URI's Engineering Fellowship Initiative
The URI College of Engineering (COE) provides an exceptional education in a number of engineering disciplines. Though the College has a strong undergraduate scholarship program, it has limited resources for graduate fellowships and research assistantships. This has placed the College at a relative disadvantage to other educational institutions of its caliber. “This has been a handicap in our recruitment efforts, and we have lost many of the top candidates for graduate degrees because of our inability to offer them financial aid,” said Dean Raymond Wright.
In an effort to attract and retain talented students and faculty, and to expand research and grant funding opportunities, the College of Engineering has made Graduate Fellowships its top priority. The dean, department chairs and faculty, and the COE Advisory Council unanimously approved a $1.1 Million fundraising goal for a Graduate Fellowship Initiative. This will enhance our ability to attract outstanding faculty, enroll quality undergraduate and graduate students, and maintain teaching and research excellence for which the College of Engineering is known.
The Advisory Council assists and advises the dean in determining and pursuing the teaching and research mission of the College. “The Council also facilitates connections with industry, and provides insights for the development and implementation of its strategic plan,” said Nina Saberi, Advisory Council chair. She graduated with a BS in electrical engineering in 1982, and recently became one of the initial donors to the Graduate Fellowship Initiative with her gift of $25,000. Gary Bowen, a 1968 electrical engineering alumnus who chairs the Development Committee of the Advisory Council, also saw the need for graduate fellowship support and made a $25,000 contribution. “I hope that our support enables the COE to attract the best and brightest candidates,” said Saberi. “I count on my fellow Advisory Board members and COE alumni to support this Initiative.”
“Nina Saberi and Gary Bowen have demonstrated exemplary leadership by contributing to the fund, but additional support is needed to expand research capabilities, and establish additional graduate fellowships to conduct such research,” said Robert Clough, assistant dean for COE development.
Attracting highly qualified graduate students will have an impact on the entire engineering program. “With additional graduate student support, faculty members will have the resources to expand their research efforts and seek additional grant funding,” said Dean Wright. “Faculty are competing nationally for grants and more and more universities are providing either complete waiver of tuition or allowing a reduced tuition to instate levels. We do not have that ability at URI. The funds generated by the URI COE graduate fellowship endowment initiative will provide student match and allow our proposals to compete nationally both now and in the future.”
“To date, the College has generated over $900,000 in gifts and pledges for graduate student support, and research professors are already benefiting from the program,” stated Clough. Dr. Ying Sun and Dr. Qing Yang recently were awarded competitive grant funding for their respective research in biomedical and computer engineering. In addition, Dean Wright was able to introduce the first two Graduate Fellows at the October meeting of the Advisory Council. The fellowship recipients were Michael Opusewnski in biomedical engineering and Weijun Xiao in computer engineering.
The College of Engineering will continue to aggressively pursue its endeavor to award additional graduate fellowships and to advance the URI College of Engineering as a global leader in engineering education and research. We anticipate the full support and participation of the COE Advisory Council, and hope that COE alumni everywhere will understand the need and contribute to the Graduate Fellowship Initiative.