From The Dean

Today, as never before, we can see just how critical engineering and engineers are—and will be—to our health, safety, and well-being. I am immensely proud of the way the WSE community has risen to the challenge and is making an impact on the world.

Challenge is a concept that cuts across all activities at Johns Hopkins.

As all engineers know, there is always more work to be done. With you, the WSE community, as our partner, the impact we have will be tremendous.

At its core, the Whiting School of Engineering comprises partnerships that extend within and far beyond the boundaries of our campus. Through these partnerships, we advance discovery, create knowledge, and have an impact on the world.

The pace of change here is almost dizzying. In the last year alone, the Whiting School’s footprint on Homewood campus—and slightly beyond—has increased by 20 percent, allowing us to expand our critical core research facilities and world-class laboratories, and add more space for centers and institutes.

Finding workable solutions to the complex global challenges we face, from climate change and rising health care costs to our cities’ crumbling infrastructure, requires bringing to bear the collective expertise and points of view of engineers, lawyers, policymakers, ethicists, artists, economists, diplomats, and many others.

There is no doubt we live in a time of great change. Around the globe, we are seeing major disruptions in politics, economies, industries, and educational institutions.

In late October, Whiting School students, faculty, faculty members, and research staff members from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory gathered in the Homewood campus’ Glass Pavilion to view a poster session and listen to talks about APL research projects in areas that included computer vision, prosthetic limbs, and secure mobile communications. The presenters that afternoon were not APL scientists and engineers; they were students who had worked as paid undergraduate interns at APL last summer.