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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

UC Berkeley College Of Engineering
The University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering (Berkeley Engineering) is the public engineering school of the University of California, Berkeley (a land-grant research university in Berkeley, California). Established in 1931, the college occupies fourteen buildings on the northeast side of the main campus and also operates the 150-acre (61-hectare) Richmond Field Station. It is considered to be highly selective and is consistently ranked among the top engineering schools in both the nation and the world.

Academics

The College of Letters and Science (L&S) offers a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, which requires many of the same courses as the College of Engineering's Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) but has different admissions and graduation criteria. It is one of the university's most selective undergraduate programs, along with the College of Engineering's EECS program; acceptance rates have been at or below 5% for both freshman and transfer applicants in recent years—5.2% for Fall 2020 EECS freshman applicants, which was lower than the MIT acceptance rate. Berkeley's chemical and biomolecular engineering departments are under the College of Chemistry.

McLaughlin Hall, the college's administration building

Departments

Students

There are approximately 4,100 undergraduates in the College of Engineering, which for the 2021/22 application cycle had an acceptance rate of 7.6%, while Berkeley as a whole had a 14% acceptance rate. The Management, Entrepreneurship & Technology (MET) program, a dual-degree track offered in collaboration with the Haas School of Business, is even more selective, with an acceptance rate of less than 3%. Applicants to the college may apply directly to one of the departments and enter with a declared major or may apply as an undeclared matriculant; major declaration is required at the end of sophomore year. Once within the college, it is possible to change majors with the approval of Engineering Student Services but it is difficult for undergraduates in other colleges at Berkeley to transfer into Engineering. The college accepts transfer applications, although only 9% of the over 2,300 junior transfer applicants were admitted for the 2015/16 academic year.

Over 81% of undergraduates receive a bachelor's degree in four years, with over 90% doing so within six years. 85% of undergraduates admitted to the college graduate from the college, and 91% graduate from some college at Berkeley. The college has a 4-year graduation policy, with extra semesters approved only in certain cases. Engineering Student Services provides academic advising, peer tutoring, and career services to engineering students. Various student organizations are run in conjunction with the college and many students belong to the student chapters of their corresponding professional organizations. Graduate admissions in the College of Engineering is administered by department. During the 2021/22 academic year, the college had 2,513 graduate students and awarded 228 masters and 244 doctorate degrees as well as 889 professional master's degrees.

The college's enrollment is approximately 32% women. Berkeley has one of the oldest, most active and award-winning sections of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE); established in 1975, it has been recognized with the "Outstanding Collegiate Section Gold Mission Award" at the annual SWE national conference, which is the largest gathering for women in engineering and technology. Among Berkeley engineering alumnae are a 2018 Nobel laureate, a 2008 Turing Award winner, a 2012 Turing Award winner, the first woman to receive a bachelor's degree in engineering from an American university, and the co-founders of Marvell Technology, Atheros Communications, and many other technology companies.

Businesses and entrepreneurship

The school is well-known for producing many successful entrepreneurs; among its alumni are the co-founders and CEOs of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, DoorDash, Coursera, Boeing, Google, Intel, and Tesla. Together with the Haas School of Business (the first American business school at a public university), the college confers joint degrees and advises the university's resident start-up incubator. Founded in 2012, Berkeley SkyDeck promotes research and entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, and has become a top university incubator in the United States.

Built in 1907, Hearst Memorial Mining Building is home to the college's department of materials science and engineering

Student organizations

Research units

All research facilities are managed by one of five Organized Research Units (ORUs):

  • Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) — research and public safety programs against the destructive effects of earthquakes
  • Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) — the largest ORU; advanced research in novel areas within seven different university departments
  • Engineering Systems Research Center (ESRC) — focuses on manufacturing, mechatronics, and microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS)
  • Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering (IESE) — focuses on applying basic research to current and future environmental problems
  • Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) — sponsors research in transportation planning, policy analysis, environmental concerns and transportation system performance

Major research centers, institutes, and programs

Notable projects

Notable faculty

Further information: Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty

Notable alumni

Further information: Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni

See also