In his state of the state address last month, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt keyed in on workforce development needs to attract and retain high-tech industry jobs across the state. One of the many ways the University of Oklahoma is answering that call is through the OU Polytechnic Institute in Tulsa. With its inaugural director announced in January and classes expected to begin in fall 2024, the OU Polytechnic Institute will create pathways to connect students of all ages and skill levels with high-demand, advanced and applied technology-based education.
Teri K. Reed, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized leader in engineering education, an OU alumna and former OU associate professor and associate dean of education in the College of Engineering. She is returning to OU from her most recent role as assistant vice president of faculty research development, executive director of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati, and has held faculty and administrative appointments at Texas A&M and Purdue University.
As a petroleum engineer, the term “pipeline” doesn’t evoke the right image to Reed for what workforce development truly means.
“I don’t ever use the word pipeline,” Reed said. “One thing about pipelines is there is only one correct way in and one correct way out. My philosophy on workforce development is that’s not true. I like to think of it as on-ramps, the big highway mixed-master interchanges. You have to have multiple on-ramps and off-ramps in order to meet people where they are, whether that’s early education to get them interested, secondary to recruit and yield them, higher education to get them degreed, certified or credentialed in some way, or later education where they might be changing their professional focus. I see this as where the Polytechnic can provide those multiple pathways, and that increases the research impact across the region and the state.”
The OU Polytechnic Institute will bridge the skilling, upskilling and reskilling needs of students of all ages to gain experience tackling the challenges of the institute’s industry partners and the emerging technological needs of our society.
“This combination of workforce development with research and development is a big piece of what the Polytechnic will provide,” Reed said. “Working with industry, creating industry collaborations and working on their current problems – whether through senior design or research projects – that will be a big part of our emphasis and we’ll build the infrastructure around those research and workforce development needs. We are hiring faculty who will mainly focus on applied research, so very much integrated with industry. Great discoveries can come out of industry-focused research.”
Existing supporters of the OU Polytechnic Institute include Tulsa Innovation Labs, OU’s Office of Innovation and Corporate Partnerships, the OU Ronnie K. Irani Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth and others, along with philanthropic partners such as the George Kaiser Family Foundation and Google.
“There are a lot of partnership opportunities in the Tulsa region. There is a lot going on right now in air mobility, as well as in cyber security, the aerospace and defense sector – we just have a lot of opportunity,” Reed said. “We will be responsive to industry needs, so we’re creating two types of advisory boards, one very broad visioning board and the second a more operational, curriculum-focused board. Those will be developed in the coming months and we’re looking for other mechanisms to listen to industry needs as well as those of the city, state and region.”
A vital consideration and potential differentiator of the OU Polytechnic Institute’s approach is to integrate applied study of the social science aspect to these technologies throughout.
“By adding the social science aspect, we can look different from a lot of people around the country,” Reed said. “The social science aspect is missing in a lot of existing research and applications and people are realizing now that this is so important to a wide range of applied data and technologies being used and developed. What we’re doing in the Polytechnic will fill a gap in applied technology – how to actually take into account the scenarios and situations where it’s needed and understand the educational aspect and workforce development.”
In the news release announcing Reed’s appointment as the inaugural director of the Polytechnic Institute, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said, “Dr. Reed is one of the leading minds in how to strategically align engineering education with rapidly evolving workforce needs, making her an outstanding choice to serve as the inaugural director of the OU Polytechnic Institute. Our university is fundamentally invested in the future of Oklahoma, and we are confident that under Dr. Reed’s leadership, the OU Polytechnic Institute will play a dynamic role in driving our state forward.”
To learn more about the OU Polytechnic Institute, visit https://www.ou.edu/tulsa/polytechnic.
