UCLA Engineering: UCLA Engineer Fall 2004

Engineering Parent’s Gift Helps Upgrade Instructional Laboratories

By Marlys Amundson

Kevin Hall, father of a third-year aerospace engineering student at UCLA, has made a five-year commitment in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department. Hall has pledged $20,000 per year in appreciated securities to support the department’s teaching laboratories.

“Engineering education without practical application makes for a very hard transition to a real job, both to pick a product area of interest and to be immediately useful to employers,” noted Hall. “Updated, flexible laboratory environments are a key companion to theoretical and practical engineering education and problem solving.”

The department has four main teaching laboratories that support classes ranging from the principles of mechanical engineering to computer-aided design (CAD) to aerodynamics to manufacturing. Hall’s annual gift will help the department to substantially improve the quality of the labs, including doubling the available computers in the CAD laboratory and key hardware and software upgrades.

“We were very pleasantly surprised to have a parent make this type of commitment to the department,” said H. Thomas Hahn, chair of the department and a professor in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “Kevin’s gift gives us the encouragement to move forward with planned improvements to the teaching labs, and we cannot thank him enough for his generosity.”

Hall received his BS (’81) and MS (’82) in electrical engineering from Purdue and Stanford – his wife also has an electrical engineering degree from Purdue – and an MBA (’88) from Stanford.

“I came to the Silicon Valley from the Midwest for the excitement of leading edge technology – and better weather and fruit,” Hall joked.

After completing his master’s degree, Hall worked as an engineer for a year before moving into product marketing for an emerging technology start-up. He transitioned into venture capital work after receiving his MBA, first at Norwest Venture Partners, then at his own company, Crescent Venture Investors.

Over the course of his career, Hall learned “to be patient with personal career growth, but also to find an engineering environment with talented, mentoring, progressive leaders and coworkers that will allow you to work clever and hard.”

Hall, who received a scholarship for graduate school from his national fraternity, has also made gifts to support engineering labs at Purdue, and Stanford MBAs who pursue careers in the non-profit world.

Of his gift to UCLA, Hall explained that he wanted to “support his son’s decision to pursue aeronautical engineering and the School that will launch his career.”