Undergraduate News
2009 News Releases
Engineers Help Secure California Highways and Roads
December 10, 2009
Engineers at the UC San Diego Englekirk Structural Engineering Center, which has the largest outdoor shake table in the United States, recently tested the seismic response of a semi-gravity reinforced concrete retaining wall. Full Story
Supportive Materials will Help Regenerate Heart Tissue
December 8, 2009
Bioengineers from University of California, San Diego are developing new regenerative therapies for heart disease that could influence the way in which regenerative therapies for cardiovascular and other diseases are treated in the future. Full Story
San Diegans and their Cell Phones will help Computer Scientists Monitor Air Pollution
December 2, 2009
You want to go for a run, but you don’t want to run in polluted air that might aggravate your asthma. University of California, San Diego computer scientists are creating a network of environmental sensors that will help you avoid air pollution hot spots that exist exactly when you are planning your route. The system will provide up-to-the-minute information on outdoor and indoor air quality, based on environmental information collected by hundreds, and eventually thousands, of sensors attached to the backpacks, purses, jackets and board shorts of San Diegans going about daily life. Full Story
Undergraduate Team Dukes it Out in BattleBots Competition
December 1, 2009
Last fall, 10 self-professed robotics geeks with very different backgrounds rallied together behind a common mission: to create a robot so limber and so destructive that it would take no prisoners. Full Story
UCSD Researchers Discover That Defects in Carbon Nanotubes Could Lead to Improved Charge and Energy Storage Systems
November 19, 2009
Most people would like to be able to charge their cell phones and other personal electronics quickly and not too often. A recent discovery made by UC San Diego engineers could lead to carbon nanotube-based supercapacitors that could do just this. Full Story
UCSD Discovery Allows Scientists to Experimentally Annotate Genomes for the First Time
November 9, 2009
Bioengineers at UC San Diego have made a breakthrough development that will now allow scientists to perform full delineation of the location and use of genomic elements. Full Story
Engineering Students Help San Diego Region Secure $154 Million in Solar Bonds
November 3, 2009
Engineering students at UC San Diego played a critical role in helping the university and the San Diego region secure a total of $154 million in federal bonds for solar installation projects. Full Story
University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Ranked 9th in the World
November 3, 2009
The University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is the 9th best in the world for engineering/technology and 15th in the world for computer sciences, according to an academic ranking of the top 100 world universities published by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Full Story
Electrical Engineers Go Head to Head with Genius on Music Playlists
October 27, 2009
Electrical engineers recently pitted Genius – the music recommendation system in Apple’s iTunes – against two experimental music recommender systems. Genius appears to capture acoustic similarities among songs within the same playlist, the researchers found. Full Story
New in Class: Digital Signage to Make Campus Smarter, Safer, Greener
October 22, 2009
Researchers from the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) are installing a number of LED digital signs in classrooms throughout UC San Diego, with the eventual goal of outfitting the entire campus with the notification system. Full Story
Jacobs School Undergrad is Green Intern in Washington D.C.
