Milestones

1868: The foundation
From the beginning, engineering has been a core part of Berkeley’s curriculum and identity.Read more


1888: Earthquake science
Earth sciences professors set up the first string of seismographic stations in the Western hemisphere to track earthquake data.Read more


1892: The electrification of California
California’s growing economy and industries look to Berkeley engineers for help building the state’s early energy infrastructure.Read more


1894: Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan, the only woman in her class, graduates with a degree in civil engineering.Read more


1895: Medical diagnostics
Soon after discovery of the X-ray in Germany, a group of young Berkeley engineers hack together cathode ray tubes from the physics department to create their own imaging equipment.Read more


1900: The decade of pioneering technologies
Increasing energy efficiency and experimenting with emerging technologies become underpinning themes of the college’s research.Read more


1903: Building the 'City of Learning'
John Galen Howard starts to turn a loose collection of buildings into an iconic university campus.Read more


1904: Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg graduates from the College of Mining. Goldberg brings engineering concepts and humor to a nationwide audience through his syndicated newspaper cartoons depicting characters using elaborately complicated machines to complete simple tasks.Read more


1907: Hearst Memorial Mining Building
The building, begun in 1902, is completed after an 18-month delay due to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Called “the architectural gem of the entire UC system,” Hearst Mining is equipped with small smelters, rock crushers, drill rigs and chemical fume hoods.Read more



1911: Mine safety
Reflecting California’s Gold Rush roots, mining and mineral extraction are popular majors for early Berkeley students.Read more


1924: Hesse Hall
The newly completed Hesse Hall houses the growing college. The building provides space for a motor, generator, radio labs and test rooms.Read more


1931: The College of Engineering is established
The colleges of Mechanics and Civil Engineering merge to form the College of Engineering, and electrical engineering becomes a department in the new college.Read more


1942: War time
The college plays an important role in the World War II effort, even as male enrollment drops more than 50 percent under the pressures of military enlistment.Read more


1945: An emerging world-class research institution
The breakneck pace of research and innovation during World War II sets a new standard. Industry and government partnerships prove mutually beneficial for the translation of academic research into technologies available to the public.Read more


1950: Cory Hall
Berkeley’s first building to be built in the Modernist style is designed to house the growing electrical engineering department.Read more




1956: Optimizing industry
The growing industrial demand for optimization and management strategies in the booming economic growth of the 1950s leads to the development of the Industrial Engineering Department, which eventually becomes the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.Read more


1958: Pioneering prosthetic research
During the late 1950s, Berkeley engineers begin biomechanical and prosthetic research. Advances in devices and technology translate into improving the quality of life for end users.Read more


1958: Nuclear Engineering is born
The Department of Nuclear Engineering is founded on the Berkeley campus.Read more


1960s: Research in miniature
Early research in microelectronics sets the stage for the future growth of the computer and electronic technology industries that become part of California’s economy and identity.Read more


1961: GFCI invented
Charles Dalziel, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, invents the ground-fault circuit interrupter, a device now found in virtually every home and building to protect people from electrical shocks caused by defects in appliances or grounding systems.Read more


1966: Etcheverry Hall
Etcheverry Hall opens, housing the departments of mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering and industrial engineering and operations research.Read more


1968: Douglas Engelbart gives 'the mother of all demos'
Douglas Engelbart, who earned two graduate degrees in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, outlines the future of the information age in a 90-minute public multimedia demonstration.Read more


1969: UNIX
UNIX, a computer operating system used worldwide and foundational to the modern internet, is created by two friends who wanted to play a computer game.Read more


1971: The start of startups
Cetus, the world’s first biotechnology company, is founded by Donald Glaser, a Berkeley professor and 1960 Nobel Prize winner in physics who later took up the study of molecular biology.Read more


1972: Integrated circuits
A team led by EECS professor Donald Pederson develops the Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) — a tool that, along with its derivatives, has been used in the design of almost every integrated circuit since its invention.Read more


1973: EE becomes EECS
The electrical engineering department grows to encompass computer science, officially becoming the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS).Read more


1977: Open-source movement
Graduate student Bill Joy develops Berkeley UNIX and the Berkeley Software Distribution System.Read more


