A PRELIMINARY STRATEGIC PLAN

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department

January 12, 2004

Vision The Department’s vision is to be a leader in providing the highest quality education and research programs in mechanical and aerospace engineering by forming partnerships with alumni, industry and government. We seek to provide an environment where our faculty, students and staff can realize their fullest potential. Mission Our mission is to educate the nation’s future leaders in the science and art of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Further, we seek to expand the frontiers of engineering science and to encourage technological innovation while fostering academic excellence and scholarly learning in a collegial environment.

Objectives A. Provide undergraduate students with a sound foundation in the fundamentals essential for

progress in science and engineering and for success in graduate school, industry, government, or society in general. 1. Reform the undergraduate curricula in compliance with the ABET criteria and the Dean’s

memo dated May 26, 2003. 2. Foster an appreciation for societal needs and develop life-long learning skills. 3. Foster an understanding and appreciation of phenomena that take place at the macro,

micro, and nanoscale, building upon the background provided in freshman and sophomore science courses.

4. Incorporate information technology throughout the curriculum. 5. Improve educational efficiency using information technology tools and experiential

learning. 6. Ensure industrial relevance by partnering with lecturers from industry. 7. Introduce engineering early to freshmen and sophomores. 8. Offer seminars by distinguished speakers from academe, industry and government. 9. Support student professional society activities. 10. Maintain a rich learning environment.

B. Provide graduate students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the engineering sciences and to develop the skills needed for independent research and/or industrial specialization. 1. Develop strong skills in written and oral communication through student and research

group seminars.

2. Facilitate the ability to work in multidisciplinary research areas. 3. Develop distance learning programs. 4. Provide a mechanism for the M.S. to be a technically appropriate terminal degree as well

as a part of the foundation for the Ph.D.. 5. Appropriately streamline the doctoral curriculum to improve efficiency while continuing

to maintain excellence. 6. Support as appropriate the School’s courses in entrepreneurship, technology

management, and professional development. 7. Use 1 Ph.D. degree per faculty per year as a panning guide for graduate admissions and

graduate curriculum development.

C. Build a research capability that is recognized nationally and internationally as a leading source of technological innovation. 1. Continue to support the existing centers: the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration

and the Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing. 2. Continue to participate in multidisciplinary centers, both internal and external. 3. Support the establishment of a School-wide Energy Center. 4. Support the establishment of an Aerospace Institute. 5. Establish departmental Centers of Excellence in promising areas of technological

development with industrial support. D. Develop and maintain close ties with industry, government and alumni to promote technical

exchange, constructive feedback and partnership for future growth of the Department. 1. Support the economic development of the State of California by providing the best

possible undergraduate and graduate education. 2. Involve as appropriate the Industrial Advisory Board and the Alumni Advisory Board in

curriculum development, faculty and student recruitment, and strategic planning, within existing university regulations.

3. Establish a summer internship program for graduate students with industry. 4. Continue to develop the departmental Industrial Affiliates program with local industry to

facilitate research collaborations. 5. Highlight industrial sponsorship on our Web. 6. Facilitate communication with alumni by forming a network and highlight alumni

accomplishments. E. Develop a sense of community in which faculty, staff, and students can work together

productively and grow personally and professionally. 1. Solicit and represent students’ perspectives from the student advisory committee. 2. Expand scholarship, fellowship and award programs for students. 3. Implement the Henry Samueli Outstanding Teaching Award program effectively. 4. Implement the Staff Outstanding Service Award program effectively. 5. Establish an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award program. 6. Highlight the outstanding achievements of faculty, students and staff. 7. Recognize faculty, student and staff award winners at the RTR/C Day.

F. Attract and develop an outstanding and diverse faculty, student body, and staff.

1. Actively recruit outstanding faculty to satisfy programmatic, research and diversity needs.

2. Provide financial support in the form of Graduate Division Fellowships, Teaching Assistantships with Summer Internships, and Departmental Fellowships to a sufficient number of outstanding doctoral students.

3. Reach out to local schools, colleges and universities to recruit outstanding students. 4. Help students obtain external fellowships and international internships. 5. Recruit staff who can work as a team.

G. Improve internal and external visibility.

1. Hold the Research and Technology Review/Career Day to disseminate information to students and industrial sponsors.

2. Keep the department Web site dynamic and informative. 3. Publish the annual report in a timely manner. 4. Extend hospitable reception to every visitor. 5. Develop international collaborative programs.

H. Provide leadership to the profession and community.

1. Encourage and recognize faculty participation in activities and professional societies. 2. Highlight faculty leadership in professional activities. 3. Actively nominate deserving faculty for awards. 4. Encourage and recognize faculty participation in community activities.

