Establishing Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) as a strategic focus area at UC Merced will: 1) expand the research excellence the University already has in these increasingly important fields; 2) allow the campus to achieve its goal of enrolling 1,000 graduate students by 2020; and 3) benefit the Central Valley through economic stimulation and highly employable undergraduate educational programs. The foundation to achieve these goals already exists in the form of the EECS graduate emphasis area and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) undergraduate program. Additional resources, primarily in the form of faculty FTEs and adequate research space and instructional space, are needed to grow the campus’ EE component to: 1) expand into new but synergistic research areas, and 2) create an undergraduate program in EE.