A Curiosity for Innovation
In a corner of the Ralph G. Anderson Mechanical Engineering Building, on the third floor, Tom Lester can peer out over the courtyard where hundreds of future engineers congregate and share ideas.
His view includes the ASTeCC Building, the Raymond Civil Engineering Building, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing complex and Paul Anderson Tower. Blocks away is the James W. Hardymon Networking Building, and in downtown Lexington, in the Kentucky Utilities Building, is the Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments.
Several of these buildings and centers did not exist 18 years ago, when a younger Tom Lester assumed the reins as dean of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering.
"I’ve had a phenomenal opportunity to rebuild the infrastructure of the college and put it where it could produce generations of outstanding engineers," said Lester, now UK’s longest-serving academic dean.
In fact, six College of Engineering buildings have opened on UKs campus. Another building is serving engineering students at West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah in a program operated by UK.
It’s been a period of extraordinary growth in the College of Engineering, coming at a time when the profession itself has enjoyed an explosion of sorts.
"Engineering as a profession has assumed a place in the public perception that it did not have 20 years ago," Lester noted.
And the public’s appreciation of the role engineers play in the American economy is not lost on young people entering today’s universities.
"Students recognize that there’s a wider spectrum of career potentials in engineering than they’ve ever had before," Lester said.
During his tenure as dean, UK’s engineering faculty and students have become more engaged in areas not traditionally associated with the field. For instance, the college has forged ties with the colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry as new technologies with biological applications have emerged.
The College of Engineering has been intimately involved in biomedical innovations, including minimally invasive surgery using extremely small cameras to guide surgeons using robotic techniques and the use of nanotechnology. Nanomaterials now being used in pharmaceuticals are products of UK engineering researchers. New materials for dental repair have resulted from UK researchers working in multidisciplinary collaborations.
Lester also built a relationship with the UK Gatton College of Business and Economics to offer joint degrees in engineering and business management, so today’s students can be more successful in launching businesses built on products they invent.
"Students in our undergraduate programs can broaden themselves in ways they could not have imagined 30 years ago," Lester said.
The opportunities now offered by the College of Engineering have spurred the college to help new generations to consider these careers. Under Lester’s leadership, UK has aggressively encouraged students in Kentucky’s elementary, middle and high schools to become serious about science and math classes that provide the foundation for obtaining an engineering degree.
That’s a statewide initiative embraced by governmental and business leaders across Kentucky – one, noted Lester, guided by UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. as part of the state’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Task Force.
The state’s new commitment to STEM is encouraging to Lester as UK continues its effort to attain a place among the nation’s most prestigious universities.
"Science and engineering is a core feature of what this university has to excel in to become a Top 20 public university," Lester said.
Even so, Lester keeps his focus on what matters most - the young people who learn in the college’s classrooms.
"Students are the reason we’re here. There’s a great deal of satisfaction of working with students," Lester said.
