Engineering News - Fall 2007

Dean Gerald Navratil and Zvil Galil, President of Tel Aviv University and former dean and computer science professor at Columbia SEAS

Dean Gerald Navratil, left, with Zvi Galil, President of Tel Aviv University and former dean and computer science professor at Columbia SEAS. Dean Navratil and President Galil are exploring ways that SEAS can strengthen the working relationship between the two institutions

When Interim Dean Gerald Navratil volunteered to be on the Board of Visitors’ Long Range Planning Committee in 2005, he never envisioned that he would be leading the School as it moves toward becoming one of the top 10 engineering and applied science schools in the country. Since taking office on July 1, he has begun to develop specific initiatives to achieve the broad goals enumerated in the Long Range Plan. (See story on page 4.)

“Since 1997, when the School received its transforming gift from The Fu Foundation,” Dean Navratil said, “we have grown at the rate of 6 to 8 faculty members a year, have increased research volume from $20 million to $70 million, and now have a faculty of 155 compared with 95 in 1997. If we stay on this path, we will have 240 faculty members in 10 years.”

Dean Navratil, who is the Thomas Alva Edison Professor of Applied Physics, is internationally known for his work in the field of fusion energy and plasma physics. He directs the U.S. Department of Energy funded HBT-EP tokamak experiment in the Columbia Plasma Physics Laboratory as well as off-campus collaborations at the DIII-D National Tokamak Facility in San Diego and the NSTX Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

He has been a member of the Columbia University faculty for 30 years, beginning in 1977 as an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering. In 1978, he became a founding member of what is now the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, serving as department chair for over 10 years from 1988 to 1994 and from 1997 to 2000. He also served as the School’s acting Vice-Dean in 1995. A graduate of California Institute of Technology, he received his bachelor’s degree in physics and engineering in 1973 and his Ph.D. in plasma physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1976.

“I have seen our School make tremendous strides in the past decade,” says Dean Navratil, “and I know that we will be able to reach the ranks of the top ten, but it will take time and resources. We have an exciting opportunity at this point in time to profoundly influence the future direction and success of the School,” said Dean Navratil. “After two years of thorough study by the Board of Visitors’ Long Range Planning Committee, culminating in its report to the University President in June, and with the resources and advice of McKinsey & Co., we have been able to propose a pattern of growth for the School that will bring us within range of becoming one of the top ten engineering and applied science schools in the nation. Our School is fortunate to have such caring and committed alumni, faculty and students to support this vision.”

In announcing the direction the School will take, Dean Navratil said that undergraduate enrollment will be kept at its present level of approximately 1,400. Growth in the School will take place in the graduate school, which will increase in the number of faculty and students and research capacity. “We can sustain this model financially,” said Navratil, “but we must find the space. Fortunately, we have two new opportunities open to us—the northwest corner building and Manhattanville.”

Dean Navratil is working with Ann E. McDermott, associate vice president for science initiatives and professor of chemistry, who, under the aegis of Nicholas Dirks, vice president for arts and sciences, leads the planning for the new science/engineering building. This proposed building, on the southeast corner of Broadway and 120th Street, will help alleviate the need for space in the short term. SEAS hopes to be allotted about 20,000 square feet of laboratory and shared facilities space in the new building. The building, referred to as the “northwest corner science building” (because it is on the northwest corner of the campus) will be 188,000 square feet, contain two floors of science library and classrooms, and seven floors of laboratories. Part of the building will be constructed over the Levien gymnasium, in the area that formerly housed the tennis courts. The completion date is the fall of 2010.

Dean Navratil plans for SEAS to have a vital presence in the new construction that will take place in Manhattanville. Institutes supporting interdisciplinary research among and between SEAS, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, and the Columbia University Medical Center would include new research centers, such as Centers for Intelligent Infomatics and Communication; Imaging Technology; Robotics Laboratory; Materials; Protein Engineering, and Energy Research. All this will take approximately 500,000 square feet of space, or about one and a half buildings in Manhattanville. In the preliminary plans for Manhattanville, one building would house emerging technologies and the second SEAS initiative would share space with the Earth Institute in a research building devoted to climate, earth, and energy.

The mission of SEAS will be enlarged beyond teaching and research to also include engagement. “To support this new element of our mission, we will create a new SEAS Technology Venture Incubator,” said the dean, “that will be a vital new way to bring our cutting edge research to its best use as quickly as possible.” This incubator will build on the present structure, Science and Technology Ventures (STV), but add initiatives to it that will lead to greater technology transfer. This will foster more patent applications and licensing agreements, leading to new venture revenues. Within this vision, researchers, students, faculty, alumni and community entrepreneurs will thrive in an interdisciplinary setting furnished with the requisite state-of-the-art facilities for research and collaboration. Within this incubator will be a multimedia computer lab for product development. In addition, a rapid prototyping/reverse engineering lab that can produce functional prototypes and a rapid manufacturing lab to produce small batches of new products are among the facilities envisioned in this new space.

“To support this ambitious plan, we will make investments in five key interdisciplinary focal areas,” he said, “biotechnology; energy and environment; financial engineering and financial math; information technology and advanced computing; and materials, both nano- and composite. These important areas already are strong within our School and we will provide the resources to make them even stronger. Building on these areas of exceptional research strength in SEAS will help us achieve the highest level of national visibility and leadership that we deserve.”

Entrepreneurship Minor

This semester, the School will formalize plans to establish a minor in entrepreneurship, which is an important first step towards establishing a SEAS Technology Venture Incubator. “Our students, faculty and alumni have approached us to create an entrepreneurship program,” said Morton B. Friedman, vice dean for academic affairs. “Engineers are the problem-solvers of the world,” he said, “and, as a School, we are developing a way to channel and train that entrepreneurial thinking.”

Students in the required Design Fundamentals Using Advanced Computer Technologies class create designs that, when properly developed, could form the basis for new products or processes. “For some students, the entrepreneurial spark is already there but for others, the first-year design class gives them the encouragement they need to move in that direction,” said Dean Friedman. “We expect that the entrepreneurial minor will be of great interest to our students. And our alumni, many of whom are successful entrepreneurs themselves, stand ready to lend their expertise. This is an exciting enterprise for all concerned.”

Gerald Navratil Charts New Course for SEAS

Entrepreneurship Minor

Gerald Navratil Charts
New Course for SEAS