Research and Scholarship - Year 3 Report

In Year 3, the dollar value of awards to Stevens principal investigators increased by 37.6 percent, from $30.8 million in FY14 to $42.4 million in FY 15, while the number and dollar value of proposals decreased slightly from the prior year. An interdisciplinary center-level proposal for the Institute for Cognitive Networking (iCON) based at Stevens, was submitted and is being funded by NSF. A new policy was implemented to incentivize and reinforce the four-year, post Master’s degree support duration for all Ph.D. students to enable better doctoral student support to research faculty, reduce time to graduation for Ph.D. candidates, and increase the number of graduating Ph.D. students per T/TT faculty. New programs launched in Year 3 continue to enhance the I&E ecosystem and the IDEaS (Innovation, Design, & Entrepreneurship at Stevens) PROOF (Prototype Object Fabrication) Laboratory was established to enrich the design-spine content of the undergraduate curriculum.


Goal R1

Deploy policies that further empower and enable our faculty to innovate and conduct high quality research, produce high impact research publications, and develop and experiment with promising new teaching and learning approaches.

OWNERS: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS, FACULTY SENATE, AND VICE PRESIDENT LOUIS MAYER

The Ignition Grant Initiative (IGI) was restructured to improve the success of multi-PI, multi-million dollar research proposals by faculty. The new approach requires PIs to strengthen their IGI proposals with a strong focus on multi-disciplinary, multi-institution, large-scale research entities that offer long term value propositions and clear vision of the future. As a result, 37 PIs reconfigured their proposals according to the new requirements. The Award Capture Team (ACT) ultimately advanced 18 of these submissions and based on several factors, 14 proposals were subsequently funded by the IGI.In an effort to improve proposal writing and development by faculty, a 40-hour grant proposal writing workshop was offered to all junior faculty. Twenty-two of 148 T/TT faculty members participated.

Year 4: Continue to evaluate and improve the infrastructure and initiatives launched to date. Establish technical and editorial support capability for all significant proposal development efforts by faculty.


Goal R2

Stevens will design and construct an Innovation & Design Laboratory.

OWNERS: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS AND VICE PRESIDENT ROBERT MAFFIA

The IDEaS (Innovation, Design, & Entrepreneurship at Stevens) program and the PROOF (Prototype Object Fabrication) Laboratory were established and Dr. Kishore Pochiraju was named its director. When fully operational, the lab will enhance student academic experiences by integrating entrepreneurial thinking with the design-spine content within the core undergraduate curriculum, streamline the capstone senior design processes across the departments, and serve as a community-wide resource that enables realization of innovative ideas.

Year 4: Explore opportunities to provide continuity in entrepreneurial thinking education in sophomore and junior years through curricular and co-curricular activities, externships and start-up internships. Enlist the School of Business to develop an undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship.


Goal R3

The externally supported annual research expenditures per tenured and tenure-track (T/TT) STEM faculty will increase to $550,000 by 2022 from a baseline of $340,000 in 2011. Our externally funded annual research expenditures for non-STEM faculty (T/TT) will increase from $100,000 per T/TT in 2011 to $150,000 in 2022.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

The FY15 externally supported annual research expenditures per tenured and tenure-track (T/TT) faculty was $253,267, up by approximately 17.5 percent from $215,566 last year. In Year 3, the dollar value of awards to Stevens principal investigators increased by 37.6 percent, from $30.8 million in FY14 to $42.4 million in FY 15, while the number and dollar value of proposals decreased slightly from the prior year.In an effort to improve proposal writing and development by faculty, a 40-hour grant proposal writing workshop was offered to all junior faculty. Twenty-two of 148 T/TT faculty members participated. Multiple program managers and decision makers from NSF and other funding organizations were engaged in direct interactions with Stevens leadership to bring awareness to research proposal activity among faculty.

Year 4: Continue to evaluate and improve the infrastructure and initiatives that have been launched to date. Establish technical and editorial support capability for all significant proposal development efforts by our faculty. Maintain regular and proactive interactions with funding organizations and foundations to further develop and strengthen these relationships.

ResearchExpendperTTT

ResearchAndEntreprenership


Goal R4

Stevens will have an annual ratio of graduating Ph.D. students to T/TT faculty of at least 0.6. This represents a growth from the 2012 baseline of 0.4.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

The number of Ph.D. degrees awarded per T/TT faculty increased from .31 in AY 2013-14 to .5 in AY 2014-15.

A comprehensive policy was developed to both incentivize and reinforce the four-year, post Master’s degree support duration for all Ph.D. Students. The policy was implemented in the Fall 2015 semester.

Year 4: Monitor the implementation progress, identify exceptional situations and implement improvement measures.

PhDperTTT


Goal R5

Stevens will have at least 6 designated national research centers from the current baseline of 3 in 2012.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

Three center-level proposals were developed and submitted. One, iCON (Institute for Cognitive Networking), is being funded by NSF. The center’s kick-off meeting and inaugural workshop is scheduled to take place at Stevens in January 2016.

Year 4: Develop and submit several additional center-level proposals.


Goal R6

A significant percentage of Stevens T/TT faculty will be serving in prestigious service positions, e.g., on national advisory boards, editorial boards and in positions of leadership within academic and industry associations.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

Data has been collected utilizing the most recent (November 2015) Faculty Activity Reports. Data is being reviewed within the academic units to ensure a complete baseline. This will be completed by the end of January 2016.

Year 4: Complete the data collection and evaluate the current service positions of Stevens T/TT faculty and methods for increasing participation with external organizations in this capacity.


Goal R7

We will conduct a review of the incentives and policies that would advance the engagement of faculty and students in entrepreneurial activities, including liberalizing our intellectual property (IP) policy.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

Previously launched incentive programs and support structures continue to be monitored for improvement opportunities. The innovation and entrepreneurship outcomes continued to increase in Year 3. Patent disclosures and issuances have both increased by greater than 30 percent over last year. Four faculty-led start-ups were created and two student-led start-ups were accepted to nationally recognized accelerator programs: Data Minded Systems (Justin Williams ‘15 CEO) was accepted to Mayo Clinic’s Ironyard Accelerator (Greensville, SC) and iUbble Corp (Kevin Barresi ’16 CEO) was accepted to FinTech Studios (NYC, NY).

 

FY14

FY15

Patent Disclosures

49

66

Patent Applications Filed

23

19

Patents Issued

6

8

Year 4: Continue and enhance the support and programs to incentivize faculty to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Engage the School of Business to develop a minor in entrepreneurship.


Goal R8

We will achieve an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship on campus that includes innovators and entrepreneurs who see the value of associating themselves with Stevens.

OWNER: PROVOST GEORGE KORFIATIS

In Year 3, the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship sponsored the I&E Venture Scholar Co-Op Program; launched an electronic I&E quarterly newsletter for external promotion and an internal weekly I&E newsletter for students and faculty; explored the creation of the Stevens Venture Center, a co-working space containing an incubator; established the Stevens Entrepreneur Network of successful alumni entrepreneurs; and continued the Thomas H. Scholl Lecture for Visiting Entrepreneurs featuring Dr. Winslow Sergeant, Managing Director of S&T, LLC and Mr. Simon Nynens, Chairman & CEO, Wayside Technology Group and Chairman of the Board of the New Jersey Technology Council.

Year 4: Establish the Stevens incubator.