Priority 2
Advancing Research & Innovation
GOAL 2.A: Expand impactful and relevant research, scholarship and creative activity.
Metric 2.A.1: Total external research funding secured each year.
Metric 2.A.2: The annual amount of external funding raised for graduate assistantships each year.
Metric 2.A.3: Total number of faculty members with externally funded projects each year.
Metric 2.A.4: Total number of grant applications each year.
Metric 2.A.5: The total number of peer-reviewed publications each year.
Metric 2.A.6: The total number of publication citations each year.
Metric 2.A.7: The total number of external faculty professional engagements each year (e.g. media interviews, press releases, trade publications, speaking engagements).
Metric 2.A.8: Total annual research expenditures from both external and internal funding sources.
Metric 2.A.9: The total number of students involved in faculty mentored research projects.
GOAL 2.B: Become the engine for West Michigan and Greater Grand Rapids entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem.
Metric 2.B.1: The number of industry-related grants and contracts
Metric 2.B.2: The number of computing students participating in experiential learning projects.
Metric 2.B.3: The number of innovations originating in the College of Computing that translate into product, services and/or launched as startups and intellectual property contributions (patents, licenses, tech transfers) by faculty each year.
Metric 2.B.4: The number of small businesses engaged with the College of Computing in public-private partnerships.
Metric 2.B.5: The number of community events hosted throughout the year.
Metric 2.B.6: The number of community partners serving on the college advisory boards and committees
GOAL 2.C: Expand innovative and research-oriented programs that serve the strategic growth of the College of Computing, GVSU and West Michigan
Metric 2.C.1: The number of research-oriented courses, paths, and programs.
Metric 2.C.2: The number of students working on faculty-mentored research projects each year.
Metric 2.C.3: The number of innovative graduate and undergraduate academic programs aligned with the industry and community needs
Metric 2.C.4: The number of research-oriented collaborative agreements.
Metric 2.C.5: The number of faculty mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in research (through OURS programs, S3, SSD, Kindschi fellowships, RISE, REUs,MSGCs, independent research projects, honors/capstones/projects/thesis, etc.).
Initiatives
● Invest in faculty grant writing training, grant workshops, internal college seed funds, collaborative research partnerships, and college-level grant writing staff.
● Build fully funded research-oriented programs that provide talent to sustain work on competitively funded projects.
● Build out a grant performance dashboard for the college to monitor the total number of grants submitted each year, with outcomes. Assess programming strategy for continuous improvement towards the metric of more faculty with externally funded projects in a given year.
● Proactively build out a network of active industry adjuncts/residents to bring industry best practices into the classroom and facilitate tech transfer in the laboratory.
● Host an annual community innovation summit showcasing college projects, research, and partnerships.
● Develop and engage an active industry advisory board to guide the direction of research, innovation and academic programming in alignment with ever changing industry needs.
● Support faculty to engage with alma mater and professional networks for both faculty and graduate student recruitment purposes.
● Establish a “membership model” center for innovation in computing with key industry partners that accelerates the funding and translation of basic research in computing into real world solutions.
● Support faculty in cultivating multi-institutional, interdisciplinary and collaborative R&D.
● Implement flexible workload guidelines for reassigned time to maximize faculty research contributions.
● Launch a cluster-hiring initiative to recruit new faculty who can significantly contribute toward our teacher-scholar model and new degree programs.
● Institute a multi-year initiative to invest new resources in infrastructure needed to enhance research capacities.
● Establish infrastructure and resources dedicated to assisting faculty and students in creating, protecting, and licensing innovative new technologies.
● Establish an economic development framework that serves as a point of contact for companies, agencies and other institutions interested in engaging with the college for their workforce and research needs.
● Develop new programs such as Computing Lakers PREP that enhance the college’s role in experiential learning including internships, research and entrepreneurship
● Develop new programs that enhance the college’s role fulfilling the life-long educational and professional development needs of the community including non-computing people.