Undergraduate News


2010 News Releases

The Deep Freeze: Engineering Students Study Beetles and Climate Change Via Weather Balloon

December 17, 2010

UC San Diego engineering students recently sent a weather balloon up 80,000 feet to near space to study the effects of solar power, climate change and even the survival rate of anti-freeze beetles. Full Story


Engineering for the Earth

December 14, 2010

While she was still in high school, Nitya Timalsina began working on developing cheap yet powerful water filtration systems in Third World countries like Nepal, her birthplace. Timalsina, now a freshman environmental engineering student at UC San Diego, hopes  to implement these systems – as well as small hydroelectric power sources –  in Southeast Asia and expand to other global regions in need. Full Story


Two UC San Diego Computer Scientists Recognized for Contributions in Computer Systems Security, Bioinformatics

December 8, 2010

For contributions to bioinformatics and computer systems security, computer science professors Pavel Pevzner and Stefan Savage from the University of California, San Diego are among 41 computer scientists named as 2010 ACM Fellows. Professors Pevzner and Savage are from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story


Genomic Fault Zones Come and Go

Genomic Fault Zones Come and Go

November 29, 2010

The fragile regions in mammalian genomes that are thought to play a key role in evolution go through a "birth and death" process, according to new bioinformatics research performed at the University of California, San Diego. The new work, published in the journal Genome Biology on November 30, could help researchers identify the current fragile regions in the human genome – information that may reveal how the human genome will evolve in the future. Full Story


Bioengineers Provide Adult Stem Cells with Friendly Environment: Simultaneous Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical Cues

Bioengineers Provide Adult Stem Cells with Friendly Environment: Simultaneous Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical Cues

November 16, 2010

Bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego have achieved the “Triple Crown” of stem cell culture – they created an artificial environment for stem cells that simultaneously provides the chemical, mechanical and electrical cues necessary for stem cell growth and differentiation. Full Story


NanoEngineers Aim to Grow Tissues with Functional Blood Vessels

NanoEngineers Aim to Grow Tissues with Functional Blood Vessels

November 12, 2010

University of California, San Diego NanoEngineers won a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop the tools to manufacture biodegradable frames around which heart tissues – functional blood vessels included – will grow. Full Story


Bioengineering Major among Four UC San Diego Undergraduates Recognized For Their Stellar Library Research Skills

Bioengineering Major among Four UC San Diego Undergraduates Recognized For Their Stellar Library Research Skills

November 8, 2010

Bioengineering major J.R. Bachman is among the four undergraduate students at the University of California, San Diego to receive the 2010 Undergraduate Library Research Prize in recognition of their stellar research skills. Full Story


Electrical Engineer Explores Mongolia, and You Can Too

Electrical Engineer Explores Mongolia, and You Can Too

November 1, 2010

Luke Barrington is a Ph.D. candidate in the UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) – not the typical background of someone who might find himself trekking through Mongolia as part of a National Geographic archaeological expedition. But there he was this summer – after developing the core functionality of the expedition's online, human-computation website that gave the public at large a chance to “tag” potential historic sites on high-resolution maps of the area. Full Story


How Does Your Blood Go from your Toes to your Heart?

How Does Your Blood Go from your Toes to your Heart?

October 21, 2010

If gravity always pulls things down, how does blood go from your toes to your heart? Bioengineering students from the University of California, San Diego will be busy helping kids discover the answer to this question at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Grand Finale Expo, on October 23 and 24, 2010 on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Full Story


UCSD Engineering Honor Society Wins Most Outstanding Chapter Award

October 20, 2010

UCSD's engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi, was awarded the "nation's most outstanding chapter" award, which they also won in 2007. Full Story


Two Jacobs School of Engineering staff named as Forty Under 40 awardees by the Urban League

October 20, 2010

Two Jacobs School of Engineering staff named as Forty Under 40 awardees by the Urban League. Full Story


Bioengineering Doctoral Program at UC San Diego Ranked First in Nation in Prestigious NRC Study

