Women in Engineering News Archive
'Monster tumors' could offer new glimpse at human development
November 4, 2020
Finding just the right model to study human development—from the early embryonic stage onward—has been a challenge for scientists over the last decade. Now, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have homed in on an unusual candidate: teratomas. Full Story
Two UC San Diego Researchers Receive NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Awards
October 6, 2020
Two University of California San Diego researchers have received prestigious awards through the 2020 National Institutes of Health (NIH) High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, including Duygu Kuzum, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Full Story
Engineering graduate students honored as Siebel Scholars
September 23, 2020
Five Jacobs School of Engineering graduate students pioneering tools to treat rare genetic disorders, studying microbes in cancer, developing noninvasive wearable biosensors, studying the physical principles underlying cell membrane deformation, and developing noninvasive methods for evaluating cardiovascular function, have been named 2021 Siebel Scholars. Full Story
Engineer Earns Presidential Award for Improving Underrepresented Student Access to STEM Experiences
August 7, 2020
Olivia Graeve, a UC San Diego professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the White House. The award was created in 1995 to honor extraordinary individuals whose efforts have helped provide underrepresented groups with access to opportunities in STEM. Full Story
A nanomaterial path forward for COVID-19 vaccine development
July 15, 2020
From mRNA vaccines entering clinical trials, to peptide-based vaccines and using molecular farming to scale vaccine production, the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing new and emerging nanotechnologies into the frontlines and the headlines. Nanoengineers at UC San Diego detail the current approaches to COVID-19 vaccine development, and highlight how nanotechnology has enabled these advances, in a review article in Nature Nanotechnology published July 15. Full Story
Women who mean business
July 2, 2020
The University of California San Diego is proud to have been named a top 25 undergraduate university for female-founded startups by Pitchbook, a financial data and software company. Pitchbook tracked companies that raised their first round of funding between January 1, 2006 and August 31, 2019. UC San Diego landed in the No. 22 spot with 45 female founders whose companies raised over $580 million in first-round funding. Full Story
Using LEGO to test children's ability to visualize and rotate 3D shapes in space
June 18, 2020
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a test that uses children’s ability to assemble LEGO pieces to assess their spatial visualization ability. Spatial visualization is the ability to visualize 3D shapes in one’s mind, which is tied to increased GPAs and graduation rates in STEM college students. Full Story
Undergraduate engineers design neonatal ECMO simulation
May 11, 2020
In collaboration with physicians and surgeons at Rady Children’s Hospital, a team of undergraduate mechanical engineering students developed a neonatal simulation system for a critical and rare surgical procedure called ECMO. They developed this realistic simulation system- believed to be the first for neonatal patients—for their senior design project. Full Story
Call for Citizen Scientists to Contribute to COVID-19 Studies
April 9, 2020
The Microsetta Initiative, a crowdsourced research effort based at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, has expanded its capabilities to now allow citizen-scientists around the world to help collect crucial information about SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus causing a COVID-19 pandemic.“We are now positioned to collect data that will help drive epidemiological studies of where the virus is and isn’t, and help researchers determine who is at greatest risk, who is already immune, how the virus is transmitted and how it spreads through a population,” said Rob Knight, professor and director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation and co-founder of The Microsetta Initiative, which is run by his research lab at UC San Diego School of Medicine under Scientific Director Daniel McDonald. Full Story
Making cell modeling more realistic
March 17, 2020
UC San Diego researchers have developed a computational tool that makes modeling and simulation of complex cellular processes more true to life. The tool, dubbed GAMer 2, simplifies the process of using realistic cell geometries in mathematical models. Full Story
Pathways toward realizing the promise of all-solid-state batteries
March 13, 2020
UC San Diego nanoengineers offer a research roadmap describing four challenges that need to be addressed in order to advance a promising class of batteries, all-solid-state batteries, to commercialization. The researchers describe their work to tackle these challenges over the past three years. Full Story
New record set for cryptographic challenge
March 11, 2020
An international team of computer scientists has set a new record for integer factorization, one of the most important computational problems underlying the security of nearly all public-key cryptography currently used today. Full Story
Computer scientists receive $1 million DARPA grant to address information onslaught
March 10, 2020
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $1 million grant to Computer Science and Engineering Department professors Tajana Rosing, Sanjoy Dasgupta and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department professor Tara Javidi to explore how hyperdimensional computing (HD) can help address informational onslaught. The project is called HyDREA (Hyperdimensional Computing: Robust, Efficient and Accurate). Full Story
UC San Diego synthetic biologists redesign the way bacteria 'talk' to each other
March 4, 2020
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have redesigned how harmless E. coli bacteria “talk” to each other. The new genetic circuit could become a useful new tool for synthetic biologists who, as a field, are looking for ways to better control the bacteria they engineer to perform all sorts of tasks, including drug delivery, bioproduction of valuable compounds, and environmental sensing. Full Story
Jacobs School faculty, student, staff honored with Inclusive Excellence Awards
February 4, 2020
Three members of the Jacobs School of Engineering community were awarded 2020 Inclusive Excellence Awards for their outstanding contributions toward increasing diversity at all levels at UC San Diego. Full Story
Assessing 'stickiness' of tumor cells could improve cancer prognosis
February 3, 2020
Researchers led by UC San Diego built a device that sorts and separates cancer cells from the same tumor based on how “sticky” they are. They found that less sticky cells migrate and invade other tissues more than their stickier counterparts, and have genes that make tumor recurrence more likely. Full Story
Engineering professor Graeve inducted into Mexican Academy of Sciences
January 16, 2020
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Olivia Graeve has been inducted into the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (Mexican Academy of Sciences or AMC). The AMC, established in 1959, is a non-profit non-governmental association of distinguished members of the Mexican scientific community. Graeve, a Tijuana native and UC San Diego alumna, is one of only three corresponding members inducted in 2019. Corresponding members are researchers who reside outside of Mexico but have made significant contributions to the development of science in Mexico. Full Story
UC San Diego Researchers Receive $2.6M NSF Grant to Help Train Autistic Adults for Tech Employment
January 8, 2020
A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego has been awarded a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an employment-training program that will tap into the talent and potential of autistic adults for technology work. Full Story
UC San Diego launches Institute for Materials Discovery and Design
December 13, 2019
We are pleased to announce the formation of the San Diego Institute for Materials Discovery and Design, a joint initiative of the Jacobs School of Engineering and Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California San Diego. Our goal is to position UC San Diego as the recognized global academic leader in nanoscale and quantum materials design and discovery. The Institute’s unique approach will be to apply data analytics and machine learning together with rapid materials synthesis and multi-scale characterization in order to accelerate the discovery, design, synthesis and evaluation of novel functional materials. Full Story
News Obituary: Professor Joanna McKittrick
December 12, 2019
Joanna McKittrick, a pioneering engineer at the University of California San Diego and a renowned expert in materials science, passed away Nov. 15, 2019. She was 65. McKittrick was one of the first women to join the engineering faculty at UC San Diego in 1988, in what is now the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and was then Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences (AMES). She is remembered by her colleagues as a generous collaborator and by students and alumni as an inspiring and caring mentor. McKittrick was a great advocate for under-represented students in science and engineering and served as research advisor for many undergraduate students through the years. Full Story
Five UC San Diego Bioengineering graduate students honored as Siebel Scholars
September 25, 2019
Five UC San Diego bioengineering graduate students working at the interface of biology, engineering and health have been honored as 2020 Siebel Scholars. They are working to deepen our understanding of the gut microbiome; more accurately diagnose diseases like stroke; develop biomarkers for metastasis; innovate to repair the heart after a heart attack; and engineer T cells to suppress tumor growth. Full Story
Study identifies main culprit behind lithium metal battery failure
August 21, 2019
UC San Diego researchers have discovered the root cause of why lithium metal batteries fail, challenging a long-held belief in the field. The study presents new ways to boost battery performance and brings research a step closer to incorporating lithium anodes into rechargeable batteries. Full Story
Thinnest optical waveguide channels light within just three layers of atoms
August 12, 2019
UC San Diego engineers have developed the thinnest optical device in the world—a waveguide that is three layers of atoms thin. The work is a proof of concept for scaling down optical devices to sizes that are orders of magnitude smaller than today’s devices. It could lead to the development of higher density, higher capacity photonic chips. Full Story
Y. Shirley Meng Named Editor-in-Chief of MRS Energy & Sustainability
July 29, 2019
UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Y. Shirley Meng has been named Editor-in-Chief of the journal MRS Energy & Sustainability. Full Story
Hate spoilers? This AI tool spots them for you
July 8, 2019
Did social media spoil the Avengers’ Endgame movie for you? Or maybe one of the Game of Thrones books? A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego is working to make sure that doesn’t happen again. They have developed an AI-based system that can flag spoilers in online reviews of books and TV shows. Full Story
Three UC San Diego Engineering Professors Receive Presidential Early Career Awards
