La Jollans Give $20M to UC Berkeley

Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, recently gifted $20 million from his Paul and Stacy Jacobs Foundation to his alma mater. Jacobs, of La Jolla, gifted the funds to UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering to launch a design innovation institute. He announced the gift at the Clinton Global Initiative in Chicago on June 13.

The new institute will expand the role of design in engineering education, emphasizing rapid design and prototyping for manufacturability, the university reported.

“In our interconnected innovation economy, it is not enough to provide our future engineering leaders with technical skills,” said Jacobs at the Initiative. “They must also learn how to work in interdisciplinary teams, how to iterate designs rapidly, how to manufacture sustainably, how to combine art and engineering, and how to address global markets. Berkeley’s deep strength in technology combined with its leadership across a broad range of disciplines makes it the ideal home for a program that will hone the integrated set of skills students will need to create our future.”

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks said the Jacobs “share our confidence in our students, and their gift reflects Berkeley’s passion for creating a better world with innovations that can seed new industries, more jobs and economic growth.”

Jacobs chairs UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering’s dean’s advisory board and, with his wife, Stacy, serves as co-chair of the Campaign for Berkeley.