Trinity Engineering. Vision 2020 Engineering Innovation & Creative Design. Strategic Plan

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1 Trinity Engineering Vision 2020 Engineering Innovation & Creative Design Strategic Plan

2 Mission of Trinity Engineering The mission of Trinity Engineering is to deliver world class research and innovation in science and engineering through an entrepreneurial, multidisciplinary approach to teaching and research that will best serve our society and the world in the 21st century. Trinity Engineering is committed to generating and disseminating knowledge and to working with international partners to provide innovative solutions to the world's great challenges. Trinity is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study with the excitement of discovery. We seek to develop in each member of the Engineering School, the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind. Vision To establish an environment which encourages the understanding and curiosity to inspire the creativity necessary to provide innovative solutions for the global challenges in health, energy, the environment and the economy. This will establish Trinity Engineering as the European Hub of a Global Network of Engineering Innovation & Design, placing it in the top 20 Engineering Colleges in the world by Global Grand Challenges for Engineering in 21 st Century (US National Academy of Engineering) 2

3 Trinity Engineering The School of Engineering at Trinity was founded in 1841 and is one of the oldest Engineering Schools in the English speaking world. With a reputation as a top research School, our goal is to provide innovative educational programmes and to integrate our research activities so that the School grows in international prestige and increases its impact on the world stage. The School, which consists of three Departments, Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, runs accredited undergraduate degree programmes in Engineering together with postgraduate degree and diploma courses. In addition, all the departments offer opportunities for higher degrees by research. In 2010, the School had 50 academic staff, 25 research fellows, 180 research students, 100 taught masters, 200 diploma students and over 700 undergraduates spread over seven different sites on campus. With an average annual budget of 20M the research income accounts for approximately 40%. In , research income was 8.5M (89.5% from national agencies, 10% from international agencies and 0.5% from industry). The School is the most successful Engineering School in the country, as is recognised by its ranking in the world s top 1% for citations of the published work of the staff. In addition, we are have an Academy Award winner on our staff Professor Anil Kokaram for his work in digital media processing. In the last Strategic plan for , the School set ambitious targets for increasing activities across the board. These can be summarised as follows: Increase Research Student numbers from 60 to 150 Increase staff from 40 to 60 Reduce student/staff ratio from 18:1 to 15:1 Introduce an M.A.I. 5 year programme Increase research income by 50% to 6m/annum During this period, the School performance is outlined below: Research Student numbers are 180 Staff complement is 48 Student/Staff (full time) ratio is 20:1 MAI established for intake 2009/2010 Research income at ~ 6.5m/annum It is clear from this that the School has accomplished its objectives especially in the increase in graduate research students but not in the projected increase in staffing seen as necessary to enable us to compete internationally where the norm for student/staff ratio in the top Engineering Schools would be 12:1. However, despite this, morale among the staff remains high and we look forward to the challenges of the next ten years for which we have set ambitious targets as detailed in this document. 3

4 1. EDUCATION In all of its endeavours, Trinity Engineering recognizes its role in developing and informing the leaders of the future. Traditionally, engineers have moved to positions of influence in industry and the public sector because of their ability to embrace complexity and develop effective solutions. The ability of engineers not only to understand the science of their solutions but also the people, issues, and systems they affect will be more important in the years and decades to come. In addition to its rigourous approach the engineering sciences, Trinity Engineering recognises curiosity and creativity as important influences in the pursuit of discovery and entrepreneurship. Engineering offers two undergraduate degree programmes, one in Engineering (BAI) and the other in Engineering with Management (BSc) to over 700 students. Both reflect the long held ethos that engineering education must be broad based in order to enable graduates to develop throughout their professional careers, finding solutions for as yet unseen challenges. The BAI programme is based on a unique multidisciplinary approach featuring two common freshman years in which students are grounded in the fundamentals required for life long learning. It is the only programme in Ireland which has continously adhered to these principles. Following the first two years, students choose to pursue a specialised programme in one of the following disciplines Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering Biomedical Engineering Electronic & Electrical Engineering Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Electronic and Computer Engineering (run jointly with the School of Computer Science and Statistics) Computer Engineering (run jointly with the School of Computer Science and Statistics) and follow a professionally accredited programme for two more years. The Engineering with Mangement BSc degree provides an even greater breadth through its business and management elements. The curricula are constantly reviewed and developed to foster and grow student curiosity and creativity. Both programmes provide opportunities for independent learning, individual and group design projects, and non technical options (e.g. languages). Trinity Engineering also offers students a fifth year leading to a Masters in Engineering (MAI). As a university with an international outlook, we expect students to engage with international institutions, industries and practices during their education. To support this, we offer half year and full year exchanges in our partner European Institutions within either the CLUSTER or UNITECH networks. These networks consist of the top technical universities and leading multinational corporations across Europe and ensure that our students are mixing with their peers at an international level. The School also offers standalone Masters programmes in Bioengineering, Music & Media Technologies, Civil Engineering (with specialisation options in Environmental, Structural, or Transportation Engineering), and Engineering. In addition to these, a substantial programme of continuing education for engineers is provided by the Graduate School of Professional Engineering. This caters for the largest cohort of mature students in the country and offers a suite of Postgraduate Diploma courses in a wide range of topics. 4

