Development Needs in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University
The list below sorts the Department's development needs from modest to large:
Modest
Student Travel Funds: In order to enrich and broaden the educational experience of EPP's undergraduate and graduate students, the Department maintains one general and two named funds. These funds are entirely supported by annual donations from faculty, alumni, and others interested in advancing the Department's educational missions. Funds are used to support students to present papers and otherwise participate in professional conferences, workshops, and similar events.
Annual Support for Seminars from EPP's Washington, DC Office: EPP is running twice monthly seminars on policy issues that originate in our Washington, DC office and are attended via a video link on campus in Pittsburgh. Funds are needed to defray the costs of this activity, and could take the form of a named fund based on annual giving.
Summer Internships: The Department has one named fund that supports two summer student internships in Washington each year. Additional funds to support student internships (in DC or elsewhere) would be most useful, and could take the form of named funds based on annual giving.
Events in EPP's Washington, DC Office: The Department frequently runs workshops and other events in our DC office or on Capitol Hill. Many of these events are designed to communicate results from EPP research to the Washington policy community. Support for such events is difficult to find and always most welcome.
Undergraduate Project Course Fund: EPP runs four undergraduate project courses each year in which a class of about 20 (made up of EPP double majors and students from several social science programs) work as a team to analyze a pressing problem in technology and policy for a nominal sponsor, usually a government agency. Students interview experts, read background material, conduct opinion surveys, and present their results to an outside review panel. Funds are needed to help support student travel, bring in expert advisors, compensate survey subjects, acquire reference materials, and support final presentations by some projects in Harrisburg or Washington.
Medium
Research Venture Fund: EPP has an established track record of undertaking new lines of policy-focused research in areas that others have not yet identified as important. We often have difficulty finding resources to support the first few years of such work. However, as such research begins to produce results, it typically becomes progressively easier to find government or foundation support. We can offer a variety of examples from past work. One or more research venture funds, either in the form of direct giving or through an endowed fund, could add enormously to the Department's ability to undertake such new efforts. Such funds could be named and could focus on a specific topical domain, or apply across the full range of topics addressed by the Department's research.
Endowment to Support EPP's Washington, DC Office: The Department has maintained a small office in Washington, DC since 1997. This office is staffed on a part-time basis and supports a variety of educational, research, and outreach activities. The cost of most of these activities is covered from the Department's operating budget (we receive no specific resources in our University budget to support this office). A fund to support the Department's Washington office could both allow us to expand that office's activities, and also free up resources in the Department to support other important educational objectives.
Outreach Fund: EPP works hard to make the results of its research available to policy communities and to the public. However, we rarely have resources specifically for such activities so they must "come out of the hide" of very busy faculty, staff, and students. Funds to allow the Department to add dedicated staff to support such activities and to cover direct costs could dramatically expand the impact and influence of our work.
Minority Graduate Fellowship Funds: EPP has been fortunate in attracting a significant number of outstanding US minority graduate students. We have not, however, been very successful in finding resources to support these students or expanding our recruiting efforts in this area. Funds to allow us to do this could make an enormous difference.
Developing World Fund: EPP has strong working ties with several parts of the developing world, including India, China, Mexico and Brazil. Funds are urgently needed to strengthen these activities. It is especially hard to find resources to support PhD students to work on problems in technology and development. When we have been able to support such students in the past, upon returning to their home countries, they have demonstrated that these modest investments have yielded enormous benefits. Support to expand such work can yield a very large leverage effect that will last for decades.
Short-Term Faculty Leave Fund: EPP could benefit from a fund to help support short- term (weeks not months) faculty leaves to gain more real-world policy experience working with state and federal government, international organizations, and similar entities.
Large
Endowed Faculty Positions: EPP has a number of distinguished senior faculty who have international reputations and should have endowed chairs. We also have several outstanding young faculty who could benefit from the recognition that is provided by "development chairs." Recognizing their accomplishments would also free EPP’s budget to add new faculty.
Endowed Graduate Fellowships: While more traditional departments enjoy endowment funds that support PhD graduate fellowships, EPP has no such support and could benefit greatly from the flexibility they could provide.
Space: Funds to create modern, centrally located space large enough to house the entire Department and allow modest growth.
We also have thought some about what we might do with a really big gift. Here are two possibilities:
• Double the size of the Department (faculty, space, students, etc.) to give it critical mass in all the areas in which we work (energy/environment; IT and telecom policy; risk analysis, management, and communication; technology policy and innovation; technology and economic development; international and domestic security) and make it comparable in size to the median of other CIT departments.
• Establish an affiliated technology-policy analysis organization that would build on the strengths of the Department's long-term policy-focused research to address more immediate problems in technology-policy. There is currently no player in this niche—RAND is more economics/OR focused; RFF is more resource economics focused; etc.
