Chancellor Greenwood and Patrick Mantey
in the Baskin Center for Computer Engineering
and Information Sciences (photo: Don Harris)


Training engineers for the 21st century

We will begin building toward what we know will be a distinctive 21st-century School of Engineering." With those recent words, Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood announced a major expansion of UCSC's engineering programs. This long-planned development has ratcheted the campus into high gear and has energized friends of UCSC throughout the region--especially in the high-technology industries of Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay Area.

UC President Richard C. Atkinson jump-started the new programs last October with a commitment of $2 million. UCSC will use the funds to hire sixteen faculty members in the next three to four years, creating new departments in two key disciplines: electrical engineering and applied and engineering mathematics. The first freshmen will matriculate as budding electrical engineers in September.

The programs will mark UCSC's first steps toward establishing a School of Engineering, the first professional school in campus history. Future programs under consideration for this school include biotechnology, manufacturing, and mechanical engineering; environmental instrumentation; applied mechanics; and engineering management.

"Following in the Santa Cruz tradition of the past, the School of Engineering will be innovative and synergistic, with vital research and educational interactions across many disciplines," Greenwood says. "It also will provide a huge boost to our abilities to educate students to meet the changing demands of society."

Greenwood also will spearhead campus efforts to augment the UC funds with contributions from industry and the private sector.

The expansion will build upon UCSC's existing degree programs in computer engineering and computer science. Among the strengths of these programs are computer-aided design, computer graphics and image processing, systems design for high-speed networks and distributed computing, theoretical computer science, and artificial intelligence. UCSC researchers in these fields have established many vital ties with industry pioneers in the region, and graduates have become key contributors to innovative companies both in northern California and nationally.

Patrick Mantey, chairman of the Computer Engineering Department, is serving as UCSC's associate dean for engineering. "We will now fulfill our dream that the Santa Cruz campus can become a much more important player in the economy of Silicon Valley, the region, and the state," Mantey says. "We are the UC campus closest to Silicon Valley, and we have a special opportunity to serve the Silicon Valley population."

Engineering researchers and students will engage in multidisciplinary work that draws on UCSC's existing strengths in areas such as environmental studies, economics, physics, biology, chemistry and biochemistry, ocean sciences, and earth sciences. A 1991 proposal from a committee to establish a School of Engineering identified such collaborations as likely hallmarks of a Santa Cruz professional school.

Many faculty are enthusiastic to see their careful plans finally bearing fruit. Professor of chemistry and biochemistry Eugene Switkes, who chaired the School of Engineering study committee, says all UCSC students will benefit from the new arrivals.

"We believe that students who come here for engineering programs will bring an intellectual richness to the entire campus community," Switkes says. "One can imagine a pre-engineering student debating with a philosophy student in a literature class."

--Robert Irion