July 3, 2019
Three faculty members at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. 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
Researchers discover what makes deep-sea dragonfish teeth transparent
June 5, 2019
Researchers discovered what makes the teeth of the deep-sea dragonfish transparent. This unique adaptation, which helps camouflage the dragonfish from their prey, results from their teeth having an unusually crystalline nanostructure mixed with amorphous regions. The findings could provide “bioinspiration” for transparent ceramics. Full Story
How plant viruses can be used to ward off pests and keep plants healthy
May 20, 2019
Imagine a technology that could target pesticides to treat specific spots deep within the soil, making them more effective at controlling infestations while limiting their toxicity to the environment. Researchers at UC San Diego and Case Western Reserve University have taken a step toward that goal. Full Story
Q&A with UC San Diego Electrical Engineering Professor Pam Cosman
May 7, 2019
Following a string of awards and honors, University of California San Diego electrical engineering professor Pamela Cosman spent some time on a Q&A for the general public that touches on her research; diversity, equity and inclusion; and advice for students. Full Story
International Research Collaboration: Cybersecurity Meets Artificial Intelligence
March 8, 2019
Researchers from different areas of expertise are collaborating and joining forces to provide all-embracing solutions for current global cybersecurity threats. Two renowned cybersecurity and machine learning research institutions have come together to form the new CYSMICS center, which is a joint effort between the Cybersecurity Research Centre (CYSEC) at Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, and the Center for Machine-Integrated Computing & Security (MICS) at the University of California San Diego. Full Story
Electrical Engineer Pamela Cosman Honored with Inaugural Dr. John and Felia Proakis Chancellor Faculty Fellowship
March 1, 2019
A new fellowship from UC San Diego’s Office of the Chancellor ensures research funds to support the studies of a scientist on campus. Pamela Cosman, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is the fellowship’s inaugural recipient. Full Story
X-rays reveal why adding a bit of salt improves perovskite solar cells
February 7, 2019
New findings about perovskites could pave the way to developing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells. Using high-intensity X-ray mapping, researchers explain why adding small amounts of cesium and rubidium salt improves the performance of perovskite solar cells. 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
Sticky Science
January 30, 2019
Organic compounds from perfume, food, fabrics and soaps coat indoor surfaces. The film commonly found in our homes can impact the air we breathe and our health. Yet the details of how these compounds interact microscopically with indoor surfaces are not fully known. Researchers are learning more. Full Story
Hardware-software co-design approach could make neural networks less power hungry
December 19, 2018
A team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a neuroinspired hardware-software co-design approach that could make neural network training more energy-efficient and faster. Their work could one day make it possible to train neural networks on low-power devices such as smartphones, laptops and embedded devices. Full Story
Combined economic and technological evaluation of battery energy storage for grid applications
December 3, 2018
A new study offers a combined chemistry-and-economics approach that should make it easier to identify which kinds of batteries are best suited for integrating into the energy grid and making it financially viable. The approach combines analyses on multiple variables including battery chemistry, the tasks the batteries will be performing most often, energy pricing and market rules. Full Story
UC San Diego receives award from Energy Department for battery research in advanced vehicle technologies
September 13, 2018
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $2.5 million to a team led by the University of California San Diego for battery research in advanced vehicle technologies. The project is aimed at developing cobalt-free cathode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Shirley Meng, a professor of nanoengineering and the director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center at UC San Diego, is the lead investigator on the project. The team involves Maxwell Technologies, a San Diego-based company that develops and manufactures energy storage and power delivery solutions. Full Story
Nanocrystals emit light by efficiently 'tunneling' electrons
July 23, 2018
Using advanced fabrication techniques, engineers at the University of California San Diego have built a nanosized device out of silver crystals that can generate light by efficiently “tunneling” electrons through a tiny barrier. The work brings plasmonics research a step closer to realizing ultra-compact light sources for high-speed, optical data processing and other on-chip applications. Full Story
Engineering students and alumni sweep Triton Entrepreneur Night
June 7, 2018
Two teams led by students and alumni of the Jacobs School of Engineering won big at Triton Entrepreneur Night, the signature event of The Basement—an undergraduate business incubator founded in 2015 with support from alumni. The teams competitively pitched their ideas, Shark Tank style, to a panel of esteemed investors and entrepreneurs. Full Story
New Blood Test Rapidly Detects Signs of Pancreatic Cancer
May 17, 2018
