12.29.11 U~T San Diego
"UCSD reveals surprise about rainbows"
Computer scientist Henrik Wann Jensen, whose work in graphics earned him an Academy Award, teamed with student Iman Sadeghi to create simulations of the full spectrum of rainbows. They're trying to better depict rainbows in animated movies and video games.
12.24.11 U~T San Diego
"Top 5 San Diego science stories of 2011"
You expect scientific achievement in San Diego; it's one of the largest research centers in the country. But 2011 was an especially fruitful year. Here's a snap shot of five particularly newsworthy achievements and events.
"Bioengineers create living 'neon signs' from bacteria"
Biologists and bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have teamed up to create living neon signs made up of millions of bacterial cells that fluoresce in unison like light bulbs.
"30 Under 30: Science"
30 scientists and innovators under age 30 who were worth highlighting in the pages of Forbes
12.8.11 New Scientist
"Rare twin rainbows simulated in 3D"
Don't rub your eyes, you're not seeing double. This picture shows a rare twin rainbow, in which two multi-coloured arcs sprout form the same point. Instead of seeking the end of the rainbow, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have used a 3D computer model to figure out just how such twins are born.
Every day three-quarters of all e-mail that flies across the Internet is spam. Some of it tricks customers into installing a virus or forking over personal information to use illicitly. But many spam messages are advertisements for companies that sell real goods, usually prescription drugs, knock-off watches, and pirated software. Millions of Americans see it as a way to save on drugs
12.7.11 ABC News
"Fake Rainbows Lead to Scientific Discovery"
While nature and computer graphics may seem an unlikely pairing, computer science professor Henrik Wann Jensen and Iman Sadeghi, who was working on his thesis, realized they could more accurately simulate rainbows in 3-D, where raindrops could be rendered as spherical, rather than the usual 2-D simulations, where raindrops are conveyed as circles.
"UCSD Team Working on 6,000 Piece Puzzle"
UC San Diego researchers are corralling the efforts of roughly 3,500 people in about 30 countries to solve what might be an impossible puzzle.
11.19.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"Help solve the 'world's hardest jigsaw puzzle'"
If you love jigsaw puzzles and a tough challenge, you might want to help UC San Diego try to win a global competition in which players are using their computers to reassemble shredded documents and figure out a question about the information that emerges.
"UC San Diego Researchers Map Calif. Solar Hotspots"
Jacobs School of Engineering Professor Jan Kleissl and a colleague used data gathered by the space shuttle Endeavor to calculate solar power production in California.
"Tosser bot: Dog's best friend?"
A scalable, ball-tossing robot that's reminiscent of a Segway with an independent streak could become your pet dog's new best friend.
11.14.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"UCSD's 'Trojan horse' attack on cancer"
Can I launch a sneak attack on leukemia by tricking the immune system into welcoming drug-filled particles that are a million times smaller than an ant?
11.8.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"Video: Watch earthquake shake home wine rack"
The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering placed a fully stocked wine rack on its shake table and demonstrated what would likely happen to an unsecured rack during a 7.5 quake. The demonstration was done for Totally Unprepared, a TV program hosted by Susan Jekarl.
11.7.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"A Scientist's Life: Meet UCSD engineer Carlos Coimbra"
Meet Carlos Coimbra, a 43 year-old associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California San Diego.
10.28.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"A Scientist's Life: 10 Things UCSD's Gabriel Silva Has Done"
Meet Gabriel Silva, a bioengineer and neuroscientist at the University of California San Diego. Silva, 37, helps to explore how the various parts of the brain fit together and work as a system, and how the brain represents and processes information.
10.23.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"Video: What an earthquake could do to your home aquarium"
A home aquarium can be so heavy you might assume that it isn't necessary to strap it to the wall to prevent it from falling over during an earthquake. The opposite is true, as the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering recently showed in this shake-table demonstration. The demonstration was performed on behalf of the television show "Totally Unprepared."
"San Diego Building Shaker To Test Guts Of Structure"
The skeleton of the structure reaches five stories above the shaking table. Square concrete columns wrap around reinforced steel bars. U.C. San Diego graduate student Michelle Chen surveys the tower from underneath her green hard hat.
10.15.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"Obama to honor UCSD's Chien for improving human health"
On Friday, President Barack Obama will award Chien the National Medal of Science for bringing together the worlds of biology, engineering and medicine to improve human health, notably the ?river of life? that is the cardiovascular system.
10.14.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"One road out of ?the Valley of Death?"
Would you be surprised if a researcher at a top U.S. university discovered a breakthrough for a medical problem that kills 215,000 people a year but couldn?t find funding to commercialize the discovery? You wouldn?t if you?d ever heard of the ?Valley of Death.?
10.11.11 Electric Light & Power
"Solar Forecasting? Next Big Thing in Sun-based Power?"
Solar forecasting is still in its infancy. One place it is being developed is the University of California?s San Diego (UCSD) campus, where the Department of Energy is taking an interest?to the tune of a $1.93 million grant in 2010 with $500,000 cost share from the California Energy Commission?in developing ways to make solar energy more reliable through forecasting.
10.3.11 Center for Health Reporting
"Hospital model to mimic catastrophic earthquakes"
A five-story building now under construction at UC San Diego will soon be equipped with hospital beds, computers, a surgical center and even an intensive care unit.Then the shaking begins.
9.27.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"UCSD engineer wins nation's top science award"
A UC San Diego researcher who made major discoveries about blood flow, advancing everything from the treatment of sickle cell anemia to atherosclerosis, will receive the National Medal of Science, the highest honor of its kind given in this country.
9.26.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"Can smartphones get attuned to your moods?"
University of California San Diego engineering professor Gert Lanckriet is looking for ways to use the sensors in smartphones to figure out what you?re doing and how you?re feeling. He says the sensors that track movement, location, light and changes in your voice could collectively produce a snapshot of your mood.
