Undergraduate News
2013 News Releases
Industry: Meet the Jacobs School's Students
December 20, 2013
Intel. Microsoft. Cisco. These were three of the 18 science and tech companies that sent recruiters to meet with Jacobs School students at the fifth annual Professional Evening with Industry Nov. 22 at the Price Center. Put on by three student diversity organizations–the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)–in conjunction with the IDEA Student Center, the event gave Jacobs School students the opportunity to dine with the recruiters as well as industry engineers before a career fair, where they could hand over resumes and talk about job or internship opportunities. Full Story
Class Creates Budding Entrepreneurs
December 19, 2013
Kevin Fructuoso didn’t think about being an entrepreneur—until he took the Product Design and Entrepreneurship class taught by mechanical engineering Teaching Professor Nathan Delson. During the class, he teamed up with three other students to come up with a product that helps meet the unique sleep needs of students, who often live in noisy dorms. Students had to identify a market need, design the product, conduct marker research, study interfaces and usability and learn how to use a 3D printer, among other requirements. The class culminated in a three-hour pitch fest, where students attempted to sell their products to three entrepreneurs and product designers who served as judges, Dec. 12 at the Qualcomm Conference Center in Jacobs Hall. Three teams won $2000 to pursue their product idea and join the Moxie Center, the campus’ undergraduate entrepreneurship incubator. Full Story
2013: The Year in Review
December 13, 2013
From the largest alumni gift in the campus’ history, which went to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, to the arrival of Dean Al Pisano, it’s been a busy year here at the Jacobs School of Engineering. The school produced many research milestones, from a Google map of the human metabolism to the world’s first zoomable contact lens. Students got into the action too and UC San Diego became the first university to design, build and test a 3D-printed rocket engine. Here are some of the most memorable stories of the year—but not all: the list would be too long. Full Story
ACM Recognizes Two UC San Diego Computer Scientists
December 12, 2013
Two computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego are among the 50 members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) elected Fellows of the organization in 2013. Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) professors Yuanyuan (YY) Zhou and Mihir Bellare in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering were among the elite group of researchers hailing from leading universities, corporations and research labs. Full Story
With 'Cool Gizmo,' Research Team Hopes Citizen-Sensors Will Improve World Health
December 12, 2013
Enterprising researchers and students at the University of California, San Diego are looking for funding to complete a “citizen-sensor” project that, they hope, will revolutionize global health and environmental monitoring – especially in remote and undeveloped areas of the planet. They also hope to attract the faith and funding of people around the world through the open, global crowd-funding resource Indiegogo, the first partnership between UC San Diego and a funding platform. Full Story
Bullet Trains, Express Lanes' and Aspen Trees
December 11, 2013
Computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering didn’t have far to travel to attend the 9th ACM International Conference on Emerging Networking Experiments and Technologies (CoNEXT) in Santa Barbara, Calif. So why the big focus on “bullet trains” and “express lanes”? For researchers and students in UC San Diego’s Center for Networked Systems (CNS) and Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department, those transportation terms do not mean quite the same thing in computer networking as they do for consumers eager to get home by train, bus or car for the holidays. CNS research scientist George Porter co-authored two papers with CSE colleagues, and they were presented on Dec. 11 during a CoNEXT session called, “Trains, Lanes and Autobalancing.” Full Story
Learning by Shaking
December 3, 2013
Over the past seven years, more than 7,000 sixth-graders from 26 schools in San Diego County built their own structures and got to test them on small shake tables at the Jacobs School of Engineering. It’s all part of the Earthquake Engineering with K’NEX Outreach Program run by the UC San Diego chapter of the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers. Full Story
Bioengineering Professor Among Six UC San Diego Faculty Named 2013 AAAS Fellows
November 25, 2013
Six professors at the University of California, San Diego have been named 2013 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest general science organization. Full Story
Chemical Engineering Students Share Their Passion at UC San Diego Founders' Day
November 15, 2013
A small car that runs on chemical reactions, elephant toothpaste and a non-Newtonian fluid—a substance that is both a liquid and a solid. It was all part of the fun at the Jacobs School of Engineering booth at Founders’ Day, Friday, Nov. 15. Full Story
UC San Diego Computer Scientist Wins Prestigious Award
November 6, 2013
He is the first professor from the University of California, San Diego to win the prestigious SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award. On Nov. 5, computer science and engineering professor Stefan Savage received the 2013 award from the ACM Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) during the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) in Farmington, Penn. Full Story
Undergraduates Get to Ignite Fire in Space for Science
November 5, 2013
Four UC San Diego undergraduates boarded a special NASA plane and soared in microgravity over the Gulf of Mexico this summer. Their goal: understanding how biofuels behave in space. “The best way to describe the feeling was like being on a roller coaster. In the first second before the microgravity occurs, it feels like you’re at the peak of the roller coaster, and just as the zero gravity takes effect, you’re suddenly free from the floor,” said Sam Avery, a fourth-year aerospace engineering major. “It was a great experience.” Avery and three fellow students were there because the UCSD Microgravity team -- a student organization captained by Avery – won a NASA competition for university students. The eight-student organization proposed an experiment to test the combustion rates of biofuels in zero-gravity. The group was one of seven universities that were awarded a zero-gravity trip -- commercially worth $5,000 per person. Full Story
Are Racks-on-Chip the Future of Data Centers?
