Jacobs School of Engineering

What Jacobs School of Engineering does

The Jacobs School of Engineering is the engineering school of the University of California San Diego, founded in 1964 and operated as a non-commercial academic department within the UC system under the Regents of the University of California. It is the largest engineering school in California, with 278 faculty and 10,240 students across six departments: Bioengineering, Chemical & Nano Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and Structural Engineering. The school is ranked #9 among U.S. engineering schools and #1 among public engineering schools for citations per publication, reflecting a research-intensive operating model. It has launched 14 research centers and institutes since 2014 and is led by Dean Albert P. Pisano.

The school operates multi-disciplinary research programs spanning AI/ML, medical devices, robotics, synthetic biology, photonics, and structural engineering, with technology outputs spanning wearable ultrasound patches for fetal monitoring (developed with Stanford and Oxford, published in Nature Biotechnology), a conversational AI medical triage system co-developed with Google Research, AI-powered gesture-recognition wearables, surgical navigation technology spun out into KatoMed, and DARPA-funded E. coli digital-twin modeling. Its commercial flywheel rests on three revenue streams: federal research grants (DARPA, ARPA-H, NIH), corporate membership and partnership fees via the Corporate Affiliates Program (CAP) and the Team Internship Program (TIP), and technology licensing and startup formation through programs such as the UC San Diego MedTech Accelerator. The school's customers span prospective and current students, industry/corporate partners seeking research collaboration and talent pipelines, and federal agencies; downstream end users include healthcare providers and consumers of licensed technology.

The go-to-market is sales-led and centered on a Corporate Relations team led by a Chief Corporate Relations Officer, with structured engagement tiers via CAP, 10–12-week paid TIP internships, and 6-month Co-op placements across departments. Revenue mechanics are not commercially disclosed because the entity is a public university department; specific tuition rates and total operating budget are not stated. The school's strategic positioning increasingly emphasizes AI-compute infrastructure (a new on-site CSE data center launched in 2026), national-priority research (birth safety via ARPA-H, biomanufacturing via DARPA), and commercialization through venture-backed spin-offs such as KatoMed (backed by Kyocera Ventures and ReefHaven Ventures).

Name

Jacobs School of Engineering

Legal name

Regents of the University of California

Website

https://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1964

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

The Jacobs School of Engineering is the engineering school of UC San Diego, founded in 1964, with 278 faculty and 10,240 students across six departments. It is the largest engineering school in California and ranks #9 nationally, generating revenue from federal research grants, corporate partnerships, and technology licensing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Engineering Higher Education

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113), Engineering Services (54133)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Engineering & Technology Institutes (Comprehensive) (EDAHAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Technical Universities with Specialized Engineering Domains (EDAHAEAI), STEM-Focused Technical Universities (EDAHAEAD)

Keywords

• Engineering education
• Graduate programs
• Research collaboration
• Corporate partnerships
• Technology licensing

Headquarters

HQ city

La Jolla

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Federal Research Grants: Research funding from federal agencies including DARPA, ARPA-H, and NIH. Major grants include $10.4 million ARPA-H award for birth safety research and $4.1 million DARPA grant for virtual cell modeling.
2. Licensing and Technology Transfer: Revenue from licensing robotics intellectual property (e.g., Professor Michael Yip's lab IP licensed to KatoMed). Startup companies formed from research commercialization.
3. Corporate Membership and Partnership Fees: Corporate Affiliates Program membership fees from companies seeking research collaboration, talent pipelines, and student engagement. Includes Team Internship Program company sponsorships.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego offers undergraduate and graduate engineering degree programs (BS, BA, MEng, MS, MAS, PhD) across six departments, conducts multi-disciplinary research through 14+ research centers and institutes, and engages industry partners via the Corporate Affiliates Program and Team Internship Program for research collaboration and talent access.

Product overview

The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego is an academic institution offering engineering education and conducting research across six departments (Bioengineering, Chemical & Nano Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and Structural Engineering). The school operates research centers and institutes focused on technology challenges including the Center for Machine-Intelligence Computing and Security, Center for Wearable Sensors, Contextual Robotics Institute, and others. With 278 faculty and 10,240 students, it is the largest engineering school in California and ranks #9 nationally among engineering schools. Research outputs include various technologies such as the UPatch wearable fetal ultrasound system developed in collaboration with Stanford and Oxford, conversational AI medical decision support tools built with Google Research, surgical navigation technology via spin-off KatoMed, AI-powered gesture recognition armbands, and virtual cell digital twin platforms for bacterial modeling. The school also operates industry partnership programs including the Corporate Affiliates Program and Team Internship Program.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KatoMed: A San Diego-based surgical navigation startup that developed a tool enabling spine surgeons to re-establish submillimeter accuracy from two fluoroscopic X-rays, developed through the UC San Diego MedTech accelerator program
• IGE MedTech Accelerator

Products and services

• Engineering Degree Programs (BS, BA, MEng, MS, MAS, PhD) Engineering degree programs across six academic departments providing undergraduate and graduate education to over 10,240 students with 278 faculty members.
• Corporate Affiliates Program (CAP) Tiered membership program that provides companies with research collaboration opportunities, student talent access, and faculty engagement to drive industry partnerships and applied research.
• Team Internship Program (TIP) Structured 10-12 week summer paid internship program where industry-defined projects are executed by 2-5 student teams, providing companies with deliverables and access to engineering talent.
• Cooperative Education (Co-op) Program Immersive 6-month work experience combining summer and one academic quarter, offered across CSE, ECE, MAE, Chemical & Nano Engineering, and Structural Engineering for undergraduates and graduates.
• UC San Diego MedTech Accelerator MedTech accelerator program providing mentorship, resources, and connections for medical technology startups spun out of UC San Diego research.
• KatoMed Surgical Navigation System Surgical navigation technology enabling spine surgeons to achieve submillimeter accuracy from fluoroscopic X-rays using common C-arm imaging equipment in eight seconds or less.

Quantifiable outcome

• 24% behavior improvement and 50% reduction in hazardous incidents in commercial driver safety
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, significant and core.

• Google ResearchflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative development of a conversational AI system trained on American Medical Association medical flowcharts to help patients determine when to seek medical care. System uses three AI agents working together for symptom assessment.
• Lytx Inc.significantStrategic or Co-development PartnerUC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering study sponsored by Lytx found that personalized manager-led coaching combined with AI-powered in-cab alerts produces most effective commercial driver safety improvements (24% behavior improvement, 50% reduction in hazardous incidents).
• Stanford UniversityflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-development partner in UPatch wearable ultrasound technology for continuous fetal monitoring, along with UC San Diego and University of Oxford. Research published in Nature Biotechnology.
• University of OxfordflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-development partner in UPatch wearable ultrasound technology. John Radcliffe Hospital served as international clinical trial site with 62 pregnant participants in the UK.
• IGE MedTech AcceleratorcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUC San Diego Institute for the Global Entrepreneur accelerator program that supported KatoMed, naming it Company of the Year 2025. Program provides mentorship, resources, and connections for medtech startups.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• USC Viterbi School of Engineering: USC Viterbi is another large California-based engineering school offering BS through PhD across similar departments with industry partnerships and tech-transfer activity. Located in Los Angeles, it competes with Jacobs for California-resident students and SoCal-based industry partners.
• MIT School of Engineering: MIT's School of Engineering runs comparable BS-MS-PhD programs across bioengineering, mechanical, electrical, and computer science departments with deep federal grant funding and corporate partnership programs. Both schools compete directly for federal research dollars, faculty talent, and top graduate students.
• University of Michigan College of Engineering: Michigan's College of Engineering is among the largest U.S. engineering schools with comparable scale, federally funded research centers, and corporate affiliate programs. Both schools compete for national rankings, top students, and federal grants.
• Georgia Tech College of Engineering: Georgia Tech's College of Engineering is one of the largest U.S. engineering schools with a comparable multi-department structure and a strong industry-affiliates / co-op / internship ecosystem directly analogous to Jacobs's CAP and TIP programs.
• UT Austin Cockrell School of Engineering: Cockrell at UT Austin is a top-10 ranked U.S. engineering school with comparable department breadth, federal grant activity, and industry partnerships. Both schools compete in similar rankings, faculty recruiting, and research funding cycles.
• UC Berkeley College of Engineering: Berkeley's College of Engineering is a fellow University of California engineering school offering comparable undergraduate and graduate programs across bioengineering, EECS, ME, and structural engineering. Both schools share UC system governance, compete for the same California-resident talent pool, and pursue similar federal grant opportunities.
• Carnegie Mellon College of Engineering: CMU's College of Engineering has strong programs in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical, and biomedical engineering. Both schools emphasize AI/computing research with industry partnerships of comparable depth.
• Purdue College of Engineering: Purdue's College of Engineering is one of the largest in the U.S. with strong industry co-op and internship programs analogous to Jacobs's TIP, and a similar top-ranked research footprint competing for federal grants.
• Stanford University School of Engineering: Stanford's School of Engineering offers BS through PhD programs across multiple engineering departments comparable to Jacobs's six-department structure. Both schools emphasize interdisciplinary research, industry engagement, and tech-transfer, and they have co-developed flagship projects like the UPatch wearable fetal ultrasound technology.
• Caltech Division of Engineering and Applied Science: Caltech's EAS division covers applied physics, mechanical, electrical, and computing disciplines with PhD-heavy output and high citation impact, paralleling Jacobs's #1 citation-per-publication claim. Both schools emphasize deep technical research over scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ucsdjacobs
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/JacobsSchoolNews
• Facebookfacebook.com/UCSDJacobs
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/university-of-california-san-diego---jacobs-school-of-engineering
• Instagraminstagram.com/ucsandiegoengineering

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Jacobs School of Engineering