Call it a $3 million mistake.

There’s no stairway linking the lobby to the basement in UC San Diego’s computer science building, making it hard for students on the bottom floor — and those would be undergraduates — to conveniently mingle with the faculty members working above them.

Rajesh Gupta was so incensed by the design flaw that he persuaded a graduate of the university’s computer science department to donate $18.5 million — including about $3 million being used to construct the long-sought staircase.

Gupta, who just finished a long stint as department chair, said students need robust interaction with professors to see and shape research that often gets passed on to industry. His belief reflects a central goal of the department: to give students a firm foundation that readies them for work at Qualcomm, ViaSat, Northrop Grumman, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and other industry giants that have a seemingly insatiable demand for new computer geniuses.


× UCSD does away with its computer “dungeon”

Such demand contributed to runaway enrollment growth for the department in recent years, and that boom in turn fueled a clash between Gupta and administration over how to balance expansion with high-quality education.

Then and now, he speaks with candor instead of the genteel language common in academia. Gupta, 54, often vents through Facebook posts, even about hot-button issues.

His directness was evident in an interview this week with The San Diego Union-Tribune. The conversation has been edited for space and clarity.


Question: Is it true that an undergraduate student asked if he could leave the basement and visit the upper floors of the computer science building?

Answer: Not quite. It was words to the effect, “Are we allowed to go upstairs?” It’s a natural question since the elevators actually don’t go upstairs during off-hours.

Access to parts of the building are controlled. That’s common at a research university. This was also a cultural issue: Faculty just weren’t used to seeing undergrads milling around in research spaces. It’s important that all our students have access to faculty and research labs. We want them to explore whatever sparks their curiosity. A student might say, “I want to study unmanned aerial vehicles” because he saw a UAV in a lab.

UC San Diego calls itself a “student-centered” university. That doesn’t happen if you don’t put students in the center of things, which has been a problem in our computer science building. But we’re fixing that.


Question: Do industry executives talk to you about the need to cultivate students with strong social skills?

Answer: The main thing I hear from industry is, “Give us people with strong fundamentals.” The fundamentals include the ability to express yourself clearly and to work in groups and teams that promote achievement. So it’s essential that undergraduates learn to socialize.

Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Dr. Rajesh Gupta in his office at the Computer Science and Engineering building at UCSD in La Jolla on Thursday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Question: The computer science department has experienced explosive growth. Last year, UC San Diego had the largest undergraduate computer science program in the country. Did you feel like you were being squeezed by the differing interests of industry and the faculty?


Answer: The faculty revolted. They said teaching loads were too high. And they have been: 44 to one. We brought in a lot of non-tenure-track lecturers to help, and they’re wonderful. But that is only a temporary fix. We want students to have as much exposure as possible to tenure-track professors, who are doing the kind of research that’s of interest and value to industry and to the learning experience. We’re now reducing enrollment and increasing the faculty size.

Question: How do the university’s top administrators feel about that? They must be feeling pressure from prospective students, who want to get into the growing and well-paying field of computer science.

Answer: This has been a difficult issue. It wasn’t really clear who was responsible for controlling enrollment, but we’ve found a way to bring the number down.

Question: And how has industry reacted to that? I’ve heard institutions like SPAWAR say they really need more cybersecurity experts, and they’re looking to you for help.


Answer: They hate it. They have a need for more talent.

Question: State funding and research contracts don’t cover all of the department’s financial needs. Increasingly, you also have to raise private money, especially from alumni. UC San Diego has struggled in this area. How has your program, which is part of the university’s Jacobs School of Engineering, fared?

Answer: Many of our graduates start with six-figure salaries or close, so they are in a position to donate. It comes down to their engagement with the place and people at UC San Diego? What brings them back to (the university)? And when they come here, what do they look for? Their experience in the classroom, in the lab and in working with the professors are a big part of it.

... Part of the challenge is that engineering is broad, spanning materials, mechanical structures, electronic devices, communication technologies, etc. So, computing and data don’t get the coverage they need even though they’re pervasive. There is computer science in transportation, in energy, in health care ... software that is new and different kinds — those inside phones and cars to software inside the body.


Question: You also face demands at the graduate level. For example, more students are seeking master’s degrees in computer science. Industry is looking to hire people like that. You’ve greatly expanded the master’s offerings, but you’ve gotten a lot of blow-back from faculty. What’s the problem?

Answer: When I became chair six years ago, we had about 90 or so students in the master’s program. This year, the figure was 350. This fall, it will go to 450. In six years, the demand for master’s degrees has gone up six times — to 3,500 applicants.

Students want the degree because it gives them more specialized knowledge in areas like machine learning, vision and computer systems. It places them in a better position to get jobs.

Unfortunately, the master’s program is not appreciated for a variety of reasons. There’s a feeling among faculty that attention to master’s takes away from research-oriented doctoral programs. Computer science is particularly affected; it accounts for nearly three-quarters of growth in graduate student applicants on the entire campus.


The good news is that it also accounts for over 50 percent of the growth in women applicants, thus helping us in improving diversity in our graduate program.