News Releases from 2010
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Short, On-Chip Light Pulses will Enable Ultrafast Data Transfer within Computers
Electrical engineers generated short, powerful light pulses on a chip – an important step toward the optical interconnects that will likely replace the copper wires that carry information between chips within today’s computers. University of California, San Diego electrical engineers recently developed the first ultra compact, low power pulse compressor on a silicon chip to be described in the scientific literature. Details appeared online in the journal Nature Communications on November 16. Full Story
Electrical Engineer Explores Mongolia, and You Can Too
Luke Barrington is a Ph.D. candidate in the UC San Diego Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) – not the typical background of someone who might find himself trekking through Mongolia as part of a National Geographic archaeological expedition. But there he was this summer – after developing the core functionality of the expedition's online, human-computation website that gave the public at large a chance to “tag” potential historic sites on high-resolution maps of the area. Full Story
Flash Memories Researcher Wins Intel Ph.D. Fellowship
Future USB drives, memory cards for cameras, and solid-state drives for smartphones, laptops and enterprise systems may all benefit from the research being performed by University of California, San Diego electrical engineering Ph.D. student Eitan Yaakobi. For his past research accomplishments and future research potential, Yaakobi earned a sought after 2010-2011 Intel Ph.D. Fellowship. Full Story
Computer Scientists Leverage Dark Silicon to Improve Smartphone Battery Life
A new smartphone chip prototype under development at the University of California, San Diego will improve smartphone efficiency by making use of “dark silicon” – the underused transistors in modern microprocessors. On August 23, UC San Diego computer scientists presented GreenDroid, the new smartphone chip prototype at the HotChips symposium in Palo Alto, CA. Full Story
NSF Funds Expedition into Software for Efficient Computing in the Age of Nanoscale Devices
A visionary team of computer scientists and electrical engineers from six universities is proposing to deal with the downside of nanoscale computer components by re-thinking and enhancing the role that software can play in a new class of computing machines that are adaptive and highly energy efficient. Full Story
Computer Scientists Build Pedestrian Remover
Imagine encountering leashed dogs without dog walkers, or shoes filled just with ankles – when scoping out potential apartments using Google Street View. These are the sorts of visual hiccups that an experimental computer vision system occasionally generates when it automatically removes individual pedestrians from images that populate Google Street View. Full Story
With iPad Project, Electrical Engineering Graduate Students Shine
For their hands-on design course last quarter, graduate students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department developed applications for the just-released Apple iPad. Full Story
UC San Diego Information Theorists Show Up in Force at IEEE International Symposium
More than a dozen research papers at the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) were co-authored by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, and the papers presented by graduate students resonated with reviewers. Among 250 student papers at the June conference in Austin, Texas, 44 were selected as finalists by the Information Theory Society Award Committee, and five of those were co-authored by students affiliated with the Information Theory and Applications Center (ITA), based at the UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Full Story
UC San Diego Engineering Students 'Ring' in Another Successful Year
More than 360 graduating seniors from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering participated in the annual Ring Ceremony on June 12. Full Story
UC San Diego Undergraduates Team Up with National Geographic to Co-Innovate New Technologies
Jacobs School undergraduates team up with National Geographic to co-innovate new technologies. Full Story
NanoEngineers Print and Test Chemical Sensors on Elastic Waistbands of Underwear
Chemical sensors printed directly on elastic underwear waistbands retained their sensing abilities even after engineers stretched, folded and pulled at the chemical-sensing printable electrodes – sensors that could one day be incorporated into intelligent “hospital-on-a-chip” systems. This work, funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is led by professor Joseph Wang, from the Department of NanoEngineering at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
Wireless Sensor Startup Wins UC San Diego $80K Entrepreneur Challenge
Wireless sensors that monitor your heart even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation. This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team the top spot in the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge. The prize includes $25K in cash for the startup and $15K in legal services. Full Story
UC San Diego and SANYO Pioneer Next Generation of Energy Management
The SANYO Electric Group, including SANYO North America Corporation headquartered in San Diego, Calif., (SANYO) and the University of California, San Diego have announced a research collaboration agreement designed to lead to the next generation of solar energy systems and energy management. Full Story
TIES Honored, UC San Diego Named to Presidential Community Service Honor Roll
The University of California, San Diego has been named to the 2009 President's Community Service Honor Roll with distinction for the contributions UC San Diego’s students make to local, national and global communities on issues ranging from poverty to homelessness and environmental justice. This is the first year the university is on the Distinction List. Full Story
UCSD Fuels Clean Tech Cluster Through Innovation Challenge
Thirteen San Diego professors, students and research scientists who are developing technologies that will fuel the continued growth of the region’s “clean tech cluster” presented their new ideas over two days to a panel of eighteen high-tech reviewers. Full Story
Wireless Sensor Startup in $80K UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge Finals
Wireless sensors that monitoring your heart or your brain even though they do not actually touch your skin are at the center of UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi’s dissertation. This technology – and the plan for commercializing it – earned Chi and his Cognionics team one of just five spots in the finals of the UC San Diego Entrepreneurship Challenge. On Wednesday June 2, 2010, Chi will present the Cognionics business plan at the final stage of the entrepreneurship challenge. At stake: $80,000 in cash and services for the UC San Diego startups. Full Story
Cell Phone Sensors for Toxins Developed at UC San Diego
A tiny silicon chip that works a bit like a nose may one day detect dangerous airborne chemicals and alert emergency responders through the cell phone network. If embedded in many cell phones, its developers say, the new type of sensor could map the location and extent of hazards like gas leaks or the deliberate release of a toxin. Full Story
