Grainger VIP Impact Report

GRAINGER INSTITUTE FOR ENGINEERING

The Grainger Institute for Engineering (GIE) continues to grow and expand upon our vision under the leadership of Oliver Schmitz. Over the year, we made strides to be seen within the College of Engineering and the broader community as an accessible, equitable, and valuable resource for those working in innovative, unconventional, and nontraditional spaces. Notable accomplishments over the past year include: • Undertaking a strategic planning effort for the Office of Research Innovation, which is the parent office of GIE, the Office of Corporate Relations, the Technology Entrepreneurship Office, and the Research Impact and Outreach Office. • We worked with the Office of Strategic Consulting to identify our North Star purpose and define a vision for our joint efforts across campus. • This allows us to measure decisions and actions to ensure that we serve the College of Engineering and the broader community in a way that will make a lasting impact. Ting-Ray Chang Lindley came to us with extensive experience in nonprofit management, industry, and research. She brings an industrial operational mindset to the team and fosters long-standing project coordination expertise, which is an asset for implementing our strategic goals. • Growing the Clean Energy Community Initiative (CECI) • Hiring an associate director. •

and the Semiconductor Science Initiative (SSI). • CECI has connected with more than 65 companies and more than 120 partners.

Those connections allowed CECI to successfully author the community benefits plans (CBPs) for two partner grant

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