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Interim Dean's Welcome

Pradeep Sharma

 

Welcome to the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston.

Since our founding, the Cullen College has transformed tremendously over the years. We view ourselves as a world-class institution of higher education and research, and in pursuit of this ambition, we have set for the college a bold and unrelenting trajectory of expectations and achievements.

Regarding excellence in education, we are very proud that our degree programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, are sought after both within the state and nationally and in fact, from around the world. Simply put — our students do very well upon graduation, which is a big reason why our student body population has experienced explosive growth. And at this time, we are poised for even greater growth and opportunities for our students, thanks to the recent merger of the Cullen College of Engineering and the College of Technology. Now standing alongside our seven engineering departments, the Technology Division will offer degrees in construction management, engineering technology, human development and consumer sciences, and information science technology. This significant transformation has elevated the Cullen College to becoming the third-largest engineering college in Texas and the second-largest college at the University of Houston.

As leading educators, we strive to make an impact nationally and internationally, but at the same time, we are also focused on our mission to serve the city of Houston — after all, we are The University of "Houston.” To support its own growth and economic progress, the city of Houston needs a homegrown workforce trained to take on future engineering jobs while filling in today’s skills gaps. This is why we have several specialty programs available in aerospace, computer and systems engineering, engineering data science, materials science and engineering and more.

In addition to our commitment to education, we strive for high excellence in research as well, and in this regard, our list of milestones and achievements is equally impressive. You may well be surprised at the breadth and depth of our research enterprise. For example, in our college, you will find world-renowned research taking place in areas as diverse as energy conversion, renewables, and power electronics, resilience and sustainability, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, carbon capture and energy transitions, biomedical signal processing, imaging, and biosensing systems, deep machine learning, neural and rehabilitation engineering and brain-computer interfaces, genomics and drug discovery and delivery for infectious diseases, design of new catalysts for high impact industrial applications, plastics circularity, novel polymers and coatings, protein engineering for cutting-edge therapeutic and diagnostic applications, radiation-hardened materials, soft material sensors and actuators, hypersonic flights, high-temperature superconductive materials — to name a few.

To lead all this cutting-edge research, the Cullen College is home to award-winning distinguished faculty, including 17 National Academy of Engineering members and 27 National Science Foundation CAREER award recipients. We have annual research expenditures of more than $40 million, with a number of nationally-recognized centers, like the Building Reliable Advances and Innovation in Neurotechnology Center, and the NSF-funded National Center for Laser Airborne Mapping. We also lead University Level Centers such as the Borders, Trade, and Immigration Institute, the Hurricane Resilience Research Institute, and the Drug Discovery Institute. We are also affiliated with the Health Research Institute, the Texas Center for Superconductivity, and the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute; all of which has placed us in an enviable and upwardly mobile position for elevated national recognition.

To all prospective students and their families, I would like to state with emphasis that each and every one of us in the Cullen College is dedicated to our mission of "student success". This phrase has a very significant meaning to us, and this encompasses all the measures of a student's successful academic journey through our college, including top-class advising, timely graduation, and access to services such as our career center, student organizations, and more.

I am proud to see how our college’s rich traditions and history inspire students and faculty to discover and develop their passions through hands-on learning activities, STEM outreach initiatives, community engagement and so much more.

I invite you to look through our website for more examples of how our faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students are engineered for what’s next. I look forward to seeing you on campus.

Go Coogs! 

 

Sincerely,

Pradeep Sharma
Interim Dean of the Cullen College of Engineering
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair
University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering