Engineering to develop area outreach

The Engineering School is planning an outreach program to both Delaware Valley industry and high schools, school officials said last week. The program is "designed to make [the University] a regional industry," said the school's Dean Gregory Farrington last week. The goal of the program is to inform regional industry about the University's students and to help initiate joint research programs with those organizations. Farrington said he also hopes the program will create some internship opportunities for undergraduates, perhaps allowing students to use their summers to "really do something." Farrington said he wants to interact with regional industry to learn how to strengthen the University's program to fulfill the needs of the outside world. In order to become "partners with local industry," Farrington said, the School of Engineering and Applied Science will soon hire a person to develop these industrial development connections. In the next few months, Farrington will meet with regional industrial leaders to tell them about University students and to "listen to them to hear how we can work with them." Undergraduate Dean John Keenan also said it is important to make the presence of the University more well known in the Delaware Valley. He said that only good can come from the project, including ideas for senior design projects and possibly undergraduate internships. To further the University's connection with the region, SEAS administrators are now gathering names to form a committee to talk with regional high schools about how the University can help them to improve their science and math programs.

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