Groundbreaking Research In 2018 That Furthered The Study Of Alzheimer's, Cancer And Blood Pressure

Forbes | December 21, 2018

In large part because of the support of the NIH, scientists across the United States and around the globe conduct wide-ranging research to enhance health, lengthen life and reduce illness and disability. This research includes a project, led by Sheng Xu, assistant professor at the University of California San Diego, to engineer a blood pressure sensor that uses ultrasound technology and can be worn as a flexible skin patch. The technology could replace other methods of monitoring blood pressure in the future. Full Story

Could the Future Be Powered by Salt? This Researcher Thinks It's Possible

Inverse | December 8, 2018

If battery innovation were a cocktail party, lithium ion would be the one sucking up all the oxygen in the room, telling too many jokes and barely letting anyone get a word in edge wise. But these lithium ion batteries aren't perfect, explains Shirley Meng, a nanoengineering professor at the University of California San Diego. They're expensive and require the use of cobalt, which can sometimes be a conflict mineral. Meng and colleagues recently started looking into the question of whether our infatuation with lithium ion might be overshadowing other more promising areas of battery research. Full Story

University of California San Diego Researchers Develop 'Easy-to-Use' 3D Bioprinting Method for Living Blood Vessels

3D Printing Industry | December 4, 2018

Bioengineers from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have developed a 3D bioprinting method that integrates natural materials which produce lifelike organ tissue models. The UCSD team used their method to create blood vessel networks capable of keeping a breast cancer tumor alive outside the body as well as a model of a vascularized human gut. The research, recently published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, aims to accelerate the production of human organ models to be studied for pharmaceutical drug screening. Full Story

Batteries made from sodium would be cheap yet powerful

Earth.com | December 4, 2018

Today's Video of the Day from the National Science Foundation (NSF) describes the potential for batteries made from sodium, which would be cheaper and more powerful than lithium batteries. Materials scientist Shirley Meng of the University of California San Diego is leading a research team that has a vision of making sodium batteries a reality. The study is supported by the Ceramics Program within the Division of Materials Research at NSF. Full Story

UC San Diego develops easy-to-use bioprinting process for vascularized networks

3D Printing Media Network | December 3, 2018

A team of bioengineers from the University of California San Diego is developing a bioprinting method that could enable scientists and pharmaceutical companies to easily create human organ models for research purposes and drug screening. At this stage in the research, the UC San Diego team has demonstrated the technique's ability to produce blood vessel networks that can keep a breast cancer tumor alive outside the body (ex vivo). Full Story

New class of carbides could be toughest yet

Chemistry World | December 3, 2018

A new class of complex "high-entropy" metal carbides that incorporate five different metals has been developed by researchers in the US, who have shown the new materials can be significantly harder and more heat resistant than simple carbides. Full Story

New Laser for Improving Telecommunications and Computing

Tech Briefs | December 1, 2018

The first laser based on the wave physics phenomenon called bound states in the continuum (BIC) has been developed. The technology could revolutionize the development of surface lasers, making them more compact and energy-efficient for communications and computing applications. The BIC lasers could also be developed as high-power lasers for industrial and defense applications. Full Story

Robots and AI in the OR

Robotics Industries Association | November 26, 2018

In the operating room, robots help guide surgical instruments to precise treatment locations. They can repeat the same movements over and over again without fatigue, or remain completely stationary for long periods of time. Robots go where traditional surgical tools can't, and perform tasks unimaginable without computer assistance, sophisticated algorithms and advanced motion control technology. They make the impossible possible. Researchers at UC San Diego, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Michael Yip, are developing algorithms to help guide and eventually automate surger Full Story

The chemical search for better white light

C&EN | November 19, 2018

To make LEDs that produce more natural-looking light, scientists are developing new phosphors. These are inorganic compounds applied to the dome-shaped cap covering an LED that alter the light emitted, giving it a more pleasing hue. Efforts to discover new phosphors have nearly always occurred through painstaking, trial-and-error experiments--for example, by using exploratory crystal-growth methods and combinatorial chemistry. A new study led by UC San Diego's Joanna McKittrick and Shyue Ping Ong suggests that computational screening may one day put the kibosh on the lab-intensive approach. Full Story

Super-water-repellent surfaces can generate energy

Science News for Students | November 13, 2018

Scientists knew that they could generate electricity by running salt water across an electrically charged surface. But they could never get the process to make enough energy to be useful. Now engineers have figured out a way to do that. Their trick: Make the water flow over that surface much more quickly. They achieved this by making the surface super water repellent. Full Story

3D organ maps bring $14 million to UC San Diego's Kun Zhang

The San Diego Union Tribune | November 9, 2018

UC San Diego bioengineering professor Kun Zhang has been awarded $14 million to build 3D digital maps of human organs, accurate to the single-cell level. The money comes in two grants from the National Institutes of Health. One grant for $8.7 million will fund work on a map of the entire human brain. The five-year-grant is from the NIH BRAIN Initiative. The other grant, for $5.3 million, is for mapping the lungs, kidneys, bladder and ureters. That four-year grant is part of a larger initiative called the Human Cell Atlas, which aims to "map the adult human body at the level of individual cells Full Story

Could a Temporary Tattoo Help Detect Your Alcohol Content Level?

The Doctors | November 7, 2018

The Doctors discuss a new technology that uses someone's sweat to measure your alcohol intake level. Could this new innovation help decrease alcohol-related deaths? Full Story

Irwin Jacobs praises UCSD Institute of Engineering in Medicine's accomplishments on its 10th anniversary

The San Diego Union Tribune | November 4, 2018

A decade ago, UC San Diego engineers and physicians came together to form the Institute of Engineering in Medicine. And one of the world's top engineers, who played a key role in its founding, says he's impressed with the results. That's electrical engineer Irwin M. Jacobs, the Qualcomm co-founder and philanthropist. He spent the day at the IEM's 10th anniversary event, listening to presentations and talking with institute members at poster sessions last week. Full Story

4 ways how hackers can access your web browsing history

Gadgets Now | November 3, 2018

Scientists have discovered four new techniques to expose inteternet users' browsing histories, which could be used by hackers to learn which websites they have visited. The techniques fall into the category of "history sniffing" attachkes, a concept dating back to the early 2000s. However, the attacks demonstrated by the researchers from the University of California San Diego in the US can profile or 'fingerprint' a user's online activity in a matter of seconds, and work across recent versions of major web browsers. Full Story

Popular browsers made to cough up browsing history

Naked Security by SOPHOS | November 2, 2018

Anonymous Coward, in commenting on a report from The Register about vulnerabilities that expose people's browsing histories, pithily sums up potential repercussions like so: Sweetheart, whats this 'saucyferrets.com' site I found in your browsing history? If you value your privacy and your ferret predilections, be advised that in August, security researchers from Stanford University and UC San Diego presented, during the 2018 USENIX Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT), four new, privacy-demolishing attack methods to get at people's browsing histories. Full Story

Old School 'Sniffing' Attackes Can Still Reveal Your Browsing History

Motherboard | November 2, 2018

Most modern browsers--such as Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, and even browsers such as FuzzyFox and DeterFox (different, security-focused versions of Firefox)--have vulnerabilities that allow hosts of malicious websites to extract hundreds to thousands of URLs in a user's web history, per new research from the University of California San Diego. What's worse, the vulnerabilities are built into the way they structure links, meaning that major structural changes will have to take place in these browsers in order to protect user privacy. The only browser that was immune to the attacks was Tor Full Story

Web surfing vulnerable to new 'browsiing sniffing' attacks

The Week | November 1, 2018

Scientists have discovered four new techniques to expose internet users' browsing histories, which could be used by hackers to learn which websites they have visited. The techniques fall into the category of "history sniffing" attacks, a concept dating back to the early 2000s. However, the attacks demonstrated by the researchers from the University of California - San Diego in the US can profile or 'fingerprint' a user's online activity in a matter of seconds, and work across recent versions of major web browsers. All of the attacks the researchers developed worked on Google Chrome. Full Story

50 ways to leave your lover, but four to sniff browser history

The Register | October 31, 2018

"History sniffing" promises a nose full of dust or, you're talking about web browsers, a whiff of the websites you've visited. And that may be enough to compromise your privacy and expose data that allows miscreants to target you more effectively with tailored attacks. For example, a phishing gambit that attempts to simulate your bank login page has a better chance of success if it presents the web page for a bank where you actually have an account. Full Story

New technology could better monitor blood pressure

WKRC TV Cincinnati | October 30, 2018

New technology that could help better monitor blood pressure is in the works. The National Institutes of Health has just released a photo of a wearable device that might soon help detect the pressure of blood flowing through your arteries. A blood pressure cuff is traditionally placed around the arm to measure your blood pressure at the doctor's office, or you may even have a finger checker at home, but this new patch is different. It was developed by a team at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story

How injecting tiny sponges will relieve the pain and misery of rheumatoid arthritis

Mirror | October 25, 2018

Rheumatoid arthritis is a particularly painful form of ­the disease where the body produces antibodies to its own joints. But there is hope for sufferers. In the not-too distant future, the pain, stiffness and destruction of joints caused by the condition could be contained by an injection of, wait for it, nanosponges. These safely soak up and neutralise a range of proteins that cause inflammation in the joints, usually in the hands, feet and wrists. And and while the breakthrough won't cure the autoimmune disease, it will help manage the condition that affects 400,000 Britons. Full Story

A Robotic Expert Answers All Of Our Questions About Driverless Cars

UPROXX | October 25, 2018

I'm probably the world's worst driver. And it's not just that I'm bad at driving, I don't like driving. I think it's stressful and boring. So believe me when I say: I am counting the days down until level-5 autonomous cars hit the road. I want the kind of car where I say, "Cool. So, I can take a nap and binge-watch Arrested Development now?" and the car responds "Of course, sweetie!" and brews me a warm mug of cocoa. But while I'm probably overly excited about self-driving technology, plenty of others are frightened of our driverless future. Full Story

UCSD's Tech Accelerator gets $1M Boost

San Diego Business Journal | October 24, 2018

A local foundation and a Seattle-based venture fund partnered to contribute $1 million in funding to develop new startups through the University of California San Diego?s Institute for the Global Entrepreneur (IGE). Full Story

ROBO Global ETF Marks Milestone With NYSE Closing Bell

robotics business review | October 18, 2018

Yesterday, ROBO Global LLC celebrated its fifth year with a historic gathering here on Wall Street. After panel discussions about investment in the growing robotics industry, a UR5e collaborative robot rung the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. ROBO Global began in 2013 with a comprehensive investment strategy across the robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence (RAAI) ecosystem, explained Travis Briggs, CEO of ROBO Global. It has a presence in 11 countries and is trading on nine exchanges."We live in a period of massive innovation," said Bill Studebaker, president of ROBO G Full Story

Earthquake simulator at UC San Diego to get major upgrades

abc 10news | October 18, 2018

The "shake table" at UC San Diego will soon be able to move just like a real earthquake, thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation. Researchers at UC San Diego received $16.3 million for upgrades to the machine. "This would become one of the very best centers for earthquake engineering worldwide," says Professor Joel Conte, who teaches in the school's Department of Structural Engineering. Researchers say, right now, the shake table only moves back and forth, rocking large structures placed on top of it. Full Story

UC San Diego Earthquake Simulator Getting Upgrade

KPBS | October 18, 2018

The nation's largest outdoor earthquake simulator, located in San Diego, is getting a $16.3 million makeover. The University of California San Diego's shake table has helped researchers design buildings and other structures that are more capable of surviving earthquakes. Scientists have built buildings as tall as six stories on the outdoor platform and added simulations that replicated the force of some of history's most damaging temblors, like the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The upgrade is being paid for by the National Science Foundation. Full Story

Medical device vulnerabilities will impact patient safety, infrastructure

mobi health news | October 17, 2018

Despite the healthcare sector's awareness of medical device flaws, many are still focused on whether a patient has been harmed. But to UC San Diego researcher, emergency medicine provider Christian Dameff, it's more about retaining patient trust Full Story

Wearable patch measures central blood pressure

Physics World | October 17, 2018

A wearable patch, designed by Sheng Xu's research group at the University of California San Diego, can flex and conform to the skin's surface while assessing blood pressure (BP) through ultrasonic waves. It performs as well as other non-invasive methods used to measure BP without presenting their associated caveats. By measuring the pulsatile behaviour of the artery diameter, the patch can derive pressure in real time and yield important predictors of related cardiovascular events. Full Story

Wearable ultrasound patch tracks blood pressure

NIH | October 16, 2018

The pressure of blood flowing through arteries and other blood vessels can harm organs when it remains too high for too long. High blood pressure, or hypertension, can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and other health problems. But this common disease usually doesn't cause warning symptoms, so many people don't know they have it. A blood pressure test is the only way to detect hypertension. To develop an accurate but less invasive technique, a research team led by Dr. Sheng Xu at UC San Diego, set out to develop a thin, wearable blood pressure sensor using ultrasound transducers Full Story

Wearable Data Can Help Change Behavior to Keep Blood Pressure Down

Healthcare Analytics News | October 15, 2018

Researchers from UC San Diego used personal data from a Fitbit wearable technology and machine learning to predict blood pressure. In addition to successfully predicting the next day?s blood pressure, the model could pinpoint which behaviors are most likely to positively or negatively affect the outcome and should therefore be improved or avoided. Full Story

Huge quake simulator to get an upgrade soon

Gulf Times | October 15, 2018

The University of California (UC), San Diego's outdoor shake table in Scripps Ranch will soon give engineers a truer sense of the fury released when big earthquakes erupt in places around the world. The National Science Foundation gave the school $16.3 million to upgrade the centre so it can more accurately simulate quakes, a complex phenomenon that in some years kills hundred of thousands of people worldwide. The table is the largest of its kind and it has conducted experiments that have led to tougher building and design codes for bridges and housing projects. Full Story

Huge earthquake simulator to get an upgrade

Bakersfield.com | October 14, 2018

The University of California, San Diego's outdoor shake table in Scripps Ranch will soon give engineers a truer sense of the fury released when big earthquakes erupt in places around the world, The National Science Foundation gave the school $16.3 million to upgrade the center so it can more accurately simulate quakes, a complex phenomenon that in some years kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. The table is the largest of its kind and has conducted experiments that have led to tougher building and design codes for bridges and housing. Full Story

UC San Diego's huge earthquake simulator getting upgrade to better simulate deadly temblors

Los Angeles Times | October 13, 2018

UC San Diego's earthquake simulator at Scripps Ranch will soon give engineers a better sense of the fury released when quakes erupt in places around the globe from the San Fernando Valley to the mountains of Afghanistan. The National Science Foundation recently gave the university $16.3 million to upgrade the so-called shake table so it can more accurately simulate quakes, officials said. The outdoor table is the largest of its kind and has conducted experiments that have led to tougher building and design codes for bridges and housing. Full Story

This Ultrasound Patch Monitors Blood Pressure in Deep Arteries

Smithsonian | October 9, 2018

A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego has developed a wearable ultrasound patch they say can non-invasively monitor blood pressure in arteries far beneath the skin. The patch could monitor patients with heart or lung diseases or other problems in real-time without any risky procedures. It could also potentially help detect cardiovascular problems earlier than traditional monitoring methods. Full Story

Hypertension Research Uses mHealth Wearables to Improve Outcomes

mHealth Intelligence | October 5, 2018

Researchers at the University of California San Diego are developing an mHealth platform that can predict a consumer?s blood pressure from wearable data and offer health and wellness advice to keep those readings healthy. Full Story

Meet the Minds Behind the ROBO Global Strategic Advisory Board

BrightTALK | October 1, 2018

Henrik Christensen, Illah Nourbakhsh and Manish Kothari aren't just members of the ROBO Global Strategic Advisory Board, but also some of the top minds in the world of robotics and A.I. We're honored to have their insight and knowledge fueling the decisions behind the index and helping to keep ROBO state of the art in the realm of robotic developments. Full Story

Non-Invasive Monitoring of the Central Blood Pressure

News Guards | September 25, 2018

Researchers at UC San Diego have developed an ultrasound patch to enable the continuous monitoring of the central blood pressure. The team is led by Sheng Xu, a NanoEngineering Professor and his team of research graduates at the university. The device monitors the central blood pressure as opposed to the peripheral blood pressure -- which is usually measured with an inflatable cuff around the upper arm. While peripheral blood pressure is relatively easy to measure, it's the central blood pressure that could help identify prevailing heart conditions and eventually predict a heart disease. Full Story

America's trucker shortage is a crisis you may not have noticed -- but we all depend on drivers who are underpaid and overworked

Business Insider | September 22, 2018

"I got my diesel wound up and she's a-running like a-never before," sang Dave Dudley in 1963 in his single "Six Days on the Road." The song was a major hit at a time when the profession still had a glimmer of romance about it. These days, truckin' is inspiring a whole lot less love, especially among the young. In North America and Europe alike, older drivers are retiring, but hardly anybody's joining the profession. With global logistics still vitally dependent on trucking, that's not just a problem for the industry; it's a potential crisis for everyone -- and a national security threat. Full Story

Lead batteries: the sustainable back-up power resource for the future

Recycling Product News | September 21, 2018

The LA Times published an article in March 2018 explaining that less than 3 percent of lithium-ion batteries around the world are recycled according to Zheng Chen, a 31-year-old nanoengineer at the Sustainable Power and Energy Center at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering. Since only a small percentage of lithium and lithium batteries are being recycled, the batteries from used smartphones and laptops tossed in household garbage end up in trash trucks and landfills where if damaged, can create thermal runaways and fires. Full Story

A stretchy stick-on patch can take blood pressure readings from deep inside your body

MIT Technology Review | September 20, 2018

The last time you had your blood pressure checked, it was probably at a doctor's office with a bulky cuff wrapped around your arm. One day soon, perhaps, you will just need a simple stick-on patch on your neck, no bigger than a postage stamp. That's the goal of Sheng Xu and his team at the University of California San Diego, who are working on a patch that can continuously measure someone's central blood pressure. It could make it a lot easier to monitor heart conditions and keep an eye on other vital organs like the liver, lungs, and brain. Full Story

Wearable Patch Uses Ultrasound to Measure Blood Pressure From Deep Veins

Hackster | September 18, 2018

Many medical conditions necessitate regular, consistent blood pressure monitoring. That's true for some people day-to-day, but it's also a common need during surgery or when a patient is still in the ICU. Traditionally, that monitoring is done with bulky blood pressure cuffs. But, a new wearable patch created by researchers at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering may make those cuffs a thing of the past. Full Story

How a girl from Tijuana became a champion of cross-border scientific ties

Sally Ride Science | September 16, 2018

Today Graeve is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering and a respected expert on nanomaterials used in extreme environments. Her work has been recognized with the National Science Foundation CAREER award and Hispanic Educator of the Year award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Last year Forbes named her one of the 100 most powerful women in Mexico. Full Story

UCSD Students Developing Sticker That Can Monitor Heart Rate

NBC 7 San Diego | September 13, 2018

Keeping tabs on your heart rate could be as easy as putting a sticker on your skin. Nanoengineering graduate students at UCSD are working to develop a soft ultrasonic sticker that can monitor deep body signals and transmit them to a digital device. Student Chonghe Wang helped design the ticker-reading sticker. He says it's still a couple of years away from everyday use, but he thinks it has very high potential. Wang says the next step is figuring out how to make it wireless -- right now they have to connect it to a computer. Full Story

Ultrasound patch goes deep to better-monitor blood pressure

New Atlas | September 13, 2018

Earlier this year, we heard how scientists from the University of California San Diego had developed a flexible ultrasound patch that allows users to see the inner structure of irregular-shaped objects. Well, now they've made one that measures a patient's blood pressure from deep within the body. Full Story

A New Robotic Fly Dips And Dives Like The Real Thing

Wired | September 13, 2018

RESPECT WHERE RESPECT is due: we humans may be mighty, but there's still a foe that regularly dodges our best efforts to kill it: the fruit fly. Over millennia of evolution, fruit flies have adapted to burn their pursuers with enviable agility. Now researchers have built a robotic doppelganger that can twist and bank with astonishing speed. With two pairs of wings beating 17 times a second, it has a wingspan of over a foot and weighs just an ounce. Called DelFly, it can hit speeds of 15 miles an hour and switch directions in an instant, just like the real thing. Full Story

UCSD and PARC and their smart mouth guard and advanced flex sensors

Medical Design and Outsourcing | September 12, 2018

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) and PARC (Palo Alto, Calif.) developed a smart mouth guard to monitor saliva to detect levels of hydration, fatigue and mental engagement in athletes in real time and continuously. Long-term, the technology's flexible sensors may have medical applications in ultrasound transducers, cardiac arrhythmia monitors, hearing aids, catheters and test probes, according to Joseph Wang, director of the Center for Wearable Sensors at UCSD. Full Story

Women Killin' It In Cancer Research

The University Network | September 11, 2018

Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2018, an estimated 1.7 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. alone with over 600,000 people dying from the disease. Around 38 percent of American men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. Though these numbers seem grim, each day researchers around the world are developing innovative approaches for treating and understanding cancer--and women are often at the forefront of such work. In this article, we highlight nine women who are killin' it in cancer research. Full Story

Medical Device Insecurity: Diagnosis Clear, Treatment Hazy

Tech News World | September 11, 2018

An increasing number of healthcare professionals have become alert to the need for well-rounded medical device security in recent years, and players throughout the industry have started putting more effort into raising the bar. An optimistic observer might point to strides toward reaching that goal. Developers have become aware of the most glaring holes, and more information security researchers have been brought into the fold. Full Story

Triton Tech: Voyager Space Technologies

Fresh Brewed Tech | September 10, 2018

Meet Darren Charrier, 22-year-old UC San Diego Triton, co-founder, and CEO of Voyager Space Technologies, which is building artificially intelligent software tools to expedite the design process of satellites by allowing engineers to create and collaborate in real time, all in one place. Full Story