5 Education is the basis upon which innovation and entrepreneurship thrive. Through a rigorous understanding is borne a curiosity that in turn fosters creativity and innovation as demonstrated graphically below. Today, more than ever, engineers are required to apply their scientific knowledge to the challenges facing the world. These include cleaner energy, renewable and durable materials, the flow of information, an ageing population, advanced medical and therapeutic treatments, environmental protection and transport innovation. Although engineers will always require an understanding and mastery of specific disciplines, innovative solutions will increasingly come from collaborative efforts involving technical, social and medical partnerships. Engineering education must therefore embrace creativity, multi disciplinarity and entrepreneurship to ensure that scientific advances are effectively translated to relevant applications. The Evolution from Understanding Fundamentals to Applications Trinity Engineering is committed to providing an educational programme that delivers on these maxims to students throughout their undergraduate and graduate education. In 2010, there were over 700 undergraduate, 100 taught masters and 190 graduate research students and we plan to increase these numbers by 20% over the next 10 years. The first steps along this journey have already been implemented. They include modularisation that introduces options in the arts, humanities, business and medical fields; significant group design and build projects in the first two years and revised course content containing more independent learning. The following years will see the creative design philosophy more deeply embedded. Simultaneously, we are moving to a 5 year Masters structure in line with the European wide norm in engineering education. This will include significant group and individual design projects in the final 2 years as well as opportunities for 6 12 month exchanges with over 30 international academic and corporate partners. We are also committed to providing advanced graduate courses to support conventional training methods for doctoral students. The ability of Trinity Engineering to attract the brightest undergraduate and research students is critically dependent on our ability to provide a physical and intellectual environment that supports creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, while fostering the personal and professional development of the individual student. 5

6 The manner by which we will address the educational objectives of the College Strategic Plan can be summarised as follows: Over the past two years the School has conducted a thorough review of our undergraduate courses and has established a five year programme which has the provision for a considerable element of broad curricula subjects. Throughout the undergraduate programmes, there is a considerable element of project and design work and this exposes the students to the research activity of the School. All our courses are Bologna compliant with learning outcomes considered necessary for engineering education. The undergraduate student experience is continually under review to ensure experiential learning critical to the creative thought processes necessary for engineering. In so far as is possible, without a formal process in place, all engineering undergraduates are encouraged to undertake vacation employment to enhance their appreciation of the theoretical aspects of our courses. Many staff have contacts in both academia and industry throughout Europe and this provides an introduction for interested students. At postgraduate level, we already have a shared Masters course in Bioengineering and intend to develop other joint courses with UCD within the auspices of the Innovation Academy. The introduction of a 5 year programme together with our engagement with the CLUSTER and UNITECH European consortia will facilitate the development of joint Masters level degree programmes in the next 5 years. Although student retention is not a specific problem in Engineering, we are participating in an EU Consortium led by KTH, Stockholm to increase the visibility of Engineering across the secondary level sector. This is to ensure a continuing cohort of top students in our undergraduate courses and to address issues of gender balance. The School participates in the Access Programme and welcomes applications from mature students but the need for of a C in Leaving Certificate honours Maths limits the number of eligible applicants. For international students, in addition to students which will come to Engineering within the CLUSTER and UNITECH networks, we run a Double Diploma programme with INSA Lyon and have ~30 visiting students undertaking project work from abroad for 4 6 months every year. We accept suitably qualified candidates into any year of the undergraduate programme with the proviso that they should be registered in College for two years before qualifying for a degree. We expect to have a number of students enrolling in the 4 th year of the 5 year programme. All our undergraduate courses are externally accredited. We intend to have an international review of all activities in the 4 and 5 year programmes as well as the graduate education and research activities when we have finalized the structures. The School is committed to life long learning in the form of CPD (Continued Professional Development) and a significant number of part time Diploma courses are running at present within Civil Engineering. The School intends to expand and develop its CPD activities over the next five years to encompass all areas of engineering. 6

