With the dawning of the Information Age and the era of global competitiveness, new demands have been brought to universities to find ways of conducting basic research, of educating engineering students, and of interacting with government and industry. This paper describes an initiative that was created in Rochester, New York, an important center of imaging and image science for more than a century. The guiding vision of this Center for Electronic Imaging Systems (CEIS) is to establish and maintain a leading national center for all phases of electronic imaging systems and for the education of world-class scholars to lead imaging science into the 21st century. The paper describes the fundamental principles upon which the CEIS was founded, the management structure of the Center, new approaches to engineering education within the Center, and the emphasis on research and technology transfer. The hallmark Research Triplet concept is described as are main research themes and interactions. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/ASK)