Claire Tomlin sits in a test aircraft used by her autonomous vehicles research team. (Photo/ David Shen)
As a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at UC Berkeley, Claire Tomlin has spent her career researching ways to enable autonomous systems to navigate safely. But over the past four years as department chair, she also focused on responsibly steering EECS during a time of significant change.
During her chair term, which ended in June, Tomlin helped dramatically expand the EECS faculty, established the department position under two colleges – a first for the university – and undertook an initiative to honor the department's history.
As she returned this summer to the full-time research work that first drew her to Berkeley, Tomlin reflected on the experience of building trust and closer relationships with her faculty members and colleagues.
Navigating uncharted territory
