Celebrating 100 Years of Engineering: A Special Lecture

MOVING UP IN THE RANKINGS
Creating and Sustaining a World-Class Research UniversityProfessor William B. Rouse, DirectorTennenbaum Institute
Georgia Institute of Technology
(www.ti.gatech.edu)ABSTRACTThe globalization of university-based engineering education and research is associated with the creation of national and international "brands" by leading research universities. Such branding is reflected in rankings of universities and their programs. High brand visibility appears to lead to high rankings and vice versa. This presentation explores this phenomenon for university-based engineering programs. Attributes associated with ranking systems are discussed and universities' abilities to influence these attributes are considered. Both moving up in the rankings and sustaining highly-ranked positions are discussed. These issues are addressed both in general and for the specific case of Georgia Tech.Reception at 4:00, Presentation at 5:00. This special Centennial lecture is hosted for the Viterbi School of Engineering by the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.BioBill Rouse is a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a joint appointment within the College of Computing. He also serves as Executive Director of the university-wide Tennenbaum Institute for Enterprise Transformation. Rouse has over thirty years of experience in research, education, management, marketing, and engineering related to individual and organizational performance, decision support systems, and information systems. In these areas, he has consulted with over one hundred large and small enterprises in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, where he has worked with several thousand executives and senior managers. His expertise includes individual and organizational decision making and problem solving, as well as design of organizations and information systems. Rouse has written hundreds of articles and book chapters, and has authored many books, including most recently Essential Challenges of Strategic Management (Wiley, 2001) and the award-winning Don't Jump to Solutions (Jossey-Bass, 1998). He is co-editor of the best-selling Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management (Wiley, 1999) and edited the eight-volume series Human/Technology Interaction in Complex Systems (Elsevier). Among many advisory roles, he has served as Chair of the Committee on Human Factors of the National Research Council and as a member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.Rouse is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has received the Joseph Wohl Outstanding Career Award and the Norbert Wiener Award from the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society; a Centennial Medal and a Third Millennium Medal from IEEE; and the O. Hugo Schuck Award from the American Automation Control Council. He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Engineering, and other biographical literature, and has been featured in publications such as Manager's Edge, Vision, Book-Talk, The Futurist, Competitive Edge, Design News, Quality & Excellence, and IIE Solutions. Rouse has served in a variety of leadership roles in several companies and on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also has served in visiting positions on the faculties of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands and Tufts University. He received his B.S. from the University of Rhode Island, and his S.M. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Location: University Club

Audiences: By Invitation, others wishing to attend should contact Georgia Lum (0-4885, <A HREF="mailto:

Contact: Prof. James E. Moore, II