School of Engineering renamed
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 29, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 NICOLE MILLER/ Daily Bruin Chancellor Albert
Carnesale looks on as Henry Samueli
speaks in front of Engineering IV in a ceremony naming the school
in his honor.
By Bethany Tang
Daily Bruin Contributor
In honor of Henry Samueli’s $30 million donation, the
engineering school officially unveiled its name change to The Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on Friday.
Samueli’s donation to UCLA last year came at the same time
as $20 million he donated to UC Irvine.
“The renaming is one of the most emotional things I have
been though,” said Samueli, who became teary eyed when he
first saw his name on the Engineering IV building.
Samueli received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D.
at UCLA and was also a professor of digital signal processing and
electronics. Currently, he is on a leave of absence.
During his acceptance speech he said he loved teaching at UCLA
and even quit his position at TRW to be a professor here.
“Being a graduate of UCLA, I have strong emotional ties to
the school,” Samueli said. “I spent two-thirds of my
life at UCLA.”
Samueli struck gold when he went on indefinite leave from UCLA
in 1995 to co-found Broadcom Corporations. Broadcom, a provider of
chips that enable broadband communications, went public in 1998 at
$24 a share.
At market’s close on Friday, the stock was at 227 and 1/16
points after having split once since going pubic.
“There were several approaches from people who donated
money to rename the school after them, but the name change is not
simply for the money,” said Frank Wazzan, Dean of the Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “We wanted
to name the school after someone who we are proud of, and we are
proud him.”
Chancellor Albert Carnesale also noted how the Samueli naming
was about more than just money.
“Samueli is a wonderful person, and this was an
appropriate way to honor someone who donated that amount of money
that was also a student and faculty member,” Carnesale
said.
Samueli said he hopes the money will be used for student
fellowships, to help faculty, teaching programs, and research in
engineering.
“The new economy has created a huge demand for high-tech
workers,” he said. “But UCLA and UC Irvine engineering
graduates are going down.”
Two-third of the employees at Broadcom Corporation were
engineers and out of the engineers, 48 percent of the company are
non-citizens. One reason is due to the lack of engineering
graduates in the United States.
“We will be expecting 800-1,000 new engineering students
in the coming years,” Wazzan said.
Most of Samueli’s donation will be used to construct a new
building to house these added students.
In celebration of the dedication, a symposium named,
“Frontiers of Technology: Engineering Change Through
Collaboration,” was held before the unveiling ceremony.
During the symposium, professors presented breakthroughs in
engineering fields such as biomedical, mechanical, aerospace and
electrical as well as in computer science.
Many of the panelists spoke about new ideas in technology,
including e-commerce, interactive television and non-stop Internet
access.
“Our environment will be alive with technology all
around,” said Leonard Kleinrock, computer science professor.
“We need to give access to the Internet for people
everywhere.”
The symposium also addressed the successful mapping of the human
genome ““ a major breakthrough in the medical field. The next
step, according to speakers, will be working on a mapping of a
functional genome in order to directly control cells. Then doctors
will be able to find genetic or infectious diseases and fix the
problem.
“Broadband communications will usher in the era of on-line
household,” said Professor Warren Grundfest, of the
departments of electrical engineering and surgery.
