Dr. Orlando Baiocchi, a professor of electrical engineering at the State University of New York Institute of Technology, has
been hired as the new director of the UW Tacoma Institute of Technology.
Baiocchi will assume his new position July 1. He will replace founding Institute Director Larry Crum, who is stepping down from the position in June. Dr. Crum will continue to teach classes at the Institute.
“I am delighted that we have been able to attract such a distinguished leader as Dr. Baiocchi to join us,” UWT Chancellor Patricia Spakes said. “He received very positive recommendations from every group with which he interviewed, and I am confident he will prove to be a very effective and dynamic leader.”
Baiocchi holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University College in London, an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Rio de
Janeiro and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. He has also held faculty appointments in Brazil and at the University of Missouri-Rolla, California State University Chico and North Dakota State University.
Baiocchi has held a number of leadership roles at universities. He has been dean of the School of Information Systems and Engineering Technology at the SUNY Institute of Technology and served on several academic councils and cabinets.
Crum is the founding director of the Computing and Software Systems program at UW Tacoma. Hired in 1999, he guided the program as it became the Institute of Technology. Dr. Crum was an early champion of the Institute’s fundamental mission of serving underrepresented groups and industry partnerships.
Larry Crum has done a wonderful job, founding first the Computing and Software Systems Program and then the Institute of Technology,” said Jack Nelson, vice chancellor for academic affairs. “Dr. Baiocchi has a solid foundation on which to build and has the full support of the CSS faculty. I am convinced that under Dr. Baiocchi’s leadership we will see substantial growth in the Institute, both in terms of enrollments and in terms of programmatic offerings.”
The Institute of Technology was founded in 2001 as a public-private partnership designed to increase the number of Washington residents earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees that would prepare them for cutting-edge work in the state’s high-tech sector. The Institute has granted more than 150 degrees and now offers bachelor of science and master of science degrees and a minor in Computing and Software Systems. A bachelor of arts in CSS is being developed.
