UC San Diego on Tuesday announced the establishment of a new school focused on artificial intelligence thanks to a total of $125 million in donations from alumnus Taner Halicioglu.
The Halıcıoglu School of Data Science and Computing unites the earlier Halıcıoglu Data Science Institute and the San Diego Supercomputer Center into a single school.
The university said the new school’s vision is to advance data and computing to improve society, and to prepare the next generation of highly skilled technologists driving AI advancements.
“The Halıcıoglu School represents UC San Diego’s next leap forward in addressing the most compelling need of our times: transforming data into actionable knowledge to benefit mankind,” said Rajesh Gupta, dean of the new school. “In addition to serving as an academic hub for AI-related innovation, collaboration and ethics, the new school is also building the capacity to ensure computing and data literacy for all our students and prepare them for an exciting future in AI-enabled professions.”
Halicioglu graduated from UC San Diego in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He went on to work for Loudcloud and eBay before landing at Facebook in October 2004. He was Facebook’s first full-time hire, and managed operations through its first million users.
He is currently a lecturer at the university, and an active angel investor and advisor to startups through Keshif Ventures.
In 2017 he donated $75 million to the university, and recently pledged another $50 million.
“Data science and AI are shaping our world, and UC San Diego is at the forefront of these fields,” Halicioglu said. “I’m proud of UC San Diego and pleased to support the Halicioglu School of Data Science and Computing as it advances education, fuels discovery and creates lasting impact that will benefit society.”
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