Students Get an Intro to AI in First AI Major Class at UC San Diego
April 30, 2026
More than 100 undergraduate students enrolled in UC San Diego’s new AI major took their first major-specific course, CSE 25: Intro to AI, over winter quarter. The class aims to introduce AI principles that the students will see repeatedly over the next four years, and level the playing field between students who may have taken AI coursework on their own, and students for whom this is all new material. Full Story
Stick-on Gel Offers New Way to Treat and Monitor Plants
April 28, 2026
A stick-on gel for plants could offer a simple, safe and targeted way to treat diseases and pests. It can be loaded with substances, such as medicines, and applied directly onto a plant to deliver those materials into its tissues. In tests, the gel was used to clear a plant's bacterial infection. Full Story
New Conversational AI Tool Uses Trusted Medical Protocols to Help People Decide When to Seek Care
April 23, 2026
A new chatbot could reliably help people decide what to do about their symptoms — and do so based on guidance that is both medically sound and easy to understand. Designed to improve self-triage, it could help reduce unnecessary hospital visits and ensure that those who need care seek it sooner. Full Story
Six New Projects Are Empowering Early-Career Engineering and Computer Science Faculty
April 23, 2026
Six teams from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been awarded funding to accelerate interdisciplinary research collaborations that include an early-career faculty member. The big idea is to empower early-career faculty to build interdisciplinary research collaborations to the point that they are competitive for multi-year external funding. The effort is funded by Irwin Jacobs and his late wife, Joan. Full Story
MRI and Augmented Reality for Better Back Pain Surgery Wins at Research Expo 2026
April 21, 2026
Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Songyuan Lu won the grand prize at this year’s Research Expo, where more than 150 students presented their research posters across the six departments at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Lu’s work focuses on computer-assisted surgery using MRI and augmented reality. Full Story
AI-enhanced Microscopy Produces Crisp, Real-time Video Inside Live Cells
April 20, 2026
Using artificial intelligence, engineers have developed a new way to watch the inner workings of living cells in real time. The process both captures images that are twice as sharp as conventional microscopes and is fast enough to play as smooth video. Full Story