The University at Albany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences has a new dean, biomedical engineer Michele Grimm, and she’s happy to introduce herself.
But first, she has a message: “We want to let everybody know we’re here.” She means, of course, the young College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS).
Founded in 2015 as the first traditional public engineering option in New York’s Capital Region, CEAS offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical and computer engineering, environmental and sustainable engineering, and computer science. Additional programs are in development. The college currently enrolls about 700 students.
Grimm, who started as the college’s dean in August 2022, is excited about all the college has accomplished so far and the opportunities ahead to build its strengths. And she wants to spread the word far and wide about the college and the value of engineering.
“Engineering is a great first degree,” she likes to point out. “My basic recruiting pitch is ‘if you have the ability to study engineering, I encourage you to pick engineering as your first degree. You can go from engineering into law, into medicine, into education, into business, because what engineering essentially teaches you is problem solving.’” In her own life, she sees great value in an engineering mindset.
“The way I approach almost every problem is: What is our goal? What are the constraints? OK, let’s figure out how we are going to best meet this goal within the constraints we face, which is a very engineering way to approach things. My kids will laugh about the fact that I do this for anything. But the fact is that problem solving in a structured way is an important skill.”
Grimm came to UAlbany from Michigan State University, where she was serving as the Wielenga Creative Engineering Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. It was a position, she said, that allowed her to focus on “student success, creativity in engineering, what can we do to really think outside the box to help students.”
She said she wasn’t looking to leave but the UAlbany position was “an opportunity that does not present itself very often. It offered all the things I love in taking on a leadership role.”
“Having the chance to help build a young college of engineering into a strong and vibrant community of faculty and students is rare. I have spent a significant part of my academic career creating and advancing new academic programs, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and so the chance to lead a college through this process is exciting. When new leadership is named for longestablished schools and colleges, there is often a significant momentum that needs to be overcome if any changes are suggested,” she said.
“CEAS has many highly engaged, early career faculty — individuals who are excited to pursue cross-disciplinary research and develop educational programs that truly prepare students for their professional journeys. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with them to create a college that will stand out from others in the region,” she added.
Grimm said she liked that UAlbany is a diverse campus, bringing together “people with different life experiences,” something that is important for engineers in developing solutions to meet differing needs.
...the UAlbany position was “an opportunity that does not present itself very often. It offered all the things I love in taking on a leadership role.”
Another big plus, she noted, is the launch of Albany AI, a $200 million public-private artificial intelligence supercomputing initiative that includes the renovation and transformation of the former Albany High School into the new home of College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as the construction of a new supercomputer, intended to be among the most powerful university-based computers in the country.
“An important approach to addressing society’s greatest challenges is to bring a broad range of disciplines together in convergent problem solving,” said Grimm. “Albany AI is an exciting example of this — providing an opportunity for faculty and students from the college to work with researchers across the University, as well as companies and agencies in the Capital Region and throughout the state to advance and apply artificial intelligence to answer pressing questions.” The plan to reintegrate the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering into the University at Albany will further strengthen cross-disciplinary research, she said.
As part of the AI initiative, UAlbany is adding an unprecedented 27 new faculty members specializing in artificial intelligence, the largest cluster hire in the University’s history. Of those 27 positions, six will be part of CEAS. The college is also hiring four other faculty members, for a total of 10 new faculty members expected to join the college in Fall 2023. “It’s extremely exciting. It’s a way for us to make a huge leap forward in both the programs we offer and our research,” said Grimm. Moving forward, she said, CEAS wants to add a mechanical engineering department and a biomedical engineering department.
It won’t be the first time Grimm has led the development of a new biomedical engineering department.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and engineering mechanics at Johns Hopkins University in 1990 and her PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, Grimm took her first job as a visiting professor, which later converted into a tenure-track position, at the Wayne State University College of Engineering in Detroit, Michigan. Wayne State had been doing research that combined medicine and mechanical engineering since 1939 but didn’t have an educational component, Grimm recounted, and she was asked to start a graduate program in biomedical engineering.
“I spearheaded writing the grants to get outside money to support it. I determined that I loved that side of things, creating curricula, thinking about how to develop programs that would best prepare students for success after earning their degrees,” she said. “So in 2002, we started the department of biomedical engineering. I received my tenure and promotion. I was still in mechanical engineering when I was tenured. I have the dubious honor to this day of being the only woman faculty member ever tenured in the department of mechanical engineering at Wayne State. And then, of course, I left and went to the new department I formed.”
In 2003, she assumed the role of associate dean of academic affairs at Wayne State, a position she held for seven years, during which time she led the development of an undergraduate program in biomedical engineering. Again, she said, she “loved being able to create something new and exciting that really supported the students.” She returned to the biomedical engineering department in 2010 to run the undergraduate program.
“An important approach to addressing society’s greatest challenges is to bring a broad range of disciplines together in convergent problem solving...”
In 2016, she was offered the opportunity to serve a three-year rotation as program director for three biomedical engineering-related programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and also served as co-chair of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy Task Force on Research and Development for Technology to Support Aging Adults.
“I’m one of the weird people out there who actually like the administrative side of things. I really enjoyed my time at NSF. Learning what they are looking for in grant applications was hugely helpful at Michigan State and will be here at UAlbany as well. It was wonderful in terms of my ability to mentor early-career faculty,” said Grimm.
Mentors and mentoring have been important to Grimm throughout her career. In 2022, she was awarded the Robert M. Nerem Education and Mentorship Medal awarded by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in recognition of her outstanding work as a mentor. At the award ceremony, Grimm delivered a lecture summarizing her philosophy of mentoring. She noted how valuable mentors have been to her throughout her career, particularly in the earlier part of her career at a time when women in her field were rare.
“I’ve had numerous mentoring relationships that are bi-directional – both of us benefiting from the different experiences we each have had. I’ve also found that many of my students have provided me with increased insight based on their life experiences – even if neither of us would call me the mentee in that relationship,” said Grimm.
When she looks at her experiences over the years, whether as a mentor or a mentee, as a student or a faculty member, as an associate dean or, now, a dean, she said she finds “the most important thing is to be open to learning.”