University of California San Diego alum and tech pioneer, Sergey Sundukovskiy

sdnews.com | September 8, 2018

Sergey Sundukovskiy has become an unlikely poster child for tech start-up success. While earning a degree in computer science from UC San Diego, Ukrainian native Sundukovskiy mastered English by watching "Married With Children" and "The Simpsons." Now a successful serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in information technology, Sundukovskiy is CTO of a software company that's revolutionizing the construction industry: Raken. Carlsbad-headquartered Raken is a provider of mobile apps and software for the construction industry. Full Story

Nanosponges Offer New Approach to Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | September 4, 2018

University of California (UC), San Diego scientists say they have developed neutrophil nanosponges that can safely absorb and neutralize a variety of proteins that play a role in the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Injections of these nanosponges effectively treated severe rheumatoid arthritis in two mouse models. Administering the nanosponges early on also prevented the disease from developing. Full Story

UCSD Engineer Invents Microscopic Sponge To Combat Arthritis, Other Diseases

KPBS | September 3, 2018

Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a microscopic sponge that can soak up proteins that trigger rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic joint pain and inflammation. "I think we have developed a breakthrough nano-medicine technology," said Liangfang Zhang, a nanoengineering professor at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and lead author of a study published Monday in "Nature Nanotechnology." Zhang and his team developed neutrophil "nanosponges" to help combat and prevent the debilitating disease. Full Story

The Devil is in the Details in Robotics and AI Investing

ETF Trends | September 3, 2018

Common business sense says that rising competition is one surefire way to know you're on to something good. Clearly, ROBO Global's approach to investing in robotics and AI has been validated--in spades! In the past 24 months, more than 10 new ETFs have come onto the market in an attempt to generate returns by investing in robotics and automation. With the heightened competition, however, come questions. How should investors sift through the noise? What should investors be looking into when choosing a robotics ETF? Full Story

Bose launches sleepbuds based on tech from EvoNexus startup-- showcasing incubator's impact

San Diego Union-Tribune | August 29, 2018

In June, Bose launched a new line of noise-canceling smart earbuds based on technology it discovered at the EvoNexus startup incubator in San Diego. Hush, launched in 2014 by undergraduate students at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, spent nearly two years in EvoNexus developing its earbud technology to help people sleep. Full Story

Oceanside company's idea won't take much time to digest

CBS8 | August 28, 2018

UC San Diego bioengineering alumnus Zack Kong created a compostable, durable and even edible cutlery meant to tackle the problem of plastic waste. Full Story

Smart Tags Add Touch Controls to Ordinary Objects

IEEE Spectrum | August 27, 2018

Despite the modern world's fixation with touchscreen smartphones and tablets, most homes and businesses remain cluttered with objects that lack any digital interfaces. Now, those ordinary objects could get an upgrade thanks to new smart tags that harness reflected Wi-Fi signals to add touch-based controls to any surface. The new LiveTag technology allows for interactive controls or keypads that can stick onto objects, walls, or even clothing, and let people remotely operate music players or receive hydration reminders based on the amount of liquid remaining in a water bottle. Full Story

A pill that stops you feeling hungry? It could soon be a reality

Wired Co UK | August 26, 2018

matrix metalloproteinase-2, is primarily produced by muscle and fat cells. It is able to break down and restructure cells, and is involved in processes like scarring and embryonic development. As the study shows, this enzyme can also destroy the external part of the leptin receptors in the brain, which are made of protein. "It's like the receptor's head is cut off", says Geert Schmid-Schonbein, one of the study's authors and bioengineering professor at University of California San Diego, specialising in inflammation and chronic metabolic diseases. Full Story

How fatty diets stop the brain from saying 'no' to food

Medical News Today | August 24, 2018

People with obesity often encounter difficulties when it comes to regulating their eating habits, since their bodies no longer know when they are and are not hungry. Researchers ask why this happens. A new study from the University of California, San Diego and a number of international research institutions has revealed that high-fat diets may impair the brain's capacity to "sense" leptin, therefore leading to leptin resistance. Full Story

A Molecular Reason Why Obese People Have Trouble Losing Weight

Scientific American | August 23, 2018

Obesity rates in the U.S. and abroad have soared: The world now has more overweight people than those who weigh too little. One reason relates to the way the body reacts to its own fat stores by setting in motion a set of molecular events that impede the metabolic process that normally puts a damper on hunger. A new study published August 22 in Science Translational Medicine provides details of how this process occurs, giving new insight into why obese individuals have trouble shedding pounds. It also suggests a possible treatment approach that targets obesity in the brain, not in the belly. Full Story

Universities Get Creative with Data Science Education

datanami | August 23, 2018

Good luck getting into Professor Yoav Freund's big data analytics and Spark class at the University of California, San Diego this fall. "There's always a very long waiting list to get in," he says. But thanks to a new partnership between UCSD and EdX, anybody can take the same course online for free. On September 3, UCSD will start its second round of MicroMasters classes with EdX, which was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in 2012 to provide online duplicates of popular classes at major colleges and universities around the country. Full Story

UCSD-led study reports why appetite-suppressing leptin doesn't work in overweight people

The San Diego Union Tribune | August 22, 2018

A UC San Diego-led science team says it has discovered why an important appetite-suppressing hormone fails to work in overweight people. The hormone, leptin, was discovered 24 years ago in mice. Since leptin also regulates weight in humans, the find prompted great excitement that leptin-based drugs might induce weight loss, without the dangers of other drugs that can cause heart problems and other side effects. Full Story

These Tags Convert Just About Anything Into a Smart Device

Geek | August 17, 2018

The revolution of smart devices marches on as researchers have made printable tags that mirror some functionality of standard smart gadgets. While that might sound like a major leap at first, it obviously comes with some important caveats. You can't just slap these on a TV and get Hulu, but they do allow you to use them for some basic home programming. The tags work by reflecting WiFi signals to a device that's configured to look for them. By slapping the reflectors on whatever, you can turn them and your phone into a WiFi radar system. Full Story

LiveTag is out to make dumb objects smart

New Atlas | August 16, 2018

"Smart" internet-connected devices could indeed make life easier for us, but the things do typically have to be equipped with battery-powered electronics. That may not necessarily be the case for much longer, however, if the Wi-Fi-based LiveTag system reaches fruition. Developed by a team at the University of California San Diego, the system incorporates simple low-cost tags that can be adhered to everyday non-electronic objects. Those tags consist of patterns of copper foil that are printed onto a flexible paper-like substrate -- they don't have any batteries, chips or electronic components. Full Story

New Flexible Electronics Breakthrough Brings Techwear Ever Closer

Edgy Labs | August 16, 2018

Techwear is the next step in our integration of technology into our daily lives. Now, two of the latest breakthroughs in wearable tech bring that aim ever closer. Tomorrow's electronics are poised to dispose of current rigid parts based on silicon to become soft, bendable and stretchable to serve a wide array of products. OLED displays are only the start for what flexible electronics promises: roll-up photovoltaic cells, flexible screens, smart sensors, interactive packages, light-sensitive curtains--the list is almost endless. Full Story

Cheap, Flexible, Battery-Free Tags to Control Your IoT Devices

Hackster | August 16, 2018

The Internet of Things is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, outfitting your home with IoT devices can make a lot of tasks more convenient. But, on the other hand, IoT devices get expensive quickly when every device and control needs a microcontroller and WiFi capability. These new smart tags could, potentially, reduce that cost dramatically by providing control with simple, incredibly inexpensive, printable circuits. Full Story

UC San Diego Researchers Develop 3D Smart Bandage to Wirelessly Monitor Body Signals

3D Printing Industry | August 15, 2018

Mirroring the process of additive manufacturing, engineers from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have created a 3D stretchable electronic device, dubbed as the "smart bandage", that wirelessly monitors human body signals such as eye movement, temperature, and heart and brain activity. By fashioning elastomer films on top of each other, the smart bandage, which is the same size and width of a U.S. dollar coin, is able to accommodate more circuitry for a variety of functions. Full Story

This stretchable 3D smart bandage can help monitor heart signals

Yahoo Singapore News | August 14, 2018

Scientists have developed a stretchable 3D "smart bandage" that can help wirelessly monitor signals, from respiration, to eye movement, to heart and brain activity. When worn on the chest or stomach, it records heart signals like an electrocardiogram (ECG). On the forehead, it records brain signals like a mini EEG sensor. When placed on the side of the head, it records eyeball movements. When worn on the forearm, it records muscle activity and can also be used to remotely control a robotic arm. The smart bandage also monitors respiration, skin temperature and body motion, the research showed. Full Story

Scientists stack elastic circuits to build 3D stretchable electronics

UPI | August 13, 2018

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have built a stretchable electronic patch capable of measuring a variety of biological activities, including respiration, temperature and eye movement, as well as heart and brain activity. Researchers have previously demonstrated the advantages of creating complex electronics by stacking rigid circuits. As part of the latest proof of concept study, scientists stacked flexible circuits. The method allowed researchers to achieve more sophisticated functionality while maintaining flexibility. Full Story

3D Stretchable Electronics Could Make Wearables as Advanced as Smartphones

Hackster | August 13, 2018

The earliest mass-produced electronic circuits used point-to-point wiring, where components were mounted and then connected together with wires. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) dramatically improved manufacturing efficiency and reduced the size of devices. The first PCBs had a single layer and only had traces on one side. Then both sides, and finally with many layers like we see today -- making it possible to create densely-populated PCBs. Now, researchers from the University of California San Diego are bringing that same functionality to flexible circuits. Full Story

Defense Department ties with Silicon Valley could grow with Space Force plan

ABC7 | August 9, 2018

UC San Diego and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, are working on wearable technology to monitor glucose and lactate in humans, which has caught the eye of the Defense Department's director of engineering enterprise, Robert Gold. Full Story

UC San Diego Science Program Unites Students From Both Sides Of Border

KPBS | August 2, 2018

More than 100 students are participating in a seven-week program at UC San Diego called Enlace, that brings together high school and college students from both sides of the border to collaborate in some 60 labs across campus. Enlace is run by mechanical engineering Professor Olivia Graeve. Full Story

Flexible solar panels could be just as efficient as traditional solar panels.

