Providing engineers with the right environment is key to ensuring they can nurture, develop and commercialize their big ideas. In January, Gov. Lincoln Chafee took a bold step toward assuring that our engineering students and faculty learn and research in facilities that match the needs of today’s economy.

In his State of the State, the governor proposed a major investment to build a new teaching and research building on the Kingston Campus. The contemporary facility would replace antiquated facilities opened more than 50 years ago and ensure the College of Engineering remains a global leader for decades to come.

You don’t need to look far to understand how the college’s leadership touches the world around us. We surveyed the Class of 2013 and found graduates filling myriad jobs for dozens of companies that need well-trained engineers to stay competitive.

Overall, 90 percent of graduates are employed or furthering their education. In a struggling economy, this high success rate affirms that our curriculum fully prepares students for the workforce or advanced education. It’s especially telling that 38 percent of our graduates stayed in Rhode Island and launched their careers or continued their education. Graduates went to work for local companies such as General Dynamics, Toray Plastics (America) and Navatek, whose story is highlighted in this edition.

Graduates also entered academia, with 22 of them pursuing graduate degrees here at the University of Rhode Island and others matriculating at a dozen other institutions including Brown University, Northwestern University, Ohio State Medical School, University College London and others.

Of course, our work does not stop with the Class of 2013. Our current 1,547 undergraduate and graduate students will become tomorrow’s engineers. I have full confidence these students will grow into successful young men and women just as the students before them. And I hope the students who follow them will learn in a new facility that inspires them to change the world.

Raymond M. Wright, Ph.D., P.E.
Dean, College of Engineering
Vincent & Estelle Murphy Chair in Engineering