UCSD is about to break ground on its next mammoth complex, and the building’s namesake has taken the unusual step of publicly reminding the school not to neglect the interests of undergraduates as it puts together the $180 million research center.

“As UCSD has grown, I worry about the undergraduate experience,” said Franklin Antonio, co-founder of the San Diego-based chipmaker Qualcomm. “I see this sea of undergraduates and I can’t imagine that they all get the faculty access that I wish they would have.

“The interaction between the students and the faculty is the reason we have the university. If you didn’t need that, you could all just watch online courses.”

Antonio attended UCSD as an undergraduate, and donated $30 million toward construction of the 186,000-square-foot building. Chancellor Pradeep Khosla has assured him that his message won’t go unheeded.


In recent months, the chancellor, who also is an engineer, has been pointing out the Antonio Hall will feature a mixture of classrooms, laboratories and auditorium space that will satisfy everyone’s interests.

Khosla also told the Union-Tribune this year that he’s aware that UCSD will evolve into a truly great university only if it better serves the interests of its students.

The new complex will include 13 so-called “collaboratories,” or laboratory spaces where people from different disciplines can work together. Students will play a major role in the research.

Antonio Hall also will feature some of UC San Diego’s biggest research groups, including the one led by Patrick Mercier, who develops low power chips for wearable devices, such as tiny monitors that measure a person’s glucose.


The new center also will be home for several top battery experts, including Shirley Meng, whose batteries have been drawing interest from such companies as Tesla.

Another area of the building will provide workspace where teams of undergraduates can design and test everything from race cars to concrete canoes, making them ready for national design competitions.

“The entire first floor is going to be dedicated to education and the translation of innovation to society,” engineering Dean Al Pisano said in a statement.

“In Franklin Antonio Hall, we’ll prepare students to be the future technology leaders that the region, state and nation need to solve our toughest challenges.”


The building, whose fundraising was led by Pisano, is set to open in 2022.