Hydrogen Fuel News | August 1, 2018

A team of scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are working on a way to develop a "solar tarp;" flexible solar panels that would be as efficient as a silicon solar panel but also lightweight, thin and bendable. Full Story

UC San Diego nets $11.3M grant to cut costs, risks of designing cutting edge chips

San Diego Union-Tribune | August 1, 2018

he University of California San Diego has been awarded an $11.3 million grant from a government defense agency to develop tools aimed at making it less risky and more affordable to design advanced semiconductors. The project ? led by Jacobs School of Engineering professor Andrew Kahng ? will try to automate design techniques to enable leading edge chips layouts that can be generated within 24 hours with no human involvement. Full Story

System Bits: July 31

Semiconductor Engineering | July 31, 2018

In a development that brings plasmonics research a step closer to realizing ultra-compact light sources for high-speed, optical data processing and other on-chip applications, University of California San Diego researchers have built a nanosized device out of silver crystals using advanced fabrication techniques that can generate light by efficiently "tunneling" electrons through a tiny barrier. Full Story

A Packable Solar Panel Design May Be the Key to Harnessing the Sun's Energy

Inverse | July 31, 2018

Darren Lipomi's research group at UC San Diego is working to develop flexible solar panels, which would be as efficient as a silicon panel, but would be thin, lightweight, and bendable. This sort of device, which we call a "solar tarp," could be spread out to the size of a room and generate electricity from the sun, and it could be balled up to be the size of a grapefruit and stuffed in a backpack as many as 1,000 times without breaking. Full Story

DARPA has an ambitious $1.5 billion plan to reinvent electronics

MIT Technology Review | July 30, 2018

Last year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funds a range of blue-sky research efforts relevant to the US military, launched a $1.5 billion, five-year program known as the Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) to support work on advances in chip technology. "No one yet knows how to get a new chip design completed in 24 hours safely without human intervention," says Andrew Kahng of the University of California, San Diego, who's leading one of the teams involved. "This is a fundamentally new approach we're developing." Full Story

UCSD Resource Offers Simplified Infrastructure for Building, Sharing Personal Genome Browsers

Genome Web | July 27, 2018

A research team from UC San Diego has developed an open source library of tools called the Genomic Interaction Visualization Engine (GIVE) which lets users generate and implement personal browsers for visualizing genomic information without requiring specialized knowledge or expert help. According to UCSD bioengineering professor Sheng Zhong, the idea behind its development was to create a lightweight visualization tool that works essentially like Google maps. GIVE browsers ideally would be small enough to run on smartphones and be shared as simple email attachments. Full Story

Robots to the Rescue: Racing Through our Blood to Cure Disease

Ozy | July 24, 2018

Since the turn of the century, scientists have eyed implantable medical devices or particles, sometimes as tiny as ingestible pills, as a long-awaited solution that could allow them to monitor body functions from the outside while avoiding painful, and at times costly, surgeries. But now, researchers are instead developing minuscule robots that are emerging as the next frontier in medical science. Scientists at the University of California San Diego have built nanobots that are able to swim in the blood and fight superbugs like MRSA that attack both red blood cells and platelets. Full Story

New laser material combines high power with thermal tolerance

The Engineer | July 23, 2018

Materials capable of producing laser light need to have a variety of properties, related both to how their electrons behave and how they cope with the stresses of large amounts of energy passing through them. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have devised a method of combining alumina crystals with neodymium ions to produce a material that can deliver very short, high power pulses and is also tuneable across a range of light wavelengths and can resist thermal shock. Full Story

Asking The Experts What They See In 2001: A Space Odyssey (On 4K)

Nerdist | July 20, 2018

On October 30, the great 2001: A Space Odyssey will make its way to ultra-high definition 4K disc, based on the recent restoration by Christopher Nolan. But instead of just focusing on the details of the disc, the Comic-Con panel promoting the release featured stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood (both still going strong 50 years on) along with a long table full of writers and science experts, delving into what they see, and always have seen, in the film itself. Full Story

How Fruit Flies Stay Young at Heart

Smithsonian | July 17, 2018

The heart is an astounding workhorse of an organ. With every passing minute, it churns out over a gallon of blood that fuels the rest of the body with oxygen and nutrients. After years hard at work, however, the heart ultimately loses its resilience, steadily increasing the risk of heart failure. Scientists from UC San Diego report that fruit flies engineered to maintain high levels of a heart-remodeling protein enjoy a much longer lifespan. Their findings are the first to tie structural modifications in muscle tissue to metabolic consequences that ultimately affect longevity. Full Story

Compostable Cutlery Aims to Serve Diners and the Environment

San Diego Business Journal | July 16, 2018

It wasn't until March of this year, after introducing his creation at the Natural Products Expo West, a natural, organic and healthy goods event in Anaheim, that Zhicong 'Zack' Kong, a UC San Diego bioengineering alumnus and CEO and founder of TwentyFifty Fork, a compostable cutlery company, decided to speed up plans to begin mass manufacturing his natural grain-based fork. Full Story

Researchers Develop 'Nanotweezer' Microchip for Real-Time SNP Detection

Genome Web | July 12, 2018

A group led by University of California San Diego researchers has developed an electronic DNA biosensor tool that it plans to apply for highly sensitive point-of-care SNP detection and infectious disease diagnostics. Integrating DNA nanotweezer-based nucleic acid-sensing probes and a graphene field effect transistor (FET) chip, the real-time platform can be used to identify SNPs of interest, send data to personal electronic devices, and even potentially be integrated into implantable biosensors. Full Story

Smart Mouth Guard Senses Muscle Fatigue

Scientific American | July 12, 2018

During intense exercise, your body breaks down glucose and produces lactate. That substance can build up faster than it can be further processed. For athletes, excessive lactate means muscle fatigue and diminished performance. So athletes would like to know their actual lactate levels during training and competition. Blood tests are one way to measure lactate levels, but are not practical in the middle of a game or race. Researchers at University of California San Diego and Palo Alto Research Center have found a way to measure lactate in saliva to monitor muscle endurance. Full Story

Bioinspired: Soft, Translucent Eel Robot Silent Underwater

Environmental Monitor | July 11, 2018

Like a strangely plump, foot-long, glowing ribbon, a translucent soft robot is swimming silently through saltwater tanks in California. The robot is a product of the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab within the UC San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story

10 Views of Sensors Expo 2018

EE Times | July 3, 2018

More than 5,000 people registered for this year's Sensor Expo, where more than 250 companies showed their wares. The numbers are a reasonable indicator that there's a diverse and growing set of sensors and people interested in them in these early days of the Internet of Things. Along the way, I met Albert Pisano, dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California at San Diego. Pisano used to lead a sensor and actuator lab at Berkeley and, in his new role, nourishes a similar initiative focused on wearables. Full Story

A Robotics Roadmap for Australia 2018

Robohub | June 30, 2018

Robots as a tool to unlock human potential, modernise the economy, and build national health, well-being and sustainability. Australia has released its first Robotics Roadmap following the example of many other countries. The roadmap, launched at Australia's Parliament House on June 18, is a guide to how Australia can harness the benefits of a new robot economy. Building on Australia's strengths in robot talent and technologies in niche application areas, the roadmap acts a guide to how Australia can support a vibrant robotics industry that supports automation Full Story

Your Body is Bugged

San Diego Magazine | June 28, 2018

A UC San Diego scientist is shifting the dialogue about the beneficial bacteria in our bodies. Full Story

Making off-the-shelf electronics stretchable.

MIT Technology Review | June 27, 2018

Stretchy electronics that can conform to the body no longer have to compromise between electrical and mechanical performance, thanks to some smart engineering by Sheng Xu. His strategy made it possible to integrate off-the-shelf components into elastic materials to create highly stretchable electronics as capable as their rigid counterparts. Full Story

UCSD human submarine off to England

San Diego Reader | June 26, 2018

For the first time in UC San Diego history, the school's human-powered submarine team has been invited to participate in the European International Sub Race. In July 2018, the team of engineering undergrads will fly across the pond with their submersible, named Vaquita for its dolphin-inspired propulsion fin. Full Story

Spit-checking mouthguard can tell if athletes are tired or mentally drained

Digital Trends | June 26, 2018

University of California San Diego, working with Xerox PARC and flexible hybrid electronics group NextFlex, has created a smart mouthguard biosensor which can detect early signs of dehydration, exhaustion, and mental engagement levels, based on nothing more than a sample of your saliva. The sensor is made from electronic plastic foil and is designed to fit into an ordinary mouthguard for use in everything from workouts to military missions. It analyzes the lactate and glucose naturally found in saliva and is able to send this information to a connected smartphone in close to real time. Full Story

Ultralow-Impedance Graphene Microelectrodes

Novus Light Technologies Today | June 25, 2018

Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) in the US have discovered that platinum nanoparticles can lower the impedance of graphene electrodes by 100 times while keeping them transparent -- a breakthrough that could enable higher-quality imaging of neuronal brain cell activity. The technique is the first to overcome graphene's electrochemical impedance problem without sacrificing its transparency -- a noteworthy breakthrough. Full Story

New Form of Nanorobots to Clear Blood of Toxins

Evolving Science | June 13, 2018

Scientists and engineers have been envisaging and developing 'machines' small enough to swim through blood and move in bodily tissues. The point of such projects is to produce the definitive nanorobot, a new form of medical device that may be able to target things such as dangerous chemicals, virus particles or even cancer cells. A new example of the nanobot has been documented in a recent Science Robotics paper. The robot gets around many of the problems after being accepted by human immune cells through a custom membrane that makes it appear like a benign cell. Full Story

Supersonic Powered Nanobots Remove Toxins and Bacteria from Blood

Interesting Engineering | June 13, 2018

Engineers recently developed a cell-sized ultrasound-powered robot with the ability to swim through blood while removing harmful bacteria and other harmful toxins. The nano-sized bot combines the benefits of organic defense mechanisms with modern remote control systems to offer one of the most advanced, yet simple detoxification devices. The researchers claim after treating contaminated blood with the nanorobots, the blood samples had three times fewer bacteria and toxins than untreated sample after a short 5-minute process. Full Story

UC San Diego Professor Creating CSP Tool That's 'Not Your Typical Infrared Camera'

Solar Industry | June 12, 2018

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), a professor at the University of California San Diego is developing a diagnostic tool that can rapidly measure and monitor heat transfer in concentrating solar power (CSP) plant materials, such as the tubing and the heat transfer fluids and solid particles flowing through the tubing materials. Renkun Chen, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC San Diego, recently received a $1.18 million award from the DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office to develop technology to advance next-generation CSP systems. Full Story

Cell-like nanobots fight bacterial infection

Physics World | June 4, 2018

Gold nanowire nanorobots coated with a combination of two kinds of natural cell membranes might be used to fight bacterial infection, according to new work by researchers at the University of California San Diego. The nanobots can move through whole blood and, thanks to their natural coatings, which "cloak" the devices from the body's defence mechanisms, can absorb and neutralize both pathogenic bacteria as well as the toxins they produce. Full Story

Membrane-coated gold "robots" designed to detoxify blood

New Atlas | June 4, 2018

It's never a good thing when donated human blood -- or even the blood in our bodies -- is infected with bacteria. Scientists at the University of California San Diego, however, are developing a means of removing such blood-borne microbes using tiny ultrasound-powered robots. The base "nanorobots" are made of microscopic lengths of gold nanowire. Via the external application of ultrasound, they can be propelled through liquids including blood, causing them to get thoroughly mixed with it. These nanorobots were coated in a hybrid of platelet and red blood cell membranes. Full Story

Bent bird feathers repair themselves when soaked in water

New Scientist | May 31, 2018

Splashing around in water doesn't just get a bird clean - it can also repair broken feathers from the inside. Marc Meyers at the University of California, San Diego and his colleagues repeatedly bent vulture feathers nearly in half, soaked them in water, and let them dry out again to test how much a bath can repair a feather, and how that process works. They tested two different parts of the feather's spine: the calamus, which is the hollow base that sits under the skin, and the rachis, which is the rest of the feather's central shaft. Full Story

