This December, I am looking back; and I am looking ahead. As the dean of a world-class engineering school, I feel this is an especially important exercise.
When I look back, I see the roots of the future. As engineers and computer scientists, we are always inventing and building what’s next, drawing upon our wisdom and experience.
And when I look ahead, I look toward the bold beyond. No one knows what exactly is on the other side of the horizon. But we can mobilize our intuition and start assembling plans to guide our collaborative work.
As we do this, we will continue to build on our education and research momentum in fusion engineering, emerging intelligence, semiconductors, biomanufacturing, healthcare engineering, and so much more.
We are also organizing for ever deeper connections between all these strategic research thrust areas and artificial intelligence, machine learning and high-performance computing. This is how we further drive industrial relevance. And it is an example of how we are preparing to make pivots to keep us on course as the bold beyond comes into clearer focus.
The year 2025 has highlighted again and again that engineers and computer scientists play outsized roles in the economic strength, global competitiveness and security of this country. For the U.S. to continue to build on these strengths, our world-class engineering schools must remain strong. And we must be circumspect enough to address the industrial and workforce needs of the moment, while also building the foundations of our future prosperity.
To maximize the impact of our collaborative work, it is necessary that we keep reaching beyond the borders of our campus. We will continue to bring relevant regional and national players together to drive real-world impact in education, research and manufacturing scale up.
None of this is easy work. If it were easy, everyone would do it. But this is our mission. And I am deeply grateful for everyone inside and outside the Jacobs School who is part of this critical effort.
So, as 2025 comes to a close, it is my heartfelt honor to thank everyone in our UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering community. Thank you for all of your contributions to our collective work. Thank you for your contributions to our shared mission. And thank you for collaboration as we look both to the future and to the bold beyond that is past even that.
If you are finalizing your year end plans for philanthropy, please see the year-end giving information in this link, and below. I am always more than happy to hear from you, and I am motivated to do what I can to help you engage with our Jacobs School.
In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful and restful holiday season. As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu.
Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives
