Announcement Regarding COEIT Leadership

Dear UMBC Community,

I write today to share with you the news that Dean Keith J. Bowman, who has led the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) since 2017, will be on leave during the upcoming academic year to pursue key academic and professional projects. Oros Family Professor Anupam Joshi, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and director of UMBC's Center for Cybersecurity, will serve as acting dean of COEIT, effective July 1.

During his leave, Keith will be working to stay updated on fast-moving advancements in his field, serving on review teams for federal research agencies, and partnering with colleagues who are focused on STEM education and STEM equity research in the Department of Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. Part of that work will include a focus on those marginalized due to LGBTQIA+ identity, disability, or socioeconomic status. Upon his return to UMBC in the 2024 - 25 academic year, Keith plans to resume his role as Constellation Professor of Information Technology and Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

I am deeply appreciative of Keith's outstanding leadership of COEIT and his service as a member of the university's senior leadership team. During his tenure as dean, the college has greatly increased the number of undergraduate and graduate students -- from 4,800 to more than 6,000 students -- as well as the diversity of the student body represented in the college's increasingly innovative and expanded portfolio of academic programs. This includes the expansion of COEIT's computer science and mechanical engineering programs to the UMBC-Shady Grove campus and the introduction of a new professional master's degree in software engineering. Even before his important role as a founding co-chair of UMBC's Inclusion Council, Keith co-led efforts to make UMBC more welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Keith's focus on student success has improved student outcomes within the college, significantly increasing first-year and transfer student retention and graduation rates each by more than 10 percentage points. He has overseen the recruitment and support of the college's exceptional and increasingly diverse faculty -- a third of whom have joined UMBC since 2017 -- and supported and expanded the college's research portfolio, as well as its national reputation and ranking as among the best engineering, computer science, and IT schools in the nation. The college's significant increase in research productivity was a key component of UMBC's recent Carnegie designation as an R1 institution.

Keith also serves and will continue to serve in important roles beyond UMBC, through leadership work with ABET, the accrediting body for postsecondary education programs in applied and natural sciences, computing, engineering, and engineering technology; the American Ceramic Society and broader materials science community; and the American Society for Engineering Education.

I am pleased to express my thanks to Anupam for agreeing to serve as acting dean of COEIT in the year ahead. As chair of CSEE, he leads one of UMBC's largest departments and has overseen a near-tripling of student enrollment at the graduate level and a 50 percent increase at the undergraduate level. Not only has the number of majors increased, but they are also more diverse. He led the creation of new programs, including the MPS in Data Science and the minor in Computing. The department's research output has grown, as has alumni support. As the director of the Center for Cybersecurity, Anupam was a key part of the group that convinced the state to provide $3 million in baseline funding to the center and to create the Maryland Institute of Advanced Computing at UMBC. He served this year as an American Council on Education Fellow, spending the intensive mentorship program shadowing USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman and Bruce E. Jarrell, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Anupam was one of 46 fellows selected across the U.S., and I know that his participation in the program will serve UMBC well as he guides the college during the year ahead.

Finally, I wish to take this opportunity to express my personal gratitude and appreciation to Dean Bowman for his support and counsel as we have worked together over the past six years, and for his commitment to our students and to our shared value of inclusive excellence.

Sincerely,

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Philip Rous