Dean Jim Kays

Since taking office a little over 18 months ago, Dean Jim Kays has focused on assuring that the newly formed School of Engineering & Applied Sciences (GSEAS) is well postured for the future. Here, he pauses to answer questions about the status of his School and his vision for the future.     Academic Excellence, Military Relevance, It's what we do.

Q: If I were a prospective student, why should I apply to your school vs another university, say Stanford or MIT?

A: GSEAS offers truly unique, life changing educational experiences that combine the advantages of completing a high quality graduate program, with an opportunity to study in areas and disciplines vital to our nation’s defense…and all of this in an invigorating, joint, international learning culture and environment.

No other graduate school offers the combination of:

• High quality graduate education in engineering and applied sciences. • Research opportunities and curricular focus linked to military services and national security needs. • And, students from all military Services and from over 50 countries.

Our students tell us they are truly energized by this “mixing bowl” effect where students from many different countries contribute their unique perspectives to the problems at hand.

More importantly, while we sustain high academic quality, we are able to remain relevant to today’s changing needs of our sponsors--Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and others—which in turn benefit the students in their future assignments and careers.

Since our research and curricula remain focused on defense needs, our students are studying the latest thinking and scientific developments in their respective Services.

Q: What makes GSEAS’s academic programs so unique and different from other universities?

A: We sustain our programs to remain relevant to national security, but also to have an extraordinary impact on the life-long needs and careers of our students. The Services benefit from our graduates who are prepared to anticipate and respond to change and lead transformation in technical areas. As one isolated example of looking forward, and responding to national needs we have graduated 33 astronauts, more than any other graduate institution.

• The curricula are forward looking: Our programs are different. Too often, academic curricula become stagnant and lose their relevance to constituent needs. To assure that we remain relevant and keep pace with change, we work hand-in-hand with our sponsors to identify their future needs/wants and how best to adjust our curricula and areas of research. For example, while we retain traditional science and engineering programs, we also address areas that include nano-technologies, unmanned systems, high energy weapons systems, electric powered ships, undersea warfare, systems engineering, space systems and battlespace environments. • National security relevance: Each curriculum has a sponsor within DoD and is reviewed periodically to assure that content and areas of focus are aligned to current and future needs related to national security. • Real world applicability: We immerse our students in a learning environment that balances traditional academic content with a hands-on pedagogy, enabled with cutting edge technology characteristic of future battle space environments and systems. By any measure, the range of our offerings is impressive. They include how weather or ocean currents affect communications and weapon systems; the potential of high energy weapons on future war fighting capabilities; the use of unmanned underwater, land and aerial vehicles, as well as space systems to enable future net-centric, joint capabilities; the enabling effects of secure, wireless networks to provide sensor-to-shooter common situational awareness; the ability to conceive and decompose future joint war fighting concepts and capabilities into functions and requirements and then into integrated systems-of-systems for the purpose of meeting a continuum of national security needs in an effective, reliable manner that accounts for risk and costs…to cite just a few.

Q: Your briefings all stress the following: “developing agile, innovative minds”.
What do you mean by that?

A: We approach the challenge of educating military officers knowing that they will rarely be called on to lead, manage and make decisions in environments that replicate our classrooms. Thus, the value of our education will ultimately be measured in the abilities of our graduates to anticipate and respond to change; to leverage agile, innovative thinking and respond to new, different, unexpected situations and environments; and as they work their way through the unknowns of the future, they leverage the technical knowledge and astute thinking skills inherent in our educational processes. We capture these ideas with the short motto, “…developing agile, innovative minds.”

Q: What were your expectations when you applied for the Dean’s job?

A: I was attracted first by the purpose of NPS and its focus on national security, and second, by its reputation for high academic quality. I also had been privileged to serve in another academic environment immersed in a military structure and was very much attracted by the opportunity to serve my nation by educating many of its future military leaders. I expected high academic quality, superb faculty, dedicated and enthusiastic students and a culture committed to national defense; and I haven’t been disappointed. NPS has exceeded all of my expectations, and I am honored to serve in my role as Dean.

Q: What are your expectations now that you have become the Dean?

A: We have completed a strategic assessment of where we are today and how we intend to guide our school to assure that it remains aligned to the needs of the Navy and DoD at large. The assessment identified our strengths, as well as areas in which we will grow and improve. We now have a vision and a set of goals for sustaining our core strengths, remaining aligned to future defense needs and continuing to provide a world class graduate education to our students. Our focus on high quality graduate education in engineering and applied sciences will remain unchanged, but we look forward to assuring that our efforts and resource investments are in growth areas vital to the future of the Navy and our nation. We are very optimistic about the future. I have every confidence that our first class faculty will continue to serve their nation by providing educational opportunities to future military leaders that are truly unique and second to none.