New XPS Instrument at UC San Diego Gives Researchers a Closer Look at Material Surfaces

July 13, 2026

A new XPS machine at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute is helping researchers advance work in battery technology, surface coatings and medical devices. Full Story

Surgeons Use Teleoperated Humanoid Robots to Perform Live Surgery – a World First

July 8, 2026

For the first time, two teleoperated humanoid robots have been used to complete two surgeries during a preclinical trial, researchers report in the July 8 issue of the journal Nature. The work is the result of a collaboration between a team of engineers and a team of surgeons at the University of California San Diego.    Full Story

UC San Diego Researchers Receive ARPA-H Award to Make Birth Safer

June 23, 2026

Researchers in obstetrics and engineering at UC San Diego were awarded up to $10.4 million from ARPA-H to enable more accurate identification of fetuses who are at risk of low oxygen during labor, as part of a larger effort to make birth safer in the U.S. Full Story

A Small Optical Component Could Change How Telescopes View the Sun

June 10, 2026

A new telescope technology — measuring just six millimeters in diameter — could improve how future space missions study and monitor the Sun while simplifying onboard hardware and reducing costs. The technology is built from a metasurface, which is a device engineered with nanoscale structures that manipulate light in unusual ways. In tests at the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico, the metasurface captured scientifically meaningful data of the Sun's magnetic fields and sunspots. Full Story