October 2, 2009
The nation’s first “green” intern in the U.S. Capitol--Mark Galvan--hails from the Jacobs School of Engineering at one of the country’s greenest universities, the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Students Explore Topics Outside Comfort Zone
September 30, 2009
The Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) held its first “Boot Camp” from August 10-22 at UC San Diego. Full Story
Jacobs Scholars Make their Mark in the Future of Engineering
September 30, 2009
Jennifer Fang learned her first programming language, Visual Basic, in the third grade. Since then she has honed her programming skills and is entering UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering this fall as a freshman computer science major, with an emphasis on bioinformatics. Full Story
Going With the Flow: Using Star Power to Better Understand Fusion
September 11, 2009
Under a new $5.8 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), UCSD will host and lead a new Center for Momentum Transport and Flow Organization in Plasmas and Magnetofluids, which will bring together astrophysical and magnetic fusion theorists, experimentalists and computationalists from multiple institutions. Full Story
UC San Diego Scientist's Work Will Contribute to Better Understanding of Nuclear Ignition
August 28, 2009
As the nation’s nuclear weapons are aging (think the beginning of the Cold War), the U.S. government is turning to researchers and scientists at universities such as UC San Diego to figure out safe and reliable ways to estimate their longevity and to understand the physics of thermonuclear reactions in the absence of underground testing currently prohibited under law. Full Story
Retrofitted Historic Building Survives Strong Simulated Jolts During UCSD Test
August 25, 2009
As part of the $1.24 million research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation under the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program, a three-story, masonry-infilled, reinforced concrete frame representing structures built in California in the 1920s was tested at the NEES -UCSD Englekirk Structural Engineering Center, home of the world’s largest outdoor shake table. Full Story
UC San Diego Robots Take Center Stage at National Robotics Conference
August 20, 2009
Robots created by UC San Diego engineers made their way to Austin, Texas recently to take center stage during NI Week, the annual robotics extravaganza hosted by National Instruments. Full Story
Computer Science Instruction Featured by Associated Press
August 12, 2009
Cell phones, clickers, the Internet, and in-class blogging systems all serve as tools for learning in Beth Simon’s introduction to computer science classes at UC San Diego. Simon’s approach to undergraduate lectures recently caught the interest of journalist Megan Scott from the Associated Press, who wrote about the ways in which college classrooms are going high-tech in order to engage students. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineer Provides Insights to Decades-Old DNA Squabble
July 30, 2009
A group of nanoengineers, biologists and physicists have used innovative approaches to deduce the internal structure of chromatin, a key player in DNA regulation, to reconcile a longstanding controversy in this field. Full Story
Cheat-Resistant 3D iPhone Game Relies on Score-Checking Replays
July 27, 2009
Aliens are stealing your beloved sheep and you’ve got to stop them. That’s the premise for TowerMadness, a new 3D iPhone game that is one of the most cheat-resistant iPhone games available, according to its three developers, all with ties to the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
UC San Diego Installs High-Efficiency Sun-Tracking Solar Panels
July 27, 2009
The University of California, San Diego has begun producing electricity with newly installed solar panels made by Concentrix Solar that automatically track the sun as it crosses the daytime sky and concentrates sunlight onto hundreds of electricity-producing solar cells, each smaller than a shirt button. Full Story
UC San Diego Nets $3 Million NSF Grant to Promote Science
July 23, 2009
The University of California, San Diego has received a $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the 2010 San Diego Science Festival and fund the creation and growth of Science Festivals nationwide. Full Story
Jacobs School Expertise in Advanced Autonomous Robotics, Cybersecurity Shines at National Security Conference
July 17, 2009
Future military missions will depend on large, networked groups of sensor-equipped vehicles, which can be deployed in extreme conditions with little to no human intervention. “Inspiration can be taken from biological groups like schools of fish, flocks of birds. These will be multi-robot networks, where each individual senses its environment, communicates with others, processes information gathered and takes local action in response, said Sonia Martinez, an assistant professor the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
UC San Diego NanoTumor Center and NanoTecNexus Win Telly Award for Educational Video
July 16, 2009
The University of California, San Diego NanoTumor Center and NanoTecNexus (NTN) (formerly NanoBioNexus)—a leading nanotech education organization—won the 2009 Bronze Telly Award for the production of a video on approaches to fighting cancer using nanotechnology. The three minute video, entitled “Fighting Cancer with Nanotechnology,” is embedded below and can be viewed at NanoTecNexus, YouTube and around the Web. Full Story
UCSD Scientists Shed 'Light' on Semiconductor Quandary
July 14, 2009
UC San Diego scientists are using laser plasma-produced light sources to explore performance improvements of critical inspection tools for the semiconductor industry, which ultimately will enable industry to pursue even better and faster chips. Full Story
Jacobs School Undergrads Go International this Summer with PRIME
July 7, 2009