Bioengineering Doctoral Program at UC San Diego Ranked First in Nation in Prestigious NRC Study

September 28, 2010

The campus ranked 2nd compared to all public institutions in the nation, and 11th compared to all public and private institutions in the National Research Council assessment Full Story


Regional Universities Selected by DOE to Help Bring Renewable Energy Technologies to the Market

September 17, 2010

San Diego university and industry leaders will work to accelerate the transfer of energy efficiency and renewable energy innovations from university laboratories into the marketplace under a new three-year, $1.05 million Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).  Full Story


Computer Scientist Puts NSF Funding to Work for More Reliable Computing

Computer Scientist Puts NSF Funding to Work for More Reliable Computing

September 10, 2010

She specializes in making computers safer and more reliable. Yet Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou is also a maven of reliability in another sense: Securing grant funding for the University of California, San Diego. While only on the UC San Diego faculty for a little over a year, she has won National Science Foundation (NSF) support as principal investigator (PI) on four projects, and co-PI on a fifth. And three of the projects kicked off in just the past six weeks. Full Story


Researchers Develop Simulation to Better Understand the Effects of Sound on Marine Life

August 30, 2010

 A combination of the biology of marine mammals, mechanical vibrations and acoustics has led to a breakthrough discovery allowing scientists to better understand the potential harmful effects of sound on marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.   Full Story


NASA funds development of nanoscale materials for high energy density lithium-ion batteries

NASA funds development of nanoscale materials for high energy density lithium-ion batteries

August 24, 2010

NEI Corporation and the University of California, San Diego won a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer contract from NASA to develop and implement high energy density cathode materials for lithium batteries. These lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries could be used in a variety of NASA projects – and in a wide range of transportation and consumer applications. Full Story


NSF Funds Expedition into Software for Efficient Computing in the Age of Nanoscale Devices

NSF Funds Expedition into Software for Efficient Computing in the Age of Nanoscale Devices

August 19, 2010

A visionary team of computer scientists and electrical engineers from six universities is proposing to deal with the downside of nanoscale computer components by re-thinking and enhancing the role that software can play in a new class of computing machines that are adaptive and highly energy efficient. Full Story


A Surfboard Gets an Onboard Computer

A Surfboard Gets an Onboard Computer

August 10, 2010

  Computers are everywhere these days – even on surfboards. University of California, San Diego mechanical engineering undergraduates outfitted a surfboard with a computer and accompanying sensors -- one step toward a structural engineering Ph.D. student’s quest to develop the science of surfboards. Full Story


Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center Looks to the Future

August 5, 2010

  Now in its fifth year, the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) is looking forward to what it hopes will be a second lease on life if the National Science Foundation (NSF) renews funding for five more years, at $4 million per year. A NSF review board recently visited TDLC’s home base at the University of California, San Diego, to meet with researchers from all 10 participating universities and determine the future of the Center. Full Story


Computer Vision Graduate Student at UC San Diego Receives Google Fellowship

Computer Vision Graduate Student at UC San Diego Receives Google Fellowship

August 2, 2010

Congratulations to University of California, San Diego computer science Ph.D. student Boris Babenko, winner of the 2010 Google Fellowship in Computer Vision. The fellowship will enable Babenko to focus on his computer vision research while he completes his dissertation. The award includes tuition and fees, a stipend, an Android phone, and funding towards conferences and a personal computer. Full Story


A Picture is Worth a 1,000 lines of C++ Code

July 2, 2010

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then the computer science corollary must be “a picture is worth a 1,000 lines of C++ code.” That’s certainly the case for the computer science students at the University of California, San Diego who paint pictures with C++ computer programming code. Computer science professor Henrik Wann Jensen – winner of a 2004 Academy Award for his work on realistic, computer-generated human skin – taught the class: CSE 168: Rendering Algorithms. Full Story


