Amazon HQ2 Proposal

University of California

The only research university in the Inland Southern California, the University of California, Riverside (UCR), has an economic impact of $2.7 billion. UCR is one of only a few R1 Hispanic-Serving Institutions, as designated by the U.S. Department of Education. Riverside, Calif. UCR’s research and education programs have a demonstrated record in training a large, diverse, and highly-educated workforce, a priority for both Amazon and the nation. In addition to undergraduates, UCR recruits and trains excellent graduate students fromdiverse backgrounds, comprehensively preparing them for careers in engineering and computer science, among others. Due in part to its diversity, UCR has attracted significant federal funding for PhD training programs, including $5.2 million for six U.S. Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) awards (2015 and 2016), National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate training grants of $3million for Computational Entomology (2015), and $3million for water research (2012). Eleven individual NSF three-year Graduate

Research Fellowships (GRFs) totaled $1.52million in 2017 (https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/45721). UCR PhD students won six GRFs in 2016, 11 in 2015, and 18 in 2014. Programs heavily budgeted for graduate funding, including $5million for the NSF Partnerships for International Research and Education partnership with Mexico in Synthesis of Optical Materials for Bioapplications: Research, Education, Recruitment and Outreach (SOMBRERO) and $12million for U.S. Department of Energy SHINES, which will help achieve higher energy efficiencies in nanoscale electronic devices (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRgL-9r7ZdM). NASA FIELDS supports both graduate and undergraduate minority students with a $4.5million award, 80 percent of which supports students. Education UCR currently teaches approximately 20,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students across nine colleges. UCR is one of America’s most diverse research

universities, with 37.2%Hispanic or Latino, 30.9% Asian, 3.5% African American, and 0.3%Native American. Time Magazine ranked UCR #1 in the nation based on graduation rate, affordability, and the financial aid available to students. Washington Monthly ranked UCR 12th in the nation in its annual University and College Survey. UCR ranks as the nation’s 8thmost diverse university and is themost diverse in the UC system. UCR is the only university in theWest to be recognized by Education Trust as one of the nation’s best institutions for successfully graduating African-American students relative to their white counterparts. US News &World Report indexed UCR as “high diversity” and Bestcolleges.comhas ranked UCR as the nation’s 3rd top college for Hispanic students. Finally, UCR boasts a record unparalleled by any other R1 institution — parity in graduation rates for undergraduate students regardless of ethnic or socio-economic background.

UC Riverside—the Research Flagship in the Inland Southern California

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