We caught up with Dean Bashir in early August 2021 to get his thoughts on the upcoming academic year, how The Grainger College of Engineering plans to welcome students back to campus, and what he’s most excited about.

Q How is the college prepared to bring ~15,000 graduate and undergraduate students back to campus? 

Of course, there are all the campus-level aspects such as policies around safety as well as a variety of welcome events, many focused on our first-year students. Specifically in the college, we are making sure our staff are returning to campus in early August so they can be adequately and comfortably prepared to welcome students back at the beginning of the semester. We are learning from the past year and looking at changing our practices to reflect these learnings. The college and many departments will continue to incorporate remote options in addition to returning to in-person support services such as advising, career services, CARE, and the like. We are also deep into preparations for Launch Quest! to welcome our newest students to campus and show them around our buildings and the Bardeen Quad. 

As we know, the Covid-19 pandemic is not over yet and we need to stay vigilant and continue the fight against the pandemic to overcome it!

Q  How will classes be delivered in the upcoming year?

We will still use a mixture of delivery modalities. About ¾ of our courses will have an in-person component, while about 50% will be online or be offered in a hybrid format. Larger lectures will continue to be offered remotely, and students will benefit in many cases to having asynchronous access to lecture content. Many of these lectures will be augmented by smaller in-person discussion sections. We are excited about the opening of the new Campus Instructional Facility on the northwest corner of the Bardeen Quad and students should look forward to classes held in the active learning spaces that are the calling card of that building.

Q  What is our promise to our Grainger Engineers and how do we ensure we’re meeting the expectations of our students? 

As stated in our vision statement, we are innovators who work at the forefront of science and engineering, leaders who turn the extraordinary into everyday reality, and partners who are trusted to transform the world. Our promise to our students is to deliver rigorous and foundational world-class engineering education and we are committed to providing a welcoming and supportive environment in which all students can find and follow their passion. 

Q  What are upcoming initiatives that the college is working on to benefit our students, faculty, and researchers? 

We are enhancing our ENG 100 course for incoming first-year students, including engaging with them before they arrive on campus to promote an easier transition to campus life. Our departments as well as the Center for Academic Resources in Engineering (CARE) are investing in improved tutoring and support services to help address potential “learning loss” encountered during the pandemic. We are also working hard to expand our research ecosystem and infrastructure which will provide many more research opportunities for students.

Q  What types of innovative teaching initiatives are we offering to our students? 

Our Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3) is running a series of faculty development workshops this summer for our faculty and teaching staff to come together and learn about new teaching pedagogies and tools, informed by the past year. We invest to create opportunities for our faculty for innovations in teaching through the SIIP program. For example, many past SIIP projects are informing the instructional innovations that will be used in the new Campus Instructional Facility.

Q  What are you most excited for in the upcoming academic year?

I am most excited about having students back on campus and the possibility of more in-person activities. I also excited about the many research initiatives that we have embarked upon in the recent years, launching the IBM Illinois Institute for the Future of Discovery, our initiatives in Quantum Science, AI, and many other areas such as Autonomy, Hypersonics, clean energy such as hydrogen and micro-nuclear, hypersonics, and others. We are also looking forward to the opening of the new facilities for education and research such as the Campus Instructional Facility, the Siebel Center for Design, the Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building, the Civil and Environmental Engineering Bridge, and the Talbot Annex.