Baskin Engineering at UC Santa Cruz

Artificial biosensor can better measure the body’s main stress hormone This research paves the way for point-of-care cortisol testing and diagnoses.

Read the full story: bit.ly/40OrDBv

Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Andy Yeh develops artificial proteins in his lab.

📱 What if your smartphone could help you measure stress? #BaskinEngineering Prof. Andy Yeh has developed a luminescent biosensor that binds with cortisol and emits light—enabling accurate at-home testing using a smartphone camera.

🤝 To fill gaps in the air quality monitoring network in Pajaro Valley, CA, a team led by #BaskinEngineering Professor
@javigr.bsky.social has deployed new sensors in the region—making crucial pollution data more accessible! @ucsantacruz.bsky.social

Marco Rolandi with text "Appointed the UC Santa Cruz Jack Baskin Chair in Engineering"

🎉 Congrats to Marco Rolandi, #BaskinEngineering professor of electrical and computer engineering who has been appointed the Jack Baskin Chair in Engineering—recognizing his exceptional achievements and contributions to the field and to @ucsantacruz.bsky.social!

New air quality sensors enable community decision-making in Pajaro Valley region Newly deployed sensors will fill in significant gaps in the area's air quality monitoring network

🔥 Newly deployed air quality sensors will fill gaps in the air quality monitoring network in Pajaro Valley, home to many agricultural workers—helping empower community decision-making for those most affected by wildfire smoke. Led by #BaskinEngineering Professor @javigr.bsky.social 👏 bit.ly/3IOQpuX

🎉 Congrats to the team of #BaskinEngineering students who tied with UC Merced to win the $3,000 CITRIS Aviation Excellence Award—part of a competition that challenges UC students to explore the leading edge of aviation and air mobility research and application! ✈️

UCSC Rocket Team

🚀 The UCSC Rocket Team is soaring to new heights—literally!! 🎉 Huge congrats to the team for placing 3rd among U.S. teams and ~5th overall out of 156 teams at the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) in the 10,000 foot Commercial Off-the-Shelf division!

💡Crossover between mainstream #deeplearning and neuromorphic computing may help find useful applications for brain-inspired models and hardware — work led by #BaskinEngineering Professor Jason Eshraghian. Via Electronic Engineering Times: bit.ly/4f5HXDV

7 world-changing UC innovations that emerged from federal research funding From the internet to the ozone layer, AI to the human genome, UC scientists have turned federal research funding into history-making, economy-boosting solutions.

🧬 25 years ago, UC Santa Cruz posted the Human Genome Project’s first draft of the human genome sequence online, available to anybody for free. Scientists and doctors around the world have since used this data to accelerate diagnosis and treatment. Via @uofcalifornia.bsky.social: bit.ly/4eV96cm

Ed Green receiving award

🎉 Congrats to #BaskinEngineering Professor Ed Green who received the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogist Award for his pioneering work in paleogenomics, population genetics, and computational biology methods in forensic work. 👏

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Led by @baskinengineering.bsky.social PhD students Niloofar & Lenny with Tianning Wu & Roy He @ncstate.bsky.social

If you're working on GenAI for Earth systems, let’s connect — curious to hear your thoughts!
#GenAI #ClimateAI #OceanML #FNO #DDPM #DataAssimilation

New video games from UCSC help communities prepare for wildfires The games each simulate complex dilemmas where people have to make hard decisions in tough moments

Three new video games developed by #BaskinEngineering faculty are helping people prepare for wildfire emergencies. 🔥 Via @ksbw.bsky.social: bit.ly/44im4xi

🌊 How can technology enhance climate resilience? #BaskinEngineering postdoc Linda Hirsch developed an engaging flood resilience game which aims to equip community members with techniques for preparing for climate change events.💡 Read the story: bit.ly/3TrCkG8

UCSC Study looks into Tiktok Cooking A new study out of UC Santa Cruz shows that how people's social media habits can lead to more offline activity looking into how often tiktok users make healthy recipes they see on the app.

A new study led by #BaskinEngineering Professor @cfchung.bsky.social shows that people's social media habits can lead to more offline activity—exploring how often tiktok users make healthy recipes they see on the app. Via KION News: bit.ly/44vsMyP

🔥 The labs of #BaskinEngineering Professors of Computational Media @kcisbister.bsky.social, Magy Seif El-Nasr, and Sri Kurniawan, along with Visiting Professor Edward Melcer, are using game design to help communities build resilience to wildfire. 🤯 👀 Read the story: bit.ly/44ugpTN

25 years later: Inside the cut-throat race to decode the human genome How the competition between the Human Genome Project and its industry rival, Celera, drove forward one of the most historic scientific discoveries of our age.

