Before it was our beautiful campus, the land UCSB is built on was orginially used as Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara. The Regents of University of California puchased the land in 1954 and began building plans for what is now University of California Santa Barbara.

The "Santa Barbara College of the University of California" was once located on the Riviera. In fact, the El Encanto Hotel housed some of our faculty before we moved our campus to Goleta in 1958.

In the Spring of 1961, the School of Engineering was established by the Regents of the University. The undergraduate program was part of the College of Letters and Science. That fall, 90 students were enrolled in freshman engineering.

In September 1961, Albert G. Conrad, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Yale University, was appointed the first dean and professor of the School of Engineering at UCSB. Although his appointment was not effective until July 1, 1962, he actively organized programs, suggested courses, acquired equipment, and recommended appointments to our school. In his spare time, Dean Conrad was an expert violin maker. 

Glen Culler was first an associate professor for the Department of Mathematics at UCSB before joining the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He specialized in on-line computation at the Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Corp. As Head of the UCSB Center of Computing, his continued research expanded the field of computer science enormously, eventually helping UCSB gain national recognition.

In July 1964, the engineering program was reorganized with the newly created Departments of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Frank Ordung was the first Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering. (Pictured: Dr. Kenneth Backman, Dr. Albert Conrad, Dr. Joseph Sayovitz, Dr. Frank Ordung, Dr. Lawrence A. Wan)

In July 1964, the engineering program was reorganized with the newly created Departments of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Otto W. Witzell was the first Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. (Pictured: Dr. Otto W. Witzell, Dr. George Wilson, Dr. Karl Ihrig, Dr. Richard Matula, and Dr. Kenneth Bockman)

The Department of Chemical-Nuclear Engineering was created in 1965 by now Professor Emeritus Robert Rinker. Courses began the Fall of 1966. The Department of Chemical Engineering is also celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year! (Pictured: Dr. Robert Rinker, Dr. Duncan Mellichamp, Dr. John Myers, Dr. Orville Sandall)

The Department of Electrical Engineering begins offering Masters and Doctoral degree graduate programs in fall of 1965. 

Engineering Dean Albert Conrad approached UCSB Chancellor Vernon Cheadle about converting the School of Engineering to the College of Engineering in order to facilitate program accredation and compete with other UC campuses. Dean Conrad wrote a 4 page letter documenting his reasoning and Chancellor Cheadle approved the request in 1966.

During its early years, the School of Engineering operations were conducted in the building formerly occupied by the Department of Industrial Arts (present-day Arts Building). In March of 1965, the construction of the first engineering building began. Engineering I (present-day Harold Frank Hall) was completed by the fall of 1966.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering begins offering graduate and doctoral degree programs in the fall of 1967. (Pictured: A ME student demonstrates a voice-controlled wheelchair)

The Department of Chemical-Nuclear Engineering begins offering Masters and Doctoral degree graduate programs for chemical engineering in the fall of 1967. (Pictured: A student calculates solutions on the IBM 1620)

Black student activitists take over the Computer Center in North Hall by barricading themselves inside to bring to light civil rights issues. The Computer Center housed the IBM360/65, cutting edge computer technology for the time, as well as research related to the up and coming ARPANET, and student records.

Under the direction of Electrical Engineering Professor Glen Culler, our college was chosen as one of the first four nodes of the original ARPANET in 1969, along with UCLA, Stanford, and University of Utah. Professor Culler left behind a legacy of computer science innovation at UCSB, and his contributions to the field changed the world as we know it.

John G. Skalnik was the second dean of the UCSB College of Engineering. He began teaching electrical engineering at the College in 1965.

During this period of technological acceleration, the use of computers to solve engineering and scientific problems was  substantially increasing. The Department of Electrical Engineering becomes Department of Electical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) "to reflect the realities of our teaching and research programs." 

