More graduates means more funding and prestige

By KYLE ODEGARD

Gazette-Times reporter

The renovation of Apperson Hall is exciting, but it's a part of a bigger picture of good news for Oregon State University's College of Engineering, which is trying to become one of the top 25 engineering schools in the country.

Last week, the Oregon Legislature increased funding for Engineering and Technology Industry Council-directed programs at colleges and universities by $15 million to $37 million.

OSU should see a significant portion of that new funding, and part of it will go to increase staffing, said Ron Adams, dean of the College of Engineering.

The council, made up of industry leaders, provides recommendations on how to grow and improve education in Oregon.

The school of civil and construction engineering, which holds classes in Apperson Hall, also has a new director, Scott Ashford, formerly of the University of California, San Diego.

And the college also restructured itself, effective in September, reorganizing several of its departments into schools, with the hope that will foster collaboration across disciplines.

In a news release, officials said the new schools would produce opportunities for enhanced hands-on learning for students and more powerful ideas for research.

The move also should spin out more new companies and help create new engineers who are ready to innovate, the new release stated.

The three new schools are: the school of chemical, biological and environmental engineering; the school of civil and construction engineering; and the school of mechanical, industrial and manufacturing engineering. These join the school of electrical engineering and computer science, which was formed in 2003.

The department of nuclear engineering and radiation health physics and the affiliated department of biological and ecological engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences will remain as separate departments for the time being, according to the news release.

OSU received news last week that it ranked 25th in the nation in the number of bachelor of science engineering graduates. This is the first time it's been ranked that high, Adams said.

Based on a national database of outputs from engineering schools, OSU ranked itself 40th out of 400 American schools.

"In the past five years, we've moved from 56th to 40th in that measure," Adams said.

Jim Lundy, associate dean of the College of Engineering, cited the opening of the $45 million Kelley Engineering Center as a major accomplishment of the last five years. He also said the number of start-up companies created out of the OSU College of Engineering has increased dramatically.

"It was a fairly miniscule number for many years. … Those things, they're certainly less visible than a structure, but they provide jobs to people nationwide, and certainly in Oregon," Lundy said.

Since 1999, OSU has increased 130 percent in engineering research, 40 percent in engineering degrees conferred and 60 percent in Ph.D. candidate enrollment.

In the last six years, the college has more than doubled its research expenditures to $27.5 million annually.

The OSU College of Engineering boasts 3,600 of OSU's 19,400 students, nearly 19 percent of the university's enrollment, and more than any other college.

There have been more than 26,000 graduates of OSU's engineering program, and they've gone on to create Leatherman Tool Group Inc., CH2M Hill, the first artificial heart valve and the computer mouse.

Linus Pauling, one of the alumni, also won two unshared Nobel Prizes.

Kyle Odegard covers the city of Corvallis and Benton County government. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.