Jacobs School News Archive
2005 News Releases
New Director Takes Over at UC San Diego Center for Networked Systems
December 22, 2005
Computer Science and Engineering professor Amin Vahdat has taken the reins of UCSD's Center for Networked Systems, and the center has expanded the number of affiliated faculty to 18. Full Story
Researchers Quantify More Noise in Gene Expression
December 21, 2005
A team of researchers at UCSD led by bioengineering professor Jeff Hasty report in the Dec. 21 issue of Nature a mathematical description of “extrinsic noise" in gene expression in a technique that would apply to other types of cells and other species. Full Story
President of India Launches Historic Indo-U.S. University Network
December 20, 2005
Jacobs School Dean Frieder Seible and Calit2 Division Director Ramesh Rao were among the UCSD faculty in New Delhi in December to inaugurate a new E-learning and research collaboration between India and U.S. universities. Full Story
Students Engineer a Digital Solution for Senior Care Provider
December 16, 2005
A team of UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering students has designed a system that is enabling nurses at St. Paul’s Senior Homes & Services to manage patient information via an easy-to-use computer interface. Full Story
How E. coli Bacterium Generates Simplicity from Complexity
December 15, 2005
Researchers at UCSD report in the Dec. 27 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that computer simulations show that only a handful of dominant metabolic states are found in E. coli even when it is “grown” in 15,580 different environments. Full Story
Computer Science and Engineering Chair Brings Spirit of Aloha to UCSD Freshmen
December 15, 2005
Computer Science and Engineering chair Keith Marzullo recently finished teaching a unique interdisciplinary course -- how to play the ukulele. Full Story
Engineers Discover Why Toucan Beaks Are Models of Lightweight Strength
November 30, 2005
Marc A. Meyers, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, reports in Acta Materialia that the secret to the toucan beak's lightweight strength is an unusual bio-composite. Full Story
UCSD Establishes Graduate Training Program Integrating Biomedical and Physical Sciences with Engineering
November 29, 2005
Nine graduate programs and thirteen departments at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are collaborating in a new graduate educational program at the increasingly crucial interface of biology, medicine, and physical and engineering sciences. Full Story
3rd Annual Invention to Venture Workshop Now Streaming On-Demand
November 29, 2005
UCSD faculty and students participated in a national workshop aimed at grooming university entrepreneurs; most of the talks and panel discussions are now available for on-demand viewing over the Internet. Full Story
Seven-Story Building at UCSD Rattled on Largest Earthquake Shake Table in U.S.
November 22, 2005
In a first-of-its-kind earthquake test, UCSD engineering researchers on Nov. 22 subjected a 275-ton, seven-story building to mechanical shakes that duplicated ground motions recorded during the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake. Full Story
UCSD Tests Intelligent Triage, Other Technologies in San Diego Disaster Drill
November 21, 2005
From a WiFi bullhorn created by ECE seniors this quarter, to CSE graduate students' virtual-reality and Command Center applications, technologies developed by Jacobs School faculty and students were tested during San Diego's largest ever disaster drill. Full Story
Through Calit2, Ericsson Endows UCSD Chair in Wireless Communications
November 16, 2005
ECE professor Laurence Milstein will be the first holder of the Ericsson Endowed Chair in Wireless Communication Access Techniques, one of two endowed chairs funded by Ericsson under its commitment to the UCSD Division of Calit2. Full Story
Photonics Researcher at UC San Diego Wins Graduate Student Leadership Award
November 14, 2005
Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. candidate Robert Saperstein received the R.B. Woolley Graduate Fellowship in Engineering Award for the 2005-'06 academic year, in honor of his work in photonics as well as his role in mentoring students at the UCSD Preuss School. Full Story
UCSD Unveils Center for Earth Observations and Applications
November 8, 2005
Calit2 and Scripps Institution of Oceanography have teamed to create a new UCSD Center for Earth Observations and Applications (CEOA) to "stimulate, support and coordinate sustained research and applications in Earth observations" at the university. Full Story
Researchers Develop New Method To Find Deadly Malaria Parasite's Achilles Heel
November 2, 2005
A team of UCSD researchers led by bioengineering professor Trey Ideker has discovered that the single-cell parasite responsible for an estimated 1 million deaths per year worldwide from malaria has protein “wiring” that differs markedly from the cellular circuitry of other higher organisms, a finding which could lead to the development of antimalarial drugs that exploit that difference Full Story
Researchers Learn How Blood Vessel Cells Cope with their Pressure-Packed Job
November 1, 2005
UCSD researchers stretched cells in a workout chamber the size of a credit card to gain a better understanding of how repetitive stretching of endothelial cells that line arteries can make them healthy and resistant to vascular diseases. Full Story
UCSD Researchers Report World Record Efficiency for High-Power Amplifiers for Cellular Base Stations
October 31, 2005
Engineers at UCSD and industry collaborators have achieved greater than 50 percent efficiency in power amplifiers for third-generation cell-phone base stations -- a record which could pave the way for stronger cell phone signals, and cheaper wireless infrastrastructure. Full Story
UC San Diego Dedicates Technology Institute and Honors Former UC President
October 28, 2005
UCSD dedicated its new 215,000 square foot California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology facility, to be named after former UCSD Chancellor Richard C. Atkinson. Calit2 also announced a new gift from QUALCOMM, and new academic chair for ECE's Laurence Milstein with funding from Ericsson. Full Story
California Computer Scientists Double Volume of Data in NIH Biotech Repository
October 26, 2005
CSE professor Eleazar Eskin led an effort to use a different, very fast and relatively low-cost computational tool to 'crunch' the world's largest repository of genotypes to predict their haplotypes - and they did so in less than 24 hours, approximately 1,000 times faster than the prevailing technology until now. Their findings are featured in a special issue of the journal Genome Research, published Oct. 26. Full Story
Scientists Discover Secret Behind Human Red Blood Cell's Amazing Flexibility
October 21, 2005
A team of UCSD researchers discovered how a mesh-like protein skeleton gives a healthy human red blood cell both its rubbery ability to stretch without breaking, and a potential mechanism to facilitate diffusion of oxygen across its membrane. Full Story
Coastal bluffs provide more sand to California beaches than previously believed
October 12, 2005
What had been thought to be a minor source of Southern California's beach sand – erosion from coastal bluffs and cliffs – could account for half of the sand on the region's beaches. Full Story
Thinking Big with the Very Small: Focus of New Cancer Nanotechnology Center at UCSD
October 3, 2005
In a new national effort to fight cancer with “nanoscale” devices that find and destroy tumor cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) today awarded the University of California, San Diego $3.9 million in the first year of a five-year $20 million initiative to establish a Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE). Full Story
Noise and Delays Explain Why Some Genes Oscillate in Activity
September 30, 2005
UCSD scientists report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the coupling of noise and time delay could also be an important factor in determining the variability in gene expression. Full Story
UC San Diego Opens State-of-the-Art Computer Science and Engineering Building
September 30, 2005
The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering dedicates its new Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) building, a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility that will allow academics to pursue studies ranging from networking and security to bioinformatics, graphics and computer vision. Full Story
First International Real-time Streaming of 4K Digital Cinema over Gigabit IP Optical Fiber Networks
September 26, 2005
For iGrid 2005 at Calit2 on the UCSD campus, partners from Japan and the U.S. demonstrated the first real-time super-high-definition trans-Pacific videoconference -- sending data over optical fiber to a screen with four times the resolution of normal high definition TV. Jacobs School professors Larry Smarr and Ramesh Rao participated in the opening ceremony of iGrid. Full Story
Jacobs School Researchers Work with HPWREN on Allocating Resources in Wireless Sensor Networks
September 12, 2005
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Jacobs School's electrical engineering and computer science departments is teaming with developers of the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network to build better tools for managing resources in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. Full Story
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Trey Ideker Named Top 35 Young Scientist by MIT's Technology Review Magazine
September 6, 2005
Trey Ideker, an assistant professor of bioengineering at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, has been named one of the nation’s top 35 innovators under age 35 by MIT’s Technology Review magazine. Full Story
Time-Saving Tool: Google Galvanizes Invention by UCSD Student during Summer of Code
August 30, 2005
With funding from Google, CSE grad student James Anderson has written open-source code for a time-saving tool to update multiple computers or other devices automatically whenever a document, email or other file is modified on one of the devices. Full Story
Intel Helps UCSD Teach Students About Wireless, Multimedia Embedded Systems
August 26, 2005
Intel has donated more than $193,000 worth of advanced developer kits to the Computer Science and Engineering department, to be used by graduate and undergraduate courses in embedded systems. Full Story
NSF Funds Four UCSD Research Projects in Information Theory With Potential Real-World Applications
August 19, 2005
The NSF has earmarked over $1.2 million over three years for four projects by Jacobs School faculty experts in information theory, for projects with potential applications in communications, storage and digital circuits. Full Story
Paul Kedrosky Named Executive Director of The von Liebig Center
August 16, 2005