November 5, 2013
Increasing the scale and decreasing the cost and power of data centers requires greatly boosting the density of computing, storage and networking within those centers. That is the hard truth spelled out in the journal Science by faculty from the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Writing in the Oct. 11 edition of Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Chair Shaya Fainman and Center for Networked Systems (CNS) Research Scientist George Porter – who is also a member of the Computer Science and Engineering systems and networking group – argue that one promising avenue to deliver increased density involves “racks on a chip.” These devices would contain many individual computer processing cores integrated with sufficient network capability to fully utilize those cores by supporting massive amounts of data transfer into and out of them. Full Story
Pioneer in Smart Car Revolution Honored by IEEE Society
November 5, 2013
University of California, San Diego electrical and computer engineering professor Mohan Trivedi is the recipient of the 2013 Outstanding Research Award from the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Society. The award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to research in intelligent transportation as well as contributions to the ITS community.Professor Trivedi was cited for his “contributions to machine vision and learning for intelligent vehicles, and driver assistance and transportation systems.” He was honored with the award at the 16th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transport Systems in the Dutch capital, The Hague. Full Story
Rocketing Ahead
November 1, 2013
On a hot Saturday afternoon in the Mojave Desert, a team of UC San Diego engineering students huddled in a small underground bunker and watched quietly as the rocket engine they had designed over the past eight months flared to life on a test platform. As a jet of rocket fuel sprang out of the engine at supersonic speed, the students cheered loudly.The test by the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) marked the first time that a university-led group had successfully designed, built and tested a 3-D-printed rocket engine, according to Space.com. Full Story
Countering Click Spam
November 1, 2013
When is a click not a click? When an advertising network registers a click on one of their online advertisements, how can it be sure that a single consumer – a “pair of eyeballs” in Madison Avenue jargon – and not a malware computer program, is behind that one click? Or that the viewer’s click was intentional, not induced by deceptive or misleading advertising? Click-spam has become a little-known way of life on the Internet. Little known, compared to other types of spam, because much of the fraud is targeted at the advertising networks, rather than at consumers directly. So what happens when an automated system can “click” on hundreds of ads in less than a second? Full Story
Genomatica Among 100 Companies Highlighted for Economic Boost of Research
October 30, 2013
Two innovative UC San Diego spinoffs are among the 100 companies cited by The Science Coalition in a new report touting the positive economic payoff of federally funded university research. Genomatica, a biotechnology company that grew from research conducted in Bernhard Palsson’s laboratory at UC San Diego; and Senomyx, a provider of flavor ingredients for the food and beverage industries that arose from research conducted by Charles Zuker at UC San Diego, help demonstrate how support of basic and applied research at American universities pays strong economic dividends. Full Story
UC San Diego Alumnus Publishes Manifesto on Computing for New Forms of Cultural Expression
October 29, 2013
2013 is turning out to be a banner year for University of California, San Diego alumnus D. Fox Harrell (Ph.D. Computer Science and Cognitive Science, ’07). In July he received tenure at MIT, where he is an associate professor of digital media. He juggles an appointment in Comparative Media Studies and in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Now Harrell is coming to a bookstore near you with the publication this week of “Phantasmal Media: An Approach to Imagination, Computation, and Expression” (MIT Press). Carefully grounded in computer science, cognitive linguistics, and media studies, and using illustrative multicultural references ranging from classic cinema to science fiction, from Ralph Ellison to Franz Kafka, Harrell’s work has been called a manifesto on how computing can create powerful new forms of cultural expression. Full Story
Meet the Newest Class of Jacobs Scholars at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
October 17, 2013
Each academic year, about ten incoming freshman to the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego are named “Jacobs Scholars.” Recipients are selected for their academic achievement, leadership potential and commitment to community service. The exceptional individuals receive a scholarship that includes full tuition and living expenses, invitations to cultural and other social events, and access to a network of current and former Jacobs Scholars. Irwin and Joan Jacobs created the program in order to enrich the student body of the Jacobs School of Engineering with a special group of world-class students who are highly likely to contribute to engineering innovation — and are also likely to encourage and inspire other students to do the same. Below are profiles of many of the Jacobs Scholars who began their undergraduate careers at UC San Diego in Fall 2013. Full Story
