Undergraduate News
2019 News Releases
2019 Jacobs School student highlights
December 19, 2019
Our students continually bring fresh approaches to solving our world's most pressing challenges, and 2019 was no different. Here are just a few of the ways Jacobs School of Engineering students made an impact this year. Full Story
UC San Diego undergraduates design Birch Aquarium's first virtual reality exhibit
December 5, 2019
Birch Aquarium at Scripps is breaking a barrier this spring. Instead of allowing visitors to just watch local marine life from behind glass, the aquarium is making it possible for visitors to experience life as fish do—thanks to a 360-degree virtual reality exhibit built by UC San Diego undergraduates. Full Story
UC San Diego Institute for the Global Entrepreneur launches Medtech Accelerator, Shah Family Fellowships, and Founders Fund
November 21, 2019
During its inaugural showcase, the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur announced it’s launching a new MedTech Accelerator, as well as the Shah Family Entrepreneur Fellowship, and a new IGE Founders Fund, seeded with an initial $1 million philanthropic gift from the Legler Benbough Foundation. Full Story
Franklin Antonio Hall Groundbreaking Celebration
November 21, 2019
The University of California San Diego celebrated the groundbreaking of its newest engineering building, Franklin Antonio Hall, on Friday. The building is designed for active learning, collaborative research and the transfer of innovation to society. Full Story
Building binational bridges through STEM
October 10, 2019
For seven weeks this summer, 120 high school and college students called UC San Diego’s campus home as they conducted groundbreaking research on how the human brain works, how to design materials to withstand earthquakes, how to build safer batteries, and 57 equally challenging topics. These students hailed from both the United States and Mexico, and were here to use science as a means of developing friendships that will last a lifetime, and maybe even trickle down to more positive binational relations. Full Story
Adding Code to High School STEM Classes
September 23, 2019
Bootstrap seeks to change that. Based at Brown University, the nationwide program gives teachers better tools to integrate computing into their classrooms. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering has been part of the program for nearly a decade. In early August, assistant teaching professor Joseph Politz led a group of San Diego Unified School District math and science teachers through a three-day seminar. Full Story
Undergraduate engineers advance shock wave mitigation research
September 13, 2019
A team of undergraduate engineers at UC San Diego has discovered a method that could make materials more resilient against massive shocks such as earthquakes or explosions. The students, conducting research in the structural engineering lab of Professor Veronica Eliasson, used a shock tube to generate powerful explosions within the tube—at Mach 1.2 to be exact, meaning faster than the speed of sound. They then used an ultra high-speed camera to capture and analyze how materials with certain patterns fared. Full Story
Triton RoboSub makes its debut at international competition
August 21, 2019
The UC San Diego Triton RoboSub team may be new, but they are already making a big splash. The team of 12 students was formed in 2019 and entered the International RoboSub Competition in July, qualifying for semifinals at their autonomous submarine competition debut. Full Story
New bioengineering master's degree bridges engineering and medicine
August 19, 2019
The University of California San Diego Department of Bioengineering is launching a new master’s degree meant to provide engineering students with exposure to the practice of medicine. The Master of Science in Bioengineering; Medical Specialization is a one-year program at the Jacobs School of Engineering that will prepare engineering students for careers in the biomedical industry, or bolster students’ clinical exposure in preparation for medical school. Full Story
Students recognized for smart wheelchair research at CHI
June 27, 2019
A team of undergraduates from UC San Diego won third place in the student research competition at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Glasgow, Scotland. Their research aimed to understand the needs of wheelchair users, and develop an affordable, smart wheelchair kit with multiple levels of autonomy. Full Story
Graduating IDEA Scholars embrace new challenges
June 27, 2019
Among the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s class of about 1,600 students that graduated with baccalaureate degrees on June 15 were 41 IDEA Scholars. These students from first generation or underrepresented backgrounds in engineering chose to go above and beyond the already taxing coursework required to earn an engineering degree, and participate in mentoring programs, technical workshops, serve as peer education leaders, and push and support each other through to graduation. Full Story
UC San Diego engineering students help 5-year-old move arms again
June 25, 2019
Five-year-old Max Ng was a perfectly healthy boy until, at the age of two, he contracted a rare virus called acute flaccid myelitis. Similar to polio, the virus attacked the nerves in his spinal cord, leaving his arms limp at his sides. Max hasn’t been able to lift or lower his arms on his own to use his fully-functioning hands for the three years since.Now, thanks to a lightweight motorized exoskeleton built by four UC San Diego undergraduate engineering students, Max is moving his arms to feed himself and play with his parents. Full Story
UC San Diego undergraduates awarded Strauss Scholarship for biology, music outreach
June 17, 2019
Two UC San Diego undergraduate students were named Donald A. Strauss Foundation Public Service Scholars, and were awarded a $15,000 prize to pursue their social change and public service projects. Full Story
Graduating students honored at Ring Ceremony
June 14, 2019
On June 15, about 1,600 students will earn baccalaureate degrees in engineering, making the Jacobs School the third largest engineering school in the country, and second in the number of women earning engineering baccalaureates. All of these students are exceptional and have made a positive impact on our community, but 11 students were selected from among their peers as particularly outstanding. Full Story
Educational Vision Technologies Scales Up with Seed Round
June 13, 2019
After winning just about every entrepreneur and startup pitch challenge on UC San Diego’s campus, raising $100,000 in a friends and family investment round, being accepted into the local Connect Springboard incubator program and securing paid pilot programs with two universities, Educational Vision Technologies is ready to scale up. Full Story
Changing the World One Startup at a Time
June 13, 2019
UC San Diego celebrates a year of innovation, including several engineering startups and technology license deals. Full Story
Making Art with AI
June 10, 2019
In Machine Learning for the Arts, Robert Twomey, a postdoctoral researcher, teaches students how to use tools commonly associated with artificial intelligence applications in computer science and engineering--to create and modify text, images, drawings, videos and more. Full Story
Gordon Center Celebrates 10 years, honors Engineering Leadership Award recipients
June 7, 2019
On Thursday, May 23rd the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center at UC San Diego held its annual awards ceremony, recognizing six outstanding student engineering leaders and three industry professionals who exemplify the qualities of an engineering leader. This year’s celebration marked a particularly special occasion: the Gordon Center’s 10th year of developing strong and effective engineering leaders through its leadership programs and workshops. Full Story
Project in a Box: Dream it. Build it.
