Carnegie Mellon University

Sponsorships

Engineers, by the very nature of their work, are philanthropists. We build, create, investigate, and solve the issues that face society. Applying passion, intelligence, and effort, engineers build the future. When we succeed, the world is a better place.

Innovation, entrepreneurship, commitment, and dedication continue to drive our country's economic and social gains. No longer a standalone nation, America's businesses now produce and compete on a global scale. The issues we face are multifaceted and the scope of work more complex.

To stay competitive, we must leverage education. Students and faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering represent the best and brightest minds, committed to the future of engineering and opportunity for investigation, discovery, challenge, and leadership.

Giving to the College of Engineering enables you to make an impact on the innovative, interdisciplinary education and research taking place here. Strategic funding priorities that help the college achieve its goals include fellowships, faculty, and facilities projects.

Fellowships

Like most research universities, Carnegie Mellon simply cannot exist without its PhD students. Doctoral students attending the university spend, on average, five or more years here and become an integral part of the community. They teach, work in labs, and are charged with developing novel ideas to expand knowledge in a particular field. After graduation, many of these students will join the faculty of leading universities, while others will pursue successful careers in industry or business. And just as graduate students come here to work with the best researchers, faculty come to Carnegie Mellon because of the strength of our graduate students.

Fellowships enable the best students to gain a world-class education, help us secure research grants, and contribute to increasing diversity on campus. Fellowships enable us to attract and retain highly talented and motivated students. In fact, graduate fellowships do more than any other kind of gift to advance our research activities. Supporting graduate students means supporting the daily intellectual endeavors fundamental to the College of Engineering's status as a top-10 engineering school.

Facilities

The College of Engineering's buildings, libraries, labs, and equipment determine the learning environment we can offer our students and the research our students and faculty are able to perform. State-of-the-art facilities help us support the best and brightest students and faculty, as well as attract corporate partners and funding sources. Funding existing and new facilities makes a long-term impact on the college. Contributing to physical space supports interdisciplinary collaboration and enables our faculty and students to continue to perform cutting-edge research.

Faculty

Faculty support is critical to Carnegie Mellon's world-class education and research. In each of the College of Engineering's departments, professorships can be established to support a particular faculty member or field of research. Contributions are used to help faculty members pursue a specific field of study and travel to share their research, provide funding for graduate student involvement, and purchase equipment. Endowment of a distinguished professorship exemplifies a belief in the values of higher education, allowing us to recruit and retain the best teaching and research faculty in the world.


 

Past recipients:

  • T.E. (Ed) Schlesinger
  • Jelena Kovačević

Current recipient: Diana Marculescu

Charles Schramm received a BS in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering in 1942. Charles S. and Benetta B. Schramm established the David Edward Schramm Memorial Professorship in the Carnegie Institute of Technology in loving memory of their son.

Established: 1937

Past recipients:

  • Douglas F. Miner
  • Gaylord Penney (1947)

Current recipient: David Casasent (1980)

The Westinghouse chair grew out of the Westinghouse Scholars Program established in 1937. Students spent their first three years at Carnegie Tech and their summers and senior year at Westinghouse. The first recipient, a former Westinghouse employee, was expected to earn the funds by managing the program.


Established: 1942

Past recipients:

  • Benjamin Richard Teare
  • Leo Finzi
  • Arthur G. Milnes

Current recipient: Daniel P. Siewiorek (1994)

The first Buhl Professor of Electrical Engineering was Benjamin Richard Teare, EE's third department head. The endowment that established the chair followed a $50,000 grant from the Buhl Foundation in 1939 to recruit Teare to develop a graduate program in the department.

Established: 1972

Past recipients:

  • Angel G. Jordan
  • Stephen W. Director (1980)
  • Wojciech Maly (1997)

Current recipient: Vijayakumar Bhagavatula

This is Carnegie Mellon's first chair be to endowed by an alumnus. Uncas A. Whitaker (EE '29), his wife Helen, and their daughter, Ruth Whitaker Holmes, all served as university trustees. A second chair in computer science was also funded by the couple. Whitaker was the founder of AMP Incorporated, one of the leading producers of electrical and electronics connection devices.

Established: 1990

First recipient: Ronald A. Rohrer

Current recipient: Gary K. Fedder (2006)

Howard M. Wilkoff (EE '30) was the founder of the New England Tape Company, which manufactured a range of innovative products for the electronics, medical safety, automotive, and aircraft industries.

Established: 1996

First and current recipient: M. Granger Morgan

Several Lord Professorships were made possible by a generous gift from Thomas Lord, a friend of the university.

Established: 1997

First recipient: Mark H. Kryder

Current recipient: Rob A. Rutenbar (2001)

Stephen J. Jatras (EE '47) was a retired chairman of the Telex Corporation. He was a Life Trustee of Carnegie Mellon, having served on the Board of Trustees since 1976 and cochaired the ECE Advisory Board from its inception in 1992. The recipient of several alumni awards and humanitarian awards for charitable work, Jatras died in January 2000.

Established: 1997

First recipient: Angel G. Jordan

Current recipient: Andrzej J. Strojwas (2000)

Joseph Keithley earned a BS (1937) and MS (1938) in electrical engineering from MIT. In 1946, he founded Keithley Instruments, which has become a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high-precision electronics and medical equipment. A believer in investing in the future of technology by fostering relationships between academia and industry, Keithley was a longtime friend of the ECE department at Carnegie Mellon.

Established: 1998

First recipient: Pradeep K. Khosla

Current recipient: José M. F. Moura

The Dowd Professorship is made possible by an endowment from Philip L. Dowd (Metallurgy, 1963). Dowd built his career with SunGard Data Systems, a giant in the financial services software industry. He is retired from his position as corporate senior vice president of the company. Dowd has served as a trustee of the university since 1995.

Established: 2000

First and current recipient: L. Richard Carley

The STMicroelectronics chair was made possible by a gift from STMicroelectronics in Geneva, Switzerland, one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world.

Established: 2003

First and current recipient: Hyong Kim

Drew Perkins is currently the CTO at Infinera Corporation, a company he cofounded in 2001. He has been involved in industry for 20 years, including serving as principal architect at FORE Systems, where he developed numerous TCP/IP, ATM, Ethernet hardware, and software products and protocols. He is perhaps best known as the inventor of the PPP Protocol (Point-to-Point Protocol), which continues to be the standard for linking the internet together.

Established: 2003

First and current recipient: Jian-Gang (Jimmy) Zhu

This professorship is endowed by ABB, a global leader in power and automation technologies that enables utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB group of companies operates in around 100 countries.

Established: 2003

First and current recipient: Larry Pileggi

The Tanoto Professorship was established by Sukanto Tanoto, an Indonesian businessman and entrepreneur and friend of the university. Tanoto has created several modern industries in Indonesia, including plywood and pulp, and has interests in palm oil refining, engineering, construction, and energy projects such as power plants.