Computer Science and Engineering Strategic Plan
Preamble
The engineering departments, school and centers of the College of Engineering at Penn State have developed robust and forward-looking strategic plans over the past year. Since the strategic planning effort was initiated, there have been considerable developments at the University on strategic planning. A new University-wide plan is currently under development, the latest graphical representation of which is included in the appendix. There is also a desire to establish institutional priorities at the College of Engineering where focus is placed on creating new opportunities for education and research that are aligned with global challenges and mesh with University priorities. It is equally important to maintain the flexibility of supporting individual and small-group initiatives as the College has done in the past.
Values
Excellence
We will excel in the integration of classroom theory with practice-based learning, discovery, and research.
Innovation
We seek and embrace innovation in interdisciplinary areas that align with Penn State priorities in learning, discovery, and governance of our academy.
Diversity
We seek to provide a welcoming environment that shows respect for different cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints.
Ethics
We conduct our tasks ethically and with integrity while respecting our colleagues to ensure public trust.
Collaboration
We collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to advance knowledge through our teaching and research. We will collaborate with outside stakeholders such as alumni and those working in industry and federal agencies to strengthen our research and teaching.
Sustainability
We will improve our processes and our awareness of sustainable practices.
Vision
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering aims to be an international leader in promoting learning and discovery to address global challenges in computing, communication, and information technology.
Mission
To educate computer scientists and computer engineers of the highest caliber, and to discover and disseminate new findings from rigorous research that advances and improves the overall quality of life.
Strategic Objectives
Education
Deliver exceptional academic programs for both resident and distance students to ensure they are successful engineers and scientists with a well-balanced educational experience. Develop innovative strategies for educating our undergraduate programs with limited faculty. Address opportunities in our graduate programs both for M.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. students that would attract outstanding students. In addition to industry and research labs, place our doctoral students in the very best institutions as tenure track faculty.
Research
Provide impactful solutions to societal challenges through emphasizing a balance of traditional and frontier areas in computer science and engineering as well through the integration of these two disciplines to foster collaboration.
Service
Provide leadership and service to our technical societies in which we impact the profession and engineering education.
Institutional Governance
Create and nurture structures and procedures that balance due process and agility to achieve financial stability and shared governance, leading to the enhancement of the sense of community and institutional investment among staff and faculty, as well as achieving flexibility and efficiency, leading to enhanced response to ever-changing regional, national and international operational conditions.
Strategic Goals
In Education
Strategic goals in education include: i) developing state of the art innovative educational programs to meet industry demand; ii) improving the quality of undergraduate experience for women and minorities; iii) emphasizing global experience; and iv) strengthening our graduate programs.
These goals will be achieved by taking the following actions:
- Explore an integrated curriculum with the Department of Electrical Engineering.
- Work with Women in Computing to develop a women- and minority-friendly ecosystem.
- Develop programs with international universities to develop Global Cyber Learning Factory.
- Develop a residential non-thesis Master’s degree; Evaluate online course and degree programs (both B.S. and M.S.).
- Improve infrastructure of student laboratories.
- Develop a full-fledged academic boot camp for students wanting to pursue academic careers.
In Research
Strategic goals in research include i) fostering, establishing, and prioritizing core Departmental and interdisciplinary research; ii) increase capacity for excellence by hiring new faculty hires in both core and interdisciplinary areas; iii) continuing to take a lead in establishing nationally visible, prestigious centers such as NSF ERC, STC, Expedition, CTA and CRA; and iv) placing Ph.D. students as faculty in the best universities and research labs.
These goals will be achieved by taking the following actions:
- Pursue co-funded faculty lines from ICS, Huck, ARL, MRI, PSIEE, SSRI, and other Institutes.
- Hire new faculty in big data, programming languages, systems, security, networks, and high performance computing.
- Continue to foster and support interdisciplinary teams to pursue large-scale grants.
- Develop a full-fledged academic boot camp for students wanting to pursue academic careers.
- Continue to create and seed-fund centers of excellence/institutes in critical interdisciplinary areas.
In Service
Strategic goals in service to the technical community and society aim to increase the visibility of the Department through i) serving on highly visible leadership positions; ii) competing for highly conspicuous awards such as Fellows; and iii) delivering invited talks at prestigious institutions.
The following actions support our service strategic goals:
- Continue to nominate faculty to leadership positions in IEEE, ACM, and CRA.
- Nominate faculty for Fellows of societies such as IEEE, ACM, and SIAM.
- Encourage faculty to deliver invited and distinguished talks and seminars.
- Encourage students to participate in national competitions.
- Host major conferences at Penn State.
In Governance
Strategic goals in institutional governance help to create organizational structures and management procedures that combine due process, achieve efficiency and agility to respond to ever-changing operational conditions, promote fiscal responsibility, ensure financial stability, encourage shared governance, further the careers of the staff, and enhance the sense of community and investment.
These goals will be achieved by taking the following actions:
- Work with the College and University to enhance productivity of faculty research by efficient pre-award and post-award operations.
- Increase faculty and staff participation in departmental governance.
- Foster a diverse and minority-friendly ecosystem.
- Work with alumni group for student mentoring, development, and enhance diversity.
- Educate students on sustainability, ethics, and soft skills (presentation and writing skills).
- Provide continuing education and career development opportunities for staff and teaching faculty.
The above 22 actions for advancing the Department in education, research, governance, and service form the basis of the implementation plan that will be developed in the next phase of strategic planning.
