It is often said that two heads are always better than one.
And the Engineering School has taken that adage to heart. The school has submitted a proposal for the merger of the Systems and Electrical Engineering departments to the Provost's office.
The merger aims to provide an opportunity for the various programs of the combined departments to enhance their research capabilities and faculty size, while also increasing the school's visibility on both a national and international level.
By joining the two departments, the school hopes to achieve a "critical mass," as Dean Eduardo Glandt puts it. In addition to the intellectual overlap between Systems and Electrical Engineering that already exists, an interface between these two departments will also be further developed.
"I believe we are planting the seeds of a truly outstanding department, in which the confluence of systems and electrical engineering is fully exploited," said Jan Van der Spiegel, chairman of the Electrical Engineering department.
Van der Spiegel was one of several faculty members from each department who served on the committee that was formed to draft the proposal for the merger.
"We wanted to make sure that the merger was not just a union of two existing departments," he said. "We wanted to create a truly new department with its own unique identity, a unified vision, active research activities and first-rate educational programs."
After the proposal is reviewed by the trustees during their meetings next February, the school will hear the final decision on the department merger some time next spring.
The idea for a merger originated from Glandt, who felt that the combination of the two departments was a "natural thing to do, something that made eminent strategic sense." A great deal of discussion was put into the merger, as the proposal was also considered by other departments within the Engineering School, the school's Faculty Council and, finally, schoolwide.
Glandt recently met with Electrical Engineering students to inform them of the proposal, as well as to address any concerns or questions they may have had about the possible changes.
"From the meeting, I really felt that Dean Glandt has great ideas for the future of our engineering school," said Engineering senior Allison Schlaff, president of the student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. "I feel that I can trust him and the Electrical Engineering Department to be doing the right thing."
"While I went into the meeting concerned about the merger, I left knowing that this is a great idea and is in the hands of very intelligent and caring people," Engineering sophomore Robert Lavan said.
A similar meeting with Systems Engineering students was held yesterday.
Even with the proposed merger, students who are majoring in one of the two departments will not have to undergo alterations to their planned courses of study.
"The effect on students will be minimal as our academic programs will be continued as they are currently constituted," said John Keenan, interim Systems Engineering Department chairman.
Prior to 1970, the Systems and Electrical Engineering Departments were actually branches of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. That year, the Moore School was divided into three separate departments -- Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering and Computer and Information Science.
By bringing Systems and Electrical Engineering back together into one department, Glandt looks to "raise the stature of the two fields at Penn -- pulling resources together to make the school truly a larger research enterprise with the consequential larger department enhancing its visibility and letting people know about what is going on."
Students also have high expectations for the impending merger.
"I know that in 12 years when I come back for my 10th year reunion, that the new Electrical and Systems Department, the Engineering School and the University as a whole will have grown in prestige within the realms of science and electrical systems because of this merger," Lavan said.
