44% GROWTH
in research expenditures per faculty
EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EXPONENTIALLY GROWING TECHNOLOGIESplay a dominant role in sustaining humanity, transforming society, and improving the human condition. Examples include artifi cial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, carbon-free energy sources, robotics, smart cities, and advanced manufacturing. We are well-positioned to lead the way in these and many other areas. |
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objectives:
- POSITION ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE RESEARCH at the cusp of exponential technological growth to solve the fundamental scientifi c challenges needed to address critical societal needs.
- ELEVATE OUR RESEARCH PROFILE by increasing research expenditures to $60M by 2025, representing a doubling of expenditures over a ten-year period.
- BUILD STRATEGIC TEAMS among our community of scholars and other partners to target high-value funding opportunities and center-scale activities that address grand societal challenges.
- PROMOTE A CULTURE that seamlessly blends faculty research with entrepreneurial pursuits and leads to start-up creation and economic development for the region and the state.
- POSITION THE COLLEGE among the TOP 50 ENGINEERING COLLEGES in the US News and World Report rankings.
strategies:
1. Develop strategic research initiatives targeting the engineering challenges of the 21st century. Leverage core strengths and strategically expand cross-cutting research initiatives that are aligned with the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for the 21st Century and the National Science Foundations’ ten “Big Ideas,” and support the state’s research, economic development and entrepreneurial goals.
a. Sustainable energy and the environment: We will expand our already considerable energy research portfolio in energy storage, offshore wind, smart grid, clean water technologies, and coastal resilience by capitalizing on new national and state initiatives in renewable and sustainable energy solutions, nuclear fusion, zero-carbon systems, end-of-life plastics, and advanced heating and cooling systems. Investments and strategic cluster hires across our nine departments will be made to support bold cross-cutting college initiatives such as the new Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint venture between Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), as well as in sustainable manufacturing for advanced “cradle-to-grave” technologies.
b. Smart and resilient urban infrastructure: Smart infrastructure, fusing innovations in materials, additive manufacturing, sensing and communication, internet of things technologies and artificial intelligence among others, provides an unprecedented opportunity for building the resilient urban communities of the future. We will leverage our proximity to one of the world’s largest and most vulnerable cities. We will lead in this area by expanding faculty expertise and by advancing a cross-cutting research vision that integrates technological innovation with the social aspects of community to increase public welfare, improve urban infrastructure resiliency, and foster entrepreneurship.
c. Engineering-driven medicine: The new Institute for Engineering-driven Medicine (IEDM) develops novel engineering and applied sciences solutions, which are transforming clinical care by advancing new therapies and improving patient quality of life. We will grow the Institute through strategic cluster hires of game-changing faculty and new partnerships, a culture of intensive collaboration, creative collisions, and cross-pollination of ideas. Collaborating with the Renaissance School of Medicine we will develop, pursue and support bold research initiatives in the convergence of technology with neurobiology, regenerative medicine, biomedical informatics, cardiovascular health, mental health, and oncology.
d. Artificial intelligence: The Institute for AI-Driven Discovery and Innovation was created to promote New York State as the epicenter of artificial intelligence research, education and discovery. The Institute is grounded in the principle that AI should amplify human intelligence instead of replacing it, while preparing the workforce of tomorrow to co-exist creatively in the AI-driven economy of the future. Through partnerships with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, BNL, sister SUNY Institutions, and other stakeholders, we will identify new initiatives in research, entrepreneurship, and workforce training with a focus on engineering AI in areas such as sustainable energy, smart and connected urban infrastructure, precision medicine, neuroscience, cyber-manufacturing, ecology, arts and the humanities, and education.
e. Cybersecurity and privacy: The scope and scale of security challenges have grown dramatically, encompassing software and supply chain vulnerabilities, sophisticated malware, targeted cyber attack campaigns, cybercrime, and unwanted tracking, surveillance and censorship. In the era of intelligent machines, the Internet of Things, and exponentially growing computing, cybersecurity is intertwined with nearly all other major research initiatives and thus requires a holistic approach. As such, we will continue to support and expand the cross-cutting excellence of our National Security Institute with faculty hires in areas such as software and hardware engineering, secure and usable systems design, modeling, validation and verification, cryptology, human-computer interaction, psychology, and policy.
f. Quantum computing: Quantum computing has enormous potential in numerous sectors critical for economic growth, enabled by the convergence of mathematics, computer science, engineering, and physical sciences. We have an ambitious plan for building, growing, and sustaining a long-term, interdisciplinary quantum computing research enterprise, leveraging collaborations with the College of Arts and Sciences and BNL.
g. Engineering for emergency global health challenges: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgency to proactively develop technological solutions for future global biological threats. Examples include solutions to support emergency care under extreme time and resource constraints, innovative technologies to proactively track and stop the spread of pandemics, and new drugs and therapies. Traditional education and research do not address improvising under severe time and resource constraints, which is partly why pandemics are so devastating. We will advance cross-cutting research initiatives in these areas that augment our strengths in AI and engineering-driven medicine, and advance solutions for the developing world that leverage our Global Innovation Field School in Kenya.
