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About SSE
The LUMS School of Science and Engineering (SSE) is a
new school within LUMS with undergraduate programs in
Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering,
Mathematics and Physics; and graduate programs in Computer
Science and Mathematics. Additional engineering programs
will be added in the future. To learn more about our motivation
and vision, as well as the activities that have taken
place in the past, please see our newsletters.
The school was created by a Project
Team, supported by the LUMS Faculty, Administration
and Management Committee, the Virtual
Program Development Team (VPDT), a remote group of
academics and professionals, and guided by the Advisory
Board. To learn more about LUMS SSE or its history,
please send an email to sseinfo@lums.edu.pk.
Our decision to build a school for Science and Engineering
followed a careful planning period of more than a year
during which we identified the country's technological
needs, reviewed international trends, took stock of our
resources, understood our challenges, and built a strong
support network of educators, researchers and corporate
leaders world-wide. Most of all, we understood why we
should do it. |
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The
Need
Pakistan continues to lose talent, while our industry
remains technologically dependent and our universities
remain intellectually barren. Almost exclusively,
our industry manufactures products licensed from
foreign companies. To be globally competitive, or
even to survive, we need to start producing high-value-added
products and services. This requires scientists
and engineers who are technically competent, innovative,
entrepreneurial, have leadership qualities and broad
problem solving skills. Our universities are not
equipped for this responsibility. Their graduates
are narrowly specialized and are unable to create
knowledge at the boundary between multiple disciplines,
increasingly the domain of true technological breakthroughs.
Further, they have ineffective linkages with industry,
an acute shortage of qualified faculty and no internal
faculty pipeline to sustain academic or corporate
entities. If we are to compete internationally or
even survive, we need to produce a cadre of scientists
and engineers who can not only develop technologies
suitable for local conditions but also create entirely
new economic and social opportunities for the country.
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The
Vision
We envision LUMS School of Science and Engineering
as the vanguard of a new class of institutions.
A successful research university model for Pakistan
and indeed the region; perhaps an MIT, Stanford
or a Caltech for Pakistan. We hope to transform
science and engineering education and research in
the country. We bring to this enterprise our existing
strengths: our leadership position as an educational
institution; our track record of success; our ability
to reinvent ourselves; our academic infrastructure
for integrated multi-disciplinary programs; and
most importantly, the credibility to attract the
best students and faculty in Pakistan. We also see
new opportunities: (i) a much larger pool of Pakistani
researchers than 20 years ago when LUMS began, (ii)
tremendous support from this larger pool for our
initiative, and (iii) the increasing realization
and support of industry leaders inside and outside
the country who recognize the need for such an institution.
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The
Plan and Status
The School of Science and Engineering started
undergraduate classes in Fall 2008 with 150 frehmen
selceted from 7500 applicants, with an option
to major in one of six programs: Biology, Chemistery,
Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics
and Physics. The school has two graduate programs
(in Computer Sciences and Mathematics) and plans
to start additional graduate programs within the
next three years. These programs will provide
the solid foundation upon which additional undergraduate
and graduate programs, including biological engineering,
chemical engineering, material science and mechanical
engineering, will be built at a later stage.
SSE is housed in a 300,000 sq-ft building complex
with state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories.
The school has about 40 faculty members and plans
on hiring an additional 60 over the next six years.
To attract the best faculty and allow them to
do quality research, a start-up research grant
is provided to tenure-track faculty for their
first 3 years.
To provide access to a world-class education
to students from all economic strata, SSE is committed
to a need-blind admissions policy. Because of
this SSE has been able to attract some of the
brightest students in the country. In our first
year undergraduate class about 60% of the students
are on financial aid. Also graduate students doing
externally funded research receive a stipend in
addition to a tuition waiver.
Realizing the School of Science and Engineering
requires significant financial resources. Our
initial target was to raise $25 million which
we have met (see Giving
to LUMS SSE). Our new total target is $125
million of which $75 million will go into the
SSE's endowment fund.
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The
Impact
We strongly believe that this initiative will change
the face of education in Pakistan as well as the
region. Through its world-class science and engineering
graduates and high quality, industrially relevant
research, it will catalyze genuine industrial development
in the region.
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