The 2026 issue of Rice Engineering and Computing Magazine is here!
This issue explores the ideas, people and partnerships shaping what comes next. Inspired by the momentum behind Vision 2030 — our school’s new strategic plan — this year’s stories highlight how our community is taking on big challenges in health and well-being, sustainability and resilience, and computing and AI. Inside, you’ll find a closer look at the research, collaborations and bold thinking driving Rice Engineering and Computing forward.
Featured
From the Dean
Last year, we closed the chapter on Vision to 2025 — and what a chapter it was. Over seven years, we grew our faculty, launched new academic programs and opened the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. It was a plan built to accelerate growth, and it delivered. Now we turn the page. Our new strategic plan, Vision 2030, builds on that momentum and looks toward what’s next.
Solving for Grand Challenges
What if where you live no longer determines the care you receive? What if water systems could adapt as quickly as the pressures on them? What if artificial intelligence doesn’t just deliver answers but helps us understand?
Questions like these are shaping the next five years of research at our school. Our faculty has identified nine grand challenges — problems too urgent, too complex, and too consequential to ignore. Together, they define where we're headed and what it will take to get there.
In the Hedges
Rice Launches AI and Digital Health Degrees
As artificial intelligence reshapes industries and digital technologies transform how medicine is practiced, Rice University is expanding its academic offerings to prepare the next generation of engineers.
Brain Cancer Researcher Earns Sontag Foundation Distinction
Christina Tringides, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, has been named a Distinguished Scientist, a national recognition for early career researchers advancing brain cancer research.
Latest News Headlines
Read the latest news about how our researchers are developing new ways to cool electronics and remove 'forever chemicals' from water. Learn about the role a Rice alumna played in NASA's Artemis II lunar mission.
State of the School
School enrollment has increased by 11% for undergraduates and 21% for graduate students from 2021-2025.
Remembering Esteemed Faculty
The engineering community remembers faculty whose contributions shaped the university’s academic landscape.
Rice in the World
Most organizations adopt new technologies by asking how to do the same things faster. Our alumni are asking a different question: what should exist that doesn’t yet?
Five Stories That Excite Us
Engineering innovation is happening all around us. Check out these five stories from Houston and beyond.
New Faculty
Nineteen new hires spanning eight departments further establish the school’s prominence in our key research areas.
Ideas + Research
Big Challenges. Bold Ideas.
Before a patient takes a step, a storm makes landfall or a genetic design enters a cell, Rice engineers are changing what’s possible.
Global by Design: The iSEED Experience
For our engineers, innovation doesn’t just happen in the lab — it happens in communities around the world.
Throughline
Learn how Rice Engineering and Computing prepares students with the technical, experiential and leadership skills needed to succeed in today’s workforce.
People + Perspectives
In Their Own Words
As quantum computing moves to the cloud, Tirthak Patel is developing tools and safeguards needed to make future quantum systems reliable, secure and practical for scientific discovery.
Hidden in the Data
Rice graduate Nick McMillan '19 blends statistics, programming and storytelling to reveal patterns of harm and hold institutions accountable.
Five Questions for Alina Kampouri
Professor Kampouri explores how metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are advancing energy and environmental technologies through interdisciplinary materials research.
Alumni
Letter from the REA President
Get an update from Felix Campos '08, REA President, on the group’s accomplishments this past year.
Summer Engineering Experience Prepares Students for the Future
The Summer Engineering Experience continues to provide early-stage students with professional engineering opportunities.
REA Engagement Strengthens the Student Community
Rice Engineering and Computing alumni stay actively engaged by building connections, mentoring students and helping shape the next generation of engineers.
REA by the Numbers
See the impact of Rice Engineering Alumni by the numbers, and explore ways to get involved and stay connected.
The Way Back
Question?
Students and alumni share the breakthroughs they hope to see, the problems they believe engineering can solve and the future they want to help shape.
Looking Back/Looking Forward
From helping establish Houston as Space City to supporting NASA’s Artemis II mission, Rice engineers continue shaping the next era of space exploration.