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5.21.20 10 News
"UCSD lab developing drone with UV-C lights"
A team at UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering is developing a drone with UV-C lights that could be used for disinfecting surfaces. The DetecDrone Team, led by Professor Tara Javidi, has developed a prototype using consumer drones and LED light strips.

5.14.20 Foreign Affairs
"The Paths to Net Zero"
For 30 years, diplomats and policymakers have called for decisive action on climate change--and for 30 years, the climate crisis has grown worse. There are a multitude of reasons for this failure. The benefits of climate action lie mostly in the future, they are diffuse and hard to pin down, and they will accrue above all to poor populations that do not have much of a voice in politics, whether in those countries that emit most of the world's warming pollution or at the global level.

5.14.20 Reuters
"Exclusive: Tesla's secret batteries aim to rework the math for electric cars and the grid"
Electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in its Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid. For months, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been teasing investors, and rivals, with promises to reveal significant advances in battery technology during a "Battery Day" in late May.

5.13.20 Washington Post
"Hoovering the ocean"
Grand, maybe unrealistic, hopes ride on FRED, whose baptism last month was only a first test for the students and a small start-up called Clear Blue Sea. Like other emerging ventures around the world, the nonprofit group is trying to help solve one of the planet?s most daunting problems: oceans littered with plastic.

5.11.20 Inverse
"Robots that can sniff out chemical weapons and pollution are comming soon --study"
Whether it's old gym clothes, a wet dog, or strong body odor -- our brains are remarkably good ignoring pervasive smells. It's a quirk of our olfactory system that's called habituation, which increases focus on new and threatening smells. Beyond uses in our brain, scientists believe a form of habituation can be used by A.I. to process massive amounts of data. Borrowing neural circuitry from a fruit fly, scientists have designed an algorithm to mimic this neurobiological phenomenon, hoping to learn more about habituation.

5.10.20 Medium
"Are We Building AI systems that Learned to Lie to Us?"
I have been hearing about concerns over deepfakes in recent years. Facebook is teaming up with Microsoft, the Partnership on AI coalition and academics from several universities to launch a contest (from late 2019 to spring of 2020) to better detect deepfakes. The social media giant spends $10 million on this contest. The term deepfakes - a combination of the terms "deep learning" and "fake", a form of artificial intelligence and originated around the end of 2017 from a Reddit user named "deepfakes".

5.6.20 Mashable
"Researchers created a highly expandable foam for 3D printing "
Developed by researchers from UC San Diego, the foam resin can be used to 3D print objects larger than the printer itself.

5.5.20 Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
"Genome Editing Helps Cell Lines"
If you want to "clean up" in the recombinant protein business, you might want to start by sweeping away process-related impurities, specifically, host cell proteins (HCPs). Undesirable HCPs are generated by host cells along with desirable biotherapeutic proteins, increasing metabolic demand, degrading product quality, and contaminating the final product. They also necessitate troublesome (and expensive) purification procedures. In other words, you can clean up now, or clean up later. To make "now" an option, researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Related Jacobs School Link »

4.30.20 LabMate
"How Can Robots Help in a Pandemic?"
While epidemiologists search for a vaccine for the novel COVID-19 virus, researchers at the University of California - San Diego are championing robots as an effective tool for managing the pandemic. In a medical setting, the team say robots can carry out critical clinical care tasks such as sanitisation and handling of contaminated waste. They also say robots can be used to monitor quarantine compliance within the community and help enforce social distancing rules. Henrik Christensen, director of the Contextual Robotics Institute says robots are already being used for these tasks

4.29.20 MultiBriefs Exclusive
"How robots can dramatically improve your hospital's management of COVID-19"
Whether you work as a physician or in administration, your attention is now squarely focused on reducing COVID-19 risk to your patients and caregivers in any way you can. One emerging solution that can help you achieve this goal is robotics. New research from the University of California San Diego found that mobile robots in a hospital setting can provide excellent results when it comes to key care areas such as: Clinical Care.

4.27.20 Physics
"Flying Insects and Their Robot Imitators"
Despite its meager appearance, the fruit fly is a first-class flying machine. It can generate lift with tiny wings that defy simple aerodynamic rules. Its wing muscles cycle at 200 times per second, making them some of the fastest muscles on the planet. And it has a rapid response to predators (and annoyed humans) that would be the envy of any fighter pilot. For years, biologists have investigated the flight secrets of fruit flies, as well as those of bees, mosquitos, and moths. Insect flight attracts so much interest because it shows nature's triumph over a highly complicated problem.

