In depth: A message from Dean Ian Robertson

Greetings alumni and friends!

We’ve been talking for several years about our college’s need to grow. And so I am exceptionally gratified to tell you that in March 2024, Wisconsin’s legislature and governor approved construction of a new, almost-400,000-square-foot engineering building on our campus.

If you studied the cover of this magazine, you may have begun to appreciate the aesthetic nature, or perhaps the size, of this engineering building. Maybe you were curious about what it will look like inside, or what programs or research labs it will contain. Perhaps you marveled at how much our campus continues to change.

This big change not only is an enabler of our college’s growth—it also is a step forward for our university and our state.

Through partnership and collaboration, our new building will facilitate forward thinking, patented pioneering advances, and solutions to challenges decades into the future.

It will open the doors of engineering to more talented young students—thus, responding to overwhelming demand for an engineering education and answering employers’ call for a larger pool of talented engineers. It will give us room—lots of room—to educate all of those promising engineering leaders in experiential classrooms specifically designed for future flexibility.

Over the past five years, nearly 80 faculty have joined our college (you’ll meet 18 of our latest hires in this issue). In addition to their passion for inspiring young students through their teaching, they also have added depth and breadth in areas such as energy storage, AI and machine learning, bioengineering, robotics and autonomous systems, quantum and electronic materials, and more. Our new building will provide modern, transdisciplinary research facilities that can evolve along with our needs.

Through dedicated space, the building also will enable industry partners to easily engage with our college—allowing us to translate engineering knowledge and innovation more quickly into beneficial applications.

Our transformative building—an investment in many generations—is on the horizon. We have momentum, and we’re pushing the world forward. We’re building not simply for our good—but for the public good. We are engineering the future.

Follow along with our progress at engineering.wisc.edu/new-building.

On, Wisconsin!

Ian Robertson
Grainger Dean of the College of Engineering
Dedicated to fostering the highest standards of integrity, ethics, inclusiveness, and service to society.