Skip to main content
Message from Dean Mitchell
Robert Mitchell
Associate Dean for Engineering
School of Enginering
After my first year of experience as an OC faculty member, I am pleased to be working with the engineering programs and I hope that the whole university benefits as we grow our programs. When I was looking for a college to attend, I was very interested in a university such as OC, but there were no engineering programs offered at any of our church related universities. Since engineering was what I really wanted to do, I went to my hometown university in Beaumont, Texas, Lamar Tech (at the time), and then on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school. All three of my degrees, BS, MS, and Ph.D. are in Electrical Engineering.
I taught at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana for sixteen years. Our three kids are all “Hoosiers.” In 1988 Jane and I and the kids moved to Arlington, Texas where I served as Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department for six years.
In 1994 we moved again to Rolla, Missouri, where I took the position of Dean of the School of Engineering. One thing that has always impressed me about engineering students, has been their creativity, whether it is winning a solar car competion, or coming up with solutions to make life better in a third world country.
I am a number one fan of engineering. We engineers have not always done a good job of conveying the excitement and the joy of creating solutions to benefit society and of dreaming about what can be and then making it happen. Our ability to innovate is a God-given talent and to apply our creative minds and modern technologies to solve problems and meet challenges is a fulfilling vocation. Technical professions are becoming very social professions, since today’s problems are complex and require a diverse team of people with various experiences, capabilities, and approaches to problem solving. We need to attract a much larger range of people into engineering and computer science. We need artistic right brain people, we need communicators, we need teachers, we need dreamers, we need people who can see the big picture and can understand the global and cultural issues surrounding what we are doing. And engineers and scientists need to be good partners with the other professions. We need to partner with business and education and the performing arts and learn from each other.
The topics listed below are all important for our future and will depend on engineers, scientists, and technology savvy people to find creative and innovative solutions:
Infrastructure
Transportation
Communications and networking
Information technology and computing
Energy
Environment
Healthcare
Food and agriculture
Manufacturing and productivity
Aerospace
Defense and counter-terrorism
Entertainment and recreation
Public policy
The job market is outstanding for technically literate graduates right now. In fact having the right work force is key to the future jobs that will be available to all of us.
For Parents and Prospective Students:
Some of you may be wondering about the future of engineering and computer science, as well as technology and the basic sciences. You have heard about the outsourcing of jobs overseas and may be thinking that there will be no jobs here in the US. It turns out that there has never been a better time in our history to become proficient in engineering, technology, science, and math. Our nation's leaders have recognized the need for creativity and innovation in our society and the need for a trained workforce and infrastructure so that our country can continue to be on the leading edge of job creation and productivity. Our future depends on a well-educated workforce who can handle whatever challenging jobs will be created in the future. And one benefit for those with a strong technical background: you can do almost anything in the future, wherever the doors open and wherever God leads you. You may also be wondering if OC is the school for you. Based on what I have seen since I came, and comparing this to my engineering educational experiences, I can tell you that this is a great place to get a good, solid engineering or science education that will open doors to the future. Here is a list of companies that have hired our engineering, computing, and mathematics graduates and of graduate schools where our students have gone to further their education. We are very proud of our alumni and their professional success, their spiritual leadership, and their active roles in their churches and their communities. We are constantly at work keeping our curriculum current. For the 2007-8 year, we are introducing a new 128 credit hour curriculum in each of our engineering programs. This should allow you to graduate in four years, and allow you to consider adding a minor in a second field or going on for a master's degree (we promise to have one in engineering very soon).
For Current Students:
This is an exciting time to be majoring in engineering, computing, or math. We are looking at what things to add or modify based on where engineering education is going and what great partners and opportunities we have here at OC. We have made some curriculum modifications over the last year that may allow you some more flexibility and even a shorter time to graduation. You may even want to consider the MS in Engineering program which we hope to add soon. If you have interests in addition to your present curriculum, let me know. You can learn to build airplanes or to do biomedical research while you are here. I am interested in starting a student-run company to make high tech equipment for Sunday School teachers and other helpful products.
For Employers:
Our graduates have demonstrated capabilities to help you succeed. And we are proud of our student's ethics and trustworthiness characteristics as well. Please look here for a list of companies that have recently hired our graduates. You can contact Donna Anders in Career Services for details about ways to recruit our students (buying them pizza always helps). Also if you are interested in speaking to a class or student group, let me know. When we start our new masters program in engineering, all the classes should be available live and also assychonously using video streaming technology and modern electronic interaction tools. Please let me know if there are courses or sets of courses that would most help your employees.
For Alumni:
You are our role models for future graduates. We are interested in your continued involvement with our programs since we need your help and also the value of your degree increases with the strength of our program. If you are interested in helping - guest lecture, a mentor, an ambassador, serving on advisory committees, hiring graduates, hosting student tour groups, or any other way, please let me know. Please keep your alumni information up to date on the OC alumni web site and let us know of your experiences and accomplishments.
Please send me an e-mail or call me at 405-425-5425 if you have any thoughts on our directions or if you have any questions.
Robert Mitchell
Associate Dean for Engineering
Room 231, Prince Engineering Center
Faculty Facts
Dr. Mike Gipson, Professor of Biology, has won two Templeton Foundation Grants for conference at Oxford and a Mellon Foundation Grant for study at Rice. He has published articles in the Journal of College Science Teaching and the Journal of Research in Science Technology. Dr. Gipson has also given research presentations at national and international conferences for twenty-six consecutive years.
Read More