UC San Diego Engineering Students 'Ring' in Another Successful Year

UC San Diego Engineering Students 'Ring' in Another Successful Year

June 30, 2010

More than 360 graduating seniors from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering participated in the annual Ring Ceremony on June 12. Full Story


Enterprise PCs Work While They Sleep, Saving Energy and Money

Enterprise PCs Work While They Sleep, Saving Energy and Money

June 23, 2010

Personal computers in enterprise environments save energy and money by “sleep-working,” thanks to new software called SleepServer created by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego. Full Story


UC San Diego Undergraduates Team Up with National Geographic to Co-Innovate New Technologies

UC San Diego Undergraduates Team Up with National Geographic to Co-Innovate New Technologies

June 17, 2010

  Jacobs School undergraduates team up with National Geographic to co-innovate new technologies. Full Story


NanoEngineers Print and Test Chemical Sensors on Elastic Waistbands of Underwear

NanoEngineers Print and Test Chemical Sensors on Elastic Waistbands of Underwear

June 16, 2010

Chemical sensors printed directly on elastic underwear waistbands retained their sensing abilities even after engineers stretched, folded and pulled at the chemical-sensing printable electrodes – sensors that could one day be incorporated into intelligent “hospital-on-a-chip” systems. This work, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is led by professor Joseph Wang, from the Department of NanoEngineering at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story


Wireless Sensor Startup Wins UC San Diego $80K Entrepreneur Challenge

Wireless Sensor Startup Wins UC San Diego $80K Entrepreneur Challenge

June 7, 2010

Wireless sensors that monitor your heart even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation. This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team the top spot in the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge. The prize includes $25K in cash for the startup and $15K in legal services. Full Story


UC San Diego and SANYO Pioneer Next Generation of Energy Management

June 4, 2010

 The SANYO Electric Group, including SANYO North America Corporation headquartered in San Diego, Calif., (SANYO) and the University of California, San Diego have announced a research collaboration agreement designed to lead to the next generation of solar energy systems and energy management. Full Story


TIES Honored, UC San Diego Named to Presidential Community Service Honor Roll

June 3, 2010

The University of California, San Diego has been named to the 2009 President's Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for the contributions UC San Diego’s students make to local, national and global communities on issues ranging from poverty to homelessness and environmental justice. This is the first year the university is on the Distinction List. Full Story


UCSD Fuels Clean Tech Cluster Through Innovation Challenge

May 28, 2010

 Thirteen San Diego professors, students and research scientists who are developing technologies that will fuel the continued growth of the region’s “clean tech cluster” presented their new ideas over two days to a panel of eighteen high-tech reviewers.  Full Story


Wireless Sensor Startup in $80K UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge Finals

May 28, 2010

Wireless sensors that monitoring your heart or your brain even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation. This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team one of just five spots in the finals of the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge. On Wednesday June 2, 2010, Chi will present the Cognionics business plan at the final stage of the entrepreneurship challenge. At stake: $80,000 in cash and services for the UC San Diego startups. Full Story


Engineers Help Power Solar Use by 'Mapping' the Sun

May 24, 2010

As the use of solar power grows in California it will become more important to know exactly how much radiation and energy are generated in regions throughout the state. That’s the basis behind an improved solar map for the state created by UC San Diego environmental engineering professor Jan Kleissl and his Ph.D. student Anders Nottrott. Full Story


Cell Phone Sensors for Toxins Developed at UC San Diego

May 20, 2010

A tiny silicon chip that works a bit like a nose may one day detect dangerous airborne chemicals and alert emergency responders through the cell phone network. If embedded in many cell phones, its developers say, the new type of sensor could map the location and extent of hazards like gas leaks or the deliberate release of a toxin. Full Story


Rolling Library and Robot Unicorn at Junkyard Derby 2010

May 20, 2010

Energy, excitement and screaming rose above a eucalyptus grove on the University of California, San Diego campus last Friday, April 14. But it had nothing to do with the 20,000 people coming to campus that night for the Sun God music festival. Instead, the vibe was coming from Junkyard Derby 2010. Full Story