7 A summary of the Educational Challenges facing us are: 2. RESEARCH The ideas and research of the individual are key to Trinity Engineering s success in research as evidenced by the fact that the School is in the top 1% of Engineering Schools in the world on the basis of publication and citation. Many academics in the School, not only have significant international research profiles, but they also are key leaders in their fields. The areas which have and continue to contribute to the success of Trinity Engineering are: Bioengineering Biosciences and translational research Civil engineering Culture and creative arts Electronic engineering Enviromental engineering Energy wind, ocean and electric Fracture and fatigue in materials Fluids, acoustics and vibration Geotechnical engineering Manufacturing technology and systems Mechanical engineering Structural engineering Tribology Transport engineering and policy 7

8 Reliability engineering Smart and liveable cities Universal design To meet the strategic requirements of the Trinity College Dublin and research funding agencies, the School has developed critical mass in some areas which in turn has led to the development of Research Centres. Centres based in the School or having significant involvement by staff from TCD Engineering include: Centre for Creative Technologies Centre for Transport Research and Innovation for People (TRIP) CTVR telecommunications research centre Trinity Centre for Bioengineering (TCBE) TrinityHaus crossing traditional boundaries in engineering, sciences and the arts, creating innovation in people centred design and sustainable construction. Evolving Centres include: CIRRUS Environmental Engineering Centre for Energy Devices & Systems The School of Engineering is unique in having breadth and depth of research activity in the following College research strategic plan priority areas: Biosciences and Translational Research Culture and Creative Arts Materials and Intelligent Systems Transport, Energy and Environment With an average annual research income in excess of 6m, Trinity Engineering is the most successful engineering school in the country, as recognised by its ranking in the world top 1% of citations for our published research work. In 2010, there were over 180 graduate research students working on a wide range of research supervised by 49 staff. Trinity Engineering has a long tradition of independent research and this will continue to be supported. However, much of the research activity is now focusing on multidisciplinary centres addressing key strategic questions. 8

9 The key challenges facing us in our Research activities are: Challenges Increase graduate researchers by 15% Create the environment in which each member of staff can develop to their full research potential Work with the university to develop more attractive and structured career paths for postdoctoral research staff Provide s centralised prototyping facility and an environment to allow structured engagement with industry, funders, public etc. Build on existing national and international leadership position in policy development in areas like creative arts, environment, energy, health, transport etc Facilitate younger staff in leveraging research funding from government and industry Support industry in their research and professional development needs 3. CULTURE OF INNOVATION AT ALL LEVELS Recognising that innovation is multidisciplinary and occurs at the interface between traditional disciplines, Trinity Engineering will realign its structures in thematic areas of key strategic value. This will be continuously informed by international activity, the national agenda and College s strategic priorities. The Government's taskforce on Innovation recommended six principles as fundamental to creating the innovation ecosystem necessary to transform Ireland into a Global Innovation Hub. One of these is an education system which fosters independent thinking, creativity and innovation. Trinity Engineering will make a major contribution to this by The Engineering School will participate pro actively in the TCD UCD Innovation Academy to provide appropriate infrastructure for the innovation aspects of our undergraduate and postgraduate programs. This support will be project based and will develop skills to effectively undertake engineering projects at undergraduate and postgraduate level. More importantly, it will be focused on students who wish to explore commercialisation of their research by accelerating the implementation, development and communication of their work. The School will engage proactively with national and international industrial partners to develop innovative and creative design solutions to engineering problems of global importance. This engagement will occur at all levels from undergraduate education to multi disciplinary research programmes. We will help inform national and international policy and new government initiatives geared towards innovation and entrepreneurship. The school will pilot new initiatives including playing a leadership role in the TCD UCD Innovation Academy. 9

