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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 1995
Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732

Engineering Dean Outlines
Plans for Wu Gift

PRINCETON, N.J. -- "Gordon Wu's gift presents us with a splendid
opportunity to transform engineering at Princeton,'' said James
Wei, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. ``We
will launch a number of initiatives to chart new paths in the
liberal education of engineers and to prepare our students to
prosper in a world of change and unforeseen opportunities. Mr. Wu
has asked us to use part of his gift to challenge other donors to
help us raise our teaching and research to an even higher level of
excellence.''

According to Wei, the Wu gift will enhance engineering at
Princeton by funding innovations in the education of professional
engineers; in preparing liberally educated engineers to thrive in
nonengineering careers; in teaching engineering and technology to
liberal arts students; and in working on frontiers of engineering
knowledge.

For professional engineers, Wei anticipates that the gift will
help:

- develop curriculum changes ``to give students a broad view of
technology and how the work of engineers affects the world;''

- create up-to-date student labs to give students hands-on
experience and better facilities for independent projects and
theses;

- provide state-of-the-art student computer clusters and
computing experience;

- renew its dedication to teaching and create a new Dean's
Outstanding Teacher Award for faculty; and

- support endowed scholarships for students with excellent
academic abilities but meager means.

For liberally educated engineers who go into nonengineering
careers, Wei foresees:

- curriculum changes to broaden intellectual horizons and
increase students' knowledge of global competition;

- new courses for future inventors and entrepreneurs, to help
them learn how to design and build devices to help people, leading
possibly to patents and start-up companies; and

- new emphasis on students working in teams, taking turns in
leadership positions, explaining results to non-experts and
understanding the impact of their work.

In teaching engineering and technology to liberal arts
students, the Wu gift will help:

- develop a new approach to computer education for liberal arts
students, with different features for students with different
prior preparations, as well as interests in applications, such as
graphics, text, music and numbers; and

- provide science and technology education for up to 80 percent
of Princeton students.

``On the frontiers of engineering knowledge and to provide
the world with new knowledge and methods to solve problems,'' Wei
says, the Engineering School will emphasize:

- recruiting outstanding faculty to do research in the world's
service;

- upgrading research labs and computing facilities;

- creating fellowships to recruit the best graduate students, to
support education beyond their thesis areas and to provide seed
money for high-potential, speculative research areas not supported
by outside funding agencies.

``These initiatives,'' says Wei, ``will lead to innovations
in the education of engineers in a liberal environment and to
advances in research for new know-ledge that is beneficial to the
world. "

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