Tiny Robots in Disguise Combat Bacteria in the Blood

IEEE Spectrum | May 30, 2018

Researchers have come up with all sorts of ways to propel tiny robots deep into the human body to perform tasks, such as delivering drugs and taking biopsies. Now, there's a nanorobot that can clean up infections in blood. Directed by ultrasound, the tiny robots, made of gold nanowires with a biological coating, dart around blood, attach to bacteria, and neutralize toxins produced by the bacteria. It's like injecting millions of miniature decoys into blood to distract an infection from attacking the real human cells. Full Story

San Diego Universities Want to Get You Excited About Drones

Hatch | May 30, 2018

ew aerospace innovations of the last few decades have captured the public?s interest quite like drone technology. What at first found use only in military operations has miniaturized and become affordable enough for toy store shelves, and the hype has been building for countless other applications: scoping out natural disasters, capturing video footage from angles never before thought possible?even delivering groceries. Now San Diego State University and UC San Diego are getting in on the action. Full Story

Machine Learning Illuminates the Body's Dark Matter

NEO.LIFE | May 24, 2018

When it comes to using computers to analyze medical data, it takes a lot to impress Larry Smarr. Smarr, a computer scientist at a UC San Diego/UC Irvine research institute called Calit2, is a pioneer of the quantified-self movement. He regularly analyzes his blood and stool for 150 biomarkers. If he notices something odd, he'll adjust his daily activity, whether that means taking a few extra laps around campus to burn more calories or tweaking the strain of probiotic he's supplementing with. Full Story

UC San Diego developing biosensor that monitors alcohol in people struggling with substance abuse

The San Diego Union Tribune | May 7, 2018

UC San Diego has made an important technical advance in its effort to develop a tiny biosensor that could be placed beneath a person's skin for long-term alcohol monitoring in patients being treated for substance abuse. A team led by engineer Drew Hall created a prototype of the sensor that worked when it was placed in a simulated environment in the laboratory. The device now has to be refined so that it can be tested in live animals and, eventually, humans. Full Story

Controlling CAR-T: How scientists plan to make the engineered T cell therapy safer, and work for more cancers

C&EN | May 7, 2018

CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment that reprograms a person's immune cells to attack cancer,works wonders for some people with rare blood cancers. But the highly personalized medicine also comes with risks: It can be extremely toxic and, in certain cases, even lethal. If there's to be hope of using CAR T cells on more common cancers, scientists will need to control the living therapy. Read on to learn how biotech companies and academic researchers are installing control systems to help reduce CAR-Ts' toxicity and drive the engineered cells into more kinds of cancer. Full Story

Snake-Like Robot to Monitor Creatures Living Underwater

Asharq Al-Awsat | May 1, 2018

An innovative, snake-like robot can swim silently in salt water without an electric motor. The robot, developed by engineers and marine biologists at the University of California, uses artificial muscles filled with water to propel itself, the German News Agency reported. The team, which includes researchers from UC San Diego and UC Berkeley, say the bot is an important step toward a future when soft robots can swim in the ocean alongside fish and invertebrate without disturbing or harming them. Today, most underwater vehicles designed to observe marine life are rigid and submarine-like Full Story

This robot uses artificial muscles to move like an eel underwater

The Irish Times | April 27, 2018

A translucent robot shaped like an eel that can swim silently underwater could help scientists understand more about marine life. The bot, which was developed by engineers and marine biologists at the University of California, uses artificial muscles filled with water to propel itself rather than a noisy electric motor. The 12in robot is connected to an almost-transparent electronics board that remains on the surface. The team says the the bot is a key step toward a future where soft robots can swim in the ocean alongside marine life without disturbing or harming them. Full Story

This robot eel is transparent, flexible, nearly silent, and glows in the ocean

Quartz | April 27, 2018

There?s something in the water at the University of California, San Diego?a glowing robot inspired by the movement of eel larvae.Researchers at the school's Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab have created one of the world's softest underwater robots by taking an innovative approach to its conductive components. Instead of having electricity travel through wires to metal electrodes, voltage travels through silicone tubes to internal water chambers. As voltage builds up in the water chambers, the robot's modular components bend in a specific sequence so the robot moves. Full Story

Video: Watch a Soft Robotic Eel Silently Swim

Electronics 360 | April 26, 2018

A number of projects are working with soft robotics to build a worm-like device for search and rescue. One swims with real fish to study aquatic life; a snake uses kirigami to move; and another uses origami, for example. Now, researchers at University of California at San Diego have developed an eel-like soft robot that swims silently in salt water without an electric motor using artificial muscles filled with water to propel itself. The foot-long robot is also virtually transparent and is connected to an electronics board that remains on the surface. Full Story

This robot eel glides through saltwater without making a sound

Yahoo! | April 26, 2018

Even before Gore Verbinski's disappointing recent horror movie A Cure for Wellness, we were pretty creeped out by eels. As if the real thing wasn't unnerving enough, however, engineers and marine biologists from the University of California, San Diego, have created an eel robot that's designed to swim silently through saltwater -- using the same rhythmic, ribbon-like motions as its natural counterpart. "The robot is powered by artificial muscles that contract and expand when stimulated with electricity," Caleb Christianson, a Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego Full Story

Are you willing to be fitted with an alcohol monitor?

Digital Journal | April 25, 2018

For people on alcohol reduction programs and for those wishing to monitor alcohol levels, a new type of biosensor has been developed: in essence, it's an alcohol monitoring chip. Scientists from University of California San Diego have developed a new ultra-low power implantable biosensor, called the BioMote. The sensor is a microelectrode electrochemical sensor intended to assess ethanol levels. The sensor is combined with a four-turn on-chip coil for radio frequency energy harvesting and communication. Full Story

New Alcohol-Monitoring Implant Will Report If You're Drinking

The Fix | April 25, 2018

Developers say the chip could be useful for monitoring the alcohol intake of participants in treatment and diversion programs. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed an alcohol-monitoring implant that can report, with a high degree of accuracy, when someone is drinking when they're not supposed to be. At one cubic millimeter in size, the biosensor is easily implanted under the skin (with no surgery required) and is powered by wearable devices like smartwatches. The sensor, coated with an enzyme, releases a chemical whenever it detects alcohol in someone?s system. Full Story

Soft and silent eel-like robot can sneak around underwater

C|Net | April 25, 2018

"It's really hard to sneak up on a fish, especially if you're a robot," says nanoengineering student Caleb Christianson, one of the developers of a soft eel-like robot that can swim underwater in stealthy silence. Christianson, a doctoral student at the University of California San Diego, is part of an eel-bot team that includes engineers and marine biologists. Their eel-like creation could one day become a preferred way to study marine life since it's not as big and loud as the motor-driven remote-operated underwater vehicles used today. Full Story

UCSD Students Develop Chip Implant to Monitor Blood Alcohol Content

The UCSD Guardian Online | April 23, 2018

Students at UC San Diego have created a tiny biosensor that can wirelessly monitor the blood alcohol levels of its user. The project's goal is to develop an unobtrusive way to continuously monitor alcohol and drug levels of patients in substance abuse treatment programs. The biosensor chip is injected into the user's skin and is powered wirelessly by an external smartwatch or patch. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that the lifetime of the device is greater than 30 days, although research is still ongoing. UCSD electrical engineering professor Drew Hall served as the faculty advisor. Full Story

New Injectable Alcohol Biosensor Monitors BAC

New Start Recovery | April 18, 2018

For recovering alcoholics, accountability remains one of the most elusive pitfalls of long term sobriety. It's easy to backslide into bad habits when no one is watching. But thanks to UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, there is hope on the horizon for long term sober accountability. They are developing an injectable alcohol biosensor chip that continuously monitors blood alcohol content (BAC). Full Story

The Next Big Idea: On The Ground Floor Of A Potential Biotech Giant

KPBS | April 18, 2018

Every billion-dollar company has to start somewhere and Ana Maria Moreno may have the seeds of one here in San Diego. She's the co-founder and CEO of Navega Therapeutics, an early-stage biotech startup with ambitions to solve the nation's opioid crisis. Moreno and her team are working on a way to decrease people's sensitivity to pain without a pain-relieving drug. The idea is based on Moreno's work as a doctoral student at UC San Diego; her faculty advisor Prashant Mali is the company's other co-founder. Full Story

Science creates e-snitch to get you to stop drinking

The Big Smoke Australia | April 17, 2018

Sometimes to kick a habit, all we need is a gentle prod. Or in this case, a subdermal electronic snitch. These chips totally narc on you when you decide to get drunk. Researchers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) developed the tech, which is a biosensor of one cubic millimetre in size. So, how does it work? Well, when the person/subject drinks, an enzyme coating the sensor rockets a wireless electrical signal to a second party, such as a smartwatch, or an app, anything that remotely powers the sensor. Full Story

This Implantable Chip Could Monitor Alcohol Intake

Smithsonian | April 17, 2018

People arrested for DUIs or other alcohol-related offenses are sometimes ordered to wear so-called SCRAM (secure continuous remote alcohol monitoring) bracelets. The device, usually worn on the ankle, can detect alcohol consumption through the skin. Patients in rehab programs often submit to alcohol monitoring as well, often through Breathalyzers or blood tests. But SCRAM bracelets are clunky and sometimes embarrassing, and tests require regular visits. A team of scientists from UC San Diego has come up with a potential alternative: a tiny implantable chip. Full Story

Skin Sensor Might Someday Track Alcoholics' Booze Intake

U.S. News & World Report | April 17, 2018

An injectable sensor that could provide ongoing monitoring of the alcohol intake of people receiving addiction treatment is in development. The miniature biosensor would be placed just beneath the skin surface and be powered wirelessly by a wearable device, such as a smartwatch or patch, the University of California, San Diego engineers explained. "The ultimate goal of this work is to develop a routine, unobtrusive alcohol and drug monitoring device for patients in substance abuse treatment programs," project leader Drew Hall said in a university news release. Full Story

UC San Diego Bio-Engineers Develop Wearable Device To Monitor Stomach Activity

KPBS | April 17, 2018

In 2011, UC San Diego bioengineer Todd Coleman developed some thin, flexible sensors that could measure electrical activity in the brain. That same year, his father died of pancreatic cancer. His grandmother died from stomach cancer years before. That got Coleman thinking. "Are there electrical rhythms of the digestive system? Maybe we could measure them with these new devices, and maybe this could help solve some of the problems that have been associated with my family," he wondered. Full Story

Robotic Grippers to Receive Gecko Toes

Canadian Homesteading | April 12, 2018

Scientists from the University of California from San Diego, have consolidated the adhesive attributes of gecko toes with air-controlled robots which appear to be soft, to give robot fingers a superior use. Fit for lifting objects up to 45 pounds, the gripper could be utilized wherever: from the floor to the International Space Station. Full Story

Remote-controlled immunotherapy system shows potential as noninvasive cancer treatment

HemOnc Today | April 12, 2018

Engineering researchers at University of California, San Diego, developed a remote-controlled cancer immunotherapy system. The ultrasound-based system is designed to noninvasively control genetic processes in T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. HemOnc Today spoke with Wang about how this system was developed, how it works, the early efficacy it has demonstrated and the research underway to validate its effectiveness. Full Story