"It changed medicine, it changed science — it changed the world." 🧬🌎 Listen to @whyy.org 's exciting retelling of the race to complete the human genome before it was patented, and how UC Santa Cruz "computer geeks" saved the day!

whyy.org/segments/25-...

@genomebrowser.bsky.social #scienceforall

Recap of the annual #BaskinEngineering Undergraduate Project Showcase! 🛠️✨ Students brought bold ideas to life—from wildfire risk systems and muscle-activated prosthetics, to ROVs for kelp restoration, SARS-CoV-2 mutation validation, smart power monitors, and drones for VTOL search and rescue.

Here is where Waymo has suspended service in San Francisco The robotaxi company has instituted a no-go zone amid of large-scale protests against ICE.

“If they say they’re going to create a fire-resistant LIDAR unit, then they’re going to have to rewrite all the software that’s interpreting that type of data,” said #BaskinEngineering Prof Leilani Gilpin—in response to challenges Waymo may face. bit.ly/4n8A6ZK

A fresh look at TikTok: short food videos encourage long-term healthy eating habits in teens Research from UC Santa Cruz human-computer interactions scholars is revealing how online habits translate into offline actions

🥗 Can #TikTok videos support healthier eating habits? A new study finds that teens are using TikTok to build real-life healthy eating habits—offering lessons for tech designers and parents alike. Led by #BaskinEngineering Professor of Computational Media @cfchung.bsky.social 👏 bit.ly/441VRSe

Bhavna Mahi transferred to @ucsantacruz.bsky.social to study at the world-renowned @ucscgenomics.bsky.social. She conducted novel research in Karen Miga's lab, studying repetitive elements in the human genome. 🎓 What’s next? She hopes to work in public health, then onto grad school! 🧬

🥁 Introducing the 2025 #BaskinEngineering Dean's Award recipients! This year, we honored 10 undergraduate projects demonstrating excellence and innovation in a range of fields, including biomedical research, machine learning, agricultural technology, and cybersecurity. Read more: bit.ly/3Zj7PFy

The science of saving Ms. Blue: Seymour Center’s 87-foot whale gets an eco-friendly makeover Scientists at UC Santa Cruz and local entrepreneurs are collaborating on a $350,000 restoration of the Seymour Center’s blue whale skeleton using innovative, eco-friendly techniques like shrimp-shell ...

🐋 The @ucsantacruz.bsky.social Seymour Center is working to restore the iconic Ms. Blue whale skeleton—with the help of Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Marco Rolandi and his students, who created a sustainable bone-repair putty made from shrimp shells! bit.ly/43wzRjr

🎉 Congrats to our #BaskinEngineering students who participated in the Santa Cruz Launchpad event! bit.ly/4mLNUZV

@ucsantacruz.bsky.social researchers are studying the ways certain genetic elements hide and make copies of themselves, so they can propagate within a species’ DNA, or even hop from one species to an unrelated one in a process called “horizontal gene transfer.” @russcd.bsky.social bit.ly/4jwKlEa

[2] Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center developed and tested a cell segmentation method called Proseg, for probabilistic segmentation. "Proseg is a major advancement toward solving this problem," Shariati said. Via @genomeweb.bsky.social. Read on: bit.ly/3Fy5jof

[1] Expert in cell segmentation @ali-shariati.bsky.social said that the field of spatial transcriptomics has advanced rapidly in recent years, but accurately defining cell boundaries so that transcripts can be assigned to the correct cell with high precision has remained a key bottleneck.

🛠️ Check out what #BaskinEngineering students are engineering! ✨

32 Bits That Changed Microprocessor Design Bell Labs’ Bellmac-32 paved the way for today’s smartphone chips

“We were on the frontier of what was possible. We didn’t just follow the path—we made a new one," said Steve Kang, distinguished professor emeritus and former dean of #BaskinEngineering — on the team who paved the way for today’s smartphone chips. Via @spectrum.ieee.org‬ bit.ly/3HgpRlD #engineering

Image credit: @noaa.gov