I. Continually assess and improve the quality of our program. 1. Develop and maintain a management information system. 2. Implement annual assessment of administrative efficiency. 3. Actively seek and implement constructive critiques from our constituencies, i.e., industry,

alumni, and students. Short-Term Goals and Challenges Our main goal is to become one of the top 10 MAE departments in the country within 5 years. We can achieve most of the strategic objectives by working together in the department. Aside from the State budget cuts, one of major hurdles we cannot overcome by ourselves is the shortage of space. We hope the situation improves when the new engineering building is completed. The other hurdle is the difficulty with contract negotiations when industrial funding is sought after. We hope the campus administration can alleviate this problem soon. A. Provide undergraduate students with a sound foundation in the fundamentals essential for

progress in science and engineering and for success in graduate school, industry, government, or society in general.

We are in the process of reforming our AE and ME undergraduate curricula in conformance with the ABET criteria and the Dean’s memo dated May 6, 2003. One of the main goals of the reform is to reduce the number of graduation units to 180 from more than 190. As a fist step, the faculty has approved a new ME curriculum satisfying this requirement. We plan to have both

the new AE and ME curricula approved by the department faculty by the end of AY 2003-2004. Further refinements of the contents will continue through AY 2004-2005. The new curricula will be implemented in AY 2005-2006. A Distinguished Seminar Series will be initiated in the 2004 Winter Quarter. Being offered by distinguished scientists and engineers once a quarter, the seminars will be broad enough to be of interest to undergraduate students as well. As a step toward a fully interactive learning, the faculty will be provided with a laptop computer for instructional use. In the long run, faculty will be provided with a LCD projector, and students will be required to bring their own laptops to the classroom. The department has recently been awarded an equipment grant from Intel. The grant provides 30 PCs and 6 laptops for our CAD/CAM laboratory. Support for student professional society activities will be strengthened further by arranging closer contacts with industry, facilitating ready access to the department design and manufacturing facilities, and providing more of the departmental resources. B. Provide graduate students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the engineering

sciences and develop the skills needed for independent research or industrial specialization. We will continually update our curricula to reflect technological developments through our research. The M.S. Comprehensive Exam requirements are being modified to allow completion of the degree within one year by providing flexibility in lieu of a written exam. The Qualifying Exam procedure will be streamlined to encourage more timely completion of PhD degrees. The target is 1 Ph.D. degree graduated per faculty per year. C. Build a research capability that is recognized nationally and internationally as a leading

source of technological innovation. Currently, Profs. Ho and Zhang, respectively, are providing leadership for the two externally funded research centers: NASA-funded Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration and NSF-funded Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing. In addition, Prof. Abdou is leading a school-wide effort to explore the establishment of an energy center while Prof. Speyer is coordinating an initiative to establish an aerospace center for the Los Angeles area. The department will support these efforts to their fruition. We plan to establish departmental research centers to improve out visibility and be proactive in pursuing external funding for centers. To this end, each major field and the IAB will be asked to assess the establishment of a center as an umbrella for research. One of the stumbling blocks to increased industry funding is the lack of master agreements with some of the major companies in the area. Quite often, contract negotiations last too long to be

effective. Developing master agreements to provide flexibility would certainly open the door wider for both UCLA and industry. D. Develop and maintain close ties with industry, government and alumni to promote technical

exchange, constructive feedback and partnership for future growth of the Department. We will strengthen our partnerships with industry and alumni. Through the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB), we plan to establish a Summer Internship Program for our incoming graduate students. We will also work with the IAB to solicit industry participation in our senior design projects. We will expand our Industrial Affiliates Program to include small and medium businesses as well as non-MAE industry. We will develop an alumni network to seek feedback and support from our alumni. The alumni pages on our Web will be expanded to facilitate communication with and between alumni. E. Develop a sense of community in which faculty, staff, and students can work together

productively and grow personally and professionally. The main objective of the administration is to provide an environment where faculty, students and staff can realize their full potential. Such an environment would require timely availability of information, supportive administration, and appreciative recognition of excellence. Most of the administrative activities within the department are already being done through the Internet. The department Web is being updated daily to provide up-to-date information to the students and the general public. A restricted Web site is being used to communicate administrative information to the faculty and staff. These Web sites will continually be improved to be informative and user friendly. In order to accommodate students’ needs into administration, a Student Advisory Committee (SAC) has been formed. The SAC consists of representatives from various undergraduate professional society chapters and graduate students. The SAC will serve as a linkage between students and the administration. We instituted an Excellent Staff Service Award program to recognize those who provide services beyond the call of duty. The award will be given once a year with the first scheduled for AY 2003-2004. F. Attract and develop an outstanding and diverse faculty, student body, and staff. Faculty Since AY 1999-2000, we have had the following changes in our faculty:

