Alumni News
2013 News Releases
Industry: Meet the Jacobs School's Students
December 20, 2013
Intel. Microsoft. Cisco. These were three of the 18 science and tech companies that sent recruiters to meet with Jacobs School students at the fifth annual Professional Evening with Industry Nov. 22 at the Price Center. Put on by three student diversity organizations–the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)–in conjunction with the IDEA Student Center, the event gave Jacobs School students the opportunity to dine with the recruiters as well as industry engineers before a career fair, where they could hand over resumes and talk about job or internship opportunities. Full Story
Class Creates Budding Entrepreneurs
December 19, 2013
Kevin Fructuoso didn’t think about being an entrepreneur—until he took the Product Design and Entrepreneurship class taught by mechanical engineering Teaching Professor Nathan Delson. During the class, he teamed up with three other students to come up with a product that helps meet the unique sleep needs of students, who often live in noisy dorms. Students had to identify a market need, design the product, conduct marker research, study interfaces and usability and learn how to use a 3D printer, among other requirements. The class culminated in a three-hour pitch fest, where students attempted to sell their products to three entrepreneurs and product designers who served as judges, Dec. 12 at the Qualcomm Conference Center in Jacobs Hall. Three teams won $2000 to pursue their product idea and join the Moxie Center, the campus’ undergraduate entrepreneurship incubator. Full Story
ACM Recognizes Two UC San Diego Computer Scientists
December 12, 2013
Two computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego are among the 50 members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) elected Fellows of the organization in 2013. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) professors Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou and Mihir Bellare in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering were among the elite group of researchers hailing from leading universities, corporations and research labs. Full Story
With 'Cool Gizmo,' Research Team Hopes Citizen-Sensors Will Improve World Health
December 12, 2013
Enterprising researchers and students at the University of California, San Diego are looking for funding to complete a “citizen-sensor” project that, they hope, will revolutionize global health and environmental monitoring – especially in remote and undeveloped areas of the planet. They also hope to attract the faith and funding of people around the world through the open, global crowd-funding resource Indiegogo, the first partnership between UC San Diego and a funding platform. Full Story
Bullet Trains, Express Lanes' and Aspen Trees
December 11, 2013
Computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering didn’t have far to travel to attend the 9th ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies (CoNEXT) in Santa Barbara, Calif. So why the big focus on “bullet trains” and “express lanes”? For researchers and students in UC San Diego’s Center for Networked Systems (CNS) and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department, those transportation terms do not mean quite the same thing in computer networking as they do for consumers eager to get home by train, bus or car for the holidays. CNS research scientist George Porter co-authored two papers with CSE colleagues, and they were presented on Dec. 11 during a CoNEXT session called, “Trains, Lanes and Autobalancing.” Full Story
Nanosponge Vaccine Fights MRSA Toxins
December 2, 2013
Nanosponges that soak up a dangerous pore-forming toxin produced by MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) could serve as a safe and effective vaccine against this toxin. This “nanosponge vaccine” enabled the immune systems of mice to block the adverse effects of the alpha-haemolysin toxin from MRSA—both within the bloodstream and on the skin. Nanoengineers from the University of California, San Diego described the safety and efficacy of this nanosponge vaccine in the December 1 issue of Nature Nanotechnology. Full Story
Bioengineering Professor Among Six UC San Diego Faculty Named 2013 AAAS Fellows
November 25, 2013
Six professors at the University of California, San Diego have been named 2013 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest general science organization. Full Story
Understanding Information: How We Get It, How We Use It, How to Benefit from It
November 20, 2013
For most computer users, information is only valuable when it serves a context-specific purpose, such as providing the GPS coordinates for a new restaurant or a list of search results for a query on airline flights to Fiji. But for University of California, San Diego electrical and computer engineering professor Tara Javidi, understanding how people acquire and use information in various engineering applications is just as valuable. Her most recent grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) — a $1 million collaborative research award to Javidi, Andrea Goldsmith of Stanford University and Bruno Sinopoli at Carnegie Mellon University — will fund the development of a new theoretical framework for understanding how to best control information flow in large cyber-physical systems such as datacenters or smart energy grids. Full Story
New Models Predict Where E. coli Strains Will Thrive
November 18, 2013
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have used the genomic sequences of 55 E. coli strains to reconstruct the metabolic repertoire for each strain. Surprisingly, these reconstructions do an excellent job of predicting the kind of environment where each strain will thrive, the researchers found. Their analysis, published in the Nov. 18, 2013 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could prove useful in developing ways to control deadly E. coli infections and to learn more about how certain strains of the bacteria become virulent. Full Story
UC San Diego Computer Scientist Wins Prestigious Award
November 6, 2013
He is the first professor from the University of California, San Diego to win the prestigious SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award. On Nov. 5, computer science and engineering professor Stefan Savage received the 2013 award from the ACM Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) during the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) in Farmington, Penn. Full Story
Undergraduates Get to Ignite Fire in Space for Science
November 5, 2013
Four UC San Diego undergraduates boarded a special NASA plane and soared in microgravity over the Gulf of Mexico this summer. Their goal: understanding how biofuels behave in space. “The best way to describe the feeling was like being on a roller coaster. In the first second before the microgravity occurs, it feels like you’re at the peak of the roller coaster, and just as the zero gravity takes effect, you’re suddenly free from the floor,” said Sam Avery, a fourth-year aerospace engineering major. “It was a great experience.” Avery and three fellow students were there because the UCSD Microgravity team -- a student organization captained by Avery – won a NASA competition for university students. The eight-student organization proposed an experiment to test the combustion rates of biofuels in zero-gravity. The group was one of seven universities that were awarded a zero-gravity trip -- commercially worth $5,000 per person. Full Story
Are Racks-on-Chip the Future of Data Centers?
November 5, 2013
Increasing the scale and decreasing the cost and power of data centers requires greatly boosting the density of computing, storage and networking within those centers. That is the hard truth spelled out in the journal Science by faculty from the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Writing in the Oct. 11 edition of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Chair Shaya Fainman and Center for Networked Systems (CNS) Research Scientist George Porter – who is also a member of the Computer Science and Engineering systems and networking group – argue that one promising avenue to deliver increased density involves “racks on a chip.” These devices would contain many individual computer processing cores integrated with sufficient network capability to fully utilize those cores by supporting massive amounts of data transfer into and out of them. Full Story
Rocketing Ahead
November 1, 2013
On a hot Saturday afternoon in the Mojave Desert, a team of UC San Diego engineering students huddled in a small underground bunker and watched quietly as the rocket engine they had designed over the past eight months flared to life on a test platform. As a jet of rocket fuel sprang out of the engine at supersonic speed, the students cheered loudly.The test by the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) marked the first time that a university-led group had successfully designed, built and tested a 3-D-printed rocket engine, according to Space.com. Full Story
Nanoengineer Joseph Wang Named one of 100 Most Influential Analytical Scientists
November 1, 2013
UC San Diego NanoEngineering professor Joseph Wang has been named one of the 100 most influential analytical scientists in the world, according to the magazine the Analytical Scientist. Full Story
Countering Click Spam
November 1, 2013
When is a click not a click? When an advertising network registers a click on one of their online advertisements, how can it be sure that a single consumer – a “pair of eyeballs” in Madison Avenue jargon – and not a malware computer program, is behind that one click? Or that the viewer’s click was intentional, not induced by deceptive or misleading advertising? Click-spam has become a little-known way of life on the Internet. Little known, compared to other types of spam, because much of the fraud is targeted at the advertising networks, rather than at consumers directly. So what happens when an automated system can “click” on hundreds of ads in less than a second? Full Story
