# UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, informally known as UCLA Samueli School of Engineering or UCLA Engineering, is the school of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It opened as the College of Engineering in 1945 and was renamed the School of Engineering in 1969. Since its initial enrollment of 379 students, the school has grown to approximately 6,500 students. The school offers 28 degree programs and is home to eight externally funded interdisciplinary research centers, including those in space exploration, wireless sensor systems, and nanotechnology.

## History

The school was renamed for its alumnus and Professor Henry Samueli, who received his B.S. (1975), M.S. (1976), and Ph.D. (1980) in Electrical Engineering there. Samueli is co-founder, chairman, and chief technology officer of Broadcom Corporation and a philanthropist in the Orange County community. He and his wife Susan donated $30 million to the school in 1999. It was at UCLA that Dr. Henry Nicholas and Dr. Henry Samueli met and later formed Broadcom.
The main building is Boelter Hall (Engineering II and III), named after Llewellyn M. K. Boelter, a Mechanical Engineering professor at UC Berkeley who became the first Dean of the school. He "often took an active role in the lives of the school's students, and his approach to engineering impacted many of their careers," according to the school. He retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Chauncey Starr, a pioneer in nuclear power development.
HSSEAS is housed in two other buildings: Engineering IV, and Engineering V, which houses the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Engineering I was demolished in August 2011, to be replaced by Engineering VI, which houses the Western Institute of Nanotechnology on Green Engineering and Metrology (WIN-GEM) in 2014. The ground breaking ceremony for Engineering VI building was held October 26, 2012 with Congressman Henry A. Waxman and Henry Samueli. On March 19, 2015, Engineering VI phase I was dedicated and phase II broke ground with the help of James L. Easton, class of '59 alumnus. Engineering VI was completed and opened in 2018.
The school is credited as the birthplace of the Internet, where the first message was sent to a computer at Stanford University on October 29, 1969, by Professor Leonard Kleinrock and his research team at UCLA. On September 29, 2008, President George W. Bush presented the 2007 National Medal of Science to Kleinrock for "his fundamental contributions to the mathematical theory of modern data networks, and for the functional specification of packet switching, which is the foundation of Internet technology. His mentoring of generations of students has led to the commercialization of technologies that have transformed the world." Room 3420 at Boelter Hall, where the first message was sent, has been converted into The Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive (renamed KIHC – The Kleinrock Internet History Center at UCLA).
UCLA conferred its first Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1947, its first Master of Science degree in 1948, and its first Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1950. Annual Engineering commencement ceremonies are held in June at Pauley Pavilion.

## Departments and programs

The Samueli School of Engineering has seven departments and one interdepartmental program, which are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The school offers the following degrees:
| Program | B.S. | M.S. | Ph.D. | Other |
| Aerospace Engineering | * | * | * | |
| Bioengineering | * | * | * | |
| Chemical Engineering | * | * | * | |
| Computer Engineering | * | | | |
| Civil Engineering | * | * | * | |
| Computer Science | * | * | * | |
| Computer Science and Engineering | * | | | |
| Electrical Engineering | * | * | * | |
| Engineering | | * | | 1 |
| Engineering and Applied Science | | | | 2 |
| Manufacturing Engineering | | * | | |
| Materials Engineering | * | | | |
| Materials Science and Engineering | | * | * | |
| Mechanical Engineering | * | * | * | |
* Online M.S. Degree
* Graduate Certificate of Specialization

## Undergraduate admissions

For Fall 2019, UCLA Engineering received 25,804 freshman applications and admitted 2,505 for an admission rate of 9.7%.
For Fall 2015 admitted students had a median weighted grade point average (GPA) of 4.5 and a median SAT score of 2190.
The breakdown of SAT scores by subject is as follows:
| Subject | Score | Percentile |
| Mathematics | 770 | 98 |
| Critical Reading | 690 | 95 |
| Writing | 730 | 98 |
| Composite | 2190 | 98 |
Median SAT Mathematics II score: 790
For Fall 2020, UCLA Engineering received 24,039 freshman applications and admitted 2,640 for an admission rate of 11.0%.
Admitted students had a median unweighted grade point average (GPA) of 4.00, a median weighted GPA of 4.59, and a median SAT score of 1540.

## Undergraduate Enrollment (2022)

| Undergraduate Major | Enrollment |
| Aerospace Engineering | 230 |
| Bioengineering | 303 |
| Chemical Engineering | 298 |
| Computer Engineering | 132 |
| Civil Engineering | 357 |
| Computer Science | 1,057 |
| Computer Science & Engineering | 202 |
| Electrical Engineering | 532 |
| Materials Engineering | 142 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 647 |
| Undeclared Engineering | 145 |
| Total | 4,045 |
Graduate Enrollment: 2,503
* M.S. Students: 1,386
* Ph.D. Students: 1,117
Total HSSEAS Enrollment: 6,584

## Alumni
### Winners of the UCLA Engineering Alumni of the Year award

| Name | Degrees | Distinctions |
| Ahmadreza Rofougaran | B.S. '86, M.S. '88, Ph.D. ’98 | Pioneering RF CMOS & mmWave Radios, Co-founder of Movandi Corporation and Innovent System Inc |
| Paul Baran | M.S. ’59 | Internet Pioneer (1926 - 2011) |
| Aaron S. Cohen | ’58 | Vice Chairman and Founder, National Technical Systems |
| Linda P.B. Katehi | M.S. '81, Ph.D. '84 | Awarded for "distinguishing herself in both academia and in integrated circuits and systems." (Former Provost and Vice Chancellor of UIUC, Former Chancellor of UC Davis) |
| Henry T. Nicholas III | Ph.D. '98 | |
| Asad M. Madni | M.S. '72 | |
| Vint Cerf | M.S. '57, Ph.D. '70 | Google Internet Evangelist, creator of TCP/IP |
| Dwight Streit | Ph.D. '86 | |
| Henry Samueli | Ph.D. '80 | Co-founder of Broadcom Corporation |
| Jack S. Gordon | M.E. '76 | |
| Ronald D. Sugar | Ph.D. '71 | Former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman |
| Robert F. Graham | B.S. '55 | |
| Richard S. Simonsen | B.S. '55 | |
| Peter Staudhammer | (?) '55, Ph.D. '57 | NASA Distinguished Public Service Medalist, 2002 (1935 - 2008) |
| John (Jack) F. Gifford | B.S. '63 | Co-founder of AMD and Maxim Integrated Products (1941 - 2009) |
| Gerald A. Johnston | M.S. '72 | |
| James L. Easton | B.S. '59 | Chairman and CEO of Jas. D. Easton Inc., now merged into Easton-Bell Sports |
| Edsel D. Dunford | M.E. '73 | |
| Eugene C. Gritton | Ph.D. '66 | |
| John F. Cashen | Ph.D. '71 | |
| Edward P. Smith | B.S. '57 | |
| Russell R. O'Neill | Ph.D. '56 | Dean Emeritus (1916 - 2007) |
| Ben Rich | M.S. '50 | |
| Brien D. Ward | Ph.D. '67 | |
| Sam F. Iacobellis | M.S. '63 | |
| Gary E. MacDougal | B.S. '58 | |
| John B. Slaughter | Ph.D. '71 | |
| Robert N. Parker | M.S. '56 | |
| Leonard F. Buchanan | Ph.D. '68 | |
| Jacob B. Frankel | Ph.D. '51 | |
| Paul D. Castenholz | M.S. '58 | |
| Norman E. Friedmann | Ph.D. '57 | |
| Myron Tribus | Ph.D. '49 | |
| Robert Bromberg | Ph.D. '51 | |
| Ralph E. Crump | B.S. '50 | |
| Raymond M. Hill | B.S. '55 | |
| Trude C. Taylor | B.S. '49 | (? - 2008) |
| Armond Hairapetian | B.S. '87, M.S. '88, Ph.D. '93 | |
| Josephine M. Cheng | B.S. '75, M.S. '77 | |
| B. John Garrick | MS '62, PhD '68 | |
| Joanne M. Maguire | MS ’78 | Former executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems between 2006 and 2013 |
| Tyson Tuttle | Ms '92 | Former Chief Executive Officer, Silicon Labs, 2012 to 2022 |

### Other notable alumni

* Allen Adham ’90: co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment
* Michael Morhaime ’90: co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment
* Frank Pearce ’90: co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment
* James Collins ’50: founder of Sizzler
* Chris “Jesus” Ferguson ’86, Ph.D. ’99: professional poker player
* Klein Gilhousen ’69: co-inventor of CDMA technology and co-founder of Qualcomm
* Blake Krikorian ’90: founder of Sling Media
* K. Megan McArthur, ’93: NASA astronaut
* James D. Plummer ’66, M.S. ’67, Ph.D. ’71: Dean of Stanford University School of Engineering

## Deans

* Llewellyn M.K. Boelter, 1944-1965
* Chauncey Starr, 1967–1973
* Russell R. O'Neill, 1974–1983
* George L. Turin, 1983–1986
* A.R. Frank Wazzan, 1986–2001
* Vijay K. Dhir, 2003–2015
* Jayathi Murthy, 2016–2022
* Bruce Dunn, 2022–2023 (interim)
* Ah-Hyung "Alissa" Park, 2023–present

## Faculty

Faculty members: 164
National Academy of Engineering members: 28
Faculty distinctions:
| Name | Department | Distinctions |
| Asad Ali Abidi | Electrical Engineering | CMOS RF circuits, National Academy of Engineering |
| Birgitte Ahring | Civil and Environmental Engineering | First woman to receive the Villum Kann Rasmussen Award |
| Mau-Chung Frank Chang | Electrical Engineering | Semiconductor materials, RF circuits, National Academy of Engineering |
| Thomas Connolly (1923 – 2006) | Nuclear Engineering | American Nuclear Society |
| Vijay K. Dhir | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | National Academy of Engineering |
| Deborah Estrin | Computer Science | National Academy of Engineering |
| Thelma Estrin | Computer Science | Women in Technology International's Hall of Fame |
| Sheila Greibach | Computer Science | Greibach normal form |
| Chih-Ming Ho | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | National Academy of Engineering |
| Tatsuo Itoh | Electrical Engineering | National Academy of Engineering |
| Leonard Kleinrock | Computer Science | Internet pioneer, 2007 National Medal of Science |
| Alan Kay | Computer Science | 2003 Turing Award |
| John Kim | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | National Academy of Engineering |
| Tung Hua Lin (1911 – 2007) | Civil and Environmental Engineering | China's first twin engine aircraft, National Academy of Engineering |
| David Okrent (1922 – 2012) | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | Nuclear Reactor Safety, National Academy of Engineering |
| Henry John Orchard (1922 – 2004) | Electrical Engineering | Filter design |
| Judea Pearl | Computer Science | Bayesian network, 2012 Turing Award, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering |
| Jason Speyer | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | National Academy of Engineering |
| Demetri Terzopoulos | Computer Science | 2006 Academy Award, Royal Society of London, Royal Society of Canada, European Academy of Sciences |