New: Profs. Y. Chen (2003), J. Eldredge (2003), S. Ju (2003), P. Kavehpour (2003), W. Klug (2003), L. Pilon (2002)

Resigned: G. Chen, J. Freund, S. Atluri Retired: R. Kelly, T. Mingori Deceased: W. Meecham The current ladder faculty size is 30 excluding our Dean and Chancellor. We will continue to build nationally ranked programs in N/MEMS and Control Systems while strengthening programs of fundamental and applied research in Dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Structural and Solid Mechanics, and Thermal Science. Our approach to achieving this goal is to ensure that we hire those who are interested in bringing the new areas of info, bio and nano technologies into their research while being able to teach traditional undergraduate courses. This approach is already working well as many of our new faculty members are interested in these new areas: they are expected to substantially strengthen the N/MEMS program. While research emphasis is on synergistic integration of new technologies and traditional disciplines, our programmatic needs call for the addition of faculty in aerospace systems and design areas. Thus our plan for regular faculty hire in AY 2003-2004 is as follows: One regular faculty in flight control and space systems: under negotiation One regular faculty in structural dynamics of aerospace systems One regular faculty in design There is a critical shortage of ladder faculty to teach in the areas of flight control, space systems and structural dynamics. One hire under negotiation, Prof. Emilio Frazzoli, will relieve this situation somewhat. With the addition of another faculty, we will have the critical mass we need in this area. Another area of dire programmatic need is design. While design is not only the core of engineering but also an area of critical importance to ABET accreditation, we have had a vacuum for a long time. We believe it is high time to add a faculty member in this area. Design would serve as a catalyst to bring together different disciplines into holistic mechanical and aerospace systems. In the future years, we plan to add 5 additional faculty members in the following areas: experimental materials and structures, energy and propulsion systems, aerospace systems, micro/nano engineering, and information systems. For each of the new junior faculty, the department has been providing the following support Two graduate students for 2 years A lab space of about 700 ft2 One half of the moving cost

The funds for graduate student support all come from the Graduate Division Fellowship money. For the next 2 years, there is no more budget left in this account as we have hired 6 new faculty over the past 2 years. We are already struggling to honor the commitment we have made so far. We have applied for graduate fellowships for 5 students to the Department of Education. If we do not get these fellowships, we would need financial support for 6 graduate students from the School. Another problem facing the Department is the lack of enough lab space. So far, we have been able to optimize the use of the existing space to accommodate all the new hires. However, 3 additional hires will require 2,100 ft2 of new lab space we do not have at present. Students At the undergraduate level, we will actively participate in School-wide and campus-wide activities to attract high-quality students especially from underrepresented backgrounds. At the same time, we will increase opportunities for our freshmen and sophomores to have closer contact with the department and encourage them to continue for graduate study. Out strategy for graduate student enrollment is to ensure that on average, each faculty member graduate 1 Ph.D. per year. For the current faculty size of 30, this strategy requires the admission of at least 30 Ph.D. students every year. Graduate Division fellowships and teaching assistantships will be used to support those students who will pursue PhD degrees. These fellowships and teaching assistantships will be combined with summer internships whenever possible. The faculty will work with the first-year graduate students to obtain external graduate fellowships for them. Staff Efficient staff support is critical in building a world-class department as it will allow the faculty to concentrate on teaching, research and service. Unfortunately, the looming budget cuts require a reduction of staff rather than an increase. At present, we expect to cut 2 staff positions if the state budget cuts are implemented. G. Improve internal and external visibility. We will continue to publish our annual report, which started two years ago. The new Distinguished Seminars will help us showcase our department to prominent professionals. We are refining our Research and Technology Review/Career Day to highlight our achievements not only to potential outside sponsors but also to our own students. We will continue to keep our Web site dynamic and informative. H. Provide professional leadership to the community.

Many of the department faculty are already active in professional societies. We will make sure their services are duly recognized through honors and awards. I. Continually assess and improve the quality of our program. We are developing a management information system (MIS) to facilitate assessment of our program efficiency. The MIS will provide timely information of all aspects of our program including personnel (faculty, staff, students, industry contacts, and alumni), curricula, budget, and facilities. We expect to complete a workable MIS by the end of Summer 2004. In conjunction with the preparation for ABET visit, we will develop an assessment strategy for our curricula. This will be done as part of the School-wide effort. In July every year, we will conduct an assessment of our administrative efficiency. This effort will coincide with the preparation of our annual report.