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Engineering excellence for the public good

Strategic Plan 2022-2027

Translating innovation into impact

Test beds at the Clean Energy Institute

As part of a tier-one public research university with a global footprint, we are committed to turning our innovations into impactful real-world solutions. To increase technology translation, we plan to expand cross-disciplinary collaboration, grow opportunities for students and researchers to engage in entrepreneurship, and deepen our industry partnerships.

Accomplishments to date

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    Investment in faculty success

    Established the position of Associate Dean of Faculty Success, held by Professor Yoshi Kohno, dedicated to advocating for, and advancing engineering faculty success in teaching, research, and service. This includes working with units to facilitate programs and processes to support faculty development and mentorship, orienting new faculty, and engaging with our excellent group of teaching faculty in the College.

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    Deepened partnership with the Foster School of Business

    Recognizing the value of business and engineering collaboration to students and faculty, we have strengthened our on-campus partnership. This partnership aims to accelerate the development of innovation leaders. A highlight of this partnership this year was the integration of GIX into the College as a joint initiative with the Foster School of Business.

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    Strengthened government and industry partnerships through research initiatives

    Collaborations like the Cross Pacific AI initiative and UPWARDS for the Future, supported by the CHIPS and Science Act and industry partners have been instrumental in laying the groundwork for future innovation efforts. They also provide a solid foundation for future initiatives aimed at bringing innovative technologies to market.

    Interdisciplinary research has flourished as well, both across the university, with UW Medicine and with external partners. Noteworthy examples include SECURE, a national research security center that has received major NSF funding and will be housed at the UW, and a project funded through ARPA-H and the Biden Administration’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to help surgeons remove tumors more quickly and accurately. The success of these multi-institutional initiatives, along with others like UPWARDS and Cross-Pacific AI, are establishing the UW as a national and international leader in critical areas of research like health care, data security, AI and chips and semiconductors.

    Our partnerships with organizations like Nvidia, Amazon, Micron and more are just the beginning of what we hope will be long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. These efforts set the stage for future goals around commercialization and broadening the scope of our research impact.

   

STRATEGY 1

Grow cross-departmental and cross-campus cooperation to significantly increase technology translation

Five-year Goals:

Build an integrated faculty mentorship and training network to guide the technology translation process, identify promising candidates, and advise them through the application process.

Broaden recognition of commercial and social entrepreneurship activities such as patents, licensing and start-ups as examples of scholarly contribution.

Third year (2024-2025)

  • Expand partnership with CoMotion to raise awareness of tech transfer activities amongst students and faculty
  • Expand partnership with CoMotion to advance knowledge and skills of the tech transfer process
  • Produce a College economic impact report under the University’s project
  • In partnership with CoMotion and other UW units, conduct an annual workshop to educate and promote tech transfer activities amongst students and faculty.
  • Implement revised College PTR guidelines and Entrepreneurial Endeavors section of the annual faculty merit review.
  • Assess gaps for engineers in training, networking and mentorship opportunities to increase entrepreneurship and commercialization.
  • Partner with UW External Relations to produce an engineering focused report as part of the UW’s economic impact report that showcases our value to the state of Washington.
  • Identify and meet five investment communities and industry partners to connect early-stage or existing research to emerging business ideas.
  • Revise College promotion and tenure review (PTR) guidelines to include granted and licensed patents as part of the promotion criteria.
  • Add a new Entrepreneurial Endeavors section to the annual faculty merit review and College recommended CV template for Promotion & Tenure.
  • In partnership with UW CoMotion and other UW units, develop a plan to implement and execute an annual workshop to educate and promote technology transfer activities amongst engineering students and faculty.
   

STRATEGY 2

Increase student and postdoctoral scholar engagement with social and commercial entrepreneurship

Five-year Goals:

Collaborate with the UW Foster School of Business and CoMotion on entrepreneurship curriculum and to amplify entrepreneurship competitions, connecting with and drawing on entrepreneurship education across the UW.

Establish networking events and programs that bring engineering students and postdoctoral scholars together with students from across the UW to identify technology innovation and translation opportunities.

Third year (2024-2025)

  • Expand Engineering partnership with the Foster School of Business and fully integrate GIX into the College
  • Raise awareness among students of entrepreneurship training opportunities
  • Inventory engineering student and postdoctoral scholar participation in Foster-sponsored entrepreneurship competitions to identify participation gaps.
  • Continue engagement with Creative Destruction Labs
  • Increase engineering student and postdoctoral scholar participation in existing courses and competitions by 10% annually.
  • Partner with CoMotion and Foster School of Business to introduce 10% of incoming students and post-docs to innovation and translation opportunities through orientation and onboarding.
  • Implement faculty entrepreneurship fellow program.
  • Inventory graduating bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral student participation in social or commercial entrepreneurship training.
  • Develop curricular plan for undergraduate and graduate students in all engineering departments to have access to social and commercial entrepreneurship coursework with goal of ensuring that at least 50% of all engineering students graduate with either coursework or practical exposure to entrepreneurship.
  • Inventory campus courses and curricula in entrepreneurship.
  • Inventory engineering student and postdoctoral scholar participation in Foster-sponsored entrepreneurship competitions to identify participation gaps.
  • Develop sustainable model for faculty entrepreneurship fellow program.
  • Inventory additional campus opportunities in innovation and translation for students and postdoctoral scholars.
   

STRATEGY 3

Broaden and extend College partnerships with industry

Five-year Goals:

Hire 5-10 joint positions with industry partners.

Develop innovative approaches to engineering education that address industry professional development needs.

Strengthen the relationship between industry and postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students — especially those from historically underserved communities — through mentorship, increased co-op and internship opportunities, and industry-funded grants.

Build strong relationships with venture capitalists, angel investors and investment firms in partnership with CoMotion to educate potential College faculty, staff and student entrepreneurs.

Resolve intellectual property issues that hinder commercialization efforts and explore new approaches that facilitate early industry engagement and collaboration in the technology translation process.

Third year (2024-2025)

  • Invest in strengthening the partnership between the College of Engineering and Foster School of Business, creating joint initiatives and programming that benefit our region.
  • Seek approval for the industry faculty leave policy
  • Promote Professors of Practice as a university mechanism to foster closer industry ties
  • Continue to build staffing and support for the Office of Research
  • Further expand CFR staff to increase bandwidth
  • Create and execute an industry engagement strategy for professional programs & workforce development.
  • Implement the strategy to review industry service contracts.
  • Obtain university approvals to hire joint industry-faculty positions.
  • Increase the indirect cost of service contracts to fund external counsels for intellectual property (IP) and contract assessment, negotiation and more.
  • Add one College Corporate & Foundations Relations staff position to grow industry partnerships at all levels.
  • Work with OSP, CoMotion, and Corporate Relations to consolidate management of industry contracts and IP.
  • Develop a strategy to review industry service contracts.
  • Work with the UW President’s Office, faculty councils and the Office of Academic Personnel (OAP) to establish or modify policies for two new joint positions with industry and for faculty leave to work in industry.
  • Form a working group of College Visiting Committee members and others to expand industry research partnerships and advocate for the College.
  • Work with UW Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), CoMotion and Corporate Relations to clarify roles, responsibilities and sponsored research timelines to increase academic investors by 10% in sponsored research funds.