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NEWS
April 2026

#9 in the Nation

I am proud to share that our UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is the #9 engineering school in the nation. This is according to the US News & World Report Rankings of Best Engineering Schools released last week. We rose one notch, up from #10 last year! Our bioengineering graduate program rose to #4 in the nation, and computer science-artificial intelligence broke into the top 10. This is just a sample of the incredible excellence all across the Jacobs School.

To the faculty, staff and students of the Jacobs School, congratulations and thank you. Your excellence, hard work and perseverance are truly inspiring.

Congratulations and thank you, as well, to everyone who partners with us on research, education, workforce development and entrepreneurship. Our industry, public sector and philanthropic partners, as well as our donors, friends and alumni are all absolutely essential to our efforts to serve as an engine of collaboration in the national interest.

The stats driving our #9 ranking shine a light on our real-world excellence — the excellence that defines all our academic departments, institutes, centers, labs and teams.

Our research expenditures, for example, rose to $329M. This is up 4.2% from last year, despite persistent uncertainty surrounding science and technology funding nationally. It is a testament to our relevance that nearly half of our research expenditures come from industry research partnerships or from philanthropic partnerships. In fact, one of my most enduring mantras is: the great engineering schools of the next decade will collaborate their way to relevance.

I am actively working with everyone in our community to ensure the Jacobs School is one of these great engineering schools, today and long into the future. If you have ideas for how we can collaborate to scale up our positive impacts across the nation, please get in touch. As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu.

Sincerely,

Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives

The Jacobs School Ranked Top 9 Up from #10

#9 in the Nation

In addition to our #9 ranking overall, nine Jacobs School graduate programs rank in the top 20 in the new US News Rankings. This is just one indicator of the excellence that extends across the entire Jacobs School. This broad-based excellence is propelling our rise in the rankings overall and driving relevance. Our bioengineering graduate program ranks #4 in the nation and #2 among public schools. In computer science, our graduate program ranks #12 overall, with three computer science sub-rankings even higher: artificial intelligence ranks #10; computer science, systems #11; and computer science, programming languages #12. Find a full list of the Jacobs School graduate programs that ranked in the top 30 in the April 2026 US News Best Engineering Schools graduate program rankings at the link below.

What Does It Mean To Learn With AI?

Amid the nationwide debate over how AI should influence teaching and learning, UC San Diego’s proactive approach reflects a broader belief: universities must do more than react to AI — they must help shape how the technology evolves. This includes a new undergraduate major in artificial intelligence that prepares students to build the next generation of AI systems. This effort also includes an AI tutor developed by computer scientists at the Jacobs School, that is currently used in courses across campus and institutions beyond UC San Diego. Unlike general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT, the AI tutor is built around course-specific materials and configured by instructors themselves.

New Chip for Power Management in Data Centers

In an effort to meet the rising energy demands of data centers, engineers have developed a new chip design that could improve how graphics processing units (GPUs) convert and manage power. The technology demonstrates a more efficient way to perform a critical task in electronics: converting high voltages into lower levels required by computing hardware. In lab tests, a prototype chip performed the type of voltage conversion used in modern data centers with a peak efficiency of 96.2%.

Why did the Artemis II Mission Land off the Coast of San Diego?

Artemis II — the first crewed mission to orbit the moon since 1972 — splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10. We asked engineering professor Aaron Rosengren, an expert in astrodynamics and space navigation — including spacecraft orbits between Earth and its moon — to explain why San Diego was chosen as the end point of the mission. Rosengren was also featured on CNN and ABC.

Fentanyl Test Strips, 100 Times More Sensitive

Fentanyl test strips are poised for a major upgrade. A team led by electrical engineers developed a physics-based model to better understand how fentanyl test strips work — and used it to create strips that are about 100× more sensitive than current commercial versions. The team hopes to extend the approach to other types of rapid diagnostic tests, including those used in HIV, STD, RSV, flu and COVID-19 tests.

headshots of eight faculty named aaas fellows

Four Engineers Elected 2025 AAAS Fellows

Congratulations to the eight researchers at UC San Diego, including four engineers, who have been elected 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals. Congratulations to Jacobs School Dean Albert P. Pisano, and professors Farinaz Koushanfar, Ravi Ramamoorthi and Sheng Zhong, who were recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by AAAS.

Sound Waves Could Reprogram Material Stiffness

Engineers demonstrated a new way to reprogram a material's properties on demand — using sound. By applying specific frequencies of sound waves, they were able to shift where a material is soft or stiff. This could lead to the development of protective gear, robotic muscles or medical implants that adjust their stiffness on demand.

a robot with clay figures, next to a small blue box with a figurine inside

Robotics Course Merges Engineering and Art

Engineering and visual arts students learned to combine emotion and robotics in a new hands-on creative robotics course. The class was co-taught by two faculty — one in mechanical and aerospace engineering and the other in visual arts. The class empowered students from both engineering and the arts to envision and build robots that evoke emotions, including the grief when a beloved dog dies, the jolt of a new idea and the protective love of a mother.

a moderator sits next to a panel of speakers

10 Non-Technical Career Tips for our Students

The foundations for an exciting technical career require more than just technical excellence. Engineering and computer science students got practical career advice from alumni, faculty and industry leaders at a new event focused on student success and career readiness at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Do you have other advice for our students? Share your career tips and join the dialogue on LinkedIn.

geisel library with text: unlocking possibility together

Triton Giving Day

On April 29, UC San Diego will come together for its eighth annual Triton Giving Day. This is a once-a-year 24-hour window focused on building support for the UC San Diego causes most important to you. This year’s theme is “Unlocking possibility together,” and the Jacobs School is featuring opportunities to support undergraduate student scholarships, graduate student fellowships, cutting-edge laboratories, and research initiatives that advance emerging industries like healthcare innovation, fusion engineering, biomanufacturing and trustworthy AI. Grounded in excellence, driven by innovation and committed to societal benefit, your generous partnership will help accelerate the next generation of engineering breakthroughs.

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