Twenty four Jacobs School undergraduates are among the 33 University of California, San Diego undergraduates working as researchers in laboratories across the Pacific Rim and India this summer. Full Story
Priming Future Engineering Leaders
June 17, 2009
The competitiveness the American tech industry will not only depend on innovation but also effective leaders. This was the topic of discussion during the Bernard and Sophia Gordon Engineering Leadership Center Inaugural Forum at UC San Diego Full Story
At ENSPIRE Engineering Undergrads Inspire Local Eighth Graders
June 16, 2009
Imagine 420 eighth graders arriving at your doorstep and expecting you to inspire, teach, entertain and feed them all day. This is exactly the challenge the undergraduates from UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering took on earlier this year at ENSPIRE, one of the many events that make up Engineers Week at UC San Diego. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineers Test World's First Composite Landing Gear Braces for Boeing 787
June 9, 2009
For the first time, UC San Diego engineers have performed tests on landing gear components for the aerospace industry. Full Story
Fluid Dynamics Research to Make Peeing in Space More Comfortable and Sanitary
June 2, 2009
Engineering students at UC San Diego are studying the fluid dynamics of water in order to build a more comfortable and sanitary urine collection device for space travel. The mechanical and aerospace engineering undergraduates from the Jacobs School of Engineering mimicked the behavior of streams of human urine in zero gravity in order to collect the data necessary to make better space urinals for both women and men. Full Story
Toward Cheap Underwater Sensor Nets
May 26, 2009
UC San Diego computer scientists are one step closer to building low cost networks of underwater sensors for real time underwater environmental monitoring. At the IEEE Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop in Rome, Italy, on May 25, computer scientists from the Jacobs School of Engineering presented a paper highlighting the energy conservation benefits of using reconfigurable hardware rather than competing hardware platforms for their experimental underwater sensor nets. Full Story
From a Queen Song to a Better Music Search Engine
May 15, 2009
At a recent IEEE technology conference, UC San Diego electrical engineers presented a solution to their problem with the song “Bohemian Rhapsody,”—and it’s not that they don’t like this hit from the band Queen. Full Story
UC San Diego and Qualcomm Partner to Accelerate Wireless Healthcare Industry
May 14, 2009
UC San Diego hopes to accelerate the translation of wireless healthcare technologies from the laboratory to society through a Wireless Healthcare Innovation Challenge. Full Story
Junkyard Dreams: UC San Diego Students Vie for Winning Derby Status
May 12, 2009
From old bicycle parts to gold mannequin busts and cardboard pizza boxes, UC San Diego students put their skills to the test during the annual Junkyard Derby. The sixth annual Junkyard Derby, held May 8, drew 44 teams who designed, built and then raced cars made of junk. Full Story
Robotic Mouse Makes Maze Debut at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
May 4, 2009
An intrepid group of UC San Diego undergraduate engineers designed and built a robotic mouse from scratch as part of the IEEE MicroMouse competition. Watch the video here. Full Story
UCSD Engineering Students Drive Into the Future With Electric Racecar
April 29, 2009
A group of engineering students at UC San Diego are helping to fuel the trend toward “green” vehicles by designing and building an electric racecar. Full Story
Steel Bridge Designed and Built by Jacobs School Undergrads Finds Home at UCSD Library
April 15, 2009
A 200-pound steel bridge, completely designed and fabricated by a team of twelve UC San Diego undergraduate engineering students has found a new home: UC San Diego's Science & Engineering Library. The bridge won second place among 17 competing schools at the 2008 Pacific Southwest Regional Conference Steel Bridge Competition, held last year at Cal State Northridge. Full Story
Jacobs School Students to Compete in Battle of the Brains in Stockholm
April 13, 2009
Three Jacobs School engineering students will join the next generation of elite problem solvers and compete in the IBM-sponsored “Battle of the Brains” World Finals contest in Stockholm, Sweden, April 18-22. Full Story
Jacobs School Helps Celebrate Science
April 9, 2009
When a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 people flocked to Balboa Park on April 4 for what organizers are calling “the largest one-day science gathering ever in the United States.,” UC San Diego faculty, staff and students, including those from the Jacobs School of Engineering, were among the many exhibitors and visitors contributing to the landmark event. Full Story
High School Students Get The Big Picture on Nanotechnology at UC San Diego
April 3, 2009
From hair gel to virtual gene expression, Southern California high school students got the “big” picture on nanotechnology at the University of California, San Diego on April 1. Full Story
UC San Students Lift 'Dow Jones' For Annual Engineering Competition
March 23, 2009
The ‘Dow Jones’ got a lift on Thursday, March 19 by structural engineering students at the University of California, San Diego. We’re not talking about the overall indicator of the condition of the Stock Market, but a handmade concrete canoe destined for Hawaii. Full Story
New UC San Diego Center To Train Future Engineering Leaders to Help America Stay Competitive
March 23, 2009
Engineering leadership today is more important than ever to ensure the United States remains at the forefront of technological innovation. The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering plans to help meet this challenge through the new Bernard and Sophia Gordon Engineering Leadership Center. Full Story
Will a Mechanical Engineering Undergrad Win the Best Book Collection Prize Three Years in a Row?