2. Foster a diverse community of scholars to address fundamental scientific challenges of great societal and educational impact. Promote a culture of excellence among the faculty and students by recognizing, incentivizing, and rewarding research accomplishments, particularly those that address grand societal challenges through inclusive and interdisciplinary research projects.
a. Grow faculty talent via strategic cluster hires: The College will invest in faculty hires to support cross-cutting initiatives that engage our departments and the entire Stony Brook community. Emphasis will be placed on hiring game-changing faculty who have the potential to lead largescale, high risk, high reward research initiatives and strengthen our ability to effectively compete for center-scale grants.
b. Expand support to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty: We are augmenting the innovation capacity of our scholars by enhancing administrative support, fostering opportunities for team building, and providing seed grants for research. Two new associate dean (AD) positions have been established: 1) the Associate Dean for Research and Entrepreneurship; and 2) the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives. The two ADs work synergistically to explore novel research directions, assemble collaborative teams, prepare competitive proposals for new initiatives, and support faculty entrepreneurship. Also the Engineering Serendipity Seminar Series has been established to foster collaborations and interactions within the College and beyond. We will continue to expand these efforts to bring faculty and students together in collaborative environments.
c. Supporting the State of New York: New York State is at the forefront of the nation, advancing a bold vision to fight climate change by supporting research and innovation in renewable energy, a net-zero economy, clean water, and sustainable urban development. We are uniquely positioned to support the state of New York and realize its goals through research, economic development and workforce training, which will continue to inform and guide our future strategic investment, research and growth.
d. Become the technology hub in the Long-Island innovation corridor: We will leverage our unique geographic location as the only AAU university on Long Island by expanding our role as the regional focal point for high-tech innovation partnerships. We will expand our partnership with BNL, which adds expertise and resources in areas as diverse as energy, synchrotron-enabled science, nanomaterials, advanced and additive manufacturing, computing infrastructure, and smart grids. We are working synergistically to expand our collaborative interactions with joint-appointment BNL faculty. We are also pursuing new initiatives with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in artificial intelligence, biotechnology and engineering-driven medicine.
e. Expand experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate and masters students: Collaborating closely with faculty, we will expand summer research programs, internships engaging our alumni scholar community, and projects available through the VIP program, while growing resources for programs that align underrepresented students with experiential learning opportunities in engineering and applied sciences.
3. Promote and aid grant-seeking excellence. Our research activity has grown by 40 percent over the past five years. To continue on this trajectory, strategic opportunities will be leveraged to foster immediate and long-term impacts on the state of research within our College.
a. Target larger federally funded research projects: An analysis of funding in recent years shows that, while our funding rates are similar to those of our peer institutions in the smaller (< $200k) as well as larger (> $1M) research projects, we have significant potential for growth among intermediate-size projects ($300k - $1M). We will invest resources to facilitate faculty transition to capture intermediate size grants across all federal funding agencies, while continuing to expand the pursuit of large multi-million dollar funding opportunities.
b. Grow our research portfolio in mission-oriented programs: We currently sponsor workshops and networking events focused on targeted opportunities from various agencies, e.g., DOE, DOD, DARPA, ARPA-E, NIH, and NASA. A task force will be developed to identify suitable programs and bring together faculty across multiple disciplines, colleges, and institutions.
c. Incentivize and reward faculty leadership in high-risk, high-reward research projects by easing the administrative burden of proposal preparation, rewarding high-productivity researchers with reduced teaching and service loads, and providing administrative support to help manage large projects. We will also revise promotion and tenure guidelines to recognize faculty who take the lead to develop and submit highly competitive center-scale grant proposals.
4. Modernize laboratory infrastructure to strengthen the research enterprise. Actively repurpose our laboratory space to accelerate growth of emergent research initiatives and meet the ambitious research expenditures goal of $60M by 2025.
a. Incentivize departments to modernize existing laboratories in a manner consistent with the department’s strategic plan for research and experiential learning.
b. Leverage opportunities to build multipurpose research centers, e.g., advanced characterization and sustainable manufacturing, to support interdisciplinary research across our departments and programs.
c. Explore shared-use models for high-cost equipment that faculty oversee. This will increase the utilization of equipment, reduce maintenance burdens, and provide additional resources for new equipment.
d. Raise the resources to build a new engineering building to enable the future growth by providing space for cross-cutting research neighborhoods and makerspaces for students to support our new educational vision.
5. Entrepreneurship and economic development. We will strive to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and economic development measured by excellence in scholarship, research and entrepreneurial productivity, such as the number of patents and start-up companies our faculty and students generate. We will create an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem by:
a. Identifying and hiring entrepreneurially oriented tenure-track faculty with an aptitude for and track record in generating patents and starting up companies.
b. Revising our promotion and tenure guidelines to recognize patents, start-up creation and similar entrepreneurial activities, in addition to the traditional benchmarks.
c. Hiring non-tenure research faculty and entrepreneurs in residence to help our faculty scholars and students pursue entrepreneurial activities.
d. Partnering with the Stony Brook Office for Economic Development to develop a vision for our Centers of Excellence and company incubators at the Stony Brook Research and Development park including a higher level of integration among facilities and people. These efforts will maximize faculty- and student-driven economic impact to the region and the state.
e. Leveraging our Vertically Integrated Projects and Global Innovation Field School to promote a culture of entrepreneurship among our students throughout the duration of their studies, particularly from an international perspective.
f. Developing the new Stony Brook Innovation Gateway, a major collaborative initiative with the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, Vice President for Research, and the Office of Economic Development The Innovation Gateway will be a central, state-of-the-art innovation space on our campus for students, faculty, and local industry to collaborate on entrepreneurial projects, large and small, and at all phases of development.
g. Creating an innovation continuum at Stony Brook that engages students early and across the spectrum ranging from experiential learning to mature start-up incubation. Resources will be put in place that reward the success of nascent start-up companies originating from faculty research, student projects, and joint collaborations by giving them resources to grow at our research park incubators.