Jacobs School dean Frieder Seible and External Relations executive director MaryAnn F. Stewart announced that Paul Kedrosky has been appointed Executive Director of The von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement. Full Story
UCSD Named 'Hottest for Science' by Newsweek Guide
August 16, 2005
August 16, 2005--The University of California, San Diego, long regarded as one of the nation’s premier research universities, has been named the “hottest” institution in the country for students to study science by Newsweek and the 2006 Kaplan/Newsweek College Guide. Full Story
Customized Y-shaped Carbon Nanotubes Can Compute
August 14, 2005
Researchers at UCSD and Clemson University report in the September issue of Nature Materials that specially synthesized carbon nanotube structures exhibit electronic properties that are improved over conventional transistors used in computers. Full Story
Live Demonstration of 21st Century National-Scale Team Science
August 12, 2005
Calit2 researchers helped stage the first successful system test of a coast-to-coast, 10-Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Ethernet optical pathway linking the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to UCSD some 3,000 miles away. Full Story
COSMOS Experience Ends on a High Note for High School Students at UCSD
August 9, 2005
The 83 students participating in the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program left the UCSD campus over the weekend, after showcasing their work for industry and family members at a Student Research Expo. In 2005 UCSD became the fourth UC campus after Irvine, Davis and Santa Cruz to host the COSMOS program. Full Story
Von Liebig Center Funds Five New Projects
August 8, 2005
The von Liebig Center awards more than $200,000 to five projects led by five professors at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Researchers in Australia Perform Microsurgery in California over the Internet
August 1, 2005
Scientists from UC Irvine, UC San Diego and the University of Queensland have performed laser surgery and “optical trapping” via the Internet, producing surgical holes in a distinct pattern of less than one micron in diameter in single cells. Full Story
Fran Berman on Perfect Storms, Competitiveness, and the Gretzky Rule
July 29, 2005
In an Op-Ed piece originally published on the high-performance computing website HPCwire, SDSC director Francine Berman argues that "investment in maintaining and sustaining a competitive U.S. workforce in science, engineering, and technology is a long-term investment." Full Story
SIGGRAPH 2005: Light Clouds, Camera Arrays and Speedier Rendering
July 28, 2005
Four papers by members of CSE professor Henrik Wann Jensen's Computer Graphics Lab will be presented during SIGGRAPH 2005, the premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques that begins July 31. Full Story
FirstMile.US and Calit2 Partner to Catalyze Big Broadband Everywhere
July 27, 2005
Calit2 and FirstMile.US announced that the institute will become the first partner of FirstMile.US, a non-profit organization set up to promote "big broadband" connectivity to every home, school and business in the nation. Full Story
International Bioinformatics Effort Reveals Evolutionary Hotspots and Link to Cancers
July 21, 2005
Jacobs School of Engineering professor Pavel Pevzner and mathematics professor Glenn Tesler are among the team of 25 scientists involved in a new study, reported in the July 22 issue of the journal Science, that confirms their earlier theory that evolutionary breaks happen at random locations along the human genome. Full Story
U.S. Universities, Industry in Win-Win Agreement with India to Improve Engineering Education
July 20, 2005
Jacobs School dean Frieder Seible and ECE professor Ramesh Rao attended the signing ceremony for an agreement between UC and four other universities and four Indian institutions to improve engineering education over a new satellite service in India. QUALCOMM will fund UCSD and Calit2 participation in the program. Full Story
California Researchers Offer Open-Source Platform to Speed Wireless Development
July 18, 2005
The UCSD division of Calit2 has begun distributing a hardware-and-software platform called CalRadio 1.0 for wireless R&D. The open-source device gives academic and corporate researchers unprecedented freedom to develop new radio frequency solutions. Full Story
NAE Selects UCSD Computer Vision Expert for 2005 Frontiers of Engineering Forum
July 17, 2005
UCSD computer science and engineering professor Serge Belongie, 30, has been selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering's annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering program for "innovative young engineers". Full Story
UCSD Computer Science Students Win Top Graphics Awards
July 13, 2005
Two CSE graduate students who won the top prizes in Henrik Wann Jensen's "rendering algorithms" course are headed for SIGGRAPH 2005, the top conference for computer graphics and special effects wizards. Full Story
San Diego Startup Company To Commercialize UCSD Technology to Treat Shock and Inflammatory Diseases
July 12, 2005
UCSD has signed an agreement with a San Diego startup company to license technologies developed in the Jacobs School of Engineering that hold promise for the treatment of shock and acute inflammatory diseases Full Story
Intense Math and Science Experience for High School Students Opens at UCSD
July 8, 2005
