Strategic Plan

Brunelli Lab-Hannah Pineault admires her "magical" ziolite synthesis elixir

William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Strategic Plan 2024-2028

Approved by CBE Faculty on September 6, 2024

Mission

The William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering will provide an outstanding educational experience to our students to help them grow to their full potential and will serve the profession and the society by creating new knowledge through cutting edge disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and disseminating this knowledge to industry, government, the scientific community and the general public.

Vision

To provide an undergraduate experience to our students that prepare them for today’s technical, economical and societal challenges.
To attract and retain world class faculty and enable them to create new knowledge in the field of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering through cutting-edge research and pass this new knowledge on to our students, our profession, and society in general.
To have a graduate program where our graduates are sought after not only by industry, and government, but also by academia.
To serve the public, academic, industrial and government communities through consultation, collaborative efforts, entrepreneurial activity, dissemination of research results and outreach activities.
To create a learning and working environment that fosters our shared values in everything we do.
To instill in our students an appreciation of, and the necessity for, life-long learning, teamwork, multi-disciplinary problem solving and to provide them the skills to prosper in a global economy.

Strategic Goals

To develop an undergraduate educational program that is recognized as one of the top twenty programs in the nation and that prepares students for multiple career options.
To increase the research output of the department and develop a graduate program that is recognized as one of the top twenty programs in the nation.
To serve as a recognized authority in chemical and biomolecular engineering for the public, industry and all levels of government.

The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department (CBE) promotes university shared values in all respects. It acknowledges that varied human experiences and backgrounds enrich the community, and that, by bringing a broader range of perspectives to the field, we can advance science and engineering to best meet the needs of industry and society. The Department strives to achieve and maintain a collegial community for its faculty, staff, and students.

Pillar I. Undergraduate Program

Goal #1: Enhance the undergraduate learning experience, nurture our students to graduate and to achieve postgraduate success.

Review the curriculum on an ongoing basis to ensure that it reflects the state-of-the-art in Chemical Engineering education. Encourage newly hired faculty to develop courses in their areas of expertise.
Empower AICHE student chapter.
Strengthen the alumni mentoring network and peer mentoring.
Make available research opportunities for interested undergraduates: encourage faculty to mentor undergraduate researchers; encourage participation in honors research projects and the Denman forum; encourage students to complete a co-op or internship.

Goal #2: Encourage and nurture students’ sense of community and commitment to shared values.

We recognize that today’s students are tomorrow’s alumni, and students with a strong connection to the department during their time here will tend to support the program in the future.

Support our active student chapter of AIChE.
Maintain a strong AICHE ChemECar program.
Increase opportunities for faculty-student interactions beyond academics.
Host informal gatherings and town hall style meetings. These can include wellness committee and drop in events, REACH events, “Coffee with a Prof”, and “Pizza with the Chair”.
Demonstrate the department’s commitment to university shared values by policies and actions.

PILLAR II. Graduate Program

Goal #1: Recruit top quality of Ph.D. students.

Coordinate our graduate recruitment efforts with the College of Engineering and the Graduate School recruitment activities.
Increase post-graduation job placement by developing relationships with companies during the graduate research symposium (GRS).
Reach out to Ohio schools for recruiting graduate students.
Increase first year student fellowship support.
Maintain stipend for graduate students as comparable to our peer institutions.

Goal #2: Enhance the graduate student learning experience.

Encourage training to faculty for mentoring graduate students.
Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of modern research, have more flexibility in graduate education.
Increase faculty/student interactions at the graduate level with the help of Chemical Engineering Student Council (CEGC) social events.
Promote a culture in our graduate program that reflects university shared values.
Provide mentoring and training to prepare graduate students for various career paths, including academia, industry, national labs, and entrepreneurial initiatives.

PILLAR III. Research

Goal #1. Achieve national and international recognition for our research programs.

Recruit exceptional faculty in target research areas including core and interdisciplinary chemical engineering.
Promote focused, collaborative research initiatives that are initiated from the “ground up” by faculty members.
Publicize and promote the faculty research to a broader public.
Increase the Department’s student and faculty visibility by promoting our undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty for university, national, and international awards.

Goal #2. Increase the department’s research profile, including funding, PhD graduates, and high-quality publications.

Foster and enhance growth in new and emerging areas of research and seek opportunities for establishing research centers.
Seed interdisciplinary teams to compete for center grants.
Ensure that core COE and university research initiatives have participation from CBE.
Collaborate with other departments and colleges to provide infrastructure for collaborative state-of-the-art research.

PILLAR IV. Departmental Culture

Goal#1. Create a departmental culture that allows faculty, staff and students:

To achieve their full potential.
Have a sense of belonging.
Feel valued and appreciated.
Mentor and support junior faculty to succeed in classroom and in research.
Ensure staff has a voice in departmental operations.
Ensure students feel heard and they have a platform to articulate their concerns and ideas.
Promote departmental activities that allow students, faculty and staff to interact.

PILLAR V. Outreach

Goal #1: Serve the public, academic, industrial and governmental communities through departmental activities which are consistent with the land grant mission of our university.

Increasing knowledge of the general population about Chemical engineering by:

Publishing accessible papers or news articles, social media posts.
Presentations to the public, such as at the local ACS or AICHE sections or similar local scientific or popular meetings, public guest lectures or demonstrations at OSU events or other community events, hosting discussions or posting videos on social media.
Developing and teaching publicly accessible short courses, certificate programs.

Goal #2: Develop pathways from K-12 to College in STEM fields

Encourage and value K-12 outreach efforts as part of the annual review and promotion and tenure processes.
Mentor high school interns by coordinating with existing college efforts.

Goal #3: Promote research collaboration with industry and the broader community.

Generate more internship and job opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students through coordinated efforts with the engineering career center.
Leverage our advisory board for best practices in increasing student interactions with industry.
Invite industry partners to speak to students about industrial career paths through informal networking events and seminars.
Continue to encourage and value invention disclosures and patents.
Encourage faculty to work with the technology licensing office to apply for patents of intellectual property having the potential for licensing and new corporation development.
Encourage participation in start-ups, particularly in Ohio.

PILLAR VI. Advancement

The CBE department has a very loyal alumni base, who have generously supported the department through the years.

Goal #1 Continue nurturing alumni relations and establish new ties.

Use departmental communications effectively to reach out to alumni and keep them interested in the department.
Organize class reunions on campus or through zoom.
Hold alumni events in geographic areas that have a high density of OSU CBE graduates, in conjunction with COE.
Use Advisory Board as a means of engaging alumni who have been successful in academia and industry.
Use departmental website and social media (facebook, twitter, etc) to effectively to keep alumni engaged.
Connect scholarship recipients with the donors. Also connect students and faculty who have been impacted through other forms of support e.g. fellowships, program support, research, etc. with alumni who provided the support.
Encourage faculty to share successes of their PhD graduates to establish a better network among our PhD alumni.

Goal #2 Increase fund raising efforts.

Work closely with Advancement Director of the department to identify and nurture potential donors.
Prepare “donor-focused” materials that explain the departmental priorities and initiatives and that will resonate with alumni.
Encourage department chair and other faculty to visit and host potential donors.
Organize special events for potential donors.