As we prepare for the beginning of a new academic year next week, I would like to recap our successes over the past year and express my confidence in another productive year for the College.

As you may know, 3 new faculty will be joining us this fall, with 2 more arriving in January, each of whom adds a new and unique dimension to our capabilities. The total new faculty hired over the past three years are 37. An overview of all new faculty hired since 2001 can be found on the college website.

Many people contributed to the rigorous process of identifying the successful candidates and introducing them to Lehigh. I want to personally express my thanks to the committees and others throughout the College who were involved in the hiring process this year. I hope you will join me in giving each of these talented faculty a very warm welcome, as they arrive to join us, and during the year ahead.

Perhaps the most visible development for the College on a national and international scale is the continued, dramatic improvement of the College's graduate school ranking, a metric which has a surprisingly large influence on many other factors that affect the College. Since the way in which we are perceived is a combination of many attributes, such as research excellence, teaching reputation, alumni success, and general visibility, I believe that our progress in all of these areas is the result of much hard work on the part of all the members of the College. We should feel pleased that our work is recognized, and gather renewed energy for the tasks ahead. Our national graduate programs ranking for 2005 rose to 37th in the nation from 41st, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Other notable successes include:

• NSF awarded our new bioengineering program $1.38 million in recognition of the flagship program's technical entrepreneurship focus.
• ATLSS – Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems – received a $2.6-million grant from the George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). The grant is part of a 15-year initiative by the National Science Foundation.
• Dr. Tom Koch joined us as the first permanent director for the new Center for Optical Technologies (COT), six months after the Center received a $15-million grant as well as an endowed chair for Dr. Koch.
• Dr. Anand Jagota joined us from Dupont to direct the Bioengineering & Life Sciences program.
• On Founder's Day 2003 we witnessed the induction of 11 engineering professors to Endowed Chairs, the largest number ever endowed on a single occasion.
• Students and faculty received international awards and recognition, including the election of Siravaj Sircar to the National Academy of Engineering. Prof. Sircar joins the 6 other members of our faculty who are NAE elected members.
• We also continued for the second year some new awards programs, such as the "Tradition of Excellence (TEA)" awards, and our own P.C. Rossin Ingenuity Awards.
• Faculty research was highlighted in hundreds of media outlets as diverse as the Discovery Channel, ABC News, CNN, Hindustan Times of India, and the Wall Street Journal. The College received media attention in most of the top 7 newspapers in the country, several national broadcast/cable outlets, and in dozens of magazines, journals, and trade publications.
• A new public exhibition emphasizing faculty research in Structural Systems, located in Packard Lab Lobby, replaced last fall's exhibit on Advances in Materials Science. Also new in Packard Lab Lobby is the addition of a Media Wall containing 4 touchscreen displays as well as a large plasma screen that includes an innovative application of gesture recognition technology. The Media Wall allows us to showcase our working labs via several live "Lab Cams," In addition, current news about us as well as faculty research is highlighted through the numerous videos that can be viewed there. There is even a screen dedicated to telling the story of the 1899 Packard in the lobby through words, pictures, and videos.
• A new Advisory Board for the College has been formed which includes illustrious alumni such as Janet Davidson, President, Integrated Network Solutions; Vincent Forlenza, President, Becton Dickinson Biosciences; Andrew Freed, CEO, Medical Device Investment Holdings; George Kledaras, CEO, Kledaras Technologies; Julie Shimer, CEO, Vocera Communications, Gerard Tarzia, VP of Monomers, Rohm and Haas; Christopher Tihansky, CEO, Surgical Services, Inc. and Michael Zisman, VP, IBM Corporate Strategy Group. The Advisory Board visited campus in spring, 2004, and met with College and University faculty and staff to begin development of recommendations, action plans, and other strategies designed to assist us to build stronger and more effective bridges with industry and other partners.
• In the first year of existence the The Center for Value Chain Research (CVCR) has done extremely well. It currently has two major research themes: Value Chain Planning and Development, and Value Chain Execution. There are 26 faculty participating from the Colleges of Business and Economics and the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

RCEAS has continued to sponsor the following multiple activities for the junior faculty:

• The Assistant Professor Seminar Series. The series this year was organized by Tiffany Li, an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. During the 2003-2004 academic year a total of four (4) seminars were offered.
• The Faculty Professional Development Series, which was organized by Rick Weisman, hosted four (4) programs this year. Topics included graduate student advising, writing, and included a seminar which was led by Svetlana Tatic-Lucic (ECE) and Andrey Soukhojak (Materials Science), both of whom had attended the "NETI Conference on Effective Teaching."
• The RCEAS Faculty Fellow Program was continued for the second year, under the leadership of Donald Rockwell. This particular program has been enormously successful, with every Assistant Professor in the College paired with a Senior Fellow outside of their discipline.

Academic program news includes:

• The Information and Systems Engineering Leadership Program was established in the Spring 2003 semester. As of September 2003 seven (7) freshmen and six (6) sophomores were recruited into the program. The ISELP activities (honor seminars, leadership training) have been set in motion starting in the Fall 2003 semester.
• A new Master of Science degree in Analytical Finance was created during this past year. This is a joint program with the departments of Finance, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Mathematics. The first class of students are anticipated in the Fall of 2004.
• The first class from the IBE program graduated in May 2004.
• A minor in engineering for majors other than engineering is launching this fall with 77 students already enrolled. This is a major advance for the PC Rossin College in contributing to the learning experiences of a wider segment of Lehigh students, and helping them become technology-literate.
• Engineering 5 was rolled out to the entire first year students in the Fall 2003 semester. A total of 168 students participated in the Fall 2003 Semester and 148 students participated in the Spring 2004. Every student had the opportunity to participate in two separate hands-on projects (each running five weeks), which concluded with making presentations. A total of fourteen (14) different projects were available. A custom text book was prepared for the class.
• We have also taken a leadership position in encouraging young women to consider careers in engineering. Last Spring, the Lehigh student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) hosted the CHOICES (Charting Horizons and Opportunities in Careers in Engineering and Science) program program for middle-school girls.
• The success of the CHOICES program inspired us to develop a pilot program in July 2004 for a Summer Camp that would introduce girls to key principles of engineering. The first summer camp, which ran from July 12 to July 16, enrolled nine middle school girls. They used gumdrops and pasta to simulate beams and trusses, glue and borax to make “funny putty,” and pond-water and dyes to visualize water treatment. Numerous RCEAS faculty, research staff, and students combined efforts to make the camp the major success it was.

Finally, we are pleased to report that our alumni continue to be widely recognized for their achievements, and in many different areas: engineering, business, law, medicine, teaching and government. Our students are prepared to succeed generations of Lehigh engineers who have earned renown for their contributions. Alumni include many of the most successful CEO's and entrepreneurial leaders in the world. I am looking forward to your help in maintaining contact with students, and assisting us with strategies to continue our relationship with them.

My congratulations to all of you! I am looking forward to working with you throughout the coming year.

Best wishes,
Mohamed El-Aasser
Dean
PC Rossin College of Engineering & Applied Science
mse0@lehigh.edu
610.758.5308