<p>I recently spoke with Bob Zimmer, Chicago has no intention of establishing a typical school of engineering. They are interested in building a world class molecular engineering institute and program, and are spending $500 million to do it. They have every intention of doing whatever it takes to keep Chicago at the forefront of scientific research, but simply don’t believe traditional engineering is the way to do it. Zimmer is a mathematician and was VP for research at the University, so he likely has a good grasp of where the school is and where it needs to be.</p>