Eighty-six of California’s most talented and motivated high school students begin an intensive four-week math and science summer academic experience at UCSD. The students will study everything from earthquakes to molecular biology, and much more while participating in the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS). Full Story
Researchers Devise Improved Controls for Advanced Tokamak Fusion Reactor
July 5, 2005
Researchers at UCSD and San Diego-based General Atomics have reported an improved control method for a type of nuclear fusion technology that confines a cloud of ionized hydrogen in a doughnut-shaped machine called a tokamak. In a paper published in the July issue of Automatica, a group that included UCSD professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Miroslav Krstic reported a new mathematical approach designed to be incorporated into existing General Atomics software to more effectively fine tune electrical currents flowing through tokamak control circuits. Full Story
Cisco Systems Acquires Startup Network Security Firm Founded by UC San Diego Computer Scientists
June 28, 2005
NetSift, Inc. -- co-founded by Jacobs School professor George Varghese and graduate student Sumeet Singh based on technology developed at UCSD -- has agreed to be acquired by Cisco Systems for roughly $30 million in cash and options. Full Story
NSF Selects Two UC San Diego Experts in Computer Vision to Receive Five-Year CAREER Grants
June 22, 2005
Two Jacobs School faculty experts in computer vision have been selected for CAREER early faculty awards by the National Science Foundation. CSE's Serge Belongie, 30, and ECE's Nuno Vasconcelos, 39, will be funded over five years to the tune of approximately $400,000 each. Full Story
Starting Salaries Offered to UCSD Engineering Graduates Rise to $51,000-to-$55,000 Range
June 21, 2005
UCSD engineering students graduating this spring with baccalaureate degrees are receiving significantly higher starting salaries than their peers garnered last year. An annual survey by the Jacobs School of Engineering of its seniors found that the median starting salary this year for those joining the workforce will be in the $51,000-to-$55,000 range. Full Story
UCSD Undergraduates Selected to Research Cyberinfrastructure at Pacific Rim Universities
June 17, 2005
Thirteen students from the Jacobs School will leave next week for research institutions in Japan, Taiwan, China and Australia as part of the PRIME program to give the undergraduates summer-long research experiences in global cyber infrastructure-related fields. Full Story
Pentagon Selects UCSD Computer Engineering Student for Prestigious New Research Award
June 15, 2005
Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student Deborah Goshorn is in the first class of recipients of the new Science, Mathematics and Research for Training (SMART) Scholarship program launched by the U.S. Department of Defense this year. She is one of 36 students selected from among more than 600 applicants nationwide. Full Story
Outgoing Seniors Develop Multiplayer, Online Videogames for Software Design Course
June 9, 2005
Five teams of computer science seniors showcased their final projects on June 3, when the CSE 125 students of professor Geoff Voelker demonstrated their distributed, real-time, 3D, multiplayer online videogames. Full Story
UCSD Computer Scientists Develop Ubiquitous Video Application for 3D Environments
June 7, 2005
CSE professor Bill Griswold and Ph.D. candidate Neil McCurdy have taken the wraps off RealityFlythrough -- a new technique for mixing images and video feeds from mobile cameras in the field to construct dynamically a 3D virtual environment. It was unveiled June 6 at MobiSys 2005 in Seattle. Full Story
Jacobs School Experts Advise Teens During First Youth Summit for Online Safety
June 6, 2005
Two Jacobs School researchers addressed more than 750 high school students from around San Diego who packed UCSD's RIMAC arena on June 3 for the first Youth Summit for Online Safety. Full Story
Artist and Jacobs School Supporters Christen 370,000-Pound Sculpture for Engineering Courtyard
May 29, 2005
The 370,000-pound sculpture "Bear" was christened May 27 during a topping-off ceremony, after engineers and workmen maneuvered a huge rock 'head' on top of the 20-foot-tall teddy bear in the new engineering courtyard on the UCSD campus. Full Story
Six Jacobs School Undergraduates Represent UCSD at Statewide Research Symposium
May 27, 2005
Six Jacobs School of Engineering students were among the nine UCSD undergraduates who presented their research at the annual California Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (CAMP) Symposium. Full Story
SDSC and Calit2 Open Synthesis Center
May 23, 2005
The UCSD-based San Diego Supercomputer Center and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology have opened the SDSC/Calit2 Synthesis Center, offering scientists from different disciplines the cyberinfrastructure tools needed to solve multidisciplinary and multi-science problems in a collaborative way. Full Story
Entrepreurial Engineering Students Stage Sell-Out Biotechnology Conference
May 23, 2005
Engineering students played a leading role in a biotech conference staged on May 21 by the UCSD student organization VentureForth, which brought together top academic and industry speakers to talk about biotechnology entrepreneurship. Full Story
UCSD and Los Alamos National Laboratory Establish Engineering Institute
May 19, 2005
