Indiana University Bloomington invest $75 million into new engineering programs

Indiana University Bloomington has invested $75 million into the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering with the intention of adding additional academic programs, hiring more faculty, and constructing additional lab facilities. The additions come as a way to continue preparing students for the ever-evolving workplace.

According to an article on Indiana University Bloomington’s website, Pamela Whitten, the university’s president, was quoted as saying, “The significant investment we are making to expand our engineering offerings will prepare our students for high-paying jobs while also creating talent pipelines that fuel innovation and drive economic growth. IU continues to be at the forefront of evolving to meet the needs of today’s students and our state.”

Among the new academic programs the school is planning to add to the roster of engineering programs are computer engineering, robotics, bioengineering, nanoengineering and microelectronics, and electrical engineering. These new programs are pending approvals from the IU Board of Trustees and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, but if approved, could begin as soon as 2026. These proposed programs would join the three new undergraduate degrees and seven new graduate degrees the university added in 2024, with those programs spanning multiple colleges and disciplines.

Provost Rahul Shrivastav said of the new programming, “This milestone is just the latest in our relentless pursuit of academic excellence, which is at the heart of everything we do at IU Bloomington. For the future, we must not only bolster the strengths of our current programs, but also actively evolve to meet demands of a rapidly changing world.”

The university will hire at least 10 new faculty members in the next year to staff these new academic programs, and it plans to make additional hires in the near future. It will also add more facilities to support the new programs, like wet labs and computer labs.

Joanna Millunchick, who serves as the dean of the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, reflected on these new additions, saying, “We are redefining technology and innovation by keeping humanity firmly at the center of everything we do. By integrating emerging fields like robotics, bioengineering and computer engineering with our strengths in AI, high-performance computing, human-computer interaction design and digital humanities, we are equipping students with the technically excellent society-centered skills and experiences to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”

For more information about Indiana University Bloomington, visit the school’s website.