Genomatica Among 100 Companies Highlighted for Economic Boost of Research
October 30, 2013
Two innovative UC San Diego spinoffs are among the 100 companies cited by The Science Coalition in a new report touting the positive economic payoff of federally funded university research. Genomatica, a biotechnology company that grew from research conducted in Bernhard Palsson’s laboratory at UC San Diego; and Senomyx, a provider of flavor ingredients for the food and beverage industries that arose from research conducted by Charles Zuker at UC San Diego, help demonstrate how support of basic and applied research at American universities pays strong economic dividends. Full Story
UC San Diego Alumnus Publishes Manifesto on Computing for New Forms of Cultural Expression
October 29, 2013
2013 is turning out to be a banner year for University of California, San Diego alumnus D. Fox Harrell (Ph.D. Computer Science and Cognitive Science, ’07). In July he received tenure at MIT, where he is an associate professor of digital media. He juggles an appointment in Comparative Media Studies and in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Now Harrell is coming to a bookstore near you with the publication this week of “Phantasmal Media: An Approach to Imagination, Computation, and Expression” (MIT Press). Carefully grounded in computer science, cognitive linguistics, and media studies, and using illustrative multicultural references ranging from classic cinema to science fiction, from Ralph Ellison to Franz Kafka, Harrell’s work has been called a manifesto on how computing can create powerful new forms of cultural expression. Full Story
NSF Awards $1.2 Million to UCSD/UCLA to Pinpoint Unused Space in Wireless Spectrum
October 24, 2013
A research collaboration between the University of California campuses in San Diego and Los Angeles has been awarded $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation to enable smartphones, sensors and other software-defined radio devices to rapidly and precisely pinpoint bands of unused radio spectrum and eliminate any existing signal interference. The team’s hardware-based approach will “open up the radio spectrum and make high-speed communication more accessible to more people in our society,” explained Prof. James Buckwalter of the UC San Diego Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department. Full Story
Meet the Newest Class of Jacobs Scholars at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
October 17, 2013
Each academic year, about ten incoming freshman to the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego are named “Jacobs Scholars.” Recipients are selected for their academic achievement, leadership potential and commitment to community service. The exceptional individuals receive a scholarship that includes full tuition and living expenses, invitations to cultural and other social events, and access to a network of current and former Jacobs Scholars. Irwin and Joan Jacobs created the program in order to enrich the student body of the Jacobs School of Engineering with a special group of world-class students who are highly likely to contribute to engineering innovation — and are also likely to encourage and inspire other students to do the same. Below are profiles of many of the Jacobs Scholars who began their undergraduate careers at UC San Diego in Fall 2013. Full Story
Bioengineers uncover cause, treatment for insulin resistance in shock patients
October 8, 2013
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that insulin resistance in shock patients is caused by the leakage of powerful digestive enzymes from the small intestine that eat away and destroy the insulin receptor in cells. Reporting in the journal Shock, the team has also found a way to stop these enzymes’ destructive path by blocking them in the intestine, where they are normally used to digest food. The research team includes Frank DeLano, lead investigator, and co-investigator Geert Schmid-Schönbein, professor and chair of bioengineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Doctors have long known that trauma patients going into shock are at risk of developing acute insulin resistance, leading to hyperglycemia. The pancreas releases insulin to deliver glucose to cells to convert into energy for the body. When cells are unable to process insulin properly, a condition known as insulin resistance, blood sugars rise and the pancreas releases more insulin, compounding the problem. Until now, doctors have not known what mechanism causes insulin resistance to develop in shock patients or how to treat it. Full Story
Is Massive Open Online Research the Next Frontier for Education?
September 30, 2013
A team from UC San Diego is launching a new course on the Coursera online learning network that breaks ground on several fronts. In “Bioinformatics Algorithms – Part 1,” UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor Pavel Pevzner and his graduate students are offering a course that incorporates a substantial research component for the first time. Full Story
Improving Lithium-Ion Batteries with Nanoscale Research Between UC San Diego and The National Labs
September 27, 2013
New research led by an electrical engineer at the University of California, San Diego is aimed at improving lithium (Li) ion batteries through possible new electrode architectures with precise nano-scale designs. Full Story
UC San Diego Researchers to Build Cyberinfrastructure to Simulate and Predict Wildfires
September 26, 2013
Three research organizations at the University of California, San Diego, have been awarded a multi-year National Science Foundation grant to build an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure that will assess, simulate, predict and visualize wildfire behavior based on real-time data. The project, called WIFIRE, kicks off Oct. 1 and is funded under a three-year grant worth approximately $2.65 million. Participants include researchers from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology’s (Calit2) Qualcomm Institute. Also participating in the project is the University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering. Full Story
'Wildly Heterogeneous Genes'
September 18, 2013
Cancer tumors almost never share the exact same genetic mutations, a fact that has confounded scientific efforts to better categorize cancer types and develop more targeted, effective treatments. In a paper published in the September 15 advanced online edition of Nature Methods, researchers at the University of California, San Diego propose a new approach called network-based stratification (NBS), which identifies cancer subtypes not by the singular mutations of individual patients, but by how those mutations affect shared genetic networks or systems. Full Story
Calit2 Research Scientist Albert Lin Teams with TopCoder, NASA
September 13, 2013
A crowdsourcing effort led by University of California, San Diego research scientist Albert Yu-Min Lin is central to a new challenge as programmers worldwide are invited to develop a machine-learning algorithm to match human perception in picking out interesting features in satellite imagery. While the images come from Lin's search for the lost burial site of Genghis Khan, a new algorithm could help NASA scientists decipher images of distant planets. Full Story
After Touch Screens, Researchers Demonstrate Electronic Recording and Replay of Human Touch
September 6, 2013
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego report a breakthrough in technology that could pave the way for digital systems to record, store, edit and replay information in a dimension that goes beyond what we can see or hear: touch. “Touch was largely bypassed by the digital revolution, except for touch-screen displays, because it seemed too difficult to replicate what analog haptic devices – or human touch – can produce,” said Deli Wang, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “But think about it: being able to reproduce the sense of touch in connection with audio and visual information could create a new communications revolution.” Full Story
Center for Networked Systems: Finding the Silver Lining in a Sometimes Dark 'Cloud'
August 29, 2013
UC San Diego faculty, researchers and students and collaborators from industry recently came together for the twice-yearly Center for Networked Systems research review. Full Story
Computer Science at UC San Diego Jumps in Global Rankings: Reading Between the Ranks
August 27, 2013
The computer science program at the University of California, San Diego is on a roll. It jumped several notches in a widely-reported international ranking of top universities by discipline, and the increase occurred prior to changes now under way in the wake of the largest gift ever in the history of the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department. According to the computer science Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in released last week, UC San Diego reached #11 in 2013. That is a substantial jump compared to rankings of #14 in 2012, and #16 in 2011. The ARWU list is produced by a research unit based at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Full Story
Nice Threads! Computer scientists develop new model to simulate cloth on a computer with unprecedented accuracy
August 12, 2013
Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed a new model to simulate with unprecedented accuracy on the computer the way cloth and light interact. The new model can be used in animated movies and in video games to make cloth look more realistic. Existing models are either too simplistic and produce unrealistic results; or too complex and costly for practical use. Researchers presented their findings at the SIGGRAPH 2013 conference held July 21 to 25 in Anaheim, Calif. Full Story
Crowdsourcing the World
August 6, 2013
Every day, satellites take high-resolution pictures of the Earth. But it is almost impossible for humans to review these billions of pixels of information. Enter Tomnod, a start-up co-founded by four alumni of the Jacobs School of Engineering who have harnessed crowdsourcing to sort through all these pixels. Their company was recently acquired by Colorado-based Digital Globe, a leading supplier of commercial satellite imagery. Full Story
Computer Science Tutors Get Together for a Family Reunion
August 5, 2013
“To me, it's not a tutor reunion, it's a family reunion.” That's how Anu Mupparthi (BS '08, MS '11) described her experience at the recent computer science tutor reunion June 7 on campus. "I come back to the people who made me who I am," said Mupparthi, who now works in the Google+ photo group. She is one of the 170 alumni of the tutor program who came back to UC San Diego for their second-ever reunion. Full Story
Health Data Exploration Survey Seeks Participants Who Self-Track Health
August 2, 2013
The Health Data Exploration project has announced a call for participants in an online survey that seeks to uncover insights into how individuals, companies and researchers are using the data that are captured through digital devices such as fitness apps. Another goal of the survey is to determine how willing individuals are to share their digitally captured health data with others for research purposes. This initiative – housed at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) – will explore how new technologies like smartphones and digital apps are yielding an increasingly large amount of data that can be mined for insights into individual and population health and well-being. Full Story
Technology-Enhanced Learning: From Campus to the World
June 21, 2013
The academic landscape is changing rapidly, due in no small part to recent advances in technologies to enable, enhance and deliver teaching and learning to a worldwide audience. At the University of California, San Diego, administrators and faculty are particularly focused on using technology to transform the undergraduate learning experience (saving money in the process). They’re doing this in the context of the UC San Diego Education Initiative, as well as the Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) Initiative jump-started by Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute. Both programs are helping to formulate a way forward for the campus, with the Education Initiative focused on policy, and the TEL Initiative experimenting with various models of online learning. Full Story
Nanoengineering Graduates Ready to Solve Technology's Most Challenging Problems
June 18, 2013
The University of California, San Diego conferred its first undergraduate degrees in nanoengineering this June. Although most engineering programs now offer courses about engineering at the nanoscale, very few provide a focused curriculum dedicated to this rapidly growing field. UC San Diego was the first in the nation to create a Department of NanoEngineering in 2007 and began offering it as an undergraduate degree program in fall 2010. Since then, undergraduate enrollment has grown from 51 students to 273, and is expected to reach nearly 400 students this fall with the arrival of a new crop of freshmen. Full Story
Three Jacobs School Scholars Among 10 Distinguished Campus Teachers
June 13, 2013
Hyonny Kim from structural engineering and Richard Ord and Kevin Webb from computer science and engineering are among the 10 UC San Diego scholars recognized with teaching awards. Full Story
Gordon Scholars Learn from Experience
June 11, 2013
Integrity. Honesty. Teamwork. And smartphones. These are a few of the essential leadership tools engineering students and young engineering professionals need to become successful entrepreneurs in the new economy, said Ronald Reedy, co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor at a recent Gordon Engineering Leadership forum for students, staff and alumni of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Organized by the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center, the forum is one of many opportunities students have to learn from the experience of their predecessors. Full Story
Metabolic Model of E. coli Integrated with Protein Structures Reveals How Bacterial Growth Responds to Temperature Change
June 6, 2013
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a computational model of 1,366 genes in E. colithat includes 3D protein structures and has enabled them to compute the temperature sensitivity of the bacterium’s proteins. The study, published June 7 in the journal Science, opens the door for engineers to create heat-tolerant microbial strains for production of commodity chemicals, therapeutic proteins and other industrial applications. Full Story
$18.5 Million Alumni Gift Lifts UC San Diego's Computer Science and Engineering Dept. into New Era
June 6, 2013
An $18.5 million gift from a UC San Diego alumnus will set the computer science and engineering department on a new course into the future, funding new faculty endowed chairs, top-of-the-line teaching labs, support for graduate students, and expanded mentoring and tutoring programs for the next generation of undergraduates. The gift marks a milestone in UC San Diego’s history as it is the largest gift ever made to the university by one of its alumni. Full Story
Jacobs School Associate Dean Charles Tu Awarded Honorary Doctorate
May 29, 2013
Electrical Engineering Professor Charles W. Tu has been awarded an honorary doctorate of engineering at Linköping University. At the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Tu serves as Associate Dean and as a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Full Story
UC San Diego Creates Center for Brain Activity Mapping
May 16, 2013
Responding to President Barack Obama’s “grand challenge” to chart the function of the human brain in unprecedented detail, the University of California, San Diego has established the Center for Brain Activity Mapping (CBAM). The new center, under the aegis of the interdisciplinary Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UC San Diego, will tackle the technological and biological challenge of developing a new generation of tools to enable recording of neuronal activity throughout the brain. It will also conduct brain-mapping experiments and analyze the collected data. Full Story
Alexander Vardy Named First Jack Keil Wolf Chair in Electrical Engineering
May 14, 2013
Electrical engineering Professor Alexander Vardy, a renowned researcher in information and coding theory, has been appointed as the first Jack Keil Wolf Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. The endowed chair was established in memory of Jack Keil Wolf, a longtime professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and a pioneer in information theory and its applications. Full Story
Students Connect, Collaborate and Career Search on New Interactive Portfolio Platform
May 12, 2013
Students at the UC San Diego are known for their innovative ideas that transcend classroom walls, but these achievements can lose their vigor when confined to a single bullet point on a traditional printed resume. In a digital world that prioritizes portability and values visual content, Jacobs School alumnus Adam Markowitz believes he has a solution to help students make a lasting impression: a new interactive portfolio platform called thePortfolium. Designed to dynamically showcase students’ multidisciplinary projects, the website allows users to network, upload their top work and search for jobs all in one place. Full Story
Junkyard Derby Goes on, Rain or Shine
May 10, 2013
The big storm system that drenched most of San Diego County this week didn't stop 46 teams from taking part in this year's Junkyard Derby May 6 on Peterson Hill. On Monday, 46 teams of students readied themselves for what would be the culmination of a week’s worth of preparation for this year’s derby, organized by UCSD’s Triton Student Engineering Council. This year’s winner was team Premium Motion. Full Story
Saura Naderi's Award-Winning Week
May 2, 2013
It was shaping up to be just another typical week for the UC San Diego’s Saura Naderi: She’d prepped robotics kits for her engineering classes, given advice to an engineering undergraduate about what servos she should buy for her senior design project and met with members of the Junior National Society of Black Engineers chapter for San Diego to review the chapter’s bylaws. But a text message she received Monday afternoon was the first hint Naderi’s week would be something extra special. The text, from Lovella Cacho, Naderi’s colleague at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, read: “You’re one of the top 10 up for UC San Diego Employee of the Year Award.” Full Story
Life and Career Advice from an Alumna for Aspiring Computer Scientists and Engineers
April 23, 2013
Always ask a lot of questions. Look for mentors and sponsors. When you teach others, you will learn more. Luck is really opportunity plus preparation. Stereotypes and preconceptions really are dares. Those were the five pieces of advice that computer science alumna Jennifer Arguello gave a group of prospective Jacobs School of Engineering undergrads April 5 . The studentswere taking part in an overnight program run by the IDEA Student Center at the Jacobs School. The event was part of Triton Day at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Nanosponges that Remove Toxins from Blood Take Top Prize at Research Expo 2013
April 23, 2013
More than 100 judges representing industry and engineering faculty circled around 200 engineering research posters at the University of California, San Diego April 18, asking the graduate students about their research. The students, representing the six academic departments of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, explained the content of their research to the judges as well as Research Expo attendees from industry, academia, the government and nonprofits. Judges ranked the students on their research and on how well they articulated their work to judges who may or may not work in their particular engineering sub-field. Students were called to explain the essential findings and why they matter to other researchers, to industry and to society. Full Story
Symposium at UC San Diego Marks 70th Birthday of Former Engineering Dean
April 19, 2013
Within days of each other, Robert W. Conn recently made two trips to Washington, D.C. to meet President Barack Obama at the White House. The Dean Emeritus of the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, Dr. Conn is President of The Kavli Foundation. As the Foundation’s President, on March 28, Conn visited the Oval Office with the 2012 U.S. winners of the Kavli Prizes. The visit was an opportunity for the President to acknowledge the newest laureates and to express how greatly the country depends on basic science. The meeting was also attended by the President’s Science Advisor, Dr. John Holdren, Norwegian Ambassador to the U.S. Wegger Chr. Strommen, and Mr. Rock Hankin, Vice Chairman of the Foundation’s board of directors. Full Story
Nanosponges Soak Up Toxins Released by Bacterial Infections and Venom
April 14, 2013
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a “nanosponge” capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream – including toxins produced by MRSA, E. coli, poisonous snakes and bees. Full Story
1,100 Alumni Strong
April 8, 2013
Since 2000, more than 1,100 students have given back by serving as tutors in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Jacobs School. The program helps instill in students the department's philosophy, which encourages them to work together rather than compete against one another. Full Story
Want to Connect with the Future? Attend Research Expo at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
April 4, 2013
Advances in tattoo sensors for health monitoring, on-chip optical networking, low-cost cancer diagnostics, video games designed to teach computer programming, new materials for protecting soldiers from blasts, and energy-efficient high-wire robots. These are just a few of the 200+ projects from Jacobs School of Engineering graduate students that will be on display at Research Expo on April 18 at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
UC San Diego Team Achieves Petaflop-Level Earthquake Simulations on GPU-Powered Supercomputers
April 2, 2013
A team of researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a highly scalable computer code that promises to dramatically cut both research times and energy costs in simulating seismic hazards throughout California and elsewhere. Full Story
Multidisciplinary Research Institute at UC San Diego Named in Honor of Qualcomm
April 2, 2013
The University of California, San Diego is renaming its division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) in honor of the philanthropy of the San Diego-based wireless technology leader, Qualcomm Incorporated. The multidisciplinary research center will now be known as the Qualcomm Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, the UC San Diego Division of Calit2, or Qualcomm Institute for short. Full Story
Better, Cheaper, Faster Ways for Making (and Destroying) Memories
March 25, 2013
For literary types, memory is often linked with Marcel Proust’s madeleine cookie, which, in a single bite, launches a nostalgic reverie that lasts through seven volumes. But for scientists and engineers at the University of California, San Diego, ‘memory’ in the computing sense is all about a different kind of sweet: layer cake. By following a so-called “layer-cake approach” to data storage and retrieval, all components of such systems evolve in tandem, so that advances in hardware don’t rapidly eclipse advances in software, or vice versa. UC San Diego’s annual Non-Volatile Memories Workshop (NVMW), now in its fourth year, is an opportunity for the many academic researchers working in the field of non-volatile memories to partner with industry representatives “and bring all the layers together to nudge academics in the right direction,” said Steven Swanson, associate professor of Computer Science and Engineering in UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Research Shows How Earthquake Damage Can Impact Building Fire Safety Performance
March 13, 2013
Damage to building structural elements, elevators, stairs and fire protection systems caused by the shaking from a major earthquake can play a critical role in the spread of fire and hamper the ability of occupants to evacuate, and impede fire departments in their emergency response operations. These are among the conclusions of a groundbreaking study of post-earthquake building fire performance conducted in 2012 by researchers in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Full Story
Feed Your Entrepreneurial Spirit with Know-How
March 12, 2013
Aspire to be an entrepreneurial scientist but lack the know-how? The von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center is excited to announce that it has partnered with the American Chemical Society to provide entrepreneurial training online from the perspective of accomplished entrepreneurs Neil Senturia and Barbara Bry. The 2013 ACS Chemical Entreprenurial Series of webinars, features subject matter experts exploring how to start and grow a science and technology focused company. Full Story
Alumnus Mike Chi is Developing Better EEG Recording Equipment at Cognionics
March 11, 2013
When Mike Chi finished his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at UC San Diego in 2011, he co-founded Cognionics. One of his big goals is to put better sensor technologies into the labs of researchers and physicians who study the electrical signals produced by the brain (EEG) and heart (ECG) for a variety of basic research and medical applications such as diagnosing cardiac disorders or conducting high-resolution brain imaging on freely moving subjects. Full Story
What is the Story Behind the Research Expo Gold Squares?
March 11, 2013
The gold squares on the Research Expo 2013 postcards…what are they? The gold squares are ceramic packages that house experimental circuits developed in the lab of bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The research is aimed at developing new circuits that increase the speed and decrease the energy required to wirelessly transfer biological data—such as ECG signals from the heart and EEG signals from the brain—from sensors worn on the body to nearby data collectors. Full Story
International Consortium Builds 'Google Map' of Human Metabolism
March 4, 2013
Building on earlier pioneering work by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, an international consortium of university researchers has produced the most comprehensive virtual reconstruction of human metabolism to date. Scientists could use the model, known as Recon 2, to identify causes of and new treatments for diseases like cancer, diabetes and even psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Full Story
Peer Mentoring Program, Dean Emeritus Receive Diversity Awards
March 4, 2013
The Jacobs School of Engineering was in the spotlight at this year’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action awards ceremony Feb. 13 here on campus. A pair of graduate students from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering , Laura Connelly and Margie Mathewson, who created a peer-mentoring program, as well as Frieder Seible, now Dean Emeritus of the Jacobs School of Engineering, received three of eight campus-wide awards. Full Story
It May be Called DECaF, But It's Got Recruiters and Students Buzzing
February 28, 2013
Why would more than 2,300 students dress up in their best business attire and line up in front of the Price Center ballrooms at 9 a.m. on a Friday? That would be the Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair, also known as DECaF, which this year gave undergraduate and graduate students alike the opportunity to talk to recruiters from 95 companies. Full Story
'Robot Combat League' Stars Jacobs School Alumna in 'Fight to the Death'
February 25, 2013
A new television series featuring 12 giant robots who ‘fight to the death’ casts University of California, San Diego engineering physics alumna Saura Naderi (B.S., '07) as one of a dozen ‘robo-techs’ who partner with a human fighter (‘robo-jockey’) and a super-sized robot to compete for a $100,000 prize. The premiere episode, dubbed “Rise of the Machines,” begins airing Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on the Syfy network. The series bills itself as the “next generation of arena combat” and is hosted by World Wrestling Entertainment’s Chris Jericho. Each episode features tournament-style battles between eight-foot-tall humanoid robots, which the robo-techs and robo-jockeys control using a high-tech exoskeleton suit that translates their exact movements to the robots. Full Story
UC San Diego Computer Scientist Among Young Faculty Recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships
February 21, 2013
An expert in bioinformatics and computational mass spectrometry at the University of California, San Diego is among the 2013 crop of young faculty members identified by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders. Full Story
Engineer, Alumna and Olympic Runner
February 20, 2013
Meet Sonali Merrill, a Jacobs School alumna, who also is a member of Sri Lanka’s Olympic track and field team. The San Diego Union-Tribune has called her “the accidental Olympian.” Here she talks to us about her passion for engineering and her experiences as a student athlete and engineering student at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Student Develop App to Help Protect Marine Conservation Areas
February 19, 2013
A team of engineering students at UC San Diego have been working hard to help protect the beaches and waters off the La Jolla coastline. Their contribution to the environment is a web app that will allow volunteers to monitor the health of marine conservation areas off the coast of Southern California. Volunteers will input information about human activity, pollution, and even poaching into the app via an interactive form. The information will then be stored in a database. Full Story
In Hot Computer Science Course, Students Build 3D, Multiplayer Networked Games
February 13, 2013
An early March deadline is fast approaching for University of California, San Diego students who want to take one of the hottest courses on campus – and one of the most competitive, with only 30 slots each spring. The course, Computer Science and Engineering 125, will also dazzle high-school students who descend on the UC San Diego campus on April 6 for Triton Day, with their admission letters in hand. The CSE department will showcase what sets the UCSD program apart from computer science at other top-notch universities, and that will include showing a freshly-minted video about last spring’s course. Full Story
Alumnus' Passion for Design Leads to Award at International Consumer Electronics Show
January 29, 2013
Last month, one of the products developed by Jacobs School alum Andre Berracasa for MaxLinear was recognized at the 2013 International CES show with a Design and Engineering Award in the embedded technologies category. He attributes his success to his education at UC San Diego. Full Story