Injectable chip measures alcohol consumption

New Atlas | April 11, 2018

There may be a new -- if perhaps somewhat Big Brother-like -- method of monitoring the alcohol intake of people in substance abuse treatment programs. Led by Prof. Drew Hall, scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed an alcohol-sensing chip that can be implanted in the body. The chip is designed to be injected under the skin, where it will sit in the interstitial fluid that surrounds the cells. The chip uses very little power (which it draws from the watch's RF signals) and takes just three seconds to conduct one measurement. Full Story

Trying to Quit Drinking? This Implant Will Snitch If You Fall off the Wagon

Futurism | April 11, 2018

Christmas parties. Dates. Football games. Cookouts. Wherever humans socialize, you can bet that the booze will follow. Its omnipresence, plus its addictive qualities, can make it really hard for people to stop drinking, even if they really want to. Now, researchers are working on a new alcohol-monitoring implant that could help people stay on the wagon. All they'll have to give up is some of their autonomy. Researchers at the University of California San Diego developed the implant, a biosensor about one cubic millimeter in size. It's easy to implant under a person's skin, no surgery requir Full Story

A temporary tattoo may be able to track your alcohol levels

Engadget | April 11, 2018

A new monitoring device could help people discreetly measure their alcohol intake by transmitting alcohol levels to a connected cell phone. The tech, developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego, is a small wearable, comparable to a temporary tattoo, that sits directly on the skin. According to Science Daily, it works by stimulating perspiration, which the device can then use to measure the level of alcohol in the person's system. Full Story

Soft, flexible gripper uses Gekco-inspired adhesives

Slash Gear | April 11, 2018

Soft robotics is something that researchers around the world are working on. The idea is to create robotic devices that can grip strangely sized object like the rock in the image. The challenge is to design robotic implements that can flex enough to grip the irregularly shaped objects, but still have the strength to lift them. Researchers from UC San Diego have created a soft robotic gripper that can lift up to 45 pounds. The new gripper could be used in a variety of situations from factory floors to the ISS. The soft gripper is coated with an adhesive inspired by the Gecko Full Story

Red Light-Activated Switch for Mammalian Cells Is Powered by Plant Protein

Photonics Media | April 11, 2018

An optogenetic switch activated by red and far-red light has been designed and tested in animal cells. The light-activated switch, which does not require the addition of sensing molecules from outside the cells, could be used to turn genes on and off in gene therapies; to turn off gene expression in future cancer therapies; and to help track and understand gene function in specific locations in the human body. Researchers from UC San Diego, Quinnipiac University, and the University of Iowa devised a way to enable animal cells to transfer enough electrons from their energy supply to enzymes Full Story

How This Wireless Biosensor Chip Injected Under The Skin Can Monitor Alcohol Levels

Forbes | April 10, 2018

Engineers from the University of California San Diego say they've developed a wireless biosensor chip that could be injected beneath the skin for continuous, long-term alcohol monitoring. The low power chip can be powered wirelessly through a wearable device and could make it easier for patients to follow a prescribed course of tracking over an extended period of time as well as change the way substance abuse disorders are diagnosed, monitored and treated. The biosensor chip, which is in an early prototyping stage, is one cubic millimeter in size and can be injected under the skin. Full Story

Tiny Alcohol Monitor Sits Just Beneath the Skin

Discover | April 10, 2018

A tiny chip implanted just under the skin could be the Breathalyzer of the future. Researchers from the University of California San Diego reported today that they had created a tiny chip that can read levels of alcohol in the body and relay that information to a smartwatch. It could be an alternative to traditional means of detecting whether someone has been drinking, and offers users the ability to monitor their blood-alcohol levels in real-time. The chip measures about a cubic millimeter in size and is powered by a smartwatch or external patch, meaning it doesn't need a battery. Full Story

The next breathalyzer may be a chip implanted under your skin

MIT Technology Review | April 10, 2018

A group of engineers at the University of California, San Diego, created a prototype of a chip, meant to be injected under the skin, that could eventually be helpful for people who are in treatment for alcohol abuse. At just one millimeter across, it's a fraction the size of a penny, which means it would be a lot less bulky than current alcohol-monitoring bracelets. Researchers say it can be more accurate than a breathalyzer test, and it's less invasive than a blood test. Full Story

Soft robotic fingers use gecko-inspired coating for some heavy lifting

New Atlas | April 10, 2018

One particularly active area of robotics research involves the exploration of soft parts. Be they legs, artificial muscles or the grippers used to grasp objects, these more malleable components are opening up new possibilities and making machines safer for humans to work around. Now they're gaining a helping hand from the amazing adhesive properties of the gecko, combining to form robotic fingers that punch well above their weight. Adhesives that can be switched on and off, grippers that latch onto space debris and anchors that can be used by astronauts Full Story

Gecko-inspired adhesives help soft robotic fingers get better grip

Business Standard | April 10, 2018

Scientists have developed a robotic gripper that combines the adhesive properties of gecko toes and the adaptability of air-powered soft robots to grasp a wide variety of objects. The gripper can lift up to 20 kilogrammes of weight and could be used to grasp objects in a wide range of settings, from factory floors to the International Space Station (ISS), according to researchers at the University of California San Diego in the US. Geckos are known as nature's best climbers because of a sophisticated gripping mechanism on their toes. Full Story

Engineers Create a Tiny Wireless Injectable Biosensor

Modern American News | April 10, 2018

What if you could inject a biosensor into the fluid in your skin that can monitor alcohol or other substances and control it with your smartwatch or other wearable? Engineers at the University of California San Diego along with a start up in the Qualcomm Innovation Institute are working on a prototype that can do just that. Less than the size of a 16 gauge needle, this wireless biosensor chip can be injected into the fluid surrounding the cells in your body. The biosensor was designed to be a low power as possible, around 970 nanowatts. Full Story

A new stomach wearable could replace invasive tests

Yahoo! News | April 3, 2018

Researchers have a created a wearable device for the stomach that can be used to monitor digestive activity and help spot potential issues. A team of scientists from the University of California San Diego have built a small 3D-printed box, complete with 10 small electrodes that also attach to the abdomen and can be used to monitor electrical activity in the stomach. The researchers said the early results from testing show it to perform as well as tests carried out in a clinical setting, and because it comes with an app and can be linked with a smartphone, Full Story

stomach wearable could replace the need for invasive probes

engadget | April 2, 2018

Researchers have created a wearable monitor that can track your stomach's electrical activity for signs of digestion maladies. Called electrogastrography (EGG), it's like an EEG for the GI tract, and was used briefly in the '90s but abandoned due to a lack of usefulness as a diagnostic tool. UCSD scientists are trying to resuscitate it with improved hardware and, most importantly, algorithms that help filter out noise. The results so far are promising, and if perfected, it could help doctors diagnose gastro-intestinal problems without the need for invasive probes or even a hospital visit. Full Story

Stomach wearable could replace the need for invasive probes

engadget | April 2, 2018

Researchers have created a wearable monitor that can track your stomach's electrical activity for signs of digestion maladies. Called electrogastrography (EGG), it's like an EEG for the GI tract, and was used briefly in the '90s but abandoned due to a lack of usefulness as a diagnostic tool. UCSD scientists are trying to resuscitate it with improved hardware and, most importantly, algorithms that help filter out noise. The results so far are promising, and if perfected, it could help doctors diagnose gastro-intestinal problems without the need for invasive probes or even a hospital visit. Full Story

Scientists invent stomach-monitoring device worn like a fanny pack

Chicago Tribune | April 2, 2018

Heart and brain activity are routinely measured through the skin with adhesive electrodes. But diagnosing gastric diseases may require patients to endure a tube stuck through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach. Scientists led by University of California at San Diego researchers say they have a better option for these patients. They've invented a stomach-monitoring device worn like a fanny pack. The prototype picks up the stomach?s electrical signals through 10 electrodes stuck to the belly. Stomach activity changes with meals, sleep and other daily routines. Full Story

Lithium Battery Demand Drives Process Evolution

Chemical Engineering Magazine | April 1, 2018

The drive for higher capacity and enhanced performance from lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), in conjunction with skyrocketing demand for electronic devices and electric vehicles (EVs), has necessitated innovations in sourcing, processing and recycling the major materials used in battery manufacturing, especially lithium and cobalt. One side effect of the increasing demand for lithium is a rush-to-market tendency from mining companies. "Over the next several years, a number of companies are coming online to extract lithium carbonate from spodumene ore, which is typically about 8% Li2O by weight." Full Story

Singlera Genomics raises $60 million for early stage cancer tests

The San Diego Union Tribune | March 30, 2018

Singlera Genomics, a developer of tests for early cancer detection, said Wednesday it has raised $60 million in venture capital. Singlera, with offices in La Jolla and Shangai, says its technology allows testing of DNA found outside of cells. This "cell-free" approach avoids invasive testing such as tissue biopsies, the company says. Early detection may improve treatment success. The company's proprietary technologies encompass bioinformatics, single-cell genome sequencing, and DNA methylation. Full Story

These tiny robots could be disease-fighting machines inside the body

NBC News | March 30, 2018

Call it another case of science fiction becoming scientific fact. Researchers have long dreamed of developing tiny robots that could roam about inside our bodies, delivering drugs with unprecedented precision, and hunting down and destroying cancer cells. Probably the most developed and versatile approach to microscopic medical robots uses so-called "nanomotors" and "micromotors." These are tiny particles, tubes, or wires made from materials like gold, magnesium, and carbon. They either propel themselves using fuels found in the body or are pushed around by magnetic fields or ultrasound waves. Full Story

Tummy Tech Tracks Electrical Activity for Signs of Indigestion

IEEE Spectrum | March 30, 2018

A new wearable device that non-invasively monitors electrical activity in the stomach could help people with digestive problems determine with greater precision whether treatments or diets are working. If clinically validated, the stomach sensor could also help revive a medical technology called electrogastrography (EGG) that once piqued gastroenterologists' interest, but has largely fallen out of favor owing to controversy surrounding its diagnostic relevance. Full Story

Study says: miners who get in early make the most from new crypto-currency

Wral TechWire | March 28, 2018

Someone who starts mining a crypto-currency shortly after it is listed on exchanges can potentially earn higher returns than average. But a speculator who enters the market shortly after the currency is listed might potentially earn lower returns. These are some of the findings from a study where computer scientists estimated the potential profitability of mining versus speculating for 18 crypto-currencies that are not Bitcoin and Litecoin-known under the general label of altcoin. Computer scientists also showed that returns from mining a random altcoin tend to be less risky Full Story

Rx: Wear this on your tummy and call me in the morning

The San Diego Union Tribune | March 27, 2018

Heart and brain activity are routinely measured through the skin with adhesive electrodes. But diagnosing gastric diseases may require patients to endure a tube stuck through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach. Scientists led by UCSD researchers say they have a better option for these patients. They've invented a stomach-monitoring device worn like a fanny pack. The prototype picks up the stomach's electrical signals through 10 electrodes stuck to the belly. Stomach activity changes with meals, sleep and other daily routines. Interruptions of these normal patterns can signal Full Story