4.27.20 Design News
"New Solution to Keep Lithium Batteries from Catching Fire"
One of the big challenges that researchers have tried to solve regarding lithium-based batteries is their tendency to degrade or fail in a way that causes them to catch fire or explode. Now nanoengineers from the University of California (UC) San Diego have devised a new safety feature that could prevent lithium-metal batteries from this disastrous scenario in case of an internal short circuit. A team led by UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Ping Liu has modified the battery's separator, which stands between the anode and cathode, to slow the flow of energy--and thus the heat

4.27.20 Yahoo! News
"How Silicon Valley's favorite sleep tracker is being used to fight the COVID-19 crisis and detect early signs of its aftermath"
Now, Oura is working with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and University of California, San Diego, on a new study to see if the smart ring can be used to detect COVID-19 symptoms early. Before, the company was probably best known as Silicon Valley's favorite sleep tracker. The Oura is comfortable to wear, but it does feel noticeably thicker than your average piece of jewelry. That being said, once you get used to it, you forget it's there. It doesn't buzz, vibrate, or light up like other wearables, and it's less cumbersome to wear to sleep than a smartwatch

4.25.20 Health 24
"High-tech rings are tracking Covid-19 'warning signs'"
Researchers are gathering data from thousands of Americans to create an "early warning system" that can identify people in the early stages of Covid-19. More than 12 000 people - including thousands of health care workers in California and West Virginia - are already wearing specially designed Oura rings that track their temperature, breathing, heart and activity. "Our first push is to get as many people involved as possible," said study leader Benjamin Smarr, a professor of data science and bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego.

4.23.20 Daily Nation
"Kemri uses biotech to trace Covid-19's trail in the country"
When you hear of Charles Darwin, the mind quickly drifts to the theory of evolution as the scientist is best known for his contributions to this science. Today, this concept can be applied to anything that evolves, including viruses. Forty days after reporting its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, Kenya has joined the global race to trace Covid-19 with genomics after posting the DNA of the virus circulating in the country.

4.22.20 Yahoo! Finance
"Caretaker bots and starfish assassins: Meet the tech that protects Earth's reefs"
Coral reefs are dying everywhere. As the home of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, that's bad news. Coral reefs protect our coastlines from waves and tropical storms, while also sheltering huge numbers of marine organisms. Their decline is the result of predominantly human actions such as pollution, overfishing, coral mining and, of course, the coral-bleaching effects of climate change. Can technology help mitigate or even reverse this tragic trend? Here are six examples of cutting-edge tech that might assist with exactly that.

4.21.20 Semiconductor Engineering
"Power/Performance Bits: April 21"
Researchers from the University of Utah developed a new lens that doesn't require focusing. They present it as an alternative to the multiple lenses common in smartphone cameras. "Our flat lenses can drastically reduce the weight, complexity and cost of cameras and other imaging systems, while increasing their functionality," said research team leader Rajesh Menon from the University of Utah. "Such optics could enable thinner smartphone cameras, improved and smaller cameras for biomedical imaging such as endoscopy, and more compact cameras for automobiles." Related Jacobs School Link »

4.21.20 San Diego Metro Magaziine
"Governor taps Tom Steyer to help lead CA's economic recovery"
Former presidential candidate and businessman Tom Steyer will help chart California's path toward economic recovery as co-chair of Gov. Gavin Newsom's new economic task force, Newsom announced Friday, a week after the resignation of his chief economic advisor, Lenny Mendonca. The 80-member task force includes big-name business leaders like former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Walt Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger and Gap CEO Sonia Syngal -- as well as the four living former California governors and leaders of 10 labor unions.

4.21.20 The New York Times
"5 Rules for Sheltering in Place With Cockroaches, Spiders and Turtles"
Glenna Clifton, a postdoctoral research in the lab of Nicholas Gravish in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, talks about what it's like to shelter in place with one of her experiments, which involves nine cockroaches. Subscription required

4.19.20 Finding Genius Podcast
"Advancing Technology and Microbiome Research Amid COVID-19 Pandemic--Rob Knight--Center for Microbiome Innovation, UC San Diego"
Founding director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation and professor of pediatrics and computer science & engineering at UC San Diego, Rob Knight, discusses several aspects of his past and ongoing contributions to the field of microbiome research. He also discusses his recent focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode, you?ll learn the following: Why COVID-19 is causing a very time-sensitive need for serology tests to detect antibodies; What dietary factors affect the microbiome in certain viral and bacterial diseases (e.g. salmonella, influenza)

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