June 6, 2019
An Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department program at UC San Diego designed to motivate and empower undergraduate students has found a creative way to challenge young people to think outside the box by first asking them to dive into one. Project in a Box is a student-led organization at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering that originated in 2016 with a mission to make experiential learning more accessible to undergraduate students on campus. Full Story
Putting Earth Science Skills to Use.....on Mars
June 6, 2019
Hannah Munguia, a UC San Diego environmental engineering student with an earth science minor, had a revelation when she worked on the MARS 2020 Rover as an intern at NASA: there’s a place for environmental science and engineering in the aerospace world. That’s because aerospace technology is critical to shedding light on phenomena happening here on Earth. Full Story
Passion Project
May 28, 2019
Will Tanaka, a nanoengineering sophomore at UC San Diego, is growing mushrooms from food waste. He first discovered what is called “environmental farming” from a pair of UC Berkeley graduates, who founded a startup for sustainable planters that allow people to grow mushrooms, herbs and more right on their windows. Tanaka took this knowledge to Roger’s Community Garden, a student-run space in Revelle College, where he began to grow his own fungi. “My project involves collecting coffee and tea waste from on-campus vendors like Tapioca Express, Starbucks, Art of Espresso and Sunshine Market to grow edible oyster mushrooms,” said Tanaka. “That way we can directly convert food waste biomass to food.” Full Story
Engineering Students Find New, Unexpected Careers in Biomedicine
May 28, 2019
Two years ago, as fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in engineering, Yan Gong and Lu Xu had no idea they were about to enter the world of biomedicine. They were in a circuits class when their professor recommended them for positions in Imanuel Lerman’s lab, which was searching for students to help with developing a treatment for chronic pain. One of their first meetings with Lerman was at a hospital where Lerman, associate professor with UC San Diego’s Department of Anesthesiology, asked the two students to solve an issue with interference that was jamming his medical research neurotechnology devices. Without his tools, he couldn’t accurately measure his patients’ physiological responses to a novel neurotechnology he hoped would dampen their responses to pain. Full Story
Power Prof
May 23, 2019
Nicholas Abi-Samra brings his expertise and experience to the University of California San Diego, where he is offering a series of classes on power systems in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This quarter, he is teaching a class on power grid resilience for adverse conditions, a one-of-a-kind-course based on the textbook he authored, which was endorsed by North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the watchdog for utilities in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. To Abi-Samra’s knowledge, it’s the only class of its kind to be offered in the United States. Full Story
Two engineers win Excellence in Stewardship awards
May 22, 2019
Shu Chien, a professor of bioengineering and the department’s founding chair, and Jesse DeWald, staff director of the Envision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio, were both recognized with Excellence in Stewardship awards this year. Full Story
NSF grant connects UC San Diego engineers and plasma physics researchers in Czech Republic
May 21, 2019
A new grant from the National Science Foundation is providing a University of California San Diego team with a unique opportunity to study – experimentally – how large-scale flows emerge and organize themselves from small-scale random turbulent fluctuations in magnetized laboratory plasmas. Full Story
Triton Entrepreneur Night Helps Students Promote Their Startups
May 9, 2019
For students at the University of California San Diego, ideas are nurtured through the campus-wide innovation ecosystem. Ideas turn into products, products turn into startups and startups take the stage at pitch competitions like the upcoming Triton Entrepreneur Night (TEN). TEN takes place on May 16 at Atkinson Hall and is sponsored by The Basement. A part of UC San Diego’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization, The Basement provides innovation space, mentorship and entrepreneurship programming to the campus community. Full Story
Putting a Dent in Food Waste
May 9, 2019
Environmental chemistry student Enid Partika and nanoengineering student Will Tanaka built an anaerobic digestion and biogas production system they named the BioEnergy Project. The goal was to design a system that would turn food waste destined for landfills into usable products—including fertilizer for organic produce and biogas for electricity.Partika and Tanaka were recognized recently with a prestigious 2019 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for their work on the BioEnergy Project. Full Story
UC San Diego StarCraft team heads to ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship
May 9, 2019
On May 11, a team of three UC San Diego students—including two computer science students— who are among the very best StarCraft players in the world, will compete in the final four of ESPN’s first Collegiate Esports Championship. The esports tournament covers five of the most popular video games, including StarCraft, and takes place in Houston in conjunction with Comicpalooza, Texas’ largest pop culture festival. The tournament is hosted by ESPN—yes, the same ESPN that broadcasts football, basketball and baseball. Full Story