UC San Diego researchers have developed a test that can screen for pancreatic cancer in just a drop of blood. The test, which is at the proof-of-concept stage, provides results in under an hour. It's simple: apply a drop of blood on a small electronic chip, turn the current on, wait several minutes, add fluorescent labels and look at the results under a microscope. If a blood sample tests positive for pancreatic cancer, bright fluorescent circles will appear. Full Story
UC San Diego Computer Scientist and Mathematician 'Paints by Numbers'
April 20, 2018
Some might say mathematicians speak their own language. But walk into at least one computer science and mathematics professor’s office at the University of California San Diego and you’ll see a whiteboard full of mind-numbing equations that look more like art than numeric symbols. Sometimes even colored markers are applied to these multinomial masterpieces spread across the whiteboard canvases.Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Fan Chung Graham, a watercolorist as well as a professor of computer science and engineering, refers to mathematics as the language of science. “I love doing research in mathematics since it is like the pursuit of truth,” she said. “Such a process is often filled with fun and games.”This perspective has yielded Chung Graham, a remarkable career primarily in graph theory, combinatorics and algorithmic analysis, ultimately earning her the recently announced 2017 Euler Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA). Full Story
Engineers Sweep Entrepreneur Challenge Startup Stage at Ignite
March 15, 2018
Engineers showed up in force at the second annual Ignite Conference pitch competition at UC San Diego. Almost a third of the 29 startups pitching their innovative business ideas during the Entrepreneur Challenge-led elevator pitch competition were founded by engineers—including the first, second and third place winners. That’s right, it was an engineering clean sweep. Full Story
A new podcast series from the Jacobs School of Engineering puts spotlight on graduate students
March 6, 2018
All science is exciting. If that sounds like the premise for a podcast series focused on graduate students, you’re right. The all-science-is-exciting comment recently landed University of California San Diego NanoEngineering Ph.D. student Jungwoo Lee in front of a microphone. She is the first of a series of current and former graduate students from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who will be sharing perspectives on research in not-too-technical terms as well as talking about what motivates them. Listen to the six-minute conversation on SoundCloud. Full Story
New online tool gives 3D view of human metabolic processes
February 27, 2018
A new computational resource called Recon3D provides a 3D view of genes, proteins and metabolites involved in human metabolism. Researchers used the tool to map disease-related mutations on proteins and also probed how genes and proteins change in response to certain drugs. The work provides a better understanding of disease-causing mutations and could enable researchers to discover new uses for existing drug treatments. Full Story
Supercomputers aid discovery of new, inexpensive material to make LEDs with excellent color quality
February 19, 2018
Computers have helped researchers develop a new phosphor that can make LEDs cheaper and render colors more accurately. An international team led by engineers at UC San Diego first predicted the new phosphor using supercomputers and data mining algorithms, then developed a simple recipe to make it in the lab. Unlike many phosphors, this one is made of inexpensive, earth-abundant elements and can easily be made using industrial methods. As computers predicted, the new phosphor performed well in tests and in LED prototypes. Full Story
Chancellor's Research Excellence Scholars Program Launches 175 Student-Research Projects
February 1, 2018
Three years ago, the campus launched a pilot program to promote interdisciplinary research among undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The idea was to partner them with faculty mentors from at least two disciplines and provide them with funds so they could conduct research with the potential to make a real impact on society.Now that the program has proved its worth, UC San Diego is making the program permanent. Last September, applications were submitted and this month the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Scholars program, formerly Frontiers of Innovation Scholars Program (FISP), has awarded 175 students with this unique multidisciplinary opportunity. Full Story
Shirley Meng Named Inaugural Holder of UC San Diego Zable Endowed Chair in Energy Technologies
January 11, 2018
Nanoengineering professor Shirley Meng has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Zable Endowed Chair in Energy Technologies in the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. As director of the UC San Diego Sustainable Power and Energy Center, Meng is leading efforts to advance solutions to some of the key technical challenges associated with energy generation, storage and power management. Full Story
Teaching the joy of coding
December 7, 2017
CSE 190 is a computer science class at the University of California San Diego that is designed to prepare undergraduate students to teach others how to code in the wild—in libraries, as well elementary, middle and high schools. The class is taught by Sarah Guthals, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science at UC San Diego in 2014 and received a Forbes 30 Under 30 award in 2016 for her efforts to teach children how to code. Full Story
Researchers discover specific tumor environment that triggers cells to metastasize
November 21, 2017
