Dean Jayathi Murthy, who joined the school in January, announced the expansion plans upon her arrival. The goals:
• Add 50 new full-time faculty to the current roster of 175. Dean Murthy and a leadership team are working to identify several pillars of excellence – cross-disciplinary research areas of critical importance and dynamic growth – and will hire talented researchers and educators in those areas.
• Add 1,000 students to the current enrollment of roughly 5,000. The University of California announced in 2015 that it seeks to enroll more California students on its campuses. This also will be a priority for UCLA Engineering as it increases its undergraduate cohort by 650 students, to roughly 4,000, and graduate program by 350, to roughly 2,000.
• Increase diversity. The school will work closely with California high schools, community colleges, industry partners, alumni and others to add more women and people from underrepresented groups to the school’s student body. The school is equally committed to diversifying its faculty roster.
• Transform engineering education: The school will tailor its curriculum to emphasize hands-on, interdisciplinary opportunities throughout the undergraduate years. UCLA Engineering’s top-ranked Master’s Online program already is a national model for reaching new and underserved audiences with cutting-edge educational tools. The school will leverage this strength in the United States and abroad. While the school will maintain its rigor in teaching the basics, it will expand its offerings in entrepreneurship, career advancement and professional skills.
“UCLA Engineering is already one of the great engineering schools in the world and a jewel in the University of California system,” said Murthy. “Our expansion will allow us to generate more, and more impactful, cutting-edge technologies and new knowledge. We will be a leader in changing the face of engineering so it better represents California and the world around us. We will connect even more strongly with our community, and with engineering enterprises around the globe. Most important, we will raise the bar in preparing the next generations of engineers to transform lives for the better.”