ISE launches new initiative to keep department competitive
When Farhang Pourboghrat became chair of the Ohio State Integrated Systems Engineering Department in 2017, one of his goals was to see the program break into the Top 10 of public university rankings.
Now ranked No. 7 among public universities and No. 16 among public and private universities, Pourboghrat is raising the bar again and wants to see the Department become even more competitive by cracking the Top 10 of both public and private universities.
“Our goal is to elevate our reputation to gain a top 10 position in the specialty,” says Dr. Susan Vasko (ISE ’79, ISE master’s ’80, MD ’86), a member of the ISE Advisory Board.
Five years ago, Pourboghrat set a goal to continue moving the Department up in the rankings, growing the number of faculty and staff, providing first-rate education experiences for all students, and staying closely engaged with ISE alumni and friends.
Since ISE’s three pillars of manufacturing, human factors and operations research are tied together by data analytics, he naturally turned to the numbers to determine how Ohio State can reach the top.
Pourboghrat surveyed the Top 15 schools and discovered that “The majority have sustainable funding through endowments to support graduate students.” He has concluded that, “We need this, but we do not have it.”
As part of Ohio State’s Time & Change capital campaign, the ISE Department has launched a Friends of ISE initiative to focus incoming support toward graduate students and supplement funding for undergraduate students and funded faculty positions within the program.
In order to improve ISE’s ranking, Pourboghrat strongly believes that the Department needs to continue to recruit exemplary faculty from prominent universities. Those faculty will want to know where the program ranks and the caliber of its graduate students.
He says faculty rely on graduate students to assist with research and also help instruct undergraduate students. “It’s very symbiotic in that regard,” he adds. Graduate students provide an important bridge between faculty and undergraduate students. As graduate teaching and research assistants, they provide services that significantly enhance the Department’s education and research goals.
“Our goal is to raise $12 million in endowed funds that will provide over a half a million dollars a year as a reliable, consistent, predictable source of income for ISE,” says Vasko. “Annual campaigns are valuable and help the Department to be agile addressing emerging needs. However, annual funding can fluctuate and does not offer a predictable source of funding.”
These endowed funds would be a permanent source of income for ISE. “Whether it is giving to a discretionary fund that supports these overall efforts or by creating a named fund to establish your own legacy at ISE, every donor can join us in this exciting effort to leave a lasting impact on the Department,” according to Vasko.
Overall, the goal is to use these endowments to fund three faculty professorships that can be used to not only recruit brilliant minds to ISE, but also to invest in jumpstarting emerging early- or mid-career faculty members. Attracting and supporting these faculty members enhances the research and the educational opportunities for students. The Department also hopes to establish six new graduate fellowships. Creating a foundation of graduate endowments will enable the Department to ensure secure funding for a minimum of six new graduate students per year, specifically for their first year before a student is supported by research grants. In addition, it remains a priority to support undergraduate students through scholarships and exposure to undergraduate research.
“All the money is primarily going to support the students,” Pourboghrat says. “So far, we have raised nearly $1 million. We are grateful for the generosity of our devoted ISE alumni. We hope to inspire others to come together and pay it forward for the generations of ISE students to come.”
In recent years, ISE has become an essential partner to many of the multidisciplinary collaborations taking place on the Ohio State campus. Pourboghrat explains that, “We are critical to the college’s success. We represent a big college with many different components. Anything that is a system, that needs to be looked at – we’re optimizing that performance.”
He explains that the Department’s disciplines assist other schools and colleges within the university with manufacturing, automation, robotics, operations research, data analytics, machine-learning and artificial intelligence along with the engineering depth that ISE provides.
Pourboghrat emphasizes that these funds will keep the Department on par with other schools in what is an extremely competitive environment. It will also help alumni and friends focus their support toward students and faculty of the Department.
“I want them to know our vision. To get in touch with their heart and passion to support the people that affected their success – to think about those moments,” Pourboghrat says. “I want to make sure this is a change in the culture of giving. Our alumni are truly devoted to our success and want to partner with us. I want to expand the culture of giving to look at the big picture and be future-minded.”
He says the undergraduate program should not be disconnected from that broader vision and that many of those students should be encouraged to attain graduate degrees through Ohio State.
Vasko urges alumni who are planning a donation to consider making one to this initiative that will provide needed income to the Department in perpetuity.
Story by Nancy Richison
To learn more about Friends of Integrated Systems Engineering Fund (#317130), visit the Friends of ISE page or contact Department Chair Farhang Pourboghrat at 614-292-3124 or pourboghrat.2@osu.edu, or Director of Development Courtney Ross at 614-688-2784 or ross.697@osu.edu.