Dear Colleagues,
As we look forward to the arrival of spring on the Palouse, we’re celebrating a busy year of growing programs and student and faculty success.
We’re proud of our research success in areas such as AI and machine learning, electronic design automation, power systems, cybersecurity, software engineering, and high-performance computing. We continue to grow our research support and reputation in these areas. As many of you know, AI can help speed up efficiency in many ways, whether in 3D printing and manufacturing or in finding clues to cancer. Our faculty success is evident through their presentations at several important conferences, such as the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS2024) conference and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. A WSU team also received a best paper award at the CASES conference. In another important milestone for our program, Professor Diane Cook was also recently invited to become a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery.
Meanwhile, our students are gaining new opportunities for growth and training. We’re proud of our CyberCougs club, which took first place earlier this year in the VICEROY National Cyber Competition. This semester is hackathon time — with three separate hackathons scheduled! What a wonderful opportunity for our students to tackle important challenges as teams in areas such as predicting snowpack or crop residue for farmers. These events allow our students to gain important skills in communications, teamwork, and problem solving that they will use throughout their careers.
Most of the time, whether planning courses, focusing on research, or helping to train our students, our faculty and staff tend to look forward into the future. But, sometimes it’s nice to look back. We are so grateful to Edmund and Beatriz Schweitzer for their gift in honor of Glen Hower, our longtime department chair and faculty member who passed away in January. Many of you might remember Dr. Hower, who pioneered power engineering research at WSU, led this program for many years, and made a difference in countless students’ lives. We’re so pleased that the Hower name will be a permanent fixture and a name that future generations of students will know in the new Schweitzer Engineering Hall when it opens in 2026.
As always, we appreciate the support that so many of you provide that help us grow and maintain our successful programs. Thank you and Go Cougs!
Ananth Kalyanaraman
Interim Director