2025-08-09: ODU's Strategic Research Thrust Areas Uniquely Describe ODU

https://www.odu.edu/research/strategic-research-areas 

ODU published its "Strategic Research Areas" last April, and I've been meaning to comment on it for a while. First, it hasn't been well messaged (yet), as reflected by an informal poll of my WSDL peers.  Second, I'm reaching the stage in my career where I read with enthusiasm "strategy" and "policy" documents.

So what makes this strategy statement different from previous iterations?  First, it uniquely describes ODU.  Instead of a collection of generic terms like "impact", "development", "innovation", etc., the four thrusts identified capture many of ODU's current activities and are areas of ODU's comparative and competitive advantage. The official document has more eloquent language justifying the four thrusts, but mostly it comes down to the geography and resulting industry and demographics of the Hampton Roads region:

• Coastal Resilience: we have a lot of flooding, for example, Norfolk is second only to New Orleans for flood risk

• Health Innovations: we have a lot of uninsured people, which is one the many reasons for our healthcare disparities

• Maritime Systems: we have a lot of ships, centered around the largest shipyard in the country

• National Security: we have a lot of military, including the largest naval base in the world

Certainly other institutions are active in some of these areas, but I can't think of another institution more centered at the intersection of the four.  In addition to the main areas, there are five cross-cutting research areas that, while not unique to ODU, are critically important and enabling to nearly every research pursuit: 

• AI/ML

• Autonomous & Networked Systems

• Computational & Data Science

• Cybersecurity & Network Security 

• Modeling & Simulation

Happily, I find myself, and WSDL, in most if not all of the five cross-cutting areas. 

This "4+5" model does not exhaustively catalog all of ODU's research areas, but it is a helpful descriptive and prescriptive model for informing future resource investments. All institutions have to choose what they are going to be good at, and in this case, we've chosen to be good at the things that are unique to ODU and Hampton Roads.  These are difficult times for university research, and the nation seems to have lost sight of the economic impact of funding higher education.  Hopefully ODU's alignment of research thrusts to this unique combination of the region's strengths – and weaknesses – will allow us to demonstrate that higher education is a public good. 

–Michael