9.18.11 North County Times
"Bacterial 'dark matter' genome sequenced with one cell Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/blogsnew/business/scitech/article_204f6c9d-4613-5a05-a95e-be"
Scientists from UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Illumina Inc. have increased access to this hidden realm by developing a new method to read DNA from just one cell. That means the inability to grow samples of exotic microbes in the lab will become less of a barrier to understanding them.
9.13.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"'The Ph.D Movie' to play Thursday at UCSD "
The fall quarter doesn't begin until Sept. 22. But students will get a preview -- or is it a reminder? -- of the crazed lives of doctoral students on Thursday when "The Ph.D Movie' is screened at UC San Diego.
9.13.11 American Scientist
"As if Commercials Weren't Bad Enough Already"
Here's how Sungho Jin, a world-renowned materials expert at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, described his invention: "For example, if people are eating pizza, the viewer smells pizza coming from a TV or cell phone. And if a beautiful lady walks by, they smell perfume. Instantaneously generated fragrances or odors would match the scene shown on a TV or cell phone."
9.11.11 CBS News
On only this can the world agree: On Sept. 11, 2001, two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. A short time later, both fell. Nearly every other detail of the terrorist attacks - from the reasons the towers fell to the actual number of planes hijacked to the blame for the events - on that day has been incredibly fertile ground for the production of alternating theories about what actually happened.
9.7.11 Discovery Channel Canada
"Sept. 11 10th Anniversary Special"
The Discovery Channel's Daily Planet recently visited the UC San Diego Department of Structural Engineering and Englekirk Structural Engineering Center as part of a 9/11 anniversary special looking at technological advances designed to thwart future attacks. The Discovery crew filmed the department's blast simulator, the only one of its kind in the world, and interviewed Professor and department Chair Gil Hegemier, an expert in blast mitigation.
9.7.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"UCSD to guide cameras on spacecraft bound for moon"
NASA today launched a pair of small spacecraft that will give middle school students an unprecedented opportunity to study the moon by way of cameras guided by undergraduates at UC San Diego.
9.1.11 NBC San Diego
"PINs Not So Personal: Study"
When you go to the ATM, you probably cover up your PIN in some way, so that no one can take a video of you punching it in. However, new research suggests that it may take more than a cover-up to protect your PIN.
"UCSD Professor Teaches Computers To Listen To Music"
UCSD Electrical Engineering Professor Gert Lanckriet is teaching computers to know what you want to hear based on where you are and what you are doing. Going jogging? Your personal music device will play something upbeat. Chilling out after work? It will play something mellow.
8.1.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"A Scientist's Life: 10 Things UCSD's Serge Belongie Has Done "
Meet Serge Belongie, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Belongie, 36, sees the world more fully than most.
7.29.11 USA Today
"Solar panel options expand, help cool buildings"
As solar energy continues to expand, and companies such as SunPower announce new low-cost leasing options, there's other positive news: rooftop panels can not only help power a home or building, they can also cool it.
7.27.11 The New York Times
"Computer Drives to Start Your Day Quicker"
Solid-state drives, or S.S.D., which are comprised of microchips and have no moving parts, easily cut the boot time in half. And opening applications happens in a blink, as does retrieving documents, images and movies.
7.27.11 The IEEE Institute
"Students Reinvent Micromouse Competition"
The annual IEEE Micromouse competitions draw participants from nearby universities. Because some IEEE regions are so large, several contests are held for geographic areas within a region. Unfortunately, that sometimes results in less than a handful of contestants?which doesn't make for an exciting contest. To boost the excitement quotient, a group of student members at the University of California at San Diego decided to organize their own micromouse event, which was held in May.
7.26.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"UCSD student thrives after incident in Congo"
Rich promise seems to radiate from Espoir Kyubwa. He is two years into a University of California San Diego program that will grant him a doctorate in bioengineering and a medical degree. And he has recently won a prestigious fellowship that will pay him $46,500 a year for up to five years as he pursues the education he plans to use to help people in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
7.25.11 San Diego Union-Tribune
"UCSD to try to fly balloon across the U.S."
UCSD is trying to become the first university to send a zero-pressure balloon across the country, propelled only by the capricious winds of the jet stream.
7.22.11 The Atlantic Monthly
"The Secret Air-Conditioning Power of Solar Energy"
There are plenty of benefits to using solar panels?notably clean energy, long-term electric-bill savings, utility rebates, and tax incentives. But one recently discovered side effect might be especially attractive to people suffering through this weekend's heat wave: Solar panels also keep buildings cool.
7.19.11 San Diego Union Tribune
"UCSD offers new programs for working engineers"
The San Diego Union Tribune covers the new Master of Advanced Study programs at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Related Jacobs School Link »
4.28.11 Technology Review
"App-Specific Processors to Fight Dark Silicon"
A processor etched with circuits tailored to the most widely used apps on Android phones could help extend the devices' battery life. Researchers at the UC San Diego have created software that scans the operating system and a collection of the most popular apps and then generates a processor design tailored to their demands. The result can be 11 times more efficient than today's typical general-purpose smart-phone chip, says Michael Taylor, who leads the GreenDroid project w Steven Swanson. Related Jacobs School Link »
4.26.11 Chemical & Engineering News
"Microrockets Take Off"
Nanoengineers Joseph Wang and Liangfang Zhang of the University of California, San Diego, and coworkers show that tube-shaped microrockets functionalized with antibodies can cruise through human blood serum. Related Jacobs School Link »
"Prof George Tynan on KPBS San Diego Week"
Prof George Tynan, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Engineering Science talks about the nuclear situation in Japan on KPBS TV San Diego Week. Related Jacobs School Link »