A team of bioengineers and bioinformaticians at the University of California San Diego have discovered how the environment surrounding a tumor can trigger metastatic behavior in cancer cells. Specifically, when tumor cells are confined in a dense environment, the researchers found that they turn on a specific set of genes and begin to form structures that resemble blood vessels. Full Story
UC San Diego Honored for Cross-Border Commitment
November 9, 2017
For leadership that fosters opportunity and cross-cultural collaboration, the University of California San Diego has received the Cross-Border Collaboration Award from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. The chamber honored the university at a tribute dinner Oct. 25. in part for its open dialogue, multiple exchange programs and development of resources that help increase student access and success. Research initiatives led by the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and Jacobs School of Engineering were highlighted. Full Story
A Steady Increase in Women Leading the Biggest Research Grants
November 9, 2017
Eight of the top 10 research grants awarded to UC San Diego departments outside of health sciences this year are led by women. And Karen Christman, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering, is one of them. Christman brought in $2.8 million dollars in research grants from the State of California. Full Story
Five UC San Diego bioengineering graduate students selected for prestigious Siebel Scholars program
November 3, 2017
Five bioengineering graduate students from the University of California San Diego have been named 2018 Siebel Scholars. Full Story
Shirley Meng featured on ECS podcast
October 23, 2017
NanoEngineering professor and SPEC Director Shirley Meng is featured in an in-depth interview on the Electrochemical Society (ECS) podcast. Full Story
Model predicts how E. coli bacteria adapt under stress
October 13, 2017
Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a genome-scale model that can accurately predict how E. coli bacteria respond to temperature changes and genetic mutations. The work sheds light on how cells adapt under environmental stress and has applications in precision medicine, where adaptive cell modeling could provide patient-specific treatments for bacterial infections. Full Story
IBM Research and UC San Diego Collaborate to Advance the Use of Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living
September 28, 2017
IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the University of California San Diego have announced a multi-year project to enhance quality of life and independence for aging populations through the new Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living Center (AIHL), located on the campus of UC San Diego. The groundbreaking center will bring together the technology, artificial intelligence and life sciences knowledge of IBM and UC San Diego to promote critical research and applications in two thematic areas: Healthy Aging and the Human Microbiome. Full Story
When Artificial Intelligence is Funny
September 15, 2017
What do you do if you’re an animal shelter and have to name a big litter of guinea pigs that suddenly become available for adoption and need to be named? Why, contact Janelle Shane, who earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at UC San Diego, of course. Shane works on lasers in her day job, but her hobby is using neural networks to create paint color names, band names and much more.Her efforts have received an onslaught of media coverage, from Gizmodo, to Wired, to The Atlantic Online. When the Morris Animal Refuge in Portland, Ore., came to her, Shane agreed. Full Story
These mutations could be key to understanding how some harmful conditions develop
September 11, 2017
A team of researchers led by a bioinformatician at the University of California San Diego has developed a method to help determine whether certain hard-to-study mutations in the human genome, called short tandem repeats or microsatellites, are likely to be involved in harmful conditions. The team, which also includes scientists from the New York Genome Center, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, details their findings in the Sept. 11 issue of Nature Genetics. Full Story
Computer Scientists Receive NSF Grant to Model Human-Robot Teamwork in Uncertain Environments
August 29, 2017
Laurel Riek, associate professor of computer science at the University of California San Diego, will lead a three-year National Science Foundation project on new methods for coordinating teams of robots and people in complex, uncertain environments.The $750,000 award* is shared by UC San Diego and Northeastern University, where Riek’s collaborator, Christopher Amato, is a professor in the College of Computer and Information Science. Full Story
From Theory to Microgrid: New Ideas from the Sustainable Power and Energy Center Research Summit
July 31, 2017
Software that can design new materials for energy storage. X-ray visualization techniques to “see” inside batteries and solar cells. Green processes for making batteries. These were some of the projects presented at the Sustainable Power and Energy Center (SPEC) Research Summit at the University of California San Diego on July 18. Full Story
Engineers talk VR, AI and nanotechnology at San Diego Comic-Con
July 20, 2017
It’s not every day that engineers get to speak side by side with the people behind hit movies and TV series. But that is exactly what two engineering faculty members are doing this week at Comic-Con in San Diego. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineering Professor Olivia Graeve Named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Mexico
July 6, 2017
University of California San Diego, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor Olivia Graeve has been named one of the “100 mujeres más poderosas de México” – one of the 100 most powerful women in Mexico, according to a Forbes 2017 ranking. Full Story