Jacobs School Alumnus Named National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Jacobs School Alumnus Named National Geographic Emerging Explorer

May 19, 2010

Fourteen visionary, young trailblazers from around the world — including University of California, San Diego alumnus Albert Yu-Min Lin, ’04, M.S. ’06, Ph.D. ’08 — have been named to the 2010 class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers. The new Emerging Explorers are introduced in the June issue of National Geographic magazine. Full Story


Yahoo! Hack U a Hit at UC San Diego

Yahoo! Hack U a Hit at UC San Diego

May 18, 2010

Computer programming students from the University of California, San Diego were anything but “hackadaisical” when a week-long Web programming extravaganza – Yahoo! Hack U – came to campus. In a 24-hour computer programming marathon that spanned an entire Thursday night, UC San Diego student teams hacked together a concert finder, a tool that adds favorite movies from friends’ Facebook profiles to your Netflix queue, a date-scheduling application, an early-morning multitasking program, and many other new online applications. Students created each app by combining tools, resources and data already available on the Web. Full Story


Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile

May 14, 2010

Computer scientists led by professor Stefan Savage from UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and professor Tadayoshi Kohno from the University of Washington will present the peer-reviewed paper “Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile” at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland, CA on May 19, 2010. Full Story


Engineering Students Make Mad Dash for Trash During Annual Junkyard Derby

May 11, 2010

 UC San Diego engineering students kick off the annual Junkyard Derby with a Mad Dash for Trash on Wednesday, May 12.  Full Story


Agilent Technologies and UC San Diego Collaborate on Chip-Scale Photonic Systems Testing Facility

April 21, 2010

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and the University of California, San Diego, today announced they have established a new chip-scale micro- and nanophotonic- systems testing facility on the UCSD campus. The new facility is part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) project and is being set up in conjunction with the multi-university Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), led by The University of Arizona. Full Story


Electrical Engineer Turned Solar Concentrator Inventor Wins Research Expo 2010

Electrical Engineer Turned Solar Concentrator Inventor Wins Research Expo 2010

April 20, 2010

With his new solar concentrator design, electrical engineering Ph.D. student Jason Karp won the 2010 Rudee Research Expo Outstanding Poster Award. His winning poster “Planar Micro-Optic Solar Concentration” (#98) was one of 250 posters presented by Jacobs School graduate students on April 15th at the 29th Annual Research Expo at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story


National Geographic Taps UC San Diego Students for Technology Solutions

April 20, 2010

 A West Coast campus famous for its high-tech research is now becoming known for its global reach in cultural heritage. Faculty and students are already searching for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan and a masterpiece mural by Leonardo da Vinci not seen in 450 years, and now many more students will get the opportunity to blaze new technology trails in the name of global exploration. Full Story


Treat Acne with Coconut Oil and Nano-Bombs

Treat Acne with Coconut Oil and Nano-Bombs

April 14, 2010

A natural product found in both coconut oil and human breast milk – lauric acid -- shines as a possible new acne treatment thanks to a bioengineering graduate student from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. On Thursday April 15, bioengineering graduate student Dissaya “Nu” Pornpattananangkul will present her most recent work on this experimental acne-drug-delivery system at Research Expo, the annual research conference of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story


Engineering Students Showcase NextGen Robots During Research Expo

April 14, 2010

 In the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab, mechanical engineering professor Tom Bewley and his students, have just released the latest generation of their Switchblade family of agile treaded vehicles. Full Story


Renewable Energies Take Center Stage During Research Expo 2010

April 13, 2010

From new solar energy technologies to robots and wireless heart and brain sensors, UC San Diego graduate engineering students are working to aid the development of the next generation of technologies and therapies that will benefit society and the environment.  They will present these projects during Research Expo on April 15. Full Story


Hot Posters at Research Expo 2010 at the Jacobs School

April 12, 2010

  The annual Jacobs School Research Expo features research posters by 250 M.S. and Ph.D. engineering students, technical breakouts led by Jacobs School faculty, a plenary session, and a reception where guests can interact with faculty and students who share their research interests. Full Story