Cryptocurrency Miners Earn More than Speculators

Cryptovest | March 27, 2018

Researchers from the University of California San Diego have concluded that it pays better to mine cryptocurrencies than to speculate on them. Danny Huang, lead author of the study report, said that people who mine a cryptocurrency after it is listed on exchanges have higher income potential than speculators who start trading shortly after the digital currency is listed. Huang said: "It's also important to point out that we show the altcoin market is highly volatile, whether you're mining or speculating." Full Story

UCSD researchers develop wearable, 24-hour GI tract monitor

mobi health news | March 26, 2018

Good news for Winnie-the-Pooh -- a new wearable device may be able to track exactly what that rumble in his tummy is. Now a wearable device, developed by researchers at the GI Innovation Group out of the University of California San Diego, can track electrical activity in the stomach over a 24-hour period. The device works similarly to how an ECG would work for the heart, but instead it monitors the electrical activities of gastrointestinal tract. In a recent study published by Scientific Reports, researchers found that the device was able collect data comparable to the clinical gold-standard Full Story

Feds pushing new plan for encrypted mobile device unlocks via court order

ARS Technica | March 26, 2018

The Department of Justice is pushing for a new industry proposal that would grant law enforcement access to encrypted digital devices with a warrant, according to a new report by The New York Times. For years, top federal law enforcement officials have advocated for a way to overcome what they call the "going dark" problem--the occasional inability to access data kept on an encrypted smartphone or tablet even when a judge has granted that authority. In recent months, the FBI director, among others, has emphasized the problem's severity. Full Story

Local Startup Hush Acquired by Bose

Hatch | March 26, 2018

Light sleepers rejoice. Hush, the San Diego startup behind smartphone-connected, white noise pumping, regular noise muting earplugs, is now working with Bose to help you get a better night?s sleep. Full Story

Flexible patch unlocks potential of ultrasound for inspecting irregular components

The Engineer | March 26, 2018

San Diego engineers develop elastomer-based structure that conforms to curved surfaces to direct soundwaves into engineered structures. Ultrasound is often used in engineering to detect cracks in metal components. But its usefulness is sometimes limited by the shape of the probe used to direct the high-frequency sound waves into the metal. Ultrasound emitters tend to be flat-bottomed, so if the surface to be tested is not perfectly flat as well, the emitter cannot make a good contact on the component and the technique cannot be used. Full Story

Flexible ultrasound patch could assist railway track inspection

Railway Technology | March 26, 2018

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a stretchable and flexible probe that could make it easier to perform ultrasound imaging on odd-shaped structures such as railway tracks. The probe consists of a thin patch of silicone elastomer patterned with an "island-bridge" structure; small electronic parts make up the islands and connecting spring-like structures form the bridges. Full Story

University of California professor develops lithium-ion battery recycling method

Waste Dive | March 26, 2018

Batteries pose a safety risk for waste collectors and MRF operators, since they can be damaged and create fires. A dedicated system for recycling batteries would not only have the potential to cut down on manufacturing and mining costs, but could also improve safety conditions for recyclers. The challenge, of course, is bringing the technology to a viable scale. Right now, the recycling process has only been demonstrated in a laboratory setting and takes about 10 hours, not exactly conducive for commercial use. Full Story

Health Care Solutions Take First, Second Place at Ignite

San Diego Business Journal | March 25, 2018

SoleMate, a company started by UC San Diego bioengineering students Surabhi Kalyan and Kristine Khieu, took first place at the school?s second annual Ignite Conference pitch competition. Full Story

DOJ renews push to require access to encrypted devices

Engadget | March 24, 2018

No, US law enforcement hasn't given up on its dreams of forcing tech companies to allow access to encrypted devices. New York Times sources have learned that the Department of Justice and the FBI have been meeting with security researchers in an effort to develop systems that would let police reach encrypted data without making them vulnerable to hacking. At the same time, officials have reportedly renewed talks about asking Congress to draft and pass legislation requiring the use of those mechanisms. Full Story

Justice Dept. Revives Push to Mandate a Way to Unlock Phones

The New York Times | March 24, 2018

Federal law enforcement officials are renewing a push for a legal mandate that tech companies build tools into smartphones and other devices that would allow access to encrypted data in criminal investigations. F.B.I. and Justice Department officials have been quietly meeting with security researchers who have been working on approaches to provide such "extraordinary access" to encrypted devices, according to people familiar with the talks. Based on that research, Justice Department officials are convinced that mechanisms allowing access to the data can be engineered Full Story

Designers of ultrasound patch know the world isn't flat

New Atlas | March 23, 2018

Regular ultrasound probes have flat bases, which means they only work best when scanning objects that have similarly-flat surfaces. So, what happens if you want to inspect something that's curved or otherwise "irregular" in shape? Well, that's where a new ultrasound patch comes in. Designed by a team at the University of California San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, the stretchable, flexible patch consists of a thin silicone elastomer sheet with an embedded "island-bridge" electronic structure. The islands in that structure are an array of electrodes and piezoelectric transducers, Full Story

Wearable system is like an electrocardiogram for the gut

New Atlas | March 22, 2018

One of the standard methods of monitoring activity in a patient's gastrointestinal tract is invasive, and has to be carried out while they lie immobile in a clinic. There may soon be another option, though, in the form of a GI tract-monitoring system that is worn by the patient while at home. Developed by a team of scientists at the University of California San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, the setup consists of 10 standard electrodes of the type used in electrocardiograms, which are wired to a 3D-printed box containing the electronics and battery. Full Story

UCSD professor devises way to recycle lithium-ion batteries

The San Diego Union Tribune | March 16, 2018

The promise of a global electric vehicle transformation has a looming problem. The cathodes in the lithium-ion batteries typically used in electric vehicles, or EVs, are made of metal oxides that contain cobalt, a metal found in finite supplies and concentrated in one of the globe's more precarious countries. But nanoengineering professor Zheng Chen at the University of California San Diego says he has developed a way to recycle used cathodes from spent lithium-ion batteries and restore them to the point that they work as good as new. Full Story

New way to recycle lithium-ion batteries could be a lifeline for electric cars and the environment

Los Angeles Times | March 16, 2018

Finding a way to recycle lithium-ion batteries on a large scale could greatly reduce the demand -- as well as curb the rising costs -- for cobalt in electric vehicles. It also could help alleviate the environmental concerns surrounding aging batteries in smartphones, laptops and other digital devices, as well as EVs. Zheng Chen, an assistant professor at UC San Diego, says he has developed a way to recycle used cathodes from spent lithium-ion batteries and restore to perform as well as they did when new. Full Story

High-Tech Battery Research Comes With Ethical Dilemmas

KPBS | March 6, 2018

When you think about battery research, ethical issues may not be the first thing to come to mind. But scientists who work with batteries know better. "Some of the materials used in the batteries, like cobalt, have a lot of child labor issues," said Shirley Meng, a nanoengineering professor at UC San Diego, referring to the Congo's yearslong practice of using children to mine cobalt. Meng will address the use of cobalt, the potential for conflicts of interest and other ethical issues Tuesday night at the Fleet Science Center. Full Story

UC San Diego may lose Qualcomm as a key benefactor if company is sold

the San Diego Union Tribune | March 5, 2018

No one's panicking. But these are anxious days at "UC Qualcomm," which is how many people refer to the science mecca that is UC San Diego. The university could be on the verge of losing its close partnership with Qualcomm, the San Diego chip maker that helped the campus create the largest engineering school on the West Coast and become a national leader in medicine. Full Story

BILL NYE VISITS LA JOLLA: 'Science Guy' helps dedicate UCSD data center

La Jolla Light | March 5, 2018

Bill Nye the Science Guy was on hand to help UC San Diego launch its Halicioğlu Data Science Institute on Friday, March 2. The interdisciplinary center will train data scientists and develop new methods and algorithms to make sense of the overwhelming amounts of data generated by today's scientific observations. "This institute will enable students, researchers and student researchers to learn to handle more data in a day than Isaac Newton, Nicolaus Copernicus or Henrietta Leavitt could gather and process in a lifetime," Nye told a capacity crowd Full Story

These UCSD Students Won Thousands in Cash For Playing Video Games

NBC7 San Diego | March 5, 2018

Students with the UC San Diego video game team, Triton Gaming, placed in an international championship, winning over $12,000 in scholarship money.The Fiesta Bowl Overwatch National Championship at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona saw hundreds of teams from across the U.S. and Canada in February. Four teams secured the top spots: The University of Toronto, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine and UC San San Diego. Full Story

With $75M Alumnus Gift, UCSD Opens Data Science Institute

Xconomy | March 2, 2018

Amid intensifying global demand for workers who can extract insights from zettabytes of data, the University of California, San Diego held a dedication ceremony Friday for its new Halicioğlu Data Science Institute. The center, made possible by a $75 million gift from UC San Diego alumnus and early Facebook employee Taner Halicioğlu, is intended to encourage the development and use of new data science technologies in just about every field on campus--and beyond. According to UC San Diego, the donation--announced last year--was the largest ever received from one of its alumni. Full Story

UC San Diego Announces Data Science Institute

KPBS | March 1, 2018

UC San Diego is trying to respond to the need for data scientists in a multitude of industries by training that future workforce at a new institute announced Thursday. The Halicioğlu Data Science Institute is funded by a record $75 million gift from computer science alumnus Taner Halicioğlu who was one of Facebook's first software engineers. By 2020 the number of data science and analytics job listings will increase by over 700 percent, according to a report released in May 2017. Full Story

UC San Diego Launches Data Science Institute

Conquer HPC Wire | March 1, 2018

A new institute at the University of California San Diego, which will be celebrated tomorrow at a campus dedication, is building on the university's strengths of multidisciplinary collaboration and data science to allow researchers across the campus to incorporate data science into their respective disciplines to better understand and make predictions about the world around us. The cross-disciplinary Halicioğlu Data Science Institute, or HDSI, will become the campus hub fordata science. Full Story

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, to Help Dedicate Institute at UC San Diego

Aviation Pros | February 28, 2018

Bill Nye the Science Guy -- one of the nation's best known popularizers of science -- will visit UC San Diego on Friday to help the university dedicate the new Halicioglu Data Science Institute. The institute will train students to gather, analyze and apply data, enabling them to do everything from better operating music streaming services to routing commercial aircraft around large storms. "Bill will talk about the importance of data and how it is used in our daily lives," said Rajesh Gupta, a UC San Diego computer science professor. "We're trying to connect with young people." Full Story

Testing Swarms of Search and Rescue Drones

Efficient Gov | February 26, 2018

Imagine a world where public safety professionals can enter a computerized three-dimensional model -- think Star Trek's Holodeck -- to look for damage and people. It would be created with data collected by search and rescue drones. According to the University of California (UC) San Diego, researchers across various engineering and science disciplines are doing just that. Several teams are testing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a new aerodrome made of a 30-foot-tall mesh cage over a 2,500-square-foot outdoor area, and there are plans to expand the test bed to a 100-foot-tall area indoors. Full Story

