From the Office of the Provost
Episode 14: Expanding Possibilities at the Swanson School of Engineering
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Joe McCarthy: Hello and welcome to ‘From the Office of the Provost,’ a podcast that highlights exciting activities and initiatives in the Office of the Provost or University wide that bolster and enhance our collective vision for growth and transformation. I'm your host, Provost Joe McCarthy, and today I'm joined by Michele Manuel, the U.S. Steel Dean of the Swanson School of Engineering.
Founded in 1846, the Swanson School is one of the oldest engineering schools in the country. Serving over 3,500 students, the school’s helped to transform our region, the nation, and the world.
Michele is our newest dean here at Pitt, joining the University in September of 2024 as a first woman to lead the Swanson School. Michele came to Pitt with a deep background in material science and academic leadership, and we're excited to have her on the podcast today to reflect upon a remarkable first year here at Pitt.
Welcome, Michele.
Michele Manuel: Thank you. It's good to be here.
McCarthy: So, we'll, we'll start off with a personal question, if you don't mind. We're really excited to have you here at Pitt and, and to welcome you to Pittsburgh. You've lived here now for a year. What can you tell me about how you're settling in and what you found to be, you know, your favorite bits of the city?
Manuel: I really enjoyed being in the city. My previous experience has been in much more rural communities, and so we've really enjoyed going to restaurants and going to the theater and a lot of activities that were difficult for me to get to in my previous institution. So, it's a very lively city with a lot of activity both for myself and for my family. So, we've really enjoyed just getting to know the culture of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania and really engaging with the local community.
McCarthy: Excellent. Well, thanks for the, the marketing help there, Michele. We do in fact claim that the city is our campus and this fits right in perfectly with your answer.
So, getting to business, looking back on your first year as dean, what has been some of the defining or maybe surprising moments for you here at Pitt?
Manuel: So, I've been spending the last year really on a listening tour, listening to our students, to the faculty, to the staff and to our alumni. Everyone was very energized when I stepped into the role and that was such a welcoming experience for me. And I've really gotten a chance to learn about the great institution and where we are today and really assessing where we want to be tomorrow.
We've been spending a lot of time talking about strategic priorities and how to align ourselves in a competitive nature, but also becoming a very welcoming environment for everyone who lives under our roof.
Some surprising things that I found in the school is that we're an incredibly welcoming place for everyone. Our doors are very much open and so you'll see a lot of activities that really try to bring people into engineering in ways that you may not expect when you first think about an engineer.
Examples would be we have a very strong brewery course in chemical engineering that teaches us about various aspects of chemical engineering within the context of a brewery, and we're looking forward to expanding that to an active environment on our floor with all of our student groups.
We also have little niches within the building that's devoted to enthusiasts. So one is including the Music Engineering Lab. This is a full-fledged music studio where, every Wednesday, students or anyone from the community can come in and just have a great session, jam session, with professional equipment and with some guidance from some professionals.
So, I really enjoyed just seeing just opportunities to look at engineering at the, at the margins, at the intersections of other fields. Also, that we have a very large community of student leaders who very much enjoy teaching others about technology and engineering. And so, we have an entire space devoted to making things and creating things from the very traditional sense, such as learning how to sew, all the way through how to do 3D printing and 3D animations. So, we have maker spaces that anybody can join us and make whatever they want.
We're here to have our doors open to the community, and I think that one of the most surprising things is how everyone's passionate about engaging other people.
McCarthy: Excellent. Well, thanks, Michele. As an engineer myself, of course, and specifically a chemical engineer, I've been brewing beer at home for several decades. So, I love the fact that we have a course devoted to that. And I can't believe after, you know, 20 plus years in the Swanson school, I never took advantage of the Music Engineering Lab. If anybody's out there looking for a lead singer, go ahead and hit me up for that.
But you mentioned priorities early on. I'd like to talk with you a little bit about your priorities that you've set for the school now that you've had the listening tour and been able to engage with folks.
Manuel: One thing that we've resoundingly heard is the fact that we're in this urban environment that's filled with industry and technology and science and medicine that we really could utilize and better utilize our partnerships in these spaces to really catalyze all of the intellectual capacity of Pittsburgh, beyond Pittsburgh, and beyond Pennsylvania. So, a lot of our priorities focus in on areas of strengths, not just out of our schools, but also with our partner institutions and partner centers. Also, potential opportunities to really launch the state of Pennsylvania into new areas that we're currently very strong in, but we really could have some national recognition in that space.
Another area is growth. We've seen tremendous interest in engineering in general. Nationally, engineering programs are growing, and we're seeing the same trend within our school. And so, with the growth in enrollment, we are looking at growth of facilities and staffing to help support that growth. We're really trying to focus on meeting the workforce needs of industry, especially regionally within the state. Really, truly believing that if we educate our citizens of the state that they're most likely going to stay in the region to look for work and live their career here. So having a active discussion with our corporate partners and industry partners, community partners, in the space I think is a really wonderful opportunity to really take the School of Engineering to the next, to the next level.