The Next Silicon Revolution

The Next Silicon Revolution

April 9, 2010

Electrical engineers from UC San Diego are at the leading edge of efforts to merge silicon chip technologies with sophisticated wireless communications tools in the millimeter and microwave range —technologies that traditionally have been too expensive for all but defense and satellite applications. Full Story


Jacobs Hall Undergoes Transformation

Jacobs Hall Undergoes Transformation

April 7, 2010

On April 10, the Jacobs School of Engineering will re-dedicate its  "Jacobs Hall"in honor of Irwin and Joan Jacobs and their leadership support for the Jacobs School. Full Story


Researchers Discover Weak Link in Alzheimer's Drug Candidates

April 1, 2010

Some current therapies being investigated for Alzheimer's disease may cause further neural degeneration and cell death, according to a breakthrough discovery by UC San Diego researchers. Full Story


UC San Diego Energy Dashboard to Help Campus Curb Appetite for Power

UC San Diego Energy Dashboard to Help Campus Curb Appetite for Power

March 29, 2010

After an extensive period of testing, researchers have launched an Internet portal to showcase the real-time measurement and visualization of energy use on the University of California, San Diego campus. The UC San Diego Energy Dashboard (http://energy.ucsd.edu/) allows users to see up-to-the-second information on a structure-by-structure basis for 60 of the largest buildings on the La Jolla campus. Full Story


How to Manage California Alternative Energy Grid When the Sun Does Not Shine

How to Manage California Alternative Energy Grid When the Sun Does Not Shine

March 12, 2010

California’s goal of generating 33 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020 will be challenging on days when clouds shade acres of solar photovoltaic panels or when thousands of wind turbines spin more slowly during calm weather. However, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are developing sophisticated forecasting tools that will give California electricity distributors advance notice of meteorological changes that affect solar output. The technology is being developed to allow energy suppliers to more efficiently schedule their fossil-fuel fired plants or energy-storage facilities to meet the state’s demand for electricity. Full Story


Jacobs School Leadership Affirms Principles of Community

February 22, 2010

 Jacobs School Leadership Affirms Principles of Community Full Story


UCSD Students Kick off E Week Festivities

February 11, 2010

The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering will kick off Engineers Week with its popular E Games, with students vying for the Golden Calculator  via competitions such as dropping tomatoes from a helium-filled balloon 50 feet in the air  and using random materials to build small boats. Full Story


Students Gear Up For Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship Info Sessions

February 9, 2010

UC San Diego engineering undergrads are encouraged to attend one of two information sessions this week about the Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship program. The sessions take place Thurs., Feb. 11 at 12 p.m. and on Friday, Feb. 12 at 11 a.m.  (Both sessions will be in room 4004 in Atkinson Hall. Full Story


Engineering Alumnus Builds Bridge Between China and UC San Diego

Engineering Alumnus Builds Bridge Between China and UC San Diego

February 9, 2010

UC San Diego alumnus Junling Sun recently visited the UC San Diego campus and presented a gift to support educational and outreach efforts of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).  Sun's gift was made in honor of UCSD's 50th anniversary. Full Story


Better Computing, Communication for Emergency Medical Personnel at Disaster Sites

Better Computing, Communication for Emergency Medical Personnel at Disaster Sites

January 26, 2010

 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have launched a project to find better ways for emergency officials and first responders to talk to each other and share data on the ground at the scene of a natural or man-made disaster – even when the local communications infrastructure is out of commission. Full Story


Jacobs School Diversity Organizations Win Award

January 22, 2010

  Congratulations to the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s undergraduate chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. This trio of undergraduate engineering diversity professional organizations won a 2009 UC San Diego Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award. Full Story


Jacobs School Video Contest

January 5, 2010

  Calling all Jacobs School engineering students—both undergrads and graduate students. Share you best video stories about your research, academic experiences and engineering-related projects. Full Story