The Department of Chemical-Nuclear Engineering began offering a Masters of Science degree in the fall of 1973. The Nuclear Engineering program was discontinued in 1995.
(Pictured: Chemical-Nuclear Engineering was located in the Art building. Dr. Robert Rinker observes as a department mechanic adjusts a filtering apparatus which is used in research)

John E. Myers was a professor of chemical engineering. During his time as dean, he restored the sliding reputation of the College of Engineering by tightening its standards, starting the university's first ocean engineering research department, and raising research funding by 800 percent. He stepped down from his position in 1983.

Faculty with an interest in the growing discipline of computer science decided to separate from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which offically established the Department of Computer Science in January of 1979.

By 1980, engineering's growing appeal to women was reflected in the fall quarter undergraduate enrollment, which was comprised of 16 percent women. Of the 1,443 students enrolled, 232 were women -- the largest percent in the College's 18 year history. A press release states that UCSB sponsored a number of on-campus events for high school women. The two most popular engineering majors for women at the time were computer science and chemical engineering. 

Dr. Robert Mehrabian was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering in 1983. During his time as Dean, he saw the opportunity to increase collaboration with UCSB's nationally ranked Physics and ECE depts and catalyzed efforts to create a Materials program within the College of Engineering. (Pictured: Dean Mehrabian with his staff. [Front row] Sandra Sampson, Laurie Schock, Robert Mehrabian, Eleanore Alexandra, Peggy Hergenroether, Jim Merz [Back row] Roger Wood, Chris LaVino, Jackie Hynes, Sally Haverty, Steve Barth)

The Engineering Research Centers was an off-campus site created to accomodate expanding research efforts. It housed projects for nuclear engineering as well as the wave tank. 

The highly anticipated Engineering II Building is completed after 18 years of waiting - the plans of its construction were approved in 1969. The new facilities opened doors for all four of the College's departments as well as the new Materials graduate program, allowing for ample interdisciplinary collaboration and research. 

The Department of Materials launches graduate and doctoral degree programs. (Pictured: [clockwise] Tony Evans, Fred Milstein, Fred Lange, Carlos Levi, Bob McMeeking, Bob Odette, Gene Lucas)

The Department of Computer Science begins offering graduate and doctoral degree programs in 1989. (Pictured: [Front row] Omer Egecioglu, Laura Dillion, Ambuj Singh, Mary Rogers, Alan Laub, [Second row] Divyakant Agrawal, Yuan-Fang Wang, Peter Cappello, Theresa Leets, Jeanne Murray, Louise Sciutto, [Back row] Marvin Marcus, John Bruno, Amr El Abbadi, Prakash Ramana, Terry Smith, Roger Wood, Lynn Johnson)

Having established a fully developed Materials Department, UCSB College of Engineering pioneered the development of an open-access user facility for materials characterization. The Materials Research Laboratory was established in 1992 and its research facility was completed in March of 1997.

Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti was appointed Dean of the College of Engineering from 1992 to 1998. He left UCSB to join the faculty of Harvard University as the Armstrong Professor and Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) are university based research centers supported by the by the MRSEC Program of the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The research carried out in MRSECs is carried out in interdisciplinary research groups (IRGs), teams of six to a dozen or more researchers working on a current research topic of national significance.

Although the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering had long been established, it was not until 1999 that computer engineering received its own Bachelor of Science program. This new undergrad degree track was created as a response to the demand for expertise in computer software and hardware in relation to systems ranging from small integrated circuits to worldwide communication networks.

Dean Matthew Tirrell was previously the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota before moving to the UCSB College of Engineering. He was instrumental in the development of a bioengineering program within the College of Engineering and also pushed for the addition of a bioengineering building. He left his position to chair the Department of Bioengineering and teach chemical engineering and materials at UC Berkeley in 2009.

UCSB College of Engineering offers a new interdisciplinary graduate degree program designed to train artists and engineering in the media industries of the 21st century.