McCarthy: So, speaking of impacting the region and workforce development, it's, it's unusual, frankly for a school of engineering to be launching new baccalaureate degree programs, but again, only one year in you, you just launched this fall and we'll be enrolling students next fall in a groundbreaking undergraduate new degree in natural gas, renewables, and oil engineering (GRO.)
From your perspective, both as the dean and as a material scientist, how will this new program prepares students for the rapidly changing energy landscape?
Manuel: So, what not a lot of people know is that the state of Pennsylvania is an energy state. We typically rank in the top three in terms of energy producers, and we have a very rich historical history in this space as well. We're very excited about the GRO program as it really capitalizes the history of the region, the history of the school, and gives us some perspective on where we want to be in the future. Really tying traditional resources like oil and gas to future resources like solar, hydrothermal, geo, for example. It is a radical new program that's very unique in the country. It's one of the only programs that really houses all aspects of the energy resource space in one degree program.
We've seen incredible enthusiasm with our students, really understanding that this program is meant to transition us from today to the future, and we're really developing the engineering landscape in terms of energy for those in the 2030s and beyond.
So, we're really excited to have this degree program that's very unique and really is tied to the workforce needs of the United States and of the region.
McCarthy: So, the Swanson School has a history of really standout research and, recently, student-led innovation. Can you share a few of the stories that capture the impact that the school has and is having both locally and regionally?
Manuel: I'm really reflecting back on the school's 40th anniversary of the first artificial heart surgery at Pitt, even before Bioengineering was actually a department or biomedical engineering was a field that you can go into. All the way to our student innovators who've recently launched companies and new startups, for example, or robotic tomato harvesting system to novel surgical instruments to respiratory supportive devices for pets. One of our student groups just recently won the Randall Big Ideas Challenge, and they continue to, to innovate in this culture of bringing use inspired research to the everyday person into our communities, which is very inspiring as a dean.
McCarthy: Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Michele. I know, again, as a chemical engineer myself, we launched a course on product innovation or product design as part of our curriculum, a bit ahead of the curve a number of years ago. So it's great to see that, that, that culture of student-led innovation continues within the school.
So, pivoting for a second to now instead of look back, let's look forward a bit. As you're, you know, through a portion of your second year here at Pitt right now, what do you see on the horizon for this once in school? What comes next?
Manuel: So, what comes next is we're really looking at the people who we serve. That includes the people that are within engineering as well.
We continue to look at solidifying our student pipelines, bringing in new students not only at the freshman stage, but we're really looking forward to having a lot of engagement with our community colleges, our regional colleges and also local institutions as well. Looking at programs where we can better tie in students who are interested in coming to Pitt and finding pathways for them to come into the Swanson School of Engineering in a very clear and transparent way.
We're looking at making sure that we provide very holistic, engaging experiences to our students. I think that's what makes us very different as an engineering institute. We really pride ourselves in our wraparound services. That includes just an outstanding group of advisors and faculty and staff that helps support students at every level in every stage of their career.
We’re very excited of launching a number of master degree programs. Especially being in an urban region, there are a lot of opportunities to provide stackable certificates and master's degrees and a lot of educational opportunities for those who are maybe still in the workforce and possibly interested in advancing their education while being in the workforce or maybe just interested in personal fulfillment. And so, we're looking at really strategic, industry-aligned master's degree programs to help support that initiative.
In terms of research, we've historically been very, very strong and lots of different areas including healthcare, including sustainability, construction management, and manufacturing.
As we look towards the future, we're really looking forward to launching a lot of programs and a lot of initiatives in the space of energy because of the fact that we are an energy state. We have a lot of unique facilities, capabilities within the Swanson School of Engineering that really focus in on the landscape of energy all the way from resources to grid to cybersecurity, all the way to end of life and sustainability.
In terms of engagement with our partners, we want to be the community partner, the good neighbor for the City of Pittsburgh and for the region that our community members really deserve. So, we look a lot, we're looking a lot at how we engage our partners in industry. How do we make it streamlined and transparent on how to work with our school. Looking at a value system where we value our partnerships and not just the, the work that we do on an everyday basis. So, the people really rise to the center for the next stage of the Swanson School of Engineering and really empowering our people and the people that we serve is really the, the future for the school.
McCarthy: Thanks for sharing that, Michele. I know we didn't get to touch on it during our time today together, but, but I have seen a draft of your strategic plan. So, I'm really excited to see all of what you shared as to what comes next in, in a coherent document that really aligns from what I've seen fantastically well with the Plan for Pitt 2028.
So, I want to thank you for joining me today. I’ve had a lot of fun and I'm excited in particular to, to hear and, and see your vision for how my home school is going to evolve over time. I appreciate all the great work that you and your team are doing within the Swanson School.
And as usual, thank you. listeners. for tuning in. I'm Provost, Joe McCarthy and this has been ‘From the Office of the Provost.’
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