March 18, 2009
While students buy and sell text books more frequently than they change apartments, many students are simultaneously building up personal libraries which reflect their passions and quirks. Mechanical Engineering major Evan Woolley is one such personal-library builder. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineering Students Launch Cockroaches and Cameras Into Space
March 11, 2009
A group of cockroaches recently took a ride on a high-altitude balloon launched into space by freshmen aerospace engineering students from the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Employers Mine UC San Diego for NextGen Engineers
March 6, 2009
Despite a sluggish economy, more than 70 high tech and life science firms participated in the Disciplines in Engineering Career Fair (DECaF) on February 20 at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Research Expo Highlights UC San Diego's Engineering Prowess
February 25, 2009
From novel nanoengineering approaches to space robots, ‘green’ computing, weather prediction technology and structural health monitoring, engineering students at the University of California, San Diego strutted their stuff during the Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo 2009. Full Story
E-Games 2009 Highlight 'Coolness' of Engineering
February 18, 2009
During a mix of rain and sunshine, Jacobs School of Engineering students took the University of California, San Diego by storm Tuesday, February 18 during E-Games 2009. Full Story
UC San Diego Kicks off 'E' Week
February 11, 2009
What do a golden calculator and tomatoes have in common? Find out during Engineers Week at the University of California, San Diego February 17-20. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineering Students Create 'Wall of Widgets' for Mobile Internet
February 10, 2009
From finding the nearest restroom to checking the latest movie listings, engineering students at the University of California at San Diego have received kudos for their creative “widgets” designed for a new mobile Internet platform called Plaza. Full Story
Engineering Graduate Student Narrows Gap Between High-Resolution Video and Virtual Reality
February 3, 2009
Han Suk Kim, a computer science and engineering Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School of Engineering, has developed an efficient “mipmap” algorithm that "shrinks" high-resolution video content so that it can be played interactively in Virtual Reality Environments (VE). He has also created several optimization solutions for sustaining a stable video playback frame rate, even when the video is projected onto non-rectangular VE screens. Full Story
Iconic Relic from Computer Game Finds Home in Engineering Library
January 16, 2009
UC San Diego’s Science & Engineering Library has a new “librarian” – Chameleon JumpSuit. This life-size sci-fi time traveler action suit is from the popular Journeyman Project “Legacy of Time” computer video game which was created by Presto Studios, a company founded by UCSD alumni. Full Story
Jacobs School Water Conservation Research Makes Headlines around the World
January 2, 2009
Water conservation research that Jacobs School of Engineering professor Jan Kleissl and his students are performing in California’s Imperial Valley is making headlines around the world. A story by Associated Press journalist John Rogers about Kleissl’s efforts to monitor irrigation water needs using laser beams has run in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and many other news outlets. The story first appeared as a short item from the most recent issue of the Jacobs School alumni magazine, Pulse. Full Story