 |
 |
From the Chair of the Advisory Board
Click here for a printer-friendly version
of this article.
 Greetings to you from the Advisory Board! We are all extremely proud to be on the board and take great pleasure in trying to help the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech make great strides year after year. Our success today certainly had its roots in the fine education we received at Virginia Tech and the Bradley Department. I am also honored to be leading a fine team of very capable individuals who are all serving in positions of high distinction.
We strongly share in the department's vision of becoming a Top
10 ECE school in the country. Year after year, the department
has been providing top notch education and conducting leading
edge research while consistently being ranked among the top 25
ECE schools in the country. This is certainly a tremendous accomplishment.
However, it is time now to set our sights even higher, and for
the department to move to the next level. This goal can certainly
be achieved in the not too distant future with the right amount
of focus and dedication. The key lies in maintaining the current
set of strengths in addition to building some new ones. Of course,
it all begins with the faculty and students. Attracting, motivating,
and retaining the best faculty and students will go a long way
in helping the department reach this goal.
This year, the Advisory Board has selected four initiatives to
work closely with the department. The initiatives are Entrepreneurship,
Microelectronics, Recruitment/Retention, and Curriculum. The
first two initiatives continue from last year while the last
two are new initiatives. Each of these initiatives is headed
by a very able individual and boasts of a strong team of Advisory
Board members.
The Entrepreneurship team is focused on creating the right working
model in allowing faculty members being able to pursue commercialization
of their research while at the same time protecting the rights
of Virginia Tech and the relevant College(s). This can have the
positive effect of creating more value and recognition for the
innovative intellectual property being created by the university
and its faculty. The Microelectronics team is focused on working
closely with Bob Hendricks and his team in providing the necessary
assistance in the execution of the Microelectronics program.
It is worthwhile noting that the Microelectronics program is
well off the ground and headed in a very good direction. The
Recruitment/Retention team is focused on the very important task
of coming up with recommendations on the hiring and retaining
of top notch faculty and students as well as attracting more
minorities into the department. Last but not least, the Curriculum
team is focused on helping the department go through its ABET
accreditation renewal. The Board is strongly committed to the
success of these initiatives.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Leonard Ferrari
for his vision and leadership in taking the Department to new
heights. We would also like to thank him for his strong support
of the Advisory Board. We wish him the very best in his new role
as vice provost for special initiatives.
We are absolutely committed to providing all the assistance necessary
for the department to achieve its goals. We look forward to a
very successful 2001 for the Bradley Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering. On the Road to a Top 10 ECE School!
Dinesh R. Bettadapur
Chair, The Advisory Board
Executive Vice President
Monterey Design Systems
|
