By SUSAN JONES
Even though she’s been at Pitt for less than a year, Michele Manuel, dean of the Swanson School of Engineering, says Pittsburgh has long been the “technical home” for her chosen specialty — metallurgy.
“When you think metals, you think steels, and Pittsburgh is the … foci of all industry and history when it comes to that particular research area,” she said. “I’ve come to Pittsburgh several times. I’ve always been fascinated by the merging of culture, of history and of technology and education that Pittsburgh has been able to essentially cultivate and carry on throughout the decades, even though these things sometimes come in and out of fashion.”
Manuel and her two children moved to the Steel City last summer, and she started as dean of the engineering school in September. Because of her background, the move to Pittsburgh from the University of Florida — where she had been chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Nuclear Engineering Program since 2017 — seemed pretty natural.
“Pittsburgh is the city I always point to in terms of what excellence looks like when you merge technology, education, urban environment and the population together, and to show, basically, what excellence could look like in engineering,” she said.
In addition, Manuel said she was attracted to Pitt in particular because “there’s a lot of great people. The students are amazing. I’ve always had fantastic relationships with graduates that have come out of the University of Pittsburgh, colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh. So I knew there were excellent scholars at this university.”
This is Manuel’s first time as the dean of a school, which she said gives her a broader view of the University and has allowed her to “have discussions at a higher level that create impact across the University.” It also means collaborating with different schools on campus, particularly the health sciences, and with local industry.
Provost Joe McCarthy, who also is a professor in the Swanson School’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, said Manuel was chosen as dean, “because of her demonstrated success as a leader, her distinguished career as a scholar, innovator and mentor, and her clear and decisive vision for a bold future for the school.
“In just her first year, she has already leveraged transformational leadership — and a commitment to strategic growth, collaboration and student and faculty success — to energize our community while positioning the Swanson School as a national leader in engineering education and impact. I look forward to all that lies ahead as Michele, her team and the rest of the Swanson School community continue to shape their collaborative strategy to significantly advance the Plan for Pitt."
She’s also the first woman to be dean of Pitt’s engineering school, which she said hasn’t created any specific challenges. Manuel said she’s been the first woman in the many of the jobs she’s had, so “that’s not an unusual experience for me. I just think it brings lots of benefits in terms of maybe seeing things in a slightly different light than some of my colleagues.” She hopes to be a role model to people of all genders to realize “having a career like this is possible for everybody.”
Manuel said Chancellor Joan Gabel played a pivotal role in her decision to come to Pitt, “not because we have a female chancellor, but we have an amazing chancellor who just happens to be a female”
“It’s a great job,” she said. “It’s actually the best job I’ve ever had.”
Swanson strengths
The strengths of the Swanson School, Manuel said, are “definitely its people. It’s the development of people, having programs that are focused on experiential learning, giving our students access to unique educational opportunities that they may not see anywhere else, and focusing on developing individuals.”
She also cited engineering’s research enterprise, which “has been growing at a rapid pace for the last number of years.” The school has seen growth in energy and sustainability research along with manufacturing and bioengineering.
Research spending by primary faculty has increased from $38.7 million in fiscal year 2019-20 to $63 million in 2023-24.
The number of students at the school has continued to bounce back from pandemic-related lows. This spring, more than 600 students graduated from the Swanson School — 485 undergraduates and the rest graduate or PhD candidates.
Manuel said the school is anticipating having its largest incoming first-year class this fall. They had originally forecast around 600 freshmen, but now believe that number will be between 700 and 800. The first-year class in fall 2024 was 613.
The 2025 incoming class is largely from Pennsylvania and many are first-generation college students.
They’ll be looking at staffing structures and at classrooms, to scale them appropriately. Engineering students don’t declare their specific discipline until the end of their first year, with the largest number going into mechanical engineering.
Manuel said they need to make sure they have enough advisors to work one-on-one with students and to “educate students on how to best make decisions on which major is the one that they aspire to, and get them the jobs that they’re looking for in the future.”
PhD students will number about the same as last year, as will those in the master’s program, “which is great too,” Manuel said. “A lot of our master’s students are international students, and so with concerns with regards to being able to obtain visas, if we are very close to what we were last year, I think we’re in great shape.”
Looking to the future
One thing Manuel thinks the school needs to do better is “toot our own horn. … I think we need to be louder and advertise more about the great things that we’re doing.” She said the school is focusing now on branding and marketing all the things that it’s doing well.
She also is focused on developing strategic partnerships with regional and local partners in industry and government, and with other Pitt schools, including business, law and nursing.
The school is developing a strategic plan that, Manuel said, should be finished around the end of the summer. “That really will identify priorities for the school and really focus on a few key areas that we want to focus in on and excel in over the next couple of years.”
They also are developing a leadership institute within the Swanson School, “because we want our students to not just learn the technical details about engineering, but also gain the professional aspects that they’ll need to be successful as a career in engineering.”
The institute would focus on how to develop a startup, how to do a pitch, communication skills, working in teams, how to manage projects, “those kinds of aspects that typically you don’t get in a traditional technical degree program,” she said.
Manuel said the message she and her team want to get across is that, “Engineering is doing really well. … We’re open for business. We’re graduating record number of students. We’re training them. They’re going to have fantastic careers. We hope that people know that we are open for partnerships, and our doors are open for working together and to finding new opportunities in research and education.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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