Waleed is Vice Provost for Graduate Education where he collaborates with deans to guide new graduate program development in support of the academic plan, serves as the academic interface for network graduate program deployment, chairs the Graduate Council, and works to build and sustain community-building and professional development programming for graduate students. Waleed joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1996. He served as Associate Chair of ECE from 2016 to 2019, as Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Education from 2019 to 2020, and Associate Dean for Graduate Education from 2020 to 2022.
As Associate Dean, Waleed oversaw graduate recruitment, admissions, advising, academic operations, online instruction, and PhD student development for the College of Engineering’s 57 certificate, master’s, and PhD programs. Under his leadership, graduate enrollment increased 39% and the fraction of PhD admissions offers with guaranteed five-year funding increased to more than 95%. The College introduced ten new graduate programs, certificates, and concentrations, including new collaborations with other colleges, and more than 500 new PlusOne pathways. The College also deployed six programs to our campuses in Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, and Portland.
Waleed promoted graduate student success by working with departments to develop new policies related to academic integrity and appeals, student grievances, and dissertation committee composition, and by developing a review process to monitor PhD student progress. During his time as Associate Dean, Graduate Student Services deployed a centralized student communication system that supports students across campuses and programs, a student tracking tool now being used for graduate education across the university; and an online, trackable system for graduate forms and petitions. In addition, Waleed led efforts to develop a scholarship program to increase domestic enrollment and worked with partners throughout the college and university during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the success of our programs and the well-being of our students, staff, and faculty.
His recognitions include the 2003 and 2008 COE Martin W. Essigmann Outstanding Teaching Awards; the 2016 COE Fostering Engineering Innovation in Education Awards; the 2019 COE Outstanding Faculty Service Award; the 2010 Eta Kappa Nu Professor of the Year Award; and the 2015 Black Engineering Student Society Professor Appreciation Award.
Waleed founded and advises Enabling Engineering, an engineering student group that designs and builds devices to empower individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities. The group has given more than 800 students from across the university the chance to work on 70 practice-oriented projects with clinical collaborators and community partners. Waleed has taught a seminar on Fundamental Limits on Scientific Knowledge in the University Honors Program and has been leading an interdisciplinary Dialogue of Civilizations trip to Italy and the UK on Scientific Revolutions since 2015.