MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
n
our spring EPisode,
we celebrated our 10-year anniversary as a combined department. In those
same 10 years, the popularity of both of our majors has grown tremendously,
with EMA having more than 125 undergraduate majors and NEEP more than
100 undergraduate majors.
Since becoming department chair more than four
years ago, I have also seen changes in our graduate educational program.
The EP faculty have been quite successful in making proposals to federal
and industrial sponsors and this has allowed our graduate education
and research activities to grow and flourish. We use these extramural
funds to finance the education of our graduate students for their master’s
and doctoral degrees, support our scientific research staff, and support
our faculty during summer months and a portion of the academic year
as they engage in research activities. In many ways, the department
is like a business that must maintain its financial posture to serve
its mission.
One key part of this financial equation is the
generosity that EP alumni and friends provide through your annual donations
to our department via the UW Foundation. As the state budget becomes
more constrained, we have seen a significant decrease in funds available
for flexible use to support our students, as well as for some limited
staff activities. Most of these funds are used for undergraduate scholarships.
These funds:
• Help top-notch undergraduate and graduate students
attend the UW-Madison via scholarships or fellowships
• Enable undergrads to compete in design projects
such as the NASA Zero-G program
• Support middle-school and high-school science
outreach programs
• Help graduate students and faculty to travel to
national engineering conferences
• Facilitate improvements in instruction and education.
Not only do these flexible funds provide additional
support for our students, staff and faculty, they provide us with the
“margin of excellence” in our academic programs.
Recently, I asked Professor Emeritus Alois
“Bud” Schlack and alumnus Tom
Plunkett to co-chair a new fund-raising
campaign for the EMA program and the NEEP program to provide additional
flexible funds for our programs. These funds will give our students,
staff and faculty the ability to improve and innovate the educational
experience. Your support will contribute to a great start in our 21st
century and the ever-changing face of engineering.
As we contact you in the months to come, or
as you visit our website, please consider supporting this effort.
Michael
L. Corradini, Chair
147 Engineering Research Building
1500 Engineering Dr.
Madison, WI 53706-1687
Tel: 608/263-1646
Fax: 608/263-7451
E-mail:
corradini@engr.wisc.edu
