UCLA Engineering Alumnus Fang Lu Gifts $1M to Support Research

Triple Bruin engineer Fang Lu M.S. ’88, Engr. ’89, Ph.D. ’92 has been a generous supporter of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering over the past 15 years. His latest gift of $1 million will help fund research in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Bioengineering Department.

“I have noticed that more and more technologies that we think of as traditionally in the realm of electrical engineering have been applied to medicine — electronic and robotic devices as well as artificial intelligence are being used to prevent, diagnose or treat diseases, or to assist people with disabilities to move or communicate,” Lu said. “As an engineer, I am delighted that technologies can help preserve or restore the health of human beings and that really motivated me to support UCLA Samueli’s wonderful efforts in these two areas.”

“As an engineer, I am delighted that technologies can help preserve or restore the health of human beings and that really motivated me to support UCLA Samueli’s wonderful efforts in these two areas,” Fang Lu said.

Previously, Lu has helped establish two graduate student fellowships, an endowed faculty chair, and an optics and quantum electronics research laboratory in Engineering VI.

“We are grateful for Fang Lu’s ongoing support of the school,” said UCLA Samueli interim dean Bruce Dunn. “With this generous gift, our faculty and students can conduct research that helps translate technological advancement into practical health care solutions.”

Lu’s deep connection to the school dates back to the mid-1980s when he was a graduate student working in the Integrated Circuits and Systems Lab under the tutelage of electrical engineering professor Henry Samueli.

After getting his doctorate in 1992, Lu joined a startup co-founded by Samueli that would eventually become Broadcom, Inc. — one of the world’s leading semiconductor and software companies.

Over the last three decades, Lu has enjoyed a productive and highly impactful career as a Broadcom fellow and its technical director, designing algorithms and architectures for digital signal processing, as well as high-speed analog and digital-integrated circuits. He is the inventor or co-inventor of more than 25 issued or pending patents.

“My knowledge and training that have served me so well across my career at Broadcom were acquired from the engineering school at UCLA,” he said. “I think that is the same story for so many UCLA engineering graduates and it’s my great hope that more of us look for ways to support our alma mater.”