SMU’s Growth and Achievements are an Investment In Dallas

President R. Gerald Turner’s message to a group of business and civic leaders gathered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Nov. 13 was simple and clear: return on the investment in SMU made by Dallas leaders more than 100 years ago continues to be strong.

November 13, 2017

DALLAS (SMU) – President R. Gerald Turner’s message to a group of business and civic leaders gathered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Nov. 13 was simple and clear: return on the investment in SMU made by Dallas leaders more than 100 years ago continues to be strong.

Turner outlined the growth in impact and reputation for all seven of the University’s degree-granting schools, including the creation of more than a dozen centers and institutes addressing issues like education, criminal justice reform and international business. Most notably, he said the University is transforming onto a new era of teaching and research fueled by a powerful digital infrastructure.

The red brick campus with a tradition of liberal arts and professional education now offers 13 graduate programs in data science and is powered by ManeFrame II, among the top 20 supercomputers in North American higher education.

SMU is committed to being both a premier research and teaching university. The University’s investments are investments in Dallas, too, as SMU welcomes partners to research the toughest questions facing the North Texas region and the world.  The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, companies like AT&T and Raytheon, community organizations like Big Thought and academic powerhouses like Harvard and MIT know the value of our research partnerships. As SMU President R. Gerald Turner explained it, it’s time to expand the University’s reach.

SMU’s high-speed supercomputer is accessible with no waiting to students, faculty and research partners outside SMU. A University that can complete data analysis in any discipline faster, without long wait times for access, has an advantage. It’s like the difference between sitting in a traffic jam and whipping over into the HOV lane.

The University’s five-year investment of  $85 million in high speed computing, data science curriculum and planned Gerald J. Ford Research and Innovation Building will deliver more bang for the research buck than a comparable investment in additional wet labs for handling chemicals and biological matter.  SMU aims to generate $100 million a year in research, and the infusion of data science into research across disciplines – combined with important work accomplished in University wet labs – will help SMU get there.

Find out more at www.smu.edu/datapowered.

Related Link:

 

# # #

22022-web-11/10/17-kc

November 13, 2017