Rolling Library and Robot Unicorn at Junkyard Derby 2010
Energy, excitement and screaming rose above a eucalyptus grove on the University of California, San Diego campus last Friday, April 14. But it had nothing to do with the 20,000 people coming to campus that night for the Sun God music festival. Instead, the vibe was coming from Junkyard Derby 2010. Full Story
Jacobs School Alumnus Named National Geographic Emerging Explorer
Fourteen visionary, young trailblazers from around the world — including University of California, San Diego alumnus Albert Yu-Min Lin, ’04, M.S. ’06, Ph.D. ’08 — have been named to the 2010 class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers. The new Emerging Explorers are introduced in the June issue of National Geographic magazine. Full Story
Nineteen Projects Awarded Inaugural Calit2 Strategic Research Opportunities Grants
The first awards under a new research grant program at the University of California, San Diego will support a broad range of projects led by faculty members from 13 different departments and staff researchers participating in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Full Story
Yahoo! Hack U a Hit at UC San Diego
Computer programming students from the University of California, San Diego were anything but “hackadaisical” when a week-long Web programming extravaganza – Yahoo! Hack U – came to campus. In a 24-hour computer programming marathon that spanned an entire Thursday night, UC San Diego student teams hacked together a concert finder, a tool that adds favorite movies from friends’ Facebook profiles to your Netflix queue, a date-scheduling application, an early-morning multitasking program, and many other new online applications. Students created each app by combining tools, resources and data already available on the Web. Full Story
UC San Diego Engineers Demonstrate Smallest Laser to Operate at Room Temperature
Imagine packing 4 billion nanolasers on a three-inch semiconductor wafer. That is now nearer to reality, thanks to researchers at the University of California, San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, who have demonstrated a micron-sized laser – less than one-thousandth of a millimeter on each side – that can operate at room temperature. Full Story
Electrical Engineer Honored by National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences today elected electrical engineering professor Jack K. Wolf and two biology professors at the University of California, San Diego to membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors bestowed on U.S. scientists and engineers. Full Story
Agilent Technologies and UC San Diego Collaborate on Chip-Scale Photonic Systems Testing Facility
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and the University of California, San Diego, today announced they have established a new chip-scale micro- and nanophotonic- systems testing facility on the UCSD campus. The new facility is part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) project and is being set up in conjunction with the multi-university Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), led by The University of Arizona. Full Story
Electrical Engineer Turned Solar Concentrator Inventor Wins Research Expo 2010
With his new solar concentrator design, electrical engineering Ph.D. student Jason Karp won the 2010 Rudee Research Expo Outstanding Poster Award. His winning poster “Planar Micro-Optic Solar Concentration” (#98) was one of 250 posters presented by Jacobs School graduate students on April 15th at the 29th Annual Research Expo at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Full Story
National Geographic Taps UC San Diego Students for Technology Solutions
A West Coast campus famous for its high-tech research is now becoming known for its global reach in cultural heritage. Faculty and students are already searching for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan and a masterpiece mural by Leonardo da Vinci not seen in 450 years, and now many more students will get the opportunity to blaze new technology trails in the name of global exploration. Full Story
Hot Posters at Research Expo 2010 at the Jacobs School
The annual Jacobs School Research Expo features research posters by 250 M.S. and Ph.D. engineering students, technical breakouts led by Jacobs School faculty, a plenary session, and a reception where guests can interact with faculty and students who share their research interests. Full Story
The Next Silicon Revolution
Electrical engineers from UC San Diego are at the leading edge of efforts to merge silicon chip technologies with sophisticated wireless communications tools in the millimeter and microwave range —technologies that traditionally have been too expensive for all but defense and satellite applications. Full Story
UC San Diego Energy Dashboard to Help Campus Curb Appetite for Power
After an extensive period of testing, researchers have launched an Internet portal to showcase the real-time measurement and visualization of energy use on the University of California, San Diego campus. The UC San Diego Energy Dashboard (http://energy.ucsd.edu/) allows users to see up-to-the-second information on a structure-by-structure basis for 60 of the largest buildings on the La Jolla campus. Full Story
How to Manage California Alternative Energy Grid When the Sun Does Not Shine
California’s goal of generating 33 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020 will be challenging on days when clouds shade acres of solar photovoltaic panels or when thousands of wind turbines spin more slowly during calm weather. However, researchers at the University of California, San Diego are developing sophisticated forecasting tools that will give California electricity distributors advance notice of meteorological changes that affect solar output. The technology is being developed to allow energy suppliers to more efficiently schedule their fossil-fuel fired plants or energy-storage facilities to meet the state’s demand for electricity. Full Story
Jacobs School Leadership Affirms Principles of Community
Jacobs School Leadership Affirms Principles of Community Full Story
Better Computing, Communication for Emergency Medical Personnel at Disaster Sites
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have launched a project to find better ways for emergency officials and first responders to talk to each other and share data on the ground at the scene of a natural or man-made disaster – even when the local communications infrastructure is out of commission. Full Story
Jacobs School Diversity Organizations Win Award
Congratulations to the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s undergraduate chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers. This trio of undergraduate engineering diversity professional organizations won a 2009 UC San Diego Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award. Full Story
Jacobs School Video Contest
Calling all Jacobs School engineering students—both undergrads and graduate students. Share you best video stories about your research, academic experiences and engineering-related projects. Full Story