Diving in to teaching at Splash
April 25, 2019
Data Analysis with Mario Kart. Learning Rhetoric through The Office. Having Fun with Kitchen Chemistry. More than 300 high school students came to campus Saturday to sample some of these courses taught by UC San Diego students. Full Story
Unearthing Mysteries of the Maya
April 11, 2019
UC San Diego computer science students are venturing into Maya tunnels in Guatemala, and at home in San Diego, to bring these ancient buried sites to virtual life. Part of the Engineers for Exploration (E4E) group, the students are guided by Computer Science and Engineering Professor Ryan Kastner and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Curt Schurgers. Full Story
Engineering touch
April 11, 2019
A tool to help the visually impaired navigate crowded spaces; an interface to assist surgeons during a complex procedure; and a display that can change shape when heat is applied. These were all projects developed by students in the first-ever haptic interfaces class to be offered at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Full Story
Welcome, new Tritons!
April 11, 2019
Congratulations on your acceptance into the University of California San Diego, and the Jacobs School of Engineering. We hope you’re joining us for Triton Day to get a better sense of what your life as a Triton would look like. Full Story
Enjoy the Ride
April 11, 2019
When it comes to creating an aerodynamic, race-worthy car that successfully competes in a field of more than 100 teams from around the world, it takes not only a solid racing crew, but also a crew of dedicated scientists and engineers. Luckily, the Triton Racing Program at UC San Diego isn’t short on such crew members. Full Story
UC San Diego electrical engineer Massimo Franceschetti named a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow
April 11, 2019
Massimo Franceschetti, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California San Diego, has been awarded a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship. His work focuses on the mathematical foundations of engineering systems, with applications to networks, control, computation, communication, and sensing. Full Story
UC San Diego Announces Border Innovation Challenge
March 25, 2019
The University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management and Jacobs School of Engineering, in partnership with the Smart Border Coalition, are hosting a Border Innovation Challenge to address difficulties facing the ports of entry in the San Diego- Tijuana binational region. The aim of the challenge is to develop new solutions and technologies that will improve security and efficiency at border crossings. The challenge will award cash prizes totaling $20,000 to competition winners. Full Story
Sink or Swim: Concrete Canoe Team Aims to Reach the Podium at National Race
March 21, 2019
The engineering challenge sounds like a nearly impossible task: making a canoe out of concrete that can float—and race—on water. But ask anyone on the UC San Diego Concrete Canoe team, and they’ll tell you it’s not only possible but also a highlight of their engineering experience at UC San Diego. The team is hoping to reach the podium at this year's national race. Full Story
Ashoka U Exchange Draws Attendees from 25 Countries to UC San Diego
March 4, 2019
Hundreds of delegates from 25 different countries converged on campus last week for the 2019 Ashoka U Exchange to discuss how to more effectively make positive change around the globe. UC San Diego hosted this year’s Exchange, themed “Beyond Borders and Boundaries,” from Feb. 21 through 23. The annual conference is organized by Ashoka, the world’s largest network of entrepreneurs focused on social innovation and changemaking. UC San Diego has been a designated Ashoka Changemaker Campus since 2017. Full Story
Engineers developing education kit to teach students practical skills in integrated photonics
March 4, 2019
Engineers are developing an educational toolkit to bring integrated photonics into the college engineering and science curriculum. The kit is designed to teach students practical skills in integrated photonics and equip them to meet the growing demand for technicians and engineers in the industry. Full Story
Lifesaving App
February 7, 2019
Undergraduate students on the Cruz Roja Global Ties team designed and built a mobile app to make ambulance dispatch in Tijuana easier, faster and more efficient. Full Story
Training Clinical Engineers
February 4, 2019
UC San Diego's Clinical Bioengineering course offers undergraduate engineering students hands-on learning experience to solve clinical problems. The course reflects the Institute of Engineering in Medicine's mission to connect engineers with physicians to produce medical innovations. Full Story
Partnership with Rocket Engine Startup Brings New 3D Metal Printer to UC San Diego
January 24, 2019
Additive manufacturing at UC San Diego is about to take off, thanks to a partnership with a local startup that specializes in 3D-printed rocket engines. Now, aspiring inventors and innovators at the university can make their creations real with the startup’s powerful, 3D metal printer. Full Story
Carlos Coimbra Named Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
January 15, 2019
Carlos F. M. Coimbra, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego has been named Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, an online-only interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal covering a wide range of areas of renewable and sustainable energy relevant to the physical science and engineering communities. Full Story