10 The School will also promote the engineering profession in order to attract the best and brightest students both nationally and internationally. Again, we must address a number of issues to achieve our goals in respect of our aspirations to support Innovation and these are summarised below. 4. ENGAGEMENT WITH SOCIETY 4.1 Dublin as a city of learning, culture and innovation The School will continue its involvement with the Science Gallery to promote Engineering and Science to the public. Trinity Engineering will further develop its engagement with society and intends to develop future activities in the following areas: A series of public lectures delivered by senior academics will be established relating the importance of their work to society at large. The school will develop teaching packages and/or training for second level teachers, specifically aimed at transition year. Feedback from teachers indicates that they would welcome support in the development of their programmes for transition year students. Expand the summer placement internship programme for secondary school students to enable them to experience engineering activities at first hand. The development of a formal placement programme qualifying as work experience for transition level students and this will integrate with our activities as a partner in the ATTRACT project. 4.2 Leadership in public debate Current levels of engagement with society are significant and academics within the School are involved in a range of activities which form a vital service to society including: Members of Advisory Committees to Government Board membership of State Agencies 10

11 The development of National and European legislation Chairing and membership of external professional committees Providing expert opinion on infrastructure design and failures and acting as expert witnesses in court cases Stimulating national debate and action on global issues such as climate justice/sustainability, advising NGOs on water, sanitation, and heating and lighting programmes. 4.3 Development of the alumni The School has established a Development Board which is helping us achieve our Strategic Plan. This is Vision 2020: Engineering Innovation & Creative Design and will be launched in June, A principal role of the Board will now be to develop outreach activities for our alumni to engage them positively in the activities of the School. A data base of the Engineering Alumni is being created within the Foundation Office so that we can communicate and inform them of exciting developments. 4.4 Sustainable and low carbon living The activities of three research centres, the Centre for Energy Devices & Systems and TrinityHaus are actively engaged in a wide range of projects focused on sustainable and low carbon technologies for the construction industry and other sectors, including the design and development of sustainable systems for water treatment and power supply technologies in the developing world. 5. ENABLING THE STRATEGY 5.1 Academic Faculty with Impact across Traditional Boundaries The greatest asset in a university is the quality of its staff. Ensuring retention and attracting high quality new staff will be one of the most important challenges over the next 10 years. It is planned to increase the academic staff by 50% over the next ten years. During that time, it is expected that 12 staff will retire meaning that over 30 new staff will be recruited. This presents a tremendous challenge and an opportunity to develop the teaching and research capabilities of the School to support the vision for Trinity Engineering. 11

12 5.2 Internationalisation of Staff, Students and Programmes As engineering innovation is most relevant in a global context, comprehensive engagement with international academic and industrial partners will be essential for the successful achievement of our strategic goals. The key elements of this engagement will be academic exchanges of students, researchers and staff, participation in international research programmes, and collaboration with multi national industrial partners. The expanded duration of our professional engineering course will support increased participation by students in EU exchange programmes, to be facilitated by Trinity Engineering s membership of the CLUSTER and Unitech consortia, the harmonization of course structures under the Bologna process, and the implementation of modularisation and semesterisation across Trinity College. These structures will also be used to promote student exchanges for postgraduate taught course and research students. The introduction of structured doctoral education programmes will enhance the mobility of research students and academic staff engaged in multi institutional teaching and research projects. The aim of increasing research funding from EU sources will also lead to greater collaboration with leading universities and engineering firms across Europe. The development of a new engineering research building with first class research and education facilities will be essential to attract the world leading research visitors and technology innovators necessary to develop the vision of Trinity Engineering as the hub of a global network and a centre of engineering innovation and design excellence. 12