Bill Nye the Science Guy to help dedicate institute at UC San Diego

the San Diego Union Tribune | February 26, 2018

Bill Nye the Science Guy -- one of the nation's best known popularizers of science -- will visit UC San Diego on Friday to help the university dedicate the new Halicioğlu Data Science Institute. The institute will train students to gather, analyze and apply data, enabling them to do everything from better operating music streaming services to routing commercial aircraft around large storms. Full Story

Coronado Community Read For Futuristic Nove, Ready Player One, Kicks Off This Week

Coronado Eagle & Journal | February 23, 2018

Programming for the 2018 Coronado Community Read launches this week, with the first major event being a concert and dance at the John D. Spreckels Center. The kick-off event will feature the 1980s musical stylings of Betamaxx and is set for Thursday, Feb. 22, starting at 6:30 p.m. Or as Coronado Cultural Arts Literary Arts Commissioner Lei Udell likes to say, "The 80s never go out of style." The dance costs $25 per person, if the tickets are purchased in advance. That charge includes a free first drink and light snacks during the program. Full Story

Robots in Depth with Henrik Christensen

Robohub | February 23, 2018

In this episode of Robots in Depth, Per Sjöborg speaks with Henrik Christensen, the Qualcomm Chancellor's Chair of Robot Systems and a Professor of Computer Science at Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering UC San Diego. He is also the director of the Institute for Contextual Robotics. Prior to UC San Diego he was the founding director of Institute for Robotics and Intelligent machines (IRIM) at Georgia Institute of Technology (2006-2016). Christensen shares stories from his life in European robotics research, his views on the robot revolution, and experience developing robotics roadmaps. Full Story

Just Look at This Freakin' CGI Fur

GIZMODO | February 22, 2018

When you look at fur, the light has taken an extended journey before hitting your eye, bouncing around lots of fur fibers and their microscopic structures. You can imagine that it's quite difficult for filmmakers to render these structures in CGI. Researchers at the Universities of California in San Diego and Berkeley have devised an improvement over fur rendering that they think is both more efficient and more practical. It's ten times faster than previous methods, and incorporates a more realistic model of fur to create more realistic images. Full Story

Computer-generated fur gets more realistic

New Atlas | February 22, 2018

If you're not satisfied with the realism of computer-generated animals in movies and games, then you might be interested in the latest news out of the University of California San Diego. Working with colleagues from UC Berkeley, computer scientists there have developed a new method of rendering fur that's reportedly much more accurate than existing techniques. Currently, fur is simulated in the same manner as is human hair - the computer utilizes a model that follows a ray of light as it bounces from one fur fiber to another. The technique requires a lot of processing power, Full Story

Watch: Rendering Realistic Fur

Electronics 360 powered by IEEE GlobalSpec | February 21, 2018

Scientists in California get to work on the coolest things. Take, for instance, the challenge of making computer-generated creatures look more realistic for their role in computer-animated films, special effects and video games. Recently, at the SIGGRAPH Asia conference in Thailand, researchers from UC San Diego and UC Berkeley presented their method for dramatically improving the way computers simulate fur - specifically, the way light bounces within an animal's pelt. Full Story

AI is making more realistic CG animal fur

engadget | February 21, 2018

Creating realistic animal fur has always been a vexing problem for 3D animators because of the complex way the fibers interact with light. Now, thanks to our ubiquitous friend artificial intelligence, University of California researchers have found a way to do it better. "Our model generates much more accurate simulations and is 10 times faster than the state of the art," said lead author Ravi Ramamoorthi. The result could be that very soon, you'll see more believable (and no doubt cuter) furry critters in movies, TV and video games. A lot of fur rendering systems were designed for human hair Full Story

A New Way to Recycle Batteries Uses Half the Energy

Scientific American | February 20, 2018

A new recycling process could provide a way to restore lithium ion battery cathodes to "mint condition." What's better, this new process only uses half the energy of conventional recycling methods. The new process centers on a non-destructive approach to recycling cathode materials. In the recycling methods that are typically used today, cathodes are broken into their separate elements. This new method would preserve the cathode material. The work was led by University of California San Diego Professor Zheng Chen. Full Story

CRISPR/Cas9 Fitted with Ultrasound-Powered Propeller

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | February 9, 2018

A new system that transports gene-editing tools into cells may leave other such systems in its wake. The new system, developed by American and Danish scientists, uses an ultrasound-powered nanopropeller. Instead of blades, the nanopropeller has an asymmetrically shaped gold nanowire that it churns through the fluid mosaic of the cell's plasma membrane. Once inside the cell, the nanopropeller falls apart and frees its cargo: a gene-editing complex consisting of the CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) and a single-guide RNA (sgRNA). Full Story

Will Humans Still Be Driving Cars in 2040?

autoevolution | February 8, 2018

More and more experts feel that the advent of the autonomous vehicles will mean zero driver's licenses in the near future. Some are more optimistic than others, but Henrik Christensen, director for the UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute, is the most pessimistic of them all. According to Futurism, Christensen feels that the kids born today will never drive a car in their lives. That means that in the course of just 16 to 18 years, by 2040, that is, autonomous vehicles will no longer be weird to look at, but popular to ride in. Full Story

Armpit transplants could make up less stinky

Popular Science | February 2, 2018

Earlier in his career, Callewaert delved into the what of the human armpit, IDing the types of bacteria that give people sweet--or smelly--underarm smells. He used DNA analysis to figure out once and for all what makes an axillary microbiome--the world of tiny organisms that hangs out under all of our arms--stink. Now, the Belgium-born scientist has moved on to the how--and he thinks he's figured out a way not just to reduce armpit malodor, but to reverse the stinkiest pits for the long term. The solution, he says, is an armpit microbiome transfer. Full Story

Simple, Energy-Efficient Recycling Process for Lithium-Ion Batteries

IEEE Spectrum | January 29, 2018

A simple new recycling process restores old lithium battery cathodes to mint condition using half the energy of current processes. Unlike today's recycling methods, which break down cathodes into separate elements that have to be put together again, the new technique spits out compounds that are ready to go into a new battery. The method works on the lithium cobalt oxide batteries used in laptops and smartphones, and also on the complex lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries found in electric cars. Full Story

UC San Diego Opens Outdoor Drone Test Facility

Campus Technology | January 26, 2018

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) has opened a new aerodrome for research into unmanned aerial vehicles. The outdoor facility is designed "to create a living laboratory for unmanned aerial vehicles by bringing together researchers from across campus, including computer scientists, structural, mechanical, aerospace, electrical and computer engineers and scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography," according to a UCSD news release. Full Story

This tiny, self-folding robot could one day be part of a large ant-like swarm

Digital Trends | January 23, 2018

Call it a misspent youth playing with Optimus Prime and Megatron toys if you want, but there's just something about transforming robots that always captures our imagination. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, recently appealed to this part of our nature by developing a miniature, centimeter-scale self-folding robot, which can assemble itself from out of a flat sheet and then shimmy along the ground by vibrating. Oh, yes, and it's designed to work in a swarm, too. Full Story

California Fresh Fruit Association announces speakers for annual meeting

Fresh Plaza | January 22, 2018

The California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) today announced the speakers for their upcoming 82nd Annual Meeting, March 25-27, 2018, in Pebble Beach, California. This year's event will feature addresses by Dr. Henrik Christensen, the Qualcomm Chancellor's Chair of Robot Systems, and Mr. Bill Bishop, Chief Architect and Co-Founder of Brick Meets Click. Both speakers will deliver passionate messages about issues that are impacting the future of California agriculture and what our industry must do to be prepared. Full Story

The Second Coming of Ultrasound

WIRED | January 22, 2018

In the last few years, ultrasound has reinvented itself in some weird new ways. Researchers are fitting people's heads with ultrasound-emitting helmets to treat tremors and Alzheimer's. Startups are designing swallowable capsules and ultrasonically vibrating enemas to shoot drugs into the bloodstream. One company is even using the shockwaves to heal wounds. Even more intriguing though, is the possibility of using ultrasound to remotely control genetically-engineered cells. That's what new research led by Peter Yingxiao Wang, a bioengineer at UC San Diego, promises to do. Full Story

Designing Customizable Self-Folding Swarm Robots

IEEE Spectrum | January 18, 2018

Researchers at the University California, San Diego, are taking the first steps towards robotics swarms that can be rapidly customized, self-assembled, and then self-deployed, without needing tedious human intervention at every step of the way. They're laser-cut from flat sheets, can fold themselves up, and then skitter away with only a minimum of human finger-lifting. The heterogeneous swarm idea is not a new one: Insects have been doing it for ages, and it's been very effective for them. Full Story

Cancer Immunotherapy Channeled via Remote Control

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | January 17, 2018

We're a long way from controlling our immune systems as easily as we might change the channels on our televisions, but a new remote-control system, in the hands of clinicians, could enable the narrowcasting of immunotherapies. For example, cancer immunotherapies could be "switched on" in solid tumors and "switched off" in healthy tissues. The new remote-control system, then, could avoid the toxicities associated with the broadcasting of cancer immunotherapy throughout the body. Full Story

Cancer-fighting cells activated with ultrasound

The San Diego Union Tribune | January 17, 2018

UC San Diego-led researchers have developed cancer-killing immune cells activated by ultrasound. Their work in cell cultures could lead to more precise cancer treatment with fewer side effects. Cells can be activated at up to 10 centimeters (nearly 4 inches), reaching deep with the body. The ultrasound method could be applied to other biological functions, either for research or clinical applications. Full Story

How immune cells can be controlled to kill cancer

Medical News Today | January 16, 2018

By engineering cancer-killing T cells that can be manipulated noninvasively by remote control, researchers have added a potentially powerful feature to an already promising type of immunotherapy known as CAR T cell therapy. In their journal report, Prof. Wang and colleagues describe how they added new features to CAR T cell therapy in which the T cells carry modules that can be manipulated to produce gene and cell changes through remotely controlled and noninvasive ultrasound. Full Story

The Futurist Institute Releases The Robot and Automation Almanac - 2018

Digital Journal | January 10, 2018

The Futurist Institute has released a groundbreaking new book, The Robot and Automation Almanac - 2018. This innovative book contains essays from 23 robot and automation experts, executives, and investors that all answer one question: What will happen for robots and automation in 2018? Jason Schenker, the Chairman of The Futurist institute and the world's leading financial futurist, has been the driving force behind The Robot and Automation Almanac - 2018. "People are interested, curious, and concerned about robots and automation. So we asked the question: What's next? Full Story

You won't believe just how sensitive our sense of touch is

CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks | January 6, 2018

Our sense of touch is so sensitive that we can feel the difference of just a single layer of molecules, researchers have found. We can easily tell the difference between a range of surfaces, from the roughest of sand paper to a soothing caress. We read eye charts to test our visual acuity before getting behind the wheel of a car. Newborns take simple audio tests to check that they can hear before they go home with their parents. But in comparison, our sense of touch has been a bit neglected. Recently, researchers in California put our tactile sense to the test. Full Story