TCoE Trends Newsletter, Winter 2023
In the last year, the Tagliatela College of Engineering has added endowed chairs in both computer science and civil engineering.
She came to the University of New Haven 40 years ago as an instructor. Within a year, she launched the undergraduate program in computer science and has led it ever since, designing courses and exploring operating systems, data structure, algorithms, and all the developments that evolve at breakneck speed in the field. In the process, she became one of the University’s most beloved teachers to generations of students.
With all that she gave to the University, however, she wanted to give more.
She gave a lot more. Last year, Alice Fischer, professor of computer science, and her husband Michael, a computer science professor at Yale University, gave $2 million to establish the Alice E. and Michael J. Fischer Endowed Teaching Chair in Computer Science.
The funds will be used to bolster computer science at the University for many years to come, with the specific mission to recruit and retain faculty. Fischer, who earned her B.S. in Mathematics with distinction from the University of Michigan and her M.S. in Applied Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University, is passionate about the teacher—student connection and the importance of teachers spending enough time in the classroom.
“Every time someone has retired, they’ve been replaced with someone with very good proven research potential who doesn’t teach as many classes,” she observed. “This Endowed Chair is intended to turn that around.”
As a private university, with smaller-sized classes, the University of New Haven already prides itself on the dedication of its teachers to their students and the fact that they know their students by name and individual strengths. At no time has that teacher—student relationship been more important than now, as schools emerge from two years of remote learning in pandemic-world.
Computer Science students are reigniting their career dreams, and thanks to the new teaching chair, those dreams will be bigger and attract more faculty attention than ever before.
Meanwhile, civil engineering students — who inherently think big — are also having their career goals buttressed, thanks to the Tagliatela Family Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering.
The Tagliatela family has been supporting the TCoE, as well as its civil engineering programs, since 2005 — the same year they gave the College its name.
Over the past 17 years, the family has created countless opportunities for the College to expand and for students to develop into career-ready graduates who are in demand by local, U.S.-wide, and international companies.
Not content with simply funding a new Chair, the family also recently established the Tagliatela Family Scholarship in Civil Engineering, and the Tagliatela Family Civil Engineering Laboratory.
Altogether or separately, that’s a lot for students to build on.
This article appeared in the Winter 2023 issue of TCoE Trends, the official newsletter of the Tagliatela College of Engineering. Click here to read more from TCoE Trends.
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