The UCSB College of Engineering introduced a campus-wide buisness plan competition to encourage engineers and researchers to refine their entrepreneurial skills. Participating students received limited instruction and mentoring. The success of the inaugural competition has led it to become a highly anticipated annual event, giving students the hands-on experience they need to launch their own successful technology start-ups.

In March 2000, President Clinton awarded Culler the National Medal of Technology for his "pioneering innovations in multiple branches of computing, including early efforts in digital speech processing, invention of the first on-line system for interactive graphical mathematics computing, and pioneering work on the ARPAnet." The ARPAnet eventually became the Internet.

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is an integrated research center operating jointly at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. CNSI was created by Governor Gray Davis as part of a science and innovation initiative to foster interdisciplinary collaborations for discoveries in nanosystems and nanotechnology.

Alan Heeger receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of conductive polymers.

Herbert Kroemer receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics. 

The Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB) is an army-sponsored University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). This interdisciplinary research alliance is led by the University of California, Santa Barbara, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and partners from the Army and industry.

With the understanding that business and innovation go hand-in-hand in an increasingly technology-based economy, the UCSB College of Engineering launched the Technology Management Program as a formal education track in 2004. This program originally offered undergraduates the opportunity to earn a Technology Management Certificate. In 2013, TMP announced the addition of the Master of Technology Management program.

The Engineering Science Building was completed in July 2004 and had its grand opening on October 22nd, 2004 to celebrate the new labs and facilities. The 54,000 square-foot structure orginially housed 24 faculty offices and 19 research laboratories, including Shuji Nakamura's second floor Solid State Lighting Lab that developed LEDs. In addition, this new building featured a state-of-the-art Nanofabrication facility cleanroom.

Professor Shuji Nakamura was awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention of revolutionary new light sources: blue, green, and white light-emitting diodes and the blue laser diode. The Millennium Technology Prize is the world's biggest technology award and presented once every second year.

UC Santa Barbara's Institute for Energy Efficiency is an interdisciplinary research institute committed to increasing energy efficiency in all of its research areas by 50 percent by 2025.

The Center for BioEngineering (CBE) builds on UC Santa Barbara's strengths and an interdisciplinary institution, interfacing research and teaching from engineering, biology, and physical sciences. 

Formerly the Chief Scientist at Bell Labs, was appointed the Richard A. Auhll Professor and Dean of the College of Engineering at UCSB in September 2011. He is world-renowned for his work on optical switching technology and architecture, and his research has been central to the development of fiber optic communications systems.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) awarded Shuji Nakamura, professor of materials and of electronic and computer engineering, the 63rd Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in technical or engineering development. Professor Nakamuras invention of energy efficient LEDs enabled the development of large-venue, large-screen direct view color displays.

Professor Theodore Kim, who taught computer science, earned an Academy Award for the development of an advanced, now industry standard technique for smoke and fire effects, an excellent example of how the impact of engineering research can cross the boundaries of different industries. Kim was the first sitting UCSB professor to earn an Academy Award. 

The Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC) was established in late 2013 as a collaborative hub for key industry leaders and UCSB researchers to advance solid-state lighting and energy efficient power switching using wide-bandgap semiconducters. Previous generations of this center were called Solid State Lighting & Display Center (SSLDC), founded in 2001, and Solid State Lighting & Energy Center (SSLEC), founded in 2007.

Professor Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.

President Obama awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Professor Arthur Gossard for his work in the area of materials growth. Gossard’s research is the foundation of groundbreaking scientific and technological advances in semiconductor molecular layered materials.

American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) is established as part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). This institute is focused on developing an end-to-end photonic integrated circuit (PIC) ecosystem in the U.S. to establish a framework for the manufacturing of silicon photonics. 

The completion of the BioEngineering Building is slated for the summer of 2017. Its grand opening is tentatively scheduled of October of this year! 

The groundbreaking for Henley Hall, a new building to support the efforts of the Institute of Energy Efficiency, is projected to take place in 2018.