UC San Diego launches education consortium in partnership with Baja California universities and high schools
June 12, 2017
The University of California San Diego and 13 institutions in Baja California announced the launch of the CaliBaja Education Consortium at the Cross-border Innovation Summit that took place on June 9, 2017 on the UC San Diego campus. The new entity will serve the entire CaliBaja region and will allow researchers and students to work together across borders. Leaders of 10 institutions signed memoranda that brought the consortium to life during the event. Full Story
Computer Science Professor Recognized Not Once, Not Twice, but Three Times in Year-End Honors
June 1, 2017
Computer scientist Christine Alvarado is no stranger to winning awards, particularly for her teaching. But what's unusual is that starting June 3, she will be accepting not just one or two such awards, but three. The honors will come from the Tau Beta Pi honors engineering society, the Jacobs School of Engineering, and the Academic Senate. Full Story
UC San Diego Electrical Engineering Professor Pam Cosman Wins Pinnacle Award
May 22, 2017
Pamela Cosman, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, is being honored for her exemplary leadership among women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Cosman was one of just seven recipients of the 2017 Pinnacle Awards, announced May 5, 2017. Full Story
Eight Students Receive Engineering Leadership Award
May 17, 2017
Five engineering undergraduate and three engineering graduate students were recognized for their outstanding leadership skills at the 8th Annual Engineering Leadership Awards Celebration, which took place May 12, 2017 at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Engineered bone marrow could make transplants safer
May 8, 2017
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed biomimetic bone tissues that could one day provide new bone marrow for patients needing transplants. Full Story
Researchers receive $7.5 million grant to study memory capacity and energy efficiency in the brain
May 1, 2017
A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego and Stanford University has received a $7.5 million, five-year grant to try to answer two fundamental questions: what is the memory capacity of a brain; and how does the brain process information with maximum energy efficiency. The grant was awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). Full Story
UC San Diego Designated as a Changemaker Campus
April 6, 2017
The University of California San Diego has been designated as a Changemaker Campus by Ashoka U for its role as a leader in social innovation education. Only 40 universities around the world have received this designation and UC San Diego is the first University of California campus to be recognized. Full Story
UC San Diego Computer Science Professor Christine Alvarado Honored for Diversity Work in Computer Science Education
March 30, 2017
UC San Diego computer science teaching professor Christine Alvarado has been honored by campus with a 2016 Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Diversity Award.Alvarado works tirelessly to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in computer science... through her teaching, research and mentoring, according to colleagues who wrote nominating letters.For example, Alvarado helped develop the AP Computer Science Principles curriculum and test, a new AP Computer Science course aimed at bringing more students into computing by showcasing its broad range of ideas, applications and impacts. Full Story
UC San Diego bioengineers and physicians receive $2.8 million grant from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
March 27, 2017
Researchers led by Karen Christman, a bioengineering professor at the University of California San Diego, were awarded nearly $3.1 million by the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine March 23. Full Story
Bioengineering Student Awarded Winston Churchill Scholarship
March 23, 2017
Fourth-year bioengineering-bioinformatics major and UC San Diego Medical Scholars Program student Angela Zou has been awarded the Winston Churchill Scholarship, one of the most prestigious awards in the world for students of science, mathematics, and engineering. Zou will receive a one-year scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in biological sciences at Winston Churchill College at the University of Cambridge. She will also have the opportunity to work in a lab that applies computational biology approaches to studying immune responses. Zou is the third UC San Diego student to be awarded the scholarship since 1963. Full Story
Graduate students launch NanoXpo to show off real world impact of nanoengineering
March 7, 2017
Biofuel cells that are powered by human sweat. 3D printed heart tissue. Tiny robots that could deliver drugs. Stretchable and wearable electronics. These are just a few ways that nanoengineers at UC San Diego are making a big splash—at the nanoscale level. Full Story
Engineering Undergraduates Use DNA Origami to Target Cancer
February 16, 2017
A team of engineering students has a cancer-fighting idea up its sleeve—and the sleeve is nanoscale. The idea is based on a new cutting-edge research tool called DNA origami in which scientists literally fold the molecules of life into two- and three-dimensional shapes. The UC San Diego team plans to compete in Harvard's BIOMOD 2017 competition—a molecular design competition for undergraduates. Full Story
New method to identify bacteria in blood samples works in hours instead of days
February 7, 2017
