim, we set out to make sure that SEAS is organized in the right way.

The overall goal was to reorganize the SEAS academic management structure to parallel the areas in which SEAS faculty teach.
Beginning on July 1 (the beginning of the fiscal year for 2011), several enhancements were implemented to improve how teaching, research, and planning are managed at SEAS.

The new structure stems from the past year’s strategic planning process and was outlined at the annual faculty retreat held on Friday, May 21.

The area dean structure has also evolved with the appointment of several new area deans to three-year terms

Area deans—the official, new name per the faculty—are a clear single point of responsibility for each academic concentration (existing and proposed) and are responsible for mentoring tenure-track faculty and for the oversight of area-related searches, reviews, and promotions.

With the new area dean structure as a basis, we have more structural integrity,

• allowing consistency across courses and degrees;
• putting decision making at the right level and gaining more authority and control over SEAS’ curriculum, while still being part of
  the College/GSAS; and
  
• creating one primary point of contact for an academic area to help with planning and community building. Ultimately, this means we can be “there” for students.

Enhancing Our Profile

In sum, I am proud of the progress we are making at SEAS.

As much of what we did over the past year was internally focused, we now have an opportunity to look outward.

In the coming years, we will explore ways to further our efforts to enhance SEAS, with the ultimate aim of creating stronger connections with our key constituencies, supporters, and the wider public.

To that end, I was very pleased to welcome Jonathan Zittrain, the first joint engineering-law appointment in history. This spirit of collaboration is a trend I expect to continue with the addition of more joint appointments and creation of cross-school research and learning experiences.

We have an amazing opportunity to work together. In the words of alum Tony Hsieh ’95, our aim is to light the path that connects our passions to a greater purpose.

Cherry A. Murray
October 2010