In 1943, the California
Senate authorized a College of Engineering at UCLA - the only
new engineering college established at
a major university
since 1912.
In 1944, Llewellyn
M. K. Boelter was appointed its first Dean. When
the College welcomed its first engineering students in 1945, there
were still no permanent engineering facilities at UCLA, and only
six engineering instructors.
By 1952, the College had grown rapidly. There were 65 faculty members, a research staff of 55 and 87 support and technical staff. The College housed four different computers for research, as well as a supersonic and subsonic wind tunnels and propulsion facility. More than 250 engineering graduate students were enrolled at UCLA, including those in off-campus programs in California and New Mexico.
By 1961, under Dean Boelter’s leadership, UCLA has become the first university to have a fully accredited unified undergraduate curriculum.
Three additional permanent engineering buildings had opened: Engineering
II, the Nuclear Reactor Building, and Engineering III, housing
nearly 600 academic, extension and support staff. There were active
research and educational
programs in air pollution, solar energy, computer design, automated
learning, salt-water reclamation, nuclear engineering, artificial
limbs and space
flight, among other fields.
The next decade proved to be equally productive for the College, which became the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1969, housing seven departments.
This same year, the first node of what would become the Internet was successfully connected and tested. In 1973, the School awarded its 10,000th engineering degree since it first opened its doors just 28 years before. The School also supported dynamic research activities in computer design, ceramics, structures, nuclear reactor safety, earthquake studies, high-speed aerodynamics, hydrogen, air pollution, reverse osmosis and other areas.
By the mid-1980s, the School’s reorganization was nearly complete, one that emphasized departmental activities. In 1985, the University approved MS and PhD degrees in aerospace, chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical and nuclear engineering, as well as in materials science and engineering. The School had chosen to focus its expertise on key fields at the forefront of technology, including high-speed, high-frequency electronics, nuclear safety, manufacturing engineering and robotics, artificial intelligence, hazardous waste control, fusion engineering, and water resources. Many of these programs are recognized nationally for the quality of the personnel and laboratories. Extramural funding increased significantly, and it not only supported research activities and laboratories, but also state-of-the art instructional labs.
As the School celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1995, it continued to set new standards for engineering excellence. Exceptional new faculty members had joined the School, in turn attracting undergraduate and graduate students who were among the best and brightest in the world. New research programs in microelectromechanical systems, wireless networking and communications and biomedical engineering had been added, and plans were underway to add a new interdepartmental degree program in biomedical engineering.
Just five years later, the School was dedicated the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, honoring three-time alumnus and electrical engineering professor Henry Samueli. He and his wife, Susan, made a $30 million gift to the School, the largest in its history, to support graduate fellowships, teaching awards, term chairs, capital construction and other high-priority projects. In 2002, the School added the Department of Bioengineering. It was also awarded three highly competitive interdisciplinary research centers, the NSF Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, the NASA Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration, and the DARPA Center for Nanoscience Innovation for Defense. The following year, the School was awarded two more research centers, the MARCO Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics Focus Center and the NSF Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing. The School has become a leader in embedded systems and sensor networks, nano and microelectromechanical systems, integrated circuits and systems, and nano, bio and electronic materials.
In 2005, the School’s 60th anniversary, it is well prepared to engineer new discoveries
that stretch across engineering and other disciplines such as medicine, the arts,
life science and physical science. and develop the advanced technologies of the
future. With strong teaching and research programs, a dedicated faculty and staff,
outstanding alumni and state-of-the-art facilities, it is hardly surprising that
UCLA Engineering is among the top-ranked engineering programs in the country.
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