1978: Women in engineering
WICSE, the student group Women in Computer Science and Engineering, is founded in 1977, and holds its first conference on the Berkeley campus the following year.Read more


1980: Bechtel Engineering Center
Construction is completed on the Bechtel Engineering Center, located in the heart of the engineering section of campus.Read more


1981: Cheaper, faster and simpler CPUs
EECS professor David Patterson develops the “reduced instruction set computer.”Read more


1985: Richard Karp
Karp, a professor of mathematics, computer science and operations research, wins the Turing Award for his work on the theory of algorithms.Read more


1986: Nuclear-free Berkeley
The city of Berkeley goes nuclear free, forcing the closure of the research reactor in Etcheverry Hall.Read more


1988: MEMS
Along with his graduate students, Richard Muller, professor of EECS, produces the first electrically powered, microscopic motor, no larger than the width of a human hair. This micro-machine helps spawn the field of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).Read more


1989: William Kahan
Kahan, a professor of mathematics and EECS, receives a Turing Award for his work on floating point computation.Read more


1990: Engineer and chancellor
Chang-Lin Tien, a longtime member of the mechanical engineering faculty, becomes chancellor of Berkeley.Read more


1994: Soda Hall
The construction of Soda Hall, which houses computer science research, is complete.Read more


1998: Birth of Berkeley bioengineering
Professor Tom Budinger is the founding chair for Berkeley’s brand-new Department of Bioengineering.Read more


1998: Claire Tomlin
EECS professor Claire Tomlin is awarded a MacArthur Fellowship to expand her work in unmanned aerial vehicles and air traffic control.Read more


2002: Ruzena Bajcsy
EECS professor Ruzena Bajcsy is named one of Discover magazine’s 50 Most Important Women in Science for her pioneering work in robotics.Read more


2006: Blum Center
The Blum Center for Developing Economies is launched, focusing on studying developing economies and designing sustainable technologies as a strategy to alleviate poverty.Read more


2007: Stanley Hall
The new Stanley Hall opens, home to the bioengineering department's labs, offices and classrooms.Read more


2008: CellScope
Bioengineering professor Dan Fletcher and his students develop the CellScope, a tool capable of turning a smartphone into a diagnostic tool for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.Read more


2009: Sutardja Dai Hall
Sutardja Dai Hall opens and becomes the home for the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society.Read more


2009: Maneesh Agrawala
Agrawala, an EECS professor, is awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for his work on creating better visual interfaces to aid the comprehension of large amounts of data.Read more


2010: Dawn Song
Song, an EECS professor, is awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her work on computer security.Read more


2010: Fung Institute
The Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership enrolls its first master of engineering students.Read more


2011: The Austin Whitney project
Austin Whitney and the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory make history at Berkeley’s commencement ceremony.Read more


2012: California Memorial Stadium retrofit
A team of Berkeley Engineering faculty, working as part of the campus seismic review committee, advise on the retrofitting of Memorial Stadium, which sits directly astride the Hayward Fault.Read more


2013: Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
Paul Jacobs, EECS alumnus and executive chairman of Qualcomm Inc., takes the stage of the Clinton Global Initiative in June to announce he is donating $20 million to the university to build the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation.Read more


2014: Translational medicine
Berkeley’s first master of translational medicine degree is awarded.Read more


2014: Girls in Engineering
Girls in Engineering launches its first summer program for middle school girls. The program is designed to inspire future engineering leaders by exposing participants to hands-on, team-based projects while emphasizing leadership and engineering in a societal context.Read more


2015: Jacobs Hall
Jacobs Hall opens as the headquarters of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. The 24,000-square-foot building was constructed at a cost of $25 million, which was funded entirely by philanthropy.Read more


2016: Engineering and business program launches
The Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program at the College of Engineering and the Haas School of Business is a fully integrated, simultaneous degree program.Read more


2016: Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence
A new center focusing on AI and human interactions opens.Read more


150 years of innovation
As UC Berkeley marks its sesquicentennial, Berkeley Engineering joins in celebrating the university's 150th anniversary.Read more
