My initial months as dean of Berkeley Engineering have been filled with an inspiring array of developments, projects and initiatives, punctuated last month by Intel and Microsoft’s announcement that they will help fund Berkeley’s Parallel Computing Lab, an effort with the potential to take parallel computing and multi-core processing to the next level. Our bioengineering department is settled in Stanley Hall; and the bustling CITRIS building project is on schedule for a year-end completion. Our exceptional faculty and students make the headlines every day, unleashing new successes to advance the art and science of technology innovation.

As I look forward to presiding over commencement 2008 on May 24, it is an opportune time to rise above the daily buzz for a bird’s-eye view of our broad mission—educating leaders, creating knowledge, serving society—and our tripart role of teaching, research and outreach.

This issue of Forefront brings news of three initiatives that underscore the long-term vision behind our mission statement. It is no coincidence that, as we seek to expand the college’s reach, all three programs are global in scope: Berkeley’s new Blum Center for Developing Economies, focusing on our educational role, sets our students and their ingenuity loose to interact with local populations and solve real-world problems. Our research role is embodied in our new agreement with KAUST, to help develop their world-class multinational research institution in the Middle East. And our outreach role is illustrated by the ambitious CITRIS Global Research Alliance for Climate and Energy,  a partnership with the Copenhagen Climate Council and others to host one of several meetings leading up to the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference, where world leaders will negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.

We keep our mission in sharp focus as a reminder that what we do every day is not about the funding or the headlines. We don’t just throw our projects and products over the wall and expect them to work their magic. We step into the trenches, roll up our sleeves and work with stakeholders to foster these technology transitions, so they can be absorbed into our systems and make the world a better place.

I welcome your thoughts at dean.forefront@coe.berkeley.edu.

 

—S. Shankar Sastry
Dean, College of Engineering
NEC Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering