Rajesh Gupta Appointed Dean of School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences

Gupta’s continued leadership will be instrumental in shaping the future of SCIDS, which leverages the existing strengths of HDSI and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) — a national center that has, for four decades, led and enabled data and computationally intensive scientific breakthroughs. 

“This is more than the launch of a new school — it’s a chance to design a new kind of academic enterprise, one that places data science at the heart of interdisciplinary discovery. We’re creating a hub where research, education and real-world impact converge — shaping not only the future of data, computing, and AI, but the role a university can play in the age of pervasive intelligence,” said Gupta.

One of 12 schools at UC San Diego — and just the fourth to be added in the 21st century — SCIDS brings together faculty across disciplines to improve the human condition by better understanding how data shapes society, and to prepare the next generation of highly skilled workers driving AI advancements. SCIDS brings together some 8,000 students, including many who will come through a robust community college pipeline; and more than 50 faculty across 16 academic disciplines, and hundreds of highly trained researchers. The new school hosts two bachelor's degree programs, three master’s degree programs and a doctoral degree program, with specialities in data science and AI.

A foundational pillar of SCIDS, SDSC was founded in the 1980s as one of the original five U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded supercomputer centers to support the nation's growing scientific computing and data processing needs. Today, SDSC leads and enables groundbreaking research in structural biology, high-throughput bioinformatics, fusion energy, weather prediction, natural disaster mitigation and more. The center brings state-of-the-art data and compute infrastructure to the national research community and bridges gaps to support the effective use of these resources for scientists across fields of discovery. With a reach that spans UC San Diego and the UC System, the state of California, and the national research community, SDSC accelerates the translation of scientific discoveries into practical applications and operationalizes them into services that address public challenges from weather forecasting to wildfire management and more. Beyond research, the center supports workforce development through training, mentorship and experiential learning opportunities, including recent work to expand access to AI education infrastructure nationwide.   

With Gupta as its founding director, HDSI launched in 2018 with philanthropic support from Taner Halıcıoğlu, a UC San Diego computer science and engineering alumnus (‘96). Under Gupta’s leadership, HDSI has grown rapidly, eventually boasting joint faculty appointments with 15 departments on campus and a campus-wide network of over 200 affiliates, leveraging the interdisciplinary strengths of the university. In addition to hosting the first fully-online master’s degree program by UC San Diego, HDSI also expanded the international presence of UC San Diego as a partner in the International Fintech Institute in GIFT City, India. The new school plans to continue expansion of its programs and international partnerships through a highly successful program for industry partners.

Gupta brings a wealth of academic and administrative talent to leading SCIDS. Trained as a circuit designer, Gupta led the Computer Science and Engineering department as well as several center-scale efforts sponsored by the NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). A distinguished alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Gupta received a Master’s Degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Gupta held the INRIA International Chair at the French International Research Institute in Rennes, Bretagne Atlantique. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).