Dean's message
Problem-Solving Skills for Tomorrow’s Technical Workforce
August 2025
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Since 2020, I have been involved in a project that has demonstrated again and again that you can successfully teach engineering problem solving to high school students — without the official engineering curriculum. Today, I am thrilled and grateful to announce the next big step forward in this effort.
With , we now have the resources to ensure that our efforts to teach these problem-solving skills to high school and college students will continue long into the future.
This is a particularly meaningful project for me for two reasons. First, engineering problem-solving skills have the power to enhance the careers of people entering the technical workforce right after high school or an associate's degree. At the same time, these problem-solving skills help students succeed in engineering and computer science courses in college, if they choose to go that route.
So far, our program has taught engineering problem solving to over 5,300 high school students in 22 schools across seven school districts in the San Diego region. In all that we do, we engage teachers so that they are both prepared and inspired to carry forward this kind of problem solving in the classroom.
One of these efforts involves baking engineering problem solving into high school physics. Early signals suggest the revamped course has increased student interest in taking high school physics, which would be a huge win. As we work to make this high school physics effort sustainable — at scale — over the long term, we are also bringing the best of engineering problem solving to high school chemistry and biology.
Our successes at the high school level led me to an “ah-ha moment,” followed by questions. Could we introduce these problem-solving skills to non-engineers at the college level? — Or to engineering and computer science students at the very beginning of their college journeys?
At 鶹ý, we are addressing these questions and more thanks to the generosity of the Girard Foundation, thanks to our partnership with the 鶹ý Division of Extended Studies, and thanks to our collaborations with teachers, high schools, and school districts all across the region. Looking ahead, these collaborations provide powerful opportunities to reach many more students who could benefit from opportunities to learn and practice the fundamentals of problem solving gleaned from engineering.
For our 9,600+ engineering and computer science students at the Jacobs School, problem solving is critical — but not sufficient — for becoming a technical leader in the innovation-driven economy to come. In fact, I am in conversation with a team of industry-experienced Jacobs School alumni about what more our graduates need — at scale — for this kind of career readiness. More on this to come.
If you’re interested in getting involved in either of these efforts, please get in touch. As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu.
or as a PDF.
Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, 鶹ý Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives