The University of California Berkeley's Earthquake Engineering Center has been conducting research in this manner for 33 years. Tech also needs to beef up its engineering facilities, including labs, if it wants to stay competitive with other universities, he says. With the exception of our new engineering building, most of our buildings are more than 30 years old. McPherson says Tech must quickly claim its territory as a research powerhouse. A few top universities will have wide influence.
Tech is on the brink of moving upwards or falling back.
We can go either way. Tech administrators, however, worry that they can't rely on reputation alone, not when urban centers offer students better part-time work. One way to get them to Tech's mountain home is to create the same kind of monetary enticements, such as salaries and stock options, that they might get at technology companies in less remote parts of the state. Electrical engineering professor Ted Rappaport, for example, is not concerned about the reputation of Tech's wireless communications program for attracting students. With work demands, these employed students will probably be able to handle a load of only one or two graduate courses a semester.