Bioengineers uncover cause, treatment for insulin resistance in shock patients
October 8, 2013
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that insulin resistance in shock patients is caused by the leakage of powerful digestive enzymes from the small intestine that eat away and destroy the insulin receptor in cells. Reporting in the journal Shock, the team has also found a way to stop these enzymes’ destructive path by blocking them in the intestine, where they are normally used to digest food. The research team includes Frank DeLano, lead investigator, and co-investigator Geert Schmid-Schönbein, professor and chair of bioengineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Doctors have long known that trauma patients going into shock are at risk of developing acute insulin resistance, leading to hyperglycemia. The pancreas releases insulin to deliver glucose to cells to convert into energy for the body. When cells are unable to process insulin properly, a condition known as insulin resistance, blood sugars rise and the pancreas releases more insulin, compounding the problem. Until now, doctors have not known what mechanism causes insulin resistance to develop in shock patients or how to treat it. Full Story
Teams of engineering students solve problems for their summer employers
October 7, 2013
One team developed an app that speeds up and improves the quality of satellite dish installations for ViaSat. Another team engineered a solution to mounting issues for Solar Turbines' modules and auxiliary systems that could lead to a patent. These students and many more took part in the Team in Internship Program at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego this summer, making significant contributions to the companies they worked for and learning a lot in the process, too. Full Story
Students to test one-of-a-kind, 3D-printed rocket engine
October 3, 2013
A group of engineering students at the University of California, San Diego, will boldly go where no university student group has gone before by testing a 3D-printed rocket engine made out of metal at 10 a.m. on Sunday Oct. 5 at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry testing site in the Mojave Desert. Full Story
Is Massive Open Online Research the Next Frontier for Education?
September 30, 2013
A team from UC San Diego is launching a new course on the Coursera online learning network that breaks ground on several fronts. In “Bioinformatics Algorithms – Part 1,” UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor Pavel Pevzner and his graduate students are offering a course that incorporates a substantial research component for the first time. Full Story
UC San Diego Researchers to Build Cyberinfrastructure to Simulate and Predict Wildfires
September 26, 2013
Three research organizations at the University of California, San Diego, have been awarded a multi-year National Science Foundation grant to build an end-to-end cyberinfrastructure that will assess, simulate, predict and visualize wildfire behavior based on real-time data. The project, called WIFIRE, kicks off Oct. 1 and is funded under a three-year grant worth approximately $2.65 million. Participants include researchers from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego, the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology’s (Calit2) Qualcomm Institute. Also participating in the project is the University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering. Full Story
'Wildly Heterogeneous Genes'
September 18, 2013
Cancer tumors almost never share the exact same genetic mutations, a fact that has confounded scientific efforts to better categorize cancer types and develop more targeted, effective treatments. In a paper published in the September 15 advanced online edition of Nature Methods, researchers at the University of California, San Diego propose a new approach called network-based stratification (NBS), which identifies cancer subtypes not by the singular mutations of individual patients, but by how those mutations affect shared genetic networks or systems. Full Story
iPad App Teaches Students Key Skill for Success in Math, Science, Engineering
September 16, 2013
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed an iPad app that helps students learn spatial visualization, an essential skill for doing well in science, math and engineering. They have been testing the app during a high school summer program at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, as well as on undergraduate students at the school. Full Story
Calit2 Research Scientist Albert Lin Teams with TopCoder, NASA
September 13, 2013
A crowdsourcing effort led by University of California, San Diego research scientist Albert Yu-Min Lin is central to a new challenge as programmers worldwide are invited to develop a machine-learning algorithm to match human perception in picking out interesting features in satellite imagery. While the images come from Lin's search for the lost burial site of Genghis Khan, a new algorithm could help NASA scientists decipher images of distant planets. Full Story
After Touch Screens, Researchers Demonstrate Electronic Recording and Replay of Human Touch
September 6, 2013
