Greetings from Interim U.S. Steel Dean Sanjeev G. Shroff

I am honored to serve as the Interim U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering, and it has been a privilege working with and learning from the Pitt community to better understand the School and the University since my appointment in August 2022. I am excited to share my first School Annual Report with you and provide an update on the state of the School, lessons learned, and plans for the future.

The state of the Swanson School of Engineering is strong. As a premier educational institution, our students continue to excel in their academic endeavors and are increasingly more involved in their own education. We are consistently meeting first-year matriculation goals every year. PhD enrollment continues to grow ~4 percent/year, with an all-time high enrollment of 533 PhD students in fall 2022.

As an R1 institution, our faculty continue to grow our research efforts and outputs, with 516 proposals submitted in FY22 (40.2 percent increase from FY19) and $114.6M in research expenses in FY22 (23.2 percent increase from FY19). We have increasingly focused on community engagement activities and ensuring that our research efforts have positive societal impact. Finally, we have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic as a more nimble, holistic, and forward-thinking entity.

However, like many schools and universities, we face challenges. First-year-to-sophomore retention is a concern as both high school and undergraduate students struggled to adapt to a virtual learning environment, then back again to in-person classes. Further, since the pandemic we have seen significant changes in characteristics related to student academic preparation, motivation, and mental health – it is likely that the decrease in first-year-to-sophomore retention is related to this phenomenon. Finally, our master’s enrollment has declined by 28.3 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2022. After discussions with school faculty, students, and staff as well as others in the University, we have identified five priorities to address these challenges:

First, we need to focus on student preparation, motivation, and mental health. Specific efforts are underway to address these issues. Additionally, we must continue to encourage students, particularly undergraduate students, to be more active participants in their own education – encouraging them to be not just passive learners, but to take the wheel for more holistic and experiential learning.

Second, we need to promote an academic and research curriculum that strengthens engineering skills of our graduates, makes them more in demand to employers, and responds to global workforce needs. Efforts are underway to develop new undergraduate degrees and certificates and create focused master’s programs with stackable certificates to address falling master’s enrollment.

Third, we must continue to focus on our research efforts and identity. We have selected biomedicaland energy-related research as the two primary focus areas. We also continue to grow our research in related areas and enabling technologies such as advanced manufacturing, design and characterization of novel materials, modeling/ simulations and computations, and distributed sensors and data analytics. Finally, sustainability considerations are integrated in all our research and educational efforts.

Fourth, we understand that we need to be more proactive in engaging with industry and the community. Our inaugural director for career and industry engagement has been working diligently to identify new partnerships and expand current collaborations, both on the research and educational fronts.

Lastly, we need to expand our philanthropic efforts and identify new funding resources for scholarships, named fellowships and professorships, and new and existing programmatic activities. We also need to invest in our faculty and staff to help them develop pathways for growth and discover opportunities to advance.

Accomplishing these tasks will be challenging, but I am certain that, with the help of our faculty, students, and staff and our many alumni and friends, we will be successful. My door is always open, and I welcome your ideas, feedback, and insight.

Hail to Pitt!