During his teenage years in the small town of Daisetta, Texas, Thomas Farris repaired eighteen-wheelers, helping truckers by figuring out how to get the big rigs back on the oil field roads.
Now Farris is figuring out how to increase the size and strengthen the stature of the School of Engineering as the new dean.
“The primary goal is to make the school bigger in all dimensions,” he said.
Farris, appointed as dean in June, said he has plans to enhance the school’s existing strengths.
“The challenges of the 21st century include health, energy, transportation and sustainability and those are all areas where the School of Engineering has great strengths,” Farris said. “There are a lot of great things about the School of Engineering. A lot of faculty members here are doing extremely well at attracting federal research dollars, which is very good for our reputation and provides lots of opportunities for our students.”
He said one of his goals, as dean, is to increase the number of faculty and students at the school.
School of Engineering senior Werner Born said the expansion of the school presents possibilities and problems.
“This is very exciting to hear, but there will be a lot of logistical concerns students will have. I’m excited to see what great faculty Dean Farris will bring in,” said Born, chair of the Rutgers University Student Assembly.
The school will attract more faculty members by creating unique research opportunities, Farris said.
“We are working with the existing faculty to identify our technical themes around which we can hire faculty,” he said. “This gives potential recruits an opportunity to join a group of faculty that are doing very collaborative work centered around some of the needs of the 21st century.”
Born said further fostering the University as a think-tank and research haven would benefit everyone.
Farris said the school would increase enrollment by targeting talented New Jersey students and recruiting out-of-state and international students.
“I think there are great engineering students that are now leaving the state to study engineering,” Farris said. “I think it would be great for us to keep them here at Rutgers.”
Born hopes an increase in the student population will lead to an increase in the amount of course sections offered.
“Engineering has a fairly static course schedule from freshman to senior year, and sometimes those classes only offer one section and at times that really inhibits students from being able to take part in other things or explore courses outside of the major,” Born said.
“Going along with our increasing population, I think adding more sections to some of these courses will really enable students to get out there and experience the other great things at Rutgers.”
School of Engineering first-year student Swayam Thacker said the static course schedule restricted his class selection process.
“For the freshman year there’s a limit to the courses you can take. I already took a lot of AP classes so I didn’t have many options,” Thacker said.
Farris said the static course schedule issue would be addressed as the School of Engineering grows and is able to offer more course sections.
Farris said he hopes the school will attract new students by raising money for scholarships and developing research and education programs with humanitarian aims.
“Students that are coming to college today want to pursue careers where they know they are going to be making a difference and helping people,” Farris said.
He said the thought of making a difference and helping people encouraged him while working on trucks in Texas and eventually led him to become a professor.
“The notion of being a faculty member and being involved in research and also being around students and young people all the time was very appealing to me,” Farris said.
After he received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, Farris earned his master’s degree and doctorate in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Northwestern University.
In his 23 years as a Purdue College of Engineering faculty member, Farris advised 22 engineers who completed doctoral degrees in engineering, received his school’s outstanding undergraduate teacher award in 2008 and helped increase fundraising for the school from $1 million to $3 million annually.
After Farris became the head of aeronautics and astronautics department in 1998, undergraduate and graduate student enrollment more than doubled. Under his leadership, the number of women on faculty increased from one to five.
In 2008 the department awarded more undergraduate degrees to women than any of its peer aerospace programs.
Born said generating interest in engineering for female high school graduates is a daunting but important task.
“Although the population isn’t huge, the School of Engineering has two very active groups for women. The Society of Women Engineers and Phi Sigma Rho, the Engineering Sorority,” he said. “I’m sure both of those groups would be thrilled to see and assist in this development.”
On Friday from 3 to 5 p.m., Farris will be at the Engineering Quad on Busch campus for the convocation welcoming new first-year students.
“I’ve met a few students,” Farris said. “Rutgers students are very energetic, bright and come from great backgrounds.”
Dean envisions engineering program improvements
Published: Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Updated: Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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