2022 Research Highlights

December 20, 2022

From tools to track the origin and spread of COVID-19, to making homes safer in earthquakes, to using smartphones as diagnostic tools, researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering pioneered important work in 2022. A few highlights of our outstanding research this year are here. Full Story

The Jacobs School at Neuroscience 2022

November 10, 2022

 The Society for Neuroscience is holding its annual conference, Neuroscience 2022, Nov. 12 to 16 in San Diego and the faculty of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering will have a strong presence at the event.    Full Story

Franklin Antonio Hall opens its doors

September 29, 2022

The UC San Diego campus community turned out in big numbers last Friday to celebrate the opening of the sleek and soaring Franklin Antonio Hall. The 186,000 square foot building is not only innovative in its architecture, it’s also ground-breaking in how research teams are organized within the building. Full Story

San Diego Union-Tribune previews opening of Franklin Antonio Hall

September 9, 2022

Just weeks before the grand opening on Sept. 23, the San Diego Union-Tribune published an extensive story about Franklin Antonio Hall, the latest building at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The sleek and soaring structure is located across the street from to Atkinson Hall, near the campus’ Warren College neighborhood.    Full Story

A new neuromorphic chip for AI on the edge, at a small fraction of the energy and size of today's compute platforms

August 17, 2022

An international team of researchers has designed and built a chip that runs computations directly in memory and can run a wide variety of AI applications–all at a fraction of the energy consumed by computing platforms for general-purpose AI computing. The NeuRRAM neuromorphic chip brings AI a step closer to running on a broad range of edge devices, disconnected from the cloud, where they can perform sophisticated cognitive tasks anywhere and anytime without relying on a network connection to a centralized server.    Full Story

Neuroscience and AI can improve each other

August 5, 2019

Despite their names, artificial intelligence technologies and their component systems, such as artificial neural networks, don?t have much to do with actual brain science. Bioengineering professor Gabriel Silva is dedicated to understanding how the brain works as a system ? and how that knowledge can be used to design and engineer new machine learning models. Full Story

Why are neuron axons long and spindly? Study shows they're optimizing signaling efficiency

July 11, 2018

A team of bioengineers at UC San Diego has answered a question that has long puzzled neuroscientists, and may hold a key to better understanding the complexities of neurological disorders: Why are axons, the spindly arms extending from neurons that transmit information from neuron to neuron in the brain, designed the way they are? Full Story

Study to Explore Whether Cannabis Compound Eases Severe Symptoms of Autism

May 1, 2018

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are preparing a first-of-its-kind, multidisciplinary investigation to determine if and how cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant, provides therapeutic benefit to children with severe symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  The study, scheduled to launch in approximately one year, is funded by a $4.7 million gift from the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation, in partnership with the Wholistic Research and Education Foundation. It represents the largest known private gift to date for medicinal cannabis research in the United States.  Full Story

UC San Diego Researchers Selected for IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition

May 2, 2017

A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego has been selected to take part in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE ®. The competition aims to accelerate the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are truly scalable and have the capacity to solve grand challenges facing society.  Full Story

New nano-implant could one day help restore sight

March 13, 2017

A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego and La Jolla-based startup Nanovision Biosciences Inc. have developed the nanotechnology and wireless electronics for a new type of retinal prosthesis that brings research a step closer to restoring the ability of neurons in the retina to respond to light. The researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro.  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

Brain monitoring takes a leap out of the lab

January 12, 2016

Bioengineers and cognitive scientists have developed the first portable, 64-channel wearable brain activity monitoring system that’s comparable to state-of-the-art equipment found in research laboratories. The researchers are working toward a world where neuroimaging systems work with mobile sensors and smart phones to track brain states throughout the day and augment the brain’s capabilities. Full Story

Qualcomm Institute Announces Seed Grants to Build Clusters in Brain, Medical and Robotics Research

July 18, 2014

The Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego has given the green light to 35 new projects that are part of the institute’s Calit2 Strategic Research Opportunities (CSRO) program. Each one-year seed grant is worth up to $50,000 in support for researchers in areas of critical interest to the research mission of the institute—and the university. (The Qualcomm Institute is the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, or Calit2.) Full Story

Understanding How the Brain Controls Movement

April 2, 2014

A University of California, San Diego research team led by bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs is working to understand how the brain circuitry controls how we move. The goal is to develop new technologies to help patients with Parkinson's disease and other debilitating medical conditions navigate the world on their own. Their research is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers of Research and Innovation program. Full Story

Bioengineers Researching Smart Cameras and Sensors that Mimic, Exceed Human Capability

September 17, 2013

University of California, San Diego bioengineering professor Gert Cauwenberghs has been selected by the National Science Foundation to take part in a five-year, multi-institutional, $10 million research project to develop a computer vision system that will approach or exceed the capabilities and efficiencies of human vision. Full Story

UC San Diego Receives $7 Million form DOD for Innovative Neural Research

May 24, 2012

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at UC San Diego composed of physicists, biologists, chemists, bioengineers and psychologists has received a five-year, $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate the dynamic principles of collective brain activity.  Full Story