The University of California, San Diego and Los Alamos National Laboratory have forged a partnership for education, research and technology advancement that builds on a research-focused education initiative with the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. Los Alamos and UCSD today dedicated facilities at the Los Alamos Research Park for the new Engineering Institute. Full Story
Engineering Students and Alumni Speed Through Second Annual Triton Junkyard Derby
May 17, 2005
Jacobs School teams, including one entirely composed of alumni, participated in the second annual Triton Junkyard Derby, with a structural engineering student leading the winning Team Expansion Phantom to victory in the finals. Full Story
UCSD Researchers Test Wireless Technologies in Simulated Medical Disaster Response Drill
May 16, 2005
Jacobs School and Calit2 researchers participated in a disaster drill May 12 and demonstrated several new technologies developed for the first-responder community. Full Story
Jacobs School Steel Bridge Team Wins Spot at National Competition
May 12, 2005
A team of UCSD students took third place in the Student Steel Bridge Competition at the Pacific Southwest Regional Conference March 31 through April 2 at Cal State Fullerton. The strong showing qualified the 25-member UCSD bridge team to enter a national competition to be held May 27 and 28 in Orlando, FL. Full Story
Mechanical Engineering and von Liebig Center Graduate Student Wins National Business Contest
May 10, 2005
Edward Minkoff, a part-time graduate student in mechanical engineering at UCSD who took a von Liebig Center-designed course last quarter, has won the Foundation® International Spring 2005 Challenge -- an international competition designed to test how well students make business decisions. Full Story
Researchers Map Circuitry of Yeast Genes Using Technique That Could Be Applied to Humans
May 6, 2005
Researchers at UCSD have invented a technique that organizes the genetic information contained in the 16 chromosomes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae into a wiring diagram resembling an electronic circuit board. In a paper published in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology, professor Trey Ideker and graduate student Ryan Kelley reported that their new approach allowed them to predict new functions for 343 yeast proteins based on their positions in the new wiring diagram. Full Story
UCSD Structural Engineers Receive $7.5 Million Contract to Test Bomb Blast Mitigation Technologies
May 4, 2005
UCSD structural engineers together with a team of industry and university partners will develop and evaluate blast mitigation technologies to harden buildings and bridges against terrorist bomb attacks through a new $7.5 million federal contract. More than 40 tests will be performed over the next two years in the new blast simulator laboratory at the Jacobs School's Englekirk Structural Research Center. Full Story
iGrid to Push Edge of Networking Frontier by Demonstrating World
May 4, 2005
UCSD and Calit2 will host iGrid 2005 from Sept. 26-29 in the new Calit2 building on the La Jolla campus. The goal of iGrid 2005 is to push research and development of optical networking with data-intensive applications. Full Story
Bioengineering Chair Shu Chien Elected to National Academy of Sciences
May 4, 2005
Shu Chien, chair of the department of bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is one of only eight scientists in the nation to be elected to all three national academies: NAS, the Institute of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering. Full Story
Jacobs School Professor Is One of Five at UCSD Named Fellows of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
April 28, 2005
Jacobs School of Engineering electrical and computer engineering professor Jack Wolf and four other UCSD faculty members have been named fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Wolf will be inducted Oct. 8 at the 225-year-old academy's Cambridge, MA, headquarters. Full Story
UCSD Communications Faculty and Graduate Students Meet with Top Motorola Engineers
April 26, 2005
Motorola has designated the University of California, San Diego as one of its preferred university research partners, and top engineers from the company underscored that distinction when they converged on the UCSD campus for their spring Scientific Advisory Board Associates (SABA) conference to hear from more than half a dozen Jacobs School faculty. Full Story
ECE Undergrads Showcase Research at EUREKA 2005
April 22, 2005
Undergraduate students from Electrical and Computer Engineering took time out on April 18 to deliver short presentations on 15 research projects as part of the annual showcase known as EUREKA -- ECE's Undergraduate Research Konference & Assembly. Full Story
Human Cells Filmed Instantly Messaging for First Time
April 20, 2005
Researchers at UCSD and UC Irvine have captured on video for the first time chemical signals that traverse human cells in response to tiny mechanical jabs, like waves spreading from pebbles tossed into a pond. Full Story
Faster Handoff Between Wi-Fi Networks Promises Near-Seamless 802.11 Roaming
April 13, 2005
Computer Science and Engineering professor Stefan Savage and graduate student Ishwar Ramani have a patent pending on the basic invention behind SyncScan, a process to achieve practical, fast handoff for 802.11 infrastructure networks. Their study was published in the Proceedings of the IEEE InfoCom 2005. Full Story
Nanotech Advance Makes Carbon Nanotubes More Useful
April 11, 2005
Researchers at UCSD have made carbon nanotubes bent in sharp predetermined angles, a technical advance that could lead to use of the long, thin cylinders of carbon as microscopic springs, hooks, vastly smaller electrical connectors in integrated circuits, and in many other nanotechnology applications. In a paper published in the April 7, 2005, issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Sungho Jin, a professor of materials science at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, reported a technique to create bent nanotubes by manipulating the electric field during their growth and adjusting other conditions. Full Story
Jacobs School Celebrates Opening of the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center
April 11, 2005
Industry supporters, government representatives, family, friends, faculty and students gathered April 7 to celebrate the dedication of the Englekirk Structural Engineering Center at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. The center is named in honor of Robert and Natalie Englekirk, who recently provided a $1.5 million gift for research and fellowships and scholarships for structural engineering students at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
UCSD Engineering Students Showcase Real-World Group Design Projects
March 31, 2005
Eighteen teams of students participating in ECE 191 capped the winter quarter with presentations about their start-to-finish engineering design projects funded and mentored by corporations and research institutions such as Calit2. Full Story
Jacobs School Ranks #11 in Annual U.S. News Survey
March 31, 2005
In the annual survey of graduate programs released April 1 by U.S. News, the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering ranks 11th among 179 engineering schools, 6th in the nation among public universities. The Jacobs School of Engineering and ranked second in the nation for research expenditures per faculty member, reflecting UCSD’s leadership as a research university. Full Story
DoD, Calit2 Fund $500,000 Investment in Advanced Chip Technology at UC San Diego
March 28, 2005
Under a grant from the Pentagon's Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), the Army Research Office and Calit2 will split the $500,000 investment in a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system. The reactor will be located in the materials-and-devices wing of Calit2's new headquarters building at UCSD, due for completion this summer. Full Story
Jacobs School Seniors Bring Engineering Talent to a Hands-on Physics Course
March 28, 2005
At the 26th annual Physics 121 Special Projects Showcase, four Jacobs School seniors showcased their final projects, including a system for tracking projectiles with ultrasonics and using an electro-magnetic cannon to intercept at target. Other engineering entries included a model car capable of following a line drawn on the floor, and a laser-based rangefinder. Full Story
UCSD Researchers Present Findings about Progression of Deadly Aneurysms at American Physical Society Meeting
March 22, 2005
Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego explained at the March meeting of the American Physical Society how abnormal patterns of blood flow typical of abdominal aortic aneurysms lead to enlargement of the blood vessel. Full Story
UCSD Installs Supercomputer Dedicated to Bioengineering and Computational Biology
March 10, 2005
The University of California, San Diego, with support from the National Institutes of Health and the Whitaker Foundation, has installed a $350,000 supercomputer dedicated to solving a wide range of challenging biological problems. The 210-node Dell PowerEdge Linux cluster capable of 2.6 trillion mathematical operations per second will be used to analyze everything from the behavior of protein molecules and subcellular structures such as nerve synapses and cardiac muscle cells, to multicellular tissue and the whole heart. Full Story
Researcher Describes New Type of Strong, Lightweight Metallic Material
March 7, 2005
A UCSD professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering has described in the March issue of JOM (the Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society) the unique properties of a new type of metallic laminate that can serve as armor and as a replacement for beryllium, a strong but toxic metal commonly used in demanding aerospace applications Full Story
A Last-Mile Solution to Broadband Access
March 6, 2005
Jacobs School electrical and computer engineering professor Anthony Acampora recently presented early findings from a joint research project on the potential for free-space optical mesh networks to solve the "last-mile" problem -- to give more people high-speed access to the Internet. Full Story
Webcast of Irwin Jacobs' von Liebig Forum Talk Now Streaming
March 5, 2005
On March 2, Dr. Irwin Jacobs, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of wireless leader QUALCOMM Inc., and formerly a Jacobs School of Engineering faculty member, fave a wide-ranging talk on faculty innovation and commercialization at UCSD. Streaming video of his talk is now available for on-demand viewing, and the entire program will air on UCSD-TV starting March 21. Full Story
Professor-Turned-CEO Pitches New Wireless Data Transfer Technology
March 2, 2005
On leave from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, Sujit Dey still visits his UCSD lab every day while juggling the duties of starting up a new company -- Ortiva Wireless -- to provide data-shaping technologies to improve wireless data transfer quality. His research could lead to faster web browsing and improved video quality over the wireless Internet. Full Story
UCSD Bioengineer Shu Chien Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award
February 28, 2005
UCSD bioengineering chair Shu Chien received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) Awards Committee on February 26 during National Engineers Week. Chien was cited for his pioneering work in the field of bioengineering and the role he has played in grooming the next generation of Asian American bioengineers. It's the second year in a row that the prize went to a UCSD faculty member: in 2004, Y.C. 'Bert' Fung -- the founder of the bioengineering program at UCSD -- accepted the award. Full Story
MAE3 Robotics Contest and Outreach to Preuss School
February 24, 2005
The Robot Design Contest, which doubles as the final exam for a course that Nathan Delson teaches twice a year for undergraduates in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, received an infusion of new blood and new funding. The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) funded participation in the robotics competition for four teams of high-school students from the UCSD Preuss School. Full Story
New Course at UCSD Prepares Undergraduates for Success in Bioinformatics Research
February 22, 2005
CSE professor Eleazar Eskin's new course, "Research Training in Bioinformatics" is designed for students majoring in bioinformatics as part of the joint degree program offered by CSE, Biology, Chemistry and Bioengineering departments at UCSD. Full Story
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Coauthors Book on Neuroinformatics
February 18, 2005
Shankar Subramaniam, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program, has co-authored the first comprehensive book on neuroinformatics. The extensively illustrated book covers everything from relevant computational science and modeling issues to their diverse applications. Full Story
California Researchers Collaborate with Perlegen Sciences on Map of Human Genetic Variation Across Populations
February 17, 2005
Computer Science and Engineering professor Eleazar Eskin co-authored a study that is the cover story of the Feb. 18 edition of the journal Science. Together with biologists at Perlegen Sciences, Inc., and Eran Halperin of the International Computer Science Institute, Eskin analyzed a set of over 100 million genotypes from the over 1.5 million SNPs sequenced in each DNA sample from 71 individuals of European American, African American, and Han Chinese American ancestry. Full Story
Phasebridge Awarded DARPA - AFRL Contract to Jointly Develop Electroabsorption Modulator Technology with UCSD
February 17, 2005
Phasebridge, Inc., announced a joint effort with Jacobs School researchers including ECE chair Paul Yu and professor William Chang to develop semiconductor electroabsorption modulator (EAM) technology for rugged, high-performance microwave links. The agreement will enable the development of low cost and compact semiconductor optical modulators for high-performance fiber optic links in harsh environments. Full Story
$1.5 Million Gift from Robert and Natalie Englekirk To Support UCSD Structural Engineering Research and Education Priorities
February 14, 2005
UCSD announced a gift of $1.5 million from structural engineering industry leader Robert E. Englekirk and his wife Natalie to support research and fellowships and scholarships at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. The Englekirks’ commitment is primarily directed toward work at UCSD’s new structural research center which includes three new testing facilities: the world’s first outdoor shake table; the country’s largest soil-structure interaction facility; and the world’s first blast simulator for testing technologies to harden structures against terrorist bomb attacks. The campus has named the center the Robert and Natalie Englekirk Structural Engineering Center. Full Story
Von Liebig Center Joins Storage Networking Initiative
February 11, 2005
The Jacobs School's William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement has joined StorageNetworking.org, an initiative created by the UCSD-based Information Storage Industry Center. Full Story
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
February 11, 2005
Geert Schmid-Schönbein, a professor of bioengineering and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Schmid-Schönbein is an expert on experimental and mathematical tools used to identify mechanism of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and shock. Full Story
Jacobs School to Expand 'Teams in Engineering Service' Program
February 10, 2005
The Jacobs School is recruiting new students, community partners and corporate sponsors for its innovative Teams in Engineering Service (TIES) program, the first of its kind in San Diego, with plans to go from just over 40 students this quarter, to roughly 100 by next fall, and 200 eventually. Teams are currently working technologoy projects for two non-profit organizations in the San Diego area. Full Story
Examination of Internal 'Wiring' of Yeast, Worm, and Fly Reveals Conserved Circuits
February 8, 2005
