Strategic Plan

In partnership with the Office of the Dean, and leveraging college and campus resources, and networks, MEM students will design personalized curricula that align their individual interests and goals with the necessary competencies, coursework, projects, and experiences to achieve them. These purpose-centric, project-based learning missions that students follow and adapt throughout their undergraduate journey will be MEM’s hallmark approach to mechanical engineering education. We will support this by:

• Redesigning our undergraduate curriculum around the key competencies of contemporary mechanical engineering and MEM students’ interests and learning missions, enriching these with other essential and emerging competencies, such as data science, AI, digital platforms, engineering ethics, advanced manufacturing and process control automation, and environmental sustainability.
• Streamlining the department’s foundational course requirements in order to create the latitude for students to pursue individual learning missions beginning early in their engineering studies, promote academic progress, and create cohorts around related areas of student interest.
• Increasing project-based learning opportunities in areas related to common or related student learning interests, using such avenues as engineering and entrepreneurship competitions, maker spaces, problems provided by our industry partners, and projects built into MEM courses.
• Fostering and growing long-term industry partnerships to accelerate continuous curricular innovation and support student learning missions.
• Examining how we assess student learning and success, and modifying and devising new measures.

Matthias Altendorf, COE of Endress+Hauser, visits Drexel MEM

• Launch a student-led MEM peer-tutoring program in partnership with Pi Tau Sigma and the ASME, and pilot a cognitive tutoring initiative, for example, one using Cognitive Tutoring Author Tools (CTAT).
• Increase personal outreach to current and prospective MEM students by peers, professional staff, and faculty at all levels through such activities as student recruitment, early-stage academic and career mentoring, undergraduate research and exposure to entrepreneurship. Make such outreach a fundamental element of Department culture and a means for increasing empathy, connections, and community among all members of MEM.
• Provide reliable funding for events that build community; celebrate student academic, service, and leadership achievements; and showcase exceptional accomplishments in pedagogy, mentoring, and research by students and junior scholars.
• Form a student academic advisory group that provides the MEM Advisory Council and Department Head with information, advice, and recommendations on student attitudes, needs, and expectations.

• Expose students to the full spectrum of MEM research and build departmental community by identifying program-wide learning objectives and outcomes for each, by establishing a mentoring network, and by developing a team-taught graduate core curriculum.
• Increase personal outreach to current and prospective MEM students by peers, professional staff, and faculty at all levels by establishing a lab rotation for every entering full-time master’s student and a mentored first-year teaching assistantship and service experiences for all entering full-time PhD students.
• Raise the minimum PhD stipend so that it is aligned with those of our peer and aspirant institutions; enhance recruitment of outstanding women and underrepresented-minority PhD students; and create supplemental funding targeted to raise MEM’s competitiveness for the most desirable doctoral students.

MEM Collaboratory and Learning Factory (LeaF): a signature space, “owned” by all members of the Department, that will enable boundaryless learning and inquiry, deepen student curiosity and engagement, and lower barriers to academic success. LeaF will be an inspiring, state-of-the-art physical and virtual facility that:

• Aims to offer an authentic design and manufacturing learning environment
• Activates project-based instruction
• Stimulates pedagogical experimentation
• Encourages formal and informal collaboration
• Provides a welcoming space for MEM students, professional staff, and faculty; those of other College of Engineering departments; and anyone with interest in mechanical engineering.

• Recruit and invest in faculty with (a) core knowledge in dynamic systems and controls, thermal and fluid systems, mechanics and materials and (b) research that addresses one or more of the following areas: energy-efficient materials, devices and systems; sustainable manufacturing; and personalized medicine and health.
• Emphasize the importance of capabilities in data science and deep physics-based and machine learning-enabling tools, applicable across numerous fields of study.
• Establish and fund early-career research positions such as postdoctoral and research fellows and comparable roles for highly-skilled technical staff.
• Foster and grow long-term industry partnerships to accelerate continuous curricular innovation and support student learning missions.
• Create a rich set of mentoring approaches that help ensure career success for all MEM researchers, particularly those with backgrounds and experiences different from the majority of current department faculty.

Create and maintain an inventory of the Department’s research capacity and map MEM’s intellectual capabilities and infrastructure assets to current and emerging research areas.

• Co-op employers
• National Laboratories and Defense Laboratories
• Institutes
• Industry Partners and Associations
• Government Agencies

• Establish a Departmental External Advisory Board, with members from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, to help MEM:
  • Attract and retain diverse student, faculty, and professional staff talent;
  • Identify emerging engineering practices, competencies, and needs;
  • Shape suitable programs and pedagogies in response;
  • Envision the space and infrastructure necessary to enhance teaching and learning and increase our research competitiveness and impact;
  • Build and strengthen the Department’s network across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
  • Provide insight into the curriculum for purposes of accreditation.
• Partner with Institutional Advancement to build a network of women and minority MEM alumni and friends who, with the college's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team, will provide support for the recruitment, retention, and career guidance of greater numbers of women and minority students and faculty.
• Develop a senior design advisory board composed of members from industry partners that will support professional development and career growth for all MEM Senior Design Students through meaningful and financially supported senior design projects.

Provide MEM professional staff with the necessary professional development to work as partners with MEM faculty in activities such as:

• The planning and administration of course scheduling, enrollment, credit transfers, and related student administrative matters
• Budgeting and planning; and
• The development of improved administrative policies and workflow.

• Initiate a structured dialogue and ongoing conversations about improving departmental diversity, equity, and inclusion, a frank self-examination that identifies barriers to be overcome and highlights the benefits of change.
• Recruit, retain and professionally advance more women and underrepresented minority faculty and staff.
• Establish MEM as the first choice for many more women and underrepresented minority students.
• Create an MEM council composed of department committee chairs, staff, and students who will meet regularly and serve as a forum for examining, discussing, and advising department leadership on issues of departmental communication, responsiveness, morale, accountability, and cohesiveness.