Giving

Priority Funds

ME Endowment for Undergraduate Design Projects and Laboratories

The department offers an accredited undergraduate degree rooted in the core fundamentals of mechanical engineering and enriched by a broad range of hands-on design experiences. Our students engage in multiple laboratory-based design courses, including an introductory course during freshmen year, a junior-level team design course, and a high-visibility year-long senior capstone design sequence. All these courses reply upon our undergraduate instructional laboratories. To maintain our excellence in education and to support the every growing costs of our hands-on design curriculum, the department is committed to fully fund an "Undergraduate Design laboratories and Projects" endowment. Undergraduate students will see great benefit from recurrent support for high-quality laboratories and capstone design projects. Any amount is welcome; we have currently raised approximately $90K and our objective is to reach a full amount of $500K.

Graduate Fellowships

Our graduate students have enjoyed tremendous support in recent years. Their research has been recognized with best paper awards, federal fellowships, and highly-coveted faculty positions. Their entrepreneurship  has led to numerous startup. Their deep talent and broad preparation has led them to senior positions at top R&D laboratories and corporations. Graduate fellowship support is a high priority as it enables us to compete with the best universities in the nation to attract top scholars. The research strength of our departments is directly linked to financial support of our efforts to recruit and retain the very best scholars. The future endeavors of UCSB Mechanical Engineering graduates will have a profound impact on society.

• Named Endowed Fellowship: A gift of $200,000 or more establishes a permanent named fellowship.
• Named Quarter Fellowship: A gift of $10,000 will fully support a graduate student for one-quarter of their career. This type of fellowship is extremely helpful for graduate students as it allows them to take a quarter off from teaching and focus solely on their research and dissertation.
• Named Full-Year Fellowship: A gift of $50,000 or more fully supports a graduate student for one-year of their career.
• Named Fellowship Award: A gift of $5,000 or more establishes a one-year named award which allows the Department to offer supplemental incentive (top-off) support for the recruitment or retention of an outstanding graduate student.  

Unrestricted Support for the ME General Fund

Because unrestricted gifts are flexible funding, they are of greatest use to the College and our Departments. Unrestricted funds support the highest priority needs as established by the department chair. They allow us to seize new opportunities that emerge, as well as support the existing outstanding students, faculty, programs and research.

For higher-impact and/or diverse gift opportunities, please contact Steve Ramirez, Lead Director of Development for Engineering, at steve.ramirez@ucsb.edu or call (805) 893-4579.