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UB Engineering "opens door"
New dean Harvey Stenger meets with local business leaders
By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
Contributing Editor
Harvey G. Stenger, the new dean of UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has an "open door" policy with local business leaders, a point that he made clear during a "Meet the Dean" breakfast held on Nov. 21 at UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
Approximately 50 representatives of local industry attended.
Harvey Stenger told local business
leaders at a recent "Meet the Dean" breakfast that the School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences is looking to partner with local
businesses for the benefit of UB, the businesses and the region as a
whole.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI
The meeting and Stenger's presentation, entitled "Engineering the Future," was designed to enhance the involvement of local business leaders in UB Engineering's future plans for the ultimate benefit of UB, Western New York businesses and the region as a whole.
"You should be looking for ways to partner with us," Stenger told audience members. "We can run a technology day for your company, we can provide a tour of our facilities. I'd like you to find out what you can take from us. Call me, bug me, email me, come visit me. Let's see how we can help each other."
UB Engineering serves local industry in a variety of ways, he said: It is the region's largest producer of a technically trained workforce, it provides continuing education for local employees and assists in industrial problem-solving.
Stenger noted that he wants businesses to be more involved as the school embarks on its own major expansion plans and participates intensively in UB 2020.
He pledged to hire the best new faculty members at a rate of between five and 10 each year during the next five years and to continue UB Engineering's record as one of the most productive engineering schools in the country in terms of research funds awarded and degrees earned.
In addition, Stenger said that over the next five to 10 years, UB Engineering plans to:
Increase enrollment by 30 percent, growing its student body from 3,100 to 4,000.
Double its research expenditures from $40 million to $80 million.
Boost the quality of its students and ensure their success.
Add critical infrastructure.
That infrastructure includes the launching this year of a $72 million capital campaign to fund construction of a major new engineering building, the school's first in nearly two decades.
The new engineering building, to which New York State has allocated almost $50 million, will add 130,000 square feet of new research, education and administrative space, a 30 percent increase in the school's current square footage.
Stenger said that during the next four years, UB Engineering will raise $10 million more to cover construction and an additional $13 million for equipment, all of which will have a beneficial economic impact on the community.
Most importantly, he said, the new facility will be an important piece of the UB Engineering plan to partner with Western New York industry as the region grows a new economy, one that Stenger said has some outstanding, but often overlooked, assets.
"I propose that Buffalo and Western New York are in the most sustainable region in the whole world," he said.
It's an observation that he said he makes every day on his morning run, which takes him from the Elk Terminal lofts where he lives, past numerous manufacturers, the Erie Canal project, Memorial Auditorium and Erie Basin Marina.
Stenger listed the region's assets, all of which have economic benefits for industries that settle here: an abundant supply of fresh water, simple geography that makes it easy to get around, wind and hydropower, prime farmland, low population density, an international border, excellent educational opportunities and a strong cultural heritage.
"Lots of regions have strong economic bases, but they don't have the rest of these things," said Stenger. "That's a great opportunity."
He reviewed Buffalo's historic contributions, first as a transportation center, then as the home of various industries, from grain to steel to aircraft.
"What will be the next economy we will build?" he asked.
He noted that biomedical engineering is a likely candidate, in line with cross-disciplinary advances engineers and other researchers are making at the Center of Excellence and at the Toshiba Stroke Research Center.
"I pledge that UB will have a central role in that economy," he said.
He added that UB Engineering is benefiting from a host of organizations that are helping to maximize these opportunities, including the New York State Empire Development Corporation, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research, the New York State Department of Labor, and local industrial development agencies.
Prior to Stenger's presentation, introductory remarks were made by Marsha Henderson, UB vice president for external affairs; John Stanfill, president of Amherst Systems, a subsidiary of Northrup Grumman; and Satish K. Tripathi, UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
After the meeting, attendees were invited to take a tour of the Center of Excellence.