ATLANTA – Florida International University (FIU) College of Engineering and Computing alumnus Gregory Bryan had a recent rare opportunity to meet one-on-one with FIU president Mark Rosenberg and Senior VP of University Advancement Howard Lipman in Atlanta.
The meeting is part of a concerted effort by university leaders to get alumni of the prestigious university re-connected with, and more involved in the latest happenings at the college.
Much has changed at the university since Gregory Bryan graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in the fall of 1993.
The physical campus has expanded in leaps and bounds and many new departments have been added including the College of Medicine which opened in 2009.
During the breakfast meeting at the Flying Biscuit in Midtown, Mr. Bryan recounted his fond memories of his time at FIU, the highlight of which was his participation in the Mini Baja Car design competition. He was part of a team of senior year Mechanical Engineering students that was formed to design and build a car as their required senior design project. The car competed against vehicles designed and built by other students from the best engineering schools across the country at a competition held in Orlando Florida that year and won first place in several categories.
President Rosenberg and SVP Howard Lipman were very passionate in expressing to Mr. Bryan some of the great things currently taking place at FIU.
Some of the highlights are as follows:
• The American Society for Engineering Education ASEE recognized the College of Engineering and Computing for the following achievements
o Being the second largest in the country in the number of Bachelor of Science degrees awarded in computer science
o Being in the top 10 among engineering schools in terms of the diversity of its student body
– Third in number of B.S. degrees awarded to Hispanics
– Eighth in B.S. degrees awarded to African-Americans
• FIU has been named one of the world’s best new universities, according to Times Higher Education (THE) magazine. One of only nine U.S. universities to make the list, FIU came in at No. 84.
• Chemistry Professor Bruce McCord and doctoral candidate Jennifer Greaux discovered a new technique that identifies the chemical signature of the powder inside a bullet. This unique process can potentially link a suspect to the ammunition fired even if the weapon is not found.
• Currently in the prototyping phase of a new portable hand-held mammography device
• Leading edge research in the field of nanotechnology
L-R: FIU President, Mark Rosenberg, FIU Senior VP of University Advancement, Howard Lipman and FIU Alum Gregory Bryan enjoy time in Atlanta.
President Rosenberg also expressed that there is a very strong connection between FIU and the Caribbean community, not only because of the large contingent of Caribbean nationals in the south Florida area that attend or have graduated from the university, but also that there are a significant number of Caribbean nationals who attend the university as foreign students, particularly from Jamaica. He also mentioned that FIU offers an Executive Masters of Business Administration (EMBA) program in Jamaica through the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) facilities in Kingston.
The very productive meeting concluded with President Rosenberg, SVP Lipman and Mr. Bryan agreeing to keep the channels of communication going and further cooperation in order to get the word out to the wider community about the great things that are happening and will undoubtedly continue to happen at Florida International University.
The meeting was even more auspicious considering the fact that June is Caribbean-American month and members of the Caribbean community seek to strengthen ties and deepen relationships with the broader community-at-large.
L-R: Howard Lipman, Gregory Bryan and FIU President, Mark Rosenberg
