Aerospace Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida made significant moves in the latest U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) rankings among public graduate engineering programs, joining four others that climbed in the list of top schools for graduate engineering study.
Six of the UF engineering college’s disciplines — agricultural engineering, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, industrial engineering, materials engineering and nuclear engineering — are listed among the Top 15 public programs. Overall, the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, which saw its research expenditure grow by more than 10%, ranked #26 among all public institutions.
Biomedical Engineering was the biggest mover, leaping five spots from #17 to #12. Christine Schmidt, Ph.D., Pruitt Family Professor and chair for the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, credited “our strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, our substantial growth in research impact as reflected by major collaborative grants and exceptional publications, our recent strong faculty hires, and our dedication to graduate student education and mentoring” for the department’s strong position on the list.
Also elevating several spots in the USNWR rankings, Aerospace Engineering at UF boasts several high-profile mission projects and coveted technological expertise that Warren Dixon, Ph.D., chair and Dean’s Leadership Professor for the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, credits for their rise to the #16 program, up from #19.
“Our more senior faculty have been winning large-scale grants — Air Force Office of Scientific Research (ASOFR) Center of Excellence, NASA mission projects, including the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) — and have established UF as the go-to place for several technological areas, such as optimization, autonomy, debris understanding and mitigation, and high precision instrumentation,” Dr. Dixon said. “We have been investing new faculty hires in this area to strengthen our educational and research mission.”
The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) graduate program moved up two spots to #11 among top publics, their highest rank in the past five years.
“This ranking reflects the tremendous growth of the ISE faculty, their outstanding contributions to the discipline as well as those of our top graduate students,” said David Kaber, Ph.D., Dean’s Leadership Professor and chair for the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “We are elated with this recent recognition by our peer department leaders and are emboldened to additional impactful research in ISE for improving work life and society.”
Rounding out the UF graduate engineering programs that got a boost in this year’s rankings are: Computer Engineering from #15 to #13, Chemical Engineering up to #16 from #18 last year; and Civil Engineering moves up a spot to #16.