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego report a breakthrough in technology that could pave the way for digital systems to record, store, edit and replay information in a dimension that goes beyond what we can see or hear: touch. “Touch was largely bypassed by the digital revolution, except for touch-screen displays, because it seemed too difficult to replicate what analog haptic devices – or human touch – can produce,” said Deli Wang, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “But think about it: being able to reproduce the sense of touch in connection with audio and visual information could create a new communications revolution.” Full Story
Computer Science Tutors Get Together for a Family Reunion
August 5, 2013
“To me, it's not a tutor reunion, it's a family reunion.” That's how Anu Mupparthi (BS '08, MS '11) described her experience at the recent computer science tutor reunion June 7 on campus. "I come back to the people who made me who I am," said Mupparthi, who now works in the Google+ photo group. She is one of the 170 alumni of the tutor program who came back to UC San Diego for their second-ever reunion. Full Story
von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center Named NSF Innovation Corps Site
July 31, 2013
The University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering has been selected as an Innovation Corps site by the National Science Foundation, including $300,000 in funding over the next three years to support the efforts of budding young entrepreneurs. The program will be led by the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Conference for African-American Researchers in Mathematics Connects Students to Mentors
July 29, 2013
For Lauren Crudup, a third-year bioengineering student at the University of California, San Diego, the Conference for African-American Researchers in the Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS) presented a unique opportunity to learn just how applicable mathematics is in the real-world—especially compared to the pure mathematics she learned in high school and earlier undergraduate courses. Full Story
Nanoengineering Graduates Ready to Solve Technology's Most Challenging Problems
June 18, 2013
The University of California, San Diego conferred its first undergraduate degrees in nanoengineering this June. Although most engineering programs now offer courses about engineering at the nanoscale, very few provide a focused curriculum dedicated to this rapidly growing field. UC San Diego was the first in the nation to create a Department of NanoEngineering in 2007 and began offering it as an undergraduate degree program in fall 2010. Since then, undergraduate enrollment has grown from 51 students to 273, and is expected to reach nearly 400 students this fall with the arrival of a new crop of freshmen. Full Story
Engineering Students Gear Up to Compete in National UAV Challenge
June 14, 2013
Their mission: make an unmanned autonomous vehicle, better known as a UAV, take off, fly over specific markers, find five to 11 targets and then land—all in half an hour. That is the challenge that a team of 25 students at UC San Diego is getting ready to tackle this week. They are taking part in the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition June 20 to 23 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The winning team can take home as much as $15,000. Full Story
Three Jacobs School Scholars Among 10 Distinguished Campus Teachers
June 13, 2013
Hyonny Kim from structural engineering and Richard Ord and Kevin Webb from computer science and engineering are among the 10 UC San Diego scholars recognized with teaching awards. Full Story
Gordon Scholars Learn from Experience
June 11, 2013
Integrity. Honesty. Teamwork. And smartphones. These are a few of the essential leadership tools engineering students and young engineering professionals need to become successful entrepreneurs in the new economy, said Ronald Reedy, co-founder of Peregrine Semiconductor at a recent Gordon Engineering Leadership forum for students, staff and alumni of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Organized by the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center, the forum is one of many opportunities students have to learn from the experience of their predecessors. Full Story
$18.5 Million Alumni Gift Lifts UC San Diego's Computer Science and Engineering Dept. into New Era
June 6, 2013
An $18.5 million gift from a UC San Diego alumnus will set the computer science and engineering department on a new course into the future, funding new faculty endowed chairs, top-of-the-line teaching labs, support for graduate students, and expanded mentoring and tutoring programs for the next generation of undergraduates. The gift marks a milestone in UC San Diego’s history as it is the largest gift ever made to the university by one of its alumni. Full Story
Video Games on Syllabus for Popular Computer Science Class
June 5, 2013
Dust bunnies that want to eat your food. A tentacle monster that is holding you prisoner on a space ship. Rocket pilots who are trying to steal resources away from you. These are some of the foes featured in video games designed—from scratch—by students in Computer Science and Engineering 125. They will be showing off their work at 4 p.m. June 7 at Atkinson Hall. The demo session is open to the public, who will get a chance to battle the enemies students created. Full Story
Zahn Prize Competition Gives Undergraduates Opportunity, Mentoring to Launch Startups
May 23, 2013