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a desktop diagnosis tool that detects the presence of harmful bacteria in a blood sample in a matter of hours instead of days. The breakthrough was made possible by a combination of proprietary chemistry, innovative electrical engineering and high-end imaging and analysis techniques powered by machine learning. The team details their work in Feb. 8 issue of Nature Scientific Reports. Full Story
UC San Diego Students Honored with Microsoft Ph.D. Fellowships
February 3, 2017
The University of California San Diego is the only campus to receive more than one Microsoft Ph.D. fellowship this year. The two students that earned the award are Bita Darvish Rouhani, an electrical and computer engineer, and computer scientist Mengting Wang. Full Story
UC San Diego Student Among Select Few Awarded 2017 Adobe Research Fellowships
February 3, 2017
A UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. student has been awarded a prestigious Adobe Research Fellowship in only the second year of the program. C. Ailie Fraser is a researcher in the Design Lab at UC San Diego, and also serves as president of the campus chapter of Graduate Women in Computing (GradWIC). Full Story
Leveraging Collective Impact to Increase Diversity in STEM
February 2, 2017
How should the U.S. tackle the complex social problem of increasing diversity in STEM fields? That’s the big question that prompted a national conference held at UC San Diego Jan. 20-22.Funded with a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the conference was the first to be held as part of NSF INCLUDES, a new initiative focused on building cross-sector partnerships to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) participation at the national level. Full Story
Award to Graduate Women in Computing at UC San Diego to Help Expand Mentoring
January 13, 2017
Mentoring for women who are graduate students in computer science on campus got a boost this week, when the University of California San Diego chapter of Graduate Women in Computing received an award from the National Center for Women and Information Technology to support their programs. The $5,000 Amplification Award from the National Center is co-sponsored by Google.org and the Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing. Full Story
Bioengineer receives NSF award to study cell migration in a 3D environment
December 15, 2016
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.1 million CAREER award to Stephanie Fraley, a bioengineering assistant professor at the University of California San Diego. The five-year award will allow Fraley and colleagues to continue developing a unique and innovative technology to study how cells migrate in a 3D environment. The work has applications for the study of cancers, wound healing and regenerative medicine. Full Story
Coming Home: Alumni Faculty Share Why They Came Back to Campus
December 2, 2016
It’s no secret that UC San Diego’s reputation as a top-ranked university is a major draw for prospective students—but it’s also pulling many graduates back to campus to serve as members of the faculty. In classrooms and labs across the university, our alumni are leading new directions in research and helping to train the next generation of innovators. Full Story
Future NASA rovers could be sporting new gears, thanks to work by UC San Diego alumni
November 30, 2016
Moving a research lab can be a huge headache. Equipment needs to be dismantled. Experiments are put on pause. But for former UC San Diego materials science and engineering Ph.D. student Laura Andersen, her lab’s move opened up an exciting opportunity—a summer internship at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, better known as JPL, developing wear resistant gears for spacecraft. Full Story
New analysis of big data sheds light on cell functions
October 26, 2016
Researchers have developed a new way of obtaining useful information from big data in biology to better understand—and predict—what goes on inside a cell. Using genome-scale models, researchers were able to integrate multiple different data sets and discovered new biological patterns among different cellular processes. Full Story
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Contextual Robotics Institute Shines at International Robotics Conference
October 14, 2016
With talks about manufacturing, robots and health care, as well as robot competitions, the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego made a significant contribution to the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems this week in Daejeon, South Korea. Full Story
Nanoengineer honored for fundamental research on battery materials
October 7, 2016
UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Shirley Meng is being honored for her work to advance our fundamental understanding of battery materials at the atomic level and at the interfaces. Better batteries are crucial for a wide range of transportation, utility grid, and wearable-health applications. Full Story
Engineers receive $1 million grant to improve the way robots interact with people in U.S. factories
September 13, 2016
Laurel Riek, a roboticist at UC San Diego, will lead a three-year NSF grant aimed at making it easier for machines to work alongside people. This work has long term implications for how individuals, communities and societies deal with aging. Full Story
Model maps out molecular roots of learning and memory formation
September 7, 2016
A team of researchers has built a mathematical model that describes the molecular events associated with the beginning stage of learning and memory formation in the human brain. The research paves the way for understanding cognitive function and neurodegenerative diseases—at the molecular and cellular levels. Full Story
Researchers use a single molecule to command stem cells to build new bone
August 31, 2016