13 5.3 Administrative and Research Support Staff The vision of Trinity Engineering is ambitious in scale and scope. It will require a diverse set of technical and administrative skills to implement the Strategic Plan, and to provide professional support for fund raising and collaboration with national and international agencies and industry. 5.4 Infrastructure Requirements Engineers need to increasingly cross academic boundaries to translate new scientific discoveries into practical applications. They can and must extend this cross disciplinary collaboration in order to play a pivotal role in solving our world s biggest challenges. Trinity Engineering is accelerating this approach with a new kind of physical facility, in which engineers can bring together the human and physical resources needed to address some of today s most important challenges in human health, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, information management and sustainable societies. The new Engineering Hub will be a focus for creative design and innovation. From the ground up, the centre will be designed to facilitate a vibrant, collaborative and intellectual lifestyle for the School s community of students, faculty, research and administrative staff. It will be not only the headquarters of the school, but also an inviting destination for visiting academics from collaborating institutions and representatives from industry. The physical facilities can and should make the most of one of the school s distinct advantages: the range of excellent academics and researchers. The new Engineering Hub will bring together engineers and others to work on both fundamental and translational research programmes. The 13

14 Engineering Hub will promote a new level of interaction among researchers from within Trinity and with collaborating universities and industry partners. Challenge To expand the Engineering School s infrastructure to 20,000 m 2 of world class purpose built teaching and research laboratory space so that we can provide the highest level of service to our many customers: our students, industry, research funding agencies, government and society. 5.5 Funding The funding requirements of Trinity Engineering involve two main areas: development of taught programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and development of research programmes and infrastructure. Historically funding has been dominated by national funding agencies. Enabling the strategic plan will require a radical change in funding strategy. The funding stream for undergraduate education has been exclusively from exchequer sources beyond the control of the School of Engineering. This will likely continue. Taught postgraduate programmes are largely funded on a self financing basis, and provide an essential flow of income required to maintain education and research quality throughout the School. The funding sources for research have been dominated by national exchequer programmes (i.e. IRCSET, HEA, SFI, EI). These sources have been dramatically reduced and will continue to be reduced for the foreseeable future. SFI has also introduced a requirement that PIs provide evidence of nonexchequer funding for eligibility. Although engagement with industry occurs, it has not been developed to the point where meaningful and consistent funding is in place, nor where significant discovery transfer has occurred. In most of the top international research universities, there is a recognition that 10% 20% of research turnover should be maintained as unallocated research funds by Principal Investigators, Research Centres and Schools to provide for unforeseen costs, continuation of research between and beyond the specific grants, and for speculative research. In the context of Trinity Engineering, it is also essential to maintain the critical support infrastructures of the research centres. 14

15 6. Action Plan The 2020 Vision represents the most ambitious expansion yet undertaken in the long history of Trinity engineering. Although daunting, the realisation of this dream is essential if Trinity is to continue to play a leading role in Europe and the World. a) Attracting the best students Increase the number of visits by staff and students to secondary schools by 10% each year for the next three years Target higher female participation by providing structured visits to TCD Engineering by secondary school student groups Raise profile nationally for TCD Engineering with structured communications plan with TCD Communications Office b) Providing an attractive study environment for our students Develop new teaching and research facilities in the Engineering Hub Provide interactive environment for creativity development c) Attracting higher level of engagement with industry Invite key players from industry to give presentations to students and staff Provide industry researcher matching service for teaching and research projects Actively engage with debates in the media and provide expert opinion Raise profile to industry audience in terms of technology transfer successes. d) Internationalise the teaching programmes Provide placements in universities and industry abroad through Cluster, Unitech and other collaborations Attract engineering students from universities in Europe, US and elsewhere to do part of their studies at TCD e) Develop full research potential Maintain current productive environment for research in difficult economy climate (against backdrop of sharply reducing research funding opportunities) 15

