America's technology revolution has given the College of Engineering at UC Davis some enviable difficulties-it gets almost 10 times more first-year applicants than it can accommodate and its graduates are offered such lucrative jobs that they don't stick around for advanced degrees. The college's new academic plan sets out to solve those problems and, concurrently, to boost the college into the top one-tenth of engineering schools in the nation. "One of every five students who apply to Davis is applying to engineering or computer science," said Engineering Dean Alan Laub. "It's gotten up to that in a hurry ... and the trend doesn't seem to be changing. If you look at economic indicators in this state, it's kind of a no-brainer for our campus to grow in engineering." California has always been a net importer of engineers, luring them with the promise of high-tech jobs, a mild climate and a moderate cost of living, Laub said. But now other states are building their own technology economies and keeping their kids at home. And moderate no longer describes the cost of living in or near any of our state's technology centers. For California to retain giant employers and revenue-producers like Intel and Cisco, its universities must supply a skilled work force, Laub said. To that end, then-Gov. Pete Wilson approved a plan in 1998 that would augment funding for engineering and computer science education by roughly 40 percent by 2006. Gov. Gray Davis has also endorsed the plan. The augmentation meant that the College of Engineering-the second largest overall in the UC system, behind Berkeley's-brought the campus an additional $1 million in 1998-99 and an additional $2 million in 1999-2000. Those funds have committed the college to admit an extra 129 students in 1998-1999 and another 129 in 1999-2000, Laub said. "We think it just makes sense to respond to the state's need, its insatiable appetite, for these people," Laub said. The college is relying on that extra funding to support its growth through 2006. In its academic plan, it asks for 54 new full-time engineering faculty positions to teach an additional 900 undergraduates and additional 600 graduate students, bringing total enrollment to 3,500 and 1,200, respectively. The Governor's Initiative augmentation will fund 32 of those faculty posts. The engineering department expected to grow the most is computer science, which seeks to increase its number of faculty members from 19 to 35. The electrical and computer engineering department also expects robust growth, from 33 to 43 faculty members. And the new Division of Biomedical Engineering seeks to grow from three faculty members to at least 14. That new division, which is expected to quickly evolve into a department, is representative of the growing collaboration between UC Davis' traditional strengths in biology and its rising strengths in engineering, Laub noted. Such collaborations will increase as the new campuswide initiatives gain speed. Engineering will play a major role in several: genomics, computational science and engineering, environment, nanophases in the environment, agriculture and technology, ArtsVision and undergraduate business. Beyond enrollment, the other crucial issue confronting the college is the difficulty of recruiting and retaining graduate students, Laub said. UC Davis is not alone in this problem; it is largely a reflection of the booming technology industry. Some graduates, often facing large student debts, can go right to work making very good salaries-occasionally even six figures. The academic plan asks Graduate Studies for help in bringing more qualified international students to UC Davis. The college also plans to promote its master's-degree program to local employers looking for additional training. To attract doctoral candidates, most engineering departments have revised the number of required course units and increased financial support. The College of Engineering presently ranks in the top 15 percent of engineering colleges in the United States, says the academic plan: "Our college has evolved from being a college largely oriented toward teaching in the 1960s and 1970s to one that now has a significant national and international research presence. We can realistically expect to move up to well within the top 10th percentile as our superb young faculty enter their most productive years as researchers and teachers. In fact, we are beginning to see evidence of this movement already, since our contract and grant awards this year have gone to well over $40 million from their previous level of about $25 million."