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have discovered an easy and efficient way to coax human pluripotent stem cells to regenerate bone tissue—by feeding them adenosine, a naturally occurring molecule in the body. The stem-cell-derived bone tissue helped repair cranial bone defects in mice without developing tumors or causing infection. Full Story
UC San Diego part of new DOE consortium to revolutionize electric car battery performance
August 3, 2016
Researchers at the University of California San Diego are part of the new Battery500 consortium led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) aiming to almost triple the energy packed in electric car batteries and make them smaller, lighter and less expensive. This would allow manufacturers to make more affordable electric vehicles that can travel two to three times farther. Full Story
Flexible wearable electronic skin patch offers new way to monitor alcohol levels
August 2, 2016
Engineers at UC San Diego have developed a flexible wearable sensor that can accurately measure a person’s blood alcohol level from sweat and transmit the data wirelessly to a laptop, smartphone or other mobile device. The device can be worn on the skin and could be used by doctors and police officers for continuous, non-invasive and real-time monitoring of blood alcohol content. Full Story
Researchers improve performance of cathode material by controlling oxygen activity
July 6, 2016
An international team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to increase the robustness and energy storage capability of a particular class of “lithium-rich” cathode materials—by using a carbon dioxide-based gas mixture to create oxygen vacancies at the material’s surface. Researchers said the treatment improved the energy density—the amount of energy stored per unit mass—of the cathode material by up to 30 to 40 percent. Full Story
Six-story steel frame building undergoes seismic and fire testing on world's largest outdoor shake table
June 13, 2016
A team of engineers is testing a six-story, lightweight steel-frame building on the world’s largest outdoor seismic shake table this month at the University of California San Diego. The goal is to better understand how cold-formed steel structures withstand earthquakes and the fires that may follow. This is the tallest cold-formed steel-frame structure to ever undergo tests on a shake table. Full Story
NSF-Funded Program Helps UC San Diego Startups
June 13, 2016
The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps program (I-Corps) at UC San Diego is helping entrepreneurs determine whether their idea could turn into a viable company. Full Story
From Engineer to Change Maker: Somayeh Imani
June 8, 2016
Somayeh Imani found her niche in circuit design of wearable sensors – and it opened her eyes to the world of startups. “There is so much opportunity in the field of wearables to commercialize technology,” said Imani, who is a graduate student in the Energy-Efficient Microsystem lab of Patrick Mercier, the Co-Director of the Center for Wearable Sensors at UC San Diego. Full Story
Engineers Launch Cross-Border Center to Create Materials that Withstand Extreme Environments
June 3, 2016
The CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems officially launched May 24, 2016 during a ceremony featuring academics, officials and industry representatives from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The center brings together researchers from UC San Diego, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and also the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education, headquartered in Ensenada. Full Story
No. 1 From the Start
May 26, 2016
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have helped us understand why atherosclerosis develops and how it is impacted by blood flow. They have pioneered the development of very thin, small and flexible sensors that stick to the skin and monitor vital signs, such as the brain activity of a newborn. They also developed injectable hydrogels that can help muscle tissues heal after a heart attack. Researchers celebrated their achievements over the past five decades and looked to the future during a three-day 50th anniversary celebration May 19 to 21. Full Story
Alumna named first chief distinguished scientist for SPAWAR center
May 4, 2016
Wadad Dubbelday, a physicist and electrical engineer with a 35-year career at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific was selected as the center’s first Chief Distinguished Scientist. In this role, she will also serve as the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Deputy Chief Technology Officer, further developing the command’s science and technology portfolio and working to improve technology transition. Full Story
A Day in the Sun
March 31, 2016
When UC San Diego undergraduate students Josh Hill, Victoria Santos and Alexander Han first became involved with the Solar Chill project, they never thought that they would one day have the opportunity to talk about the unique solar-powered charging station at Clinton Global Initiative University. But they did just that when the annual conference took place at UC Berkeley, April 1 to 3. Full Story
UC San Diego Alumna Speaks to the Power of the Individual Contributor
February 24, 2016
University of California, San Diego alumna and Cisco Greengineer Shraddha Chaplot never imagined she’d be where she is now – an engineer at a tech giant and an inspirational speaker, recently featured in Vogue India as a Silicon Valley Girl. Full Story
Bioengineers inducted into prestigious institution
January 28, 2016
Three bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego, will be inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the organization announced. Professors Karen Christman, Gabriel Silva and Shyni Varghese will be recognized during a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences Great Hall in Washington, DC, on April 4. Full Story