Researchers in California, Israel, and Germany have compared three distantly related species – baker’s yeast, a worm, and the fruit fly – and reported that protein “wiring” connections in one species are often conserved in all three. This first-of-its-kind analysis of three higher level organisms published in the February 8 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supports both the concept of a basic wiring diagram for all eukaryotic cells, and the idea that more selective pharmaceuticals could be designed to tweak the wiring plan of human cells to more effectively treat diseases while also generating fewer side-effects. Full Story
Calit2 Launches Prize Program to Encourage Bioinformatics Research by UCSD Undergraduates
February 3, 2005
The UCSD division of Calit2 is funding two new multidisciplinary programs to encourage more undergraduates to do research in the field of bioinformatics. The first two Calit2 Undergraduate Bioinformatics Scholar Awards were announced at a Feb. 2 research symposium organized by UCSD computer science and engineering professor Eleazar Eskin, who hopes to make the symposium a quarterly event, thanks to funding from the institute. Full Story
Faculty Members Brief Industry Partners at CNS Research Review
January 26, 2005
On Jan. 19 and 20, UCSD's Center for Networked Systems (CNS) held its first Research Review since the center's creation last summer, with representatives from CNS's five member companies hearing presentations on the seven projects now underway in areas ranging from cybersecurity to grid architecture. Full Story
UC San Diego Expands Overseas Research Program for Undergrads to China, Thailand
January 24, 2005
Engineering and other UCSD undergraduates attended an orientation session for the NSF-funded Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences (PRIME) program in summer 2005, when they will get the chance to do cyber infrastructure research at leading institutions in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, China or Thailand. Up to 18 internships will be awarded, double the number in the inaugural program last summer. Full Story
Priming Embryonic Stem Cells to Fulfill Their Promise
January 21, 2005
Bioengineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a process to help turn embryonic stem cells into the types of specialized cells being sought as possible treatments for dozens of human diseases and health conditions. Sangeeta Bhatia, a UCSD bioengineering professor, Shu Chien and Christopher J. Flaim, a bioengineering graduate student, described the cell-culture technique in a paper published by Nature Methods in its Jan. 21 online edition. Full Story
Real-Time HDTV Broadcast from USA to Japan Enabled by Advanced Networks
January 19, 2005
Dignitaries and researchers attending the Japanese Gigabit Network 2 (JGN2) Symposium in Osaka, Japan listened and watched as CSE professor and Cal-(IT)2 director Larry Smarr gave the keynote presentation on a large screen above the podium. Unlike traditional keynote talks, however, Smarr was 5,000 miles away in Seattle, Washington. Full Story
Uncovering the Secrets of Abalone Body Armor
January 14, 2005
Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego are using the shell of a seaweed-eating snail as a guide in the development of a new generation of bullet-stopping armor. The colorful oval shell of the red abalone is highly prized as a source of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, jewelry, but the UCSD researchers are most impressed by the shell’s ability to absorb heavy blows without breaking. Full Story
UCSD, CENIC Partner on First U.S. Campus Production 10 Gigabit Ethernet Broadband Connection for Research, Education
January 13, 2005
The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) announced today that the first production 10 gigabit Ethernet connection in the United States was installed from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to CENIC's high-performance backbone network, CalREN. Upgrading from their one gigabit connection, this new link provides unprecedented wide area network capacity to UCSD's students, faculty and staff. Full Story
Entrepreneurism Center Funds New Projects from All Five UCSD Engineering Departments
January 10, 2005
The William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement has awarded more than $300,000 to eight projects led by faculty members of the Jacobs School of Engineering, to help commercialize innovations developed in their labs. It is the Center's sixth round of funding, and for the first time, all five Jacobs School departments were represented among the researchers leading the winning projects. Full Story
One Course, Many Classrooms: West Coast Universities Team with Microsoft to Test Peer-to-Peer Remote Learning Technology
January 6, 2005
Graduate students from UCSD's Jacobs School, University of Washington, Microsoft and UC Berkeley participated in a course on Information Technology & Public Policy in the fall. Same course, same instructors -- but not in the same classroom. Instead, they were scattered among the four separate locations, using Internet2 and technology developed with Microsoft Research and UW. Full Story
UCSD Students Benefit from Remote Learning Experiment
January 6, 2005
Jacobs School students summed up the Information Technology & Public Policy course they took jointly with students at the University of Washington, UC Berkeley and Microsoft Research. "The class was quite refreshing," said one. "It gave us a chance to look at computer science and technology as a whole from a political perspective, which is something that I had never seen before." Full Story