16 Help recovery of national economy with greater emphasis on spinning out and licensing technology and services and advising national policy development Support younger staff, through mentoring by senior academics, to develop their full research potential Help staff to leverage government and industry research funding by increasing networking and links with research and industry leaders f) Develop new funding sources Aim to identify and secure new funding sources for additional academic, support and administrative staff Attract funding from the university, government and industry to fund the new Engineering Hub 7. Development Board The School has established a Development Board to assist with our strategic planning for our VISION 2020 Engineering Innovation & Creative Design. The external members of the Board are: Michael Peirce (Chair): Mike, a Trinity Engineering graduate, is the founder of Mentec Ltd, one of Ireland s largest IT start up companies in 1978 and is now its Chairman. Previously, he worked at ICI in the UK before joining the Engineering faculty at Trinity College Dublin. Mike has served as Chairman of a number of Companies including Parthus, AEP and Mentor Ltd. Brian Caulfield: Brian, a Trinity Engineering graduate, is a Partner at DFJ Esprit. Prior to joining DFJ Esprit, Brian was a partner at Trinity Venture Capital where he sat on the boards of or led investments in AePONA, ChangingWorlds, CR2, SteelTrace and APT. Previously, in 1992 Brian cofounded Exceptis Technologies sold to Trintech Group. He currently sits on the boards of AePONA, ezetop, Clavis Technology and the Irish Times, Ireland s leading daily newspaper. Martin Cronin: Martin was a member of the Higher Education Authority, and of the Boards of Appian Asset management, the Tyndall National Institute and the Institute of Public Administration. From 2002 until 2009, he was Chief Executive of Forfás, and a member of the National Competitiveness Council and the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. Martin was Director of Operations in IDA Ireland, from 1994 until He managed the Electronics Division of IDA Ireland from Martin Frank: Martin, a TCD Engineering graduate, is the CEO of the SchuF Fetterolf group of companies. He holds a PhD. degree from Trinity College Dublin in Control Engineering. He has contributed to numerous valve patents and is the group specialist in coal liquefaction & gasification and coking as well as having extensive valve and process expertise in the chemical industry. Bernard Hensey: Bernard, a TCD Engineering graduate, was CEO of Boeing Shanghai Aviation, until recently when he took up the position of Vice President of Fleet Management at Boeing, Seattle. He has 25 years of experience working at senior levels in technology companies. Bernard is a serial entrepreneur who founded AMT and Phive. Bernard has experience in how technology can effect change in an industry and how to correctly position a company to capitalise on these changes. Paul Johnston: Paul, a TCD Engineering graduate, is the President and CEO of Exponent, Inc., an engineering and scientific consulting company that performs in depth research and analysis in more than 90 technical disciplines through 20 offices in the United States, four in Europe, and one in China. He is a member of the Stanford, School of Engineering Advisory Council. 16

17 Rosheen McGuckian: Rosheen is Group Corporate Development Director at NTR plc with responsibility for Group Strategy, Business Development and Corporate Affairs. Prior to this, she was CEO of GE Money Ireland. Rosheen is a Director of the Irish Aviation Authority. John Macken: John, a TCD Engineering graduate, was President of Ivanhoe Mines. Before that, he had a 19 year career with mining giant Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold, most recently as Freeport's Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Development, based in New Orleans. He spent a total of 13 years with Freeport's operating unit, P.T. Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), culminating in the position of Executive Vice President and General Manager at Freeport's Grasberg mining complex in Papua, the world's largest single copper and gold mine. Chris O Dea: Chris is Chairman of Techrete Limited which he co founded in Techrete is a specialist manufacturer of concrete facades with production facilities in Ireland and the U.K. It was a major supplier during the construction of the new Olympic Village in London. Chris has organised funding for the Techcrete Assistant Professorship in Facade Engineering in the TCD School of Engineering. Andrew Parish: Andrew was CEO of Wavebob Ltd., Ireland's leading wave energy development company and now runs his own consulting company, Parish Consulting. Prior to joining Wavebob, he was Irish Practice Leader for Pera International a commercial R&D consultancy and previously held management positions in SEI and GE Water and Process Technology. 17