It was standing room only at the grand opening of the Moxie Center for Undergraduate Entrepreneurship as 10 undergraduate student teams waited to see who among them would win one of three Zahn prizes, for a total of $10,000 in cash to help them bring their products to market. The room was filled with students, faculty, industry partners and investors as well as San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, University of California, San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, and Juan C. Lasheras, interim dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Entrepreneurial Undergrads Competing for Moxie Center's Zahn Prize
May 17, 2013
The Moxie Center for Undergraduate Entrepreneurship will host its grand opening May 20 at the University of California, San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering. The event will feature an awards presentation for the first-ever Zahn Prize, a five-week business plan competition amongst teams of undergraduate students that have been admitted to the Moxie Center’s Incubator program. Full Story
Students Connect, Collaborate and Career Search on New Interactive Portfolio Platform
May 12, 2013
Students at the UC San Diego are known for their innovative ideas that transcend classroom walls, but these achievements can lose their vigor when confined to a single bullet point on a traditional printed resume. In a digital world that prioritizes portability and values visual content, Jacobs School alumnus Adam Markowitz believes he has a solution to help students make a lasting impression: a new interactive portfolio platform called thePortfolium. Designed to dynamically showcase students’ multidisciplinary projects, the website allows users to network, upload their top work and search for jobs all in one place. Full Story
Junkyard Derby Goes on, Rain or Shine
May 10, 2013
The big storm system that drenched most of San Diego County this week didn't stop 46 teams from taking part in this year's Junkyard Derby May 6 on Peterson Hill. On Monday, 46 teams of students readied themselves for what would be the culmination of a week’s worth of preparation for this year’s derby, organized by UCSD’s Triton Student Engineering Council. This year’s winner was team Premium Motion. Full Story
Saura Naderi's Award-Winning Week
May 2, 2013
It was shaping up to be just another typical week for the UC San Diego’s Saura Naderi: She’d prepped robotics kits for her engineering classes, given advice to an engineering undergraduate about what servos she should buy for her senior design project and met with members of the Junior National Society of Black Engineers chapter for San Diego to review the chapter’s bylaws. But a text message she received Monday afternoon was the first hint Naderi’s week would be something extra special. The text, from Lovella Cacho, Naderi’s colleague at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, read: “You’re one of the top 10 up for UC San Diego Employee of the Year Award.” Full Story
Life and Career Advice from an Alumna for Aspiring Computer Scientists and Engineers
April 23, 2013
Always ask a lot of questions. Look for mentors and sponsors. When you teach others, you will learn more. Luck is really opportunity plus preparation. Stereotypes and preconceptions really are dares. Those were the five pieces of advice that computer science alumna Jennifer Arguello gave a group of prospective Jacobs School of Engineering undergrads April 5 . The studentswere taking part in an overnight program run by the IDEA Student Center at the Jacobs School. The event was part of Triton Day at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
UC San Diego Launches Summer Research Opportunity for Undergraduate Explorers
April 9, 2013
From three-dimensional imaging of underwater artifacts to thermal imaging-based tracking of animals in the wild, the Engineers for Exploration program at the University of California, San Diego is continually seeking new ways to break down barriers in the world of exploration with UC San Diego’s partners in the program, the National Geographic Society, Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute, and San Diego Zoo Global. Now, with support from a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to program co-directors Ryan Kastner, Albert Yu-Min Lin, and Curt Schurgers, a new crop of undergraduate students will spend their summer in San Diego tackling real-world engineering challenges in exploration and scientific discovery. Full Story
Kids Can Code Too
April 9, 2013
Step into a classroom inside UC San Diego’s Computer Science and Engineering building during the weekend, and this is what you will find: two dozen elementary, middle and high school students, about half of them girls, huddled around laptops and computer circuit boards. They’re hard at work on computer programming tasks with fun names, including “Do the wave” and “Horton finds food.” One group of students is developing a gun-less laser tag game, for which they’re trying to get funding. It’s all part of a program started by three UC San Diego graduate students. Called ThoughtSTEM, it’s designed to teach children ages 8 to 18 how to program through hands-on activities. Full Story
Border App Developed by Computer Scientists Wins Third Place at Mobile World Congress
March 28, 2013
