Letter from the Dean: March 2024

Dear Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends of the Bagley College of Engineering:

I hope your semester is going well. As I prepare for a trip facilitated by our Provost and Executive Vice President, Dr. David Shaw and academic and research leaders across campus to visit Cardiff University and Oxford University in the United Kingdom, I am pleased to share the following news about the Bagley College:

• Check out the Momentum interviews with triple alum Dr. Jennifer Sloan Ziegler (BS CE ’10 MS CE ’12 PhD CE ’13) , CEE faculty Dr. John Ramirez-Avila and ABE faculty Dr. David Vandenheever.
• Congratulations to ISE faculty Dr. Lesley Strawderman for her dedicated service to the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET and Dr. Brian Smith for being named the 2023 Frank Woodbury Special Service Award from the American Society for Engineering Management.
• Read about BCoE alumni Kathleen (BS CHE ’06) and John Ash (BS ME ’06) who recently pledged an endowed excellence fund in the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.
• Interested in graduate school? Check out the Pizza and Pre-Advising Event for the Thrive in Five Graduate Program. Eligible students can double count up to 9 credit hours towards their MS and BS degrees at MSU. The next event is Monday, March 4, from 5-6pm in the Elton King Room of McCain Engineering. Please RSVP to Daphne Knox at knox@bagley.msstate.edu.
• You are invited to volunteer your services at the Mississippi Region V Science and Engineering Fair. Housed in the Bagley College of Engineering, this event serves students from 15 surrounding counties. The March 28^th event will be held at The Hill and Moor and you can register to be a judge here. For more information, please contact Dr. Tina Gibson at tgibson@bagley.msstate.edu.
• Based on the recommendation to rescind EOP 37 on academic time on research proposals, the college has established a research advisory council, composed of tenured/tenure-track faculty in each academic department and also includes research faculty and those from the teaching faculty ranks. The initial charge for this group is to help us identify incentive opportunities for faculty residing in the college, its departments and within affiliated research centers. The committee members are: David Van Der Heever (ABE); Shreyas Narsipur (ASE); Carmen Sescu (ASE); Daniel Carruth (CAVS/ISE); Jenna Johnson (ISE); Jun Wang (CEE); Neeraj Rai (CHE); Adam Jones (CSE); Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz (CSE); Seungdeog Choi (ECE); Maruf Marufuzzaman (ISE); and Shanti Bhushan (ME).  The group’s first meeting is today, and I am eager to hear their recommendations.

A decade ago, on March 1, 2014, I began my service in the dean’s office. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by, and am incredibly proud of all of the achievements that have been made by our students, staff and faculty during this time. When I think about them, I am even more energized and excited about our future.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to the Bagley College of Engineering at Mississippi State University. If you haven’t visited the college’s website yet, please check it out at bagley.msstate.edu. You can also follow us on social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Finally, if you have any ideas for stories, please let me know at keith@bagley.msstate.edu.

Thank you for all you do, and Hail State!

Regards,
Jason M. Keith
Dean and Professor
Earnest W. and Mary Ann Deavenport, Jr. Chair
Bagley College of Engineering
Mississippi State University