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| Type | Publicengineering school |
|---|---|
| Established | 1966 |
Parent institution | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Dean | Umesh Mishra |
| Location | , U.S. |
| Website | engineering |
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TheUC Santa Barbara College of Engineering (CoE; formallyRobert Mehrabian College of Engineering) is theengineering school and one of the three undergraduate colleges at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The College offers a mid-sized, interdisciplinary environment where innovation drives the development of both fundamental science and applied technology solutions.
As of Fall 2023, the College of Engineering had 162 faculty members, approximately 1,823 undergraduate students, and 733 graduate students.[1]
The College of Engineering comprises the following departments:[2]
The college is connected to the UCSB campus through innovative multi-disciplinary/outreach academic programs:[3]
UCSB Engineering is home to the nation's first NSF-funded Quantum Foundry, a center dedicated to developing materials for quantum information-based technologies. The College operates as the West Coast hub of the American Photonics Manufacturing Institute and is a key participant in the federal Next Generation Power Electronics Institute. Notably, UCSB's Materials Research Laboratory is regarded as one of the top five materials research facilities in the world. Much of this work is conducted in collaboration with UCSB's interdisciplinary research centers and institutes, which include:[4]
The college offers the B.S. degree inchemical engineering,computer engineering,computer science,electrical engineering, andmechanical engineering.[5] The B.S. programs in chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission ofAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The computer science B.S. program is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. Jointly with the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the college offers an undergraduate degree incomputer engineering.[6] The curriculum for the undergraduate programs is designed to be completed in four years.
The UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering maintains a highly selective admissions process. As of 2024, the College reported an overall acceptance rate of approximately 9%.[7] Acceptance rates vary among specific programs:
The college offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering, computer science, electrical & computer engineering, materials science, and mechanical engineering.[10] It also offers graduate programs in technology management, bioengineering, biomolecular science & engineering, and media arts & technology.[11]
The college has 150 faculty members, most of whom are involved in interdisciplinary research and academic programs. Twenty-nine faculty members are in theNational Academy of Engineering and nine are elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.[12] Three faculty members have won theNobel Prize.Alan J. Heeger, Professor of Physics and of Materials, won the 2000Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the discovery and development of conductive polymers",Herbert Kroemer, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and of Materials, won the 2000Nobel Prize in Physics "for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and opto-electronics".[13] In 2006Shuji Nakamura, a professor of Materials and Computer Engineering, won theMillennium Technology Prize for developing blue, green, and white LEDs and the blue laser diode as well as receiving a 2014Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the invention of blue light-emitting diodes.[14][15][16] In 2015, ProfessorArthur Gossard was awarded theNational Medal of Technology and Innovation by the Obama Administration.
On June 12, 2025, the UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering was renamed the Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering afterRobert Mehrabian, an Armenian-American materials scientist who served as the fourth engineering dean from 1983 to 1990 at the university.[17]
Convergence is the magazine of Engineering and the Sciences at UC Santa Barbara. Sponsored by the College of Engineering and the Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences in the College of Letters and Science,Convergence was begun in early 2005 as a three-times-a-year print publication, with the goal of bringing stories of interest from engineering and the sciences to the desks and coffee tables of a wide range of alumni, friends, partners, funding agencies, corporations, donors and potential supporters. This publication prints annually.[citation needed]
According to theLeiden Ranking, engineering and physical sciences at UCSB is ranked #1 among public universities for top 10% research citation impact.[18] According to theNational Research Council rankings, the UCSB engineering graduate research program in Materials was ranked #1 and Chemical Engineering ranked #5 in the nation among public universities.[19]
34°24′50″N119°50′28″W / 34.413868°N 119.841214°W /34.413868; -119.841214