A team of computer science students from the University of California, San Diego recently took home third place at the 2013 Mobile World Congress (MWC) after pitching their “Best Time to Cross the Border” app to a panel of judges from technology powerhouses such as Facebook and China Mobile. The team of students, Matthew Davis, Tarfah Alrashed and Rodrigo Rallo, competed with researchers at 40 universities around the world in the University Mobile Challenge. The top prizewas ultimately awarded to the creators of an app called “Flowbit” out of the University of California, Berkeley, which allows water providers to remotely control water supplies in the developing world. Teams from the University of Waterloo and Harvard University took second and fourth place, respectively. Full Story
Could a Robotic Skateboard Defeat Tony Hawk? One Day, Maybe
March 22, 2013
“Five! Four! Three! Two! One!” A robotic skateboard soared high into the air and above Paul Schmitt, a scientist and skateboard maker, then landed with a thud on the floor of the Main Gym on the UC San Diego campus on Monday, March 18. It was all part of a San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering event designed to show that science is cool. The robotic skateboard was created by a team of UC San Diego seniors studying mechanical engineering. They had to understand the physics of skateboarding, design the robot, run simulations that would predict how it would perform and build it. The project is part of the capstone design course for the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego. Full Story
A Good Day for Pi(e)
March 15, 2013
The camaraderie. The exercise. The pie. These were some of the reasons more than 160 people turned out for the second annual Pi-Mile Run and Walk at the Jacobs School of Engineering on March 14, also known as Pi Day. Full Story
Alumnus Mike Chi is Developing Better EEG Recording Equipment at Cognionics
March 11, 2013
When Mike Chi finished his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at UC San Diego in 2011, he co-founded Cognionics. One of his big goals is to put better sensor technologies into the labs of researchers and physicians who study the electrical signals produced by the brain (EEG) and heart (ECG) for a variety of basic research and medical applications such as diagnosing cardiac disorders or conducting high-resolution brain imaging on freely moving subjects. Full Story
Jacobs School Celebrates Pi Day With 3.14-Mile Run and Walk
March 11, 2013
Running 3.14 miles is hard. The two undergraduates who won the first-ever T-shirt design contest for the upcoming Pi-Mile Run and Walk on March 14 both agreed on that. That gave Yashna Bowen, a freshman and computer science major, an idea: the T-shirt could show a runner leaping over the number Pi—the very number of miles participants would have to overcome. She and Salome Vazquez, a mechanical engineering major, polished their design and submitted it for the contest. A few days later, they found out they had won. This is the race’s second year and the first year students could take part in a design contest for the T-shirt that all participants receive. Full Story
It May be Called DECaF, But It's Got Recruiters and Students Buzzing
February 28, 2013
Why would more than 2,300 students dress up in their best business attire and line up in front of the Price Center ballrooms at 9 a.m. on a Friday? That would be the Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair, also known as DECaF, which this year gave undergraduate and graduate students alike the opportunity to talk to recruiters from 95 companies. Full Story
Water Bottle Rockets and Non-Newtonian Liquid? Must be E-Week at the Jacobs School
February 21, 2013
"Three, two, one...Wow!" Rockets made from soda bottles flew over Warren Mall Wednesday while groups of middle school students cheered wildly. It was all part of Enspire, an annual outreach event organized by the Triton Engineering Student Council. During the day-long event, students got to build their own robots and tour the campus. They also visited labs and took part in hands-on activities, including making a cup of oobleck or slime, scientifically known as a non-Newtonian liquid, meaning that it’s both a liquid and a solid at the same time. Full Story
Engineer, Alumna and Olympic Runner
February 20, 2013
Meet Sonali Merrill, a Jacobs School alumna, who also is a member of Sri Lanka’s Olympic track and field team. The San Diego Union-Tribune has called her “the accidental Olympian.” Here she talks to us about her passion for engineering and her experiences as a student athlete and engineering student at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
Engineering a Future
February 8, 2013
Equipped with circuit wires, small motors, batteries and cardboard boxes, more than 150 high school girls constructed, decorated and launched miniature robots during a workshop designed to show them the fun side of engineering. Hosted by the UC San Diego Society for Women Engineers (SWE), the Jan. 26 Envision event presented a chance for young women—especially those from underrepresented schools—to experience the multitude of pathways available in the field of engineering. Full Story
Jacobs School Freshman Wins TriNet Business Challenge
January 24, 2013
A student team led by Uzair Mohammed, a freshman at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, took the top prize at this year’s TriNet Challenge, a business competition aimed at fostering creativity and supporting new ideas in innovation and technology. Mohammed’s team, which included MBA student Loren Change from the Rady School, received $6,000 to further fund their project utilizing a highly cost-effective biofiltration technology for purification of drinking water, river cleaning, urban development and water infrastructure. Full Story