he College of Engineering is integrally connected to the world at large. Our academic programs educate engineers to make a positive impact on society, and our research addresses important issues faced by the global community. In turn, world events reverberate throughout the College. This is the way it should be—for to advance a remarkable legacy of success in its mission, the College must be inextricably bound to the changes and conditions that influence the lives of people everywhere.

Today we face the complex issue of security in a newly insecure world. We face the challenge of maintaining the highest-quality programs that student diversity helps to ensure, while being actively engaged in the debate over the role of affirmative action in student admissions. As the College prepares to celebrate 150 years of engineering excellence, we are contending with significant budgetary challenges. As is our tradition, we view such challenges not as problems but as new opportunities, and have positioned ourselves to achieve even higher levels of excellence.

The College takes great pride in being among those institutions that are making this world a better, safer, healthier place to live. However, the price of this leadership is enormous. The cost of equipment, faculty and talented students has never been greater, and it continues to grow. Maintaining and improving our facilities is a huge expense but necessary in order to remain at the forefront of research and education.

While we recognize that difficult financial conditions prevail in the nation, the state and the University, we still see opportunities to strengthen the College significantly over the next few years and position it for the future. To do this, however, we must be sure-footed and purposeful. We must have well-defined strategic objectives and pay close attention to the needs of our students and other constituencies. We must also ensure the well-being of our faculty and staff, manage our resources and assets to a maximum level of effectiveness and efficiency, and be willing to make tough choices. Towards this end, we have been engaged in a year-long, strategic-planning activity that we hope to complete by this fall. We will be sharing the results of this effort with you in future editions of the Michigan Engineer.

In this issue of the Engineer we report on some of our extraordinary new research activities. For example, two projects, a total artificial lung and total liquid ventilation, are aimed at eliminating or ameliorating life-threatening respiratory disease. Other efforts include the development of a micro internal combustion swing engine—a revolutionary advance in power generation—and the solar wind ion composition spectrometer, which enables scientists to predict solar weather, an ability that can preserve life and resources, and cushion the impact of deleterious forces on the global economy. You will also read about the Carl A. Gerstacker Building, the first of two new buildings to anchor our bioengineering complex on North Campus—it is a remarkable addition that exemplifies our commitment to improving College facilities.

I trust that you will find these stories, as well as the others in this issue, to be of interest.

Sincerely,

Stephen W. Director
Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering