Baskin Engineering at UC Santa Cruz

David Deamer and David Haussler elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors The recognition is the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors.

Congratulations to #BaskinEngineering faculty David Deamer and David Haussler, who have been named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors—the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors! Read more about their decades of impact: bit.ly/4aJCBxK @ucsantacruz.bsky.social

Genomics #postdocs: applications are open for our Next Wave of Faculty in Genomics Symposium (due Jan 15)!. Come share your science in Santa Cruz, home of redwoods, ocean views, and the world’s most unbothered mascot:🐌🌲🌊. Link: genomics.ucsc.edu/calendar_eve... @baskinengineering.bsky.social

AI Wildfire Modeling Expands Beyond The West As Climate Risks Shift National Grid collaborates with Rhizome to deploy AI technology that identifies and helps prevent wildfire risks through their climate resilience platform.

Mentioned by @forbes.com! 50 student innovators at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social spent two days developing #AI powered solutions for wildfire mitigation and climate resilience at the “Reboot the Earth” hackathon co-hosted by the United Nations and #BaskinEngineering. bit.ly/4rE8iyt

Our Brains May Have Pre-Configured Instructions to Understand the World When We're Born Discover how brain organoids are helping us uncover whether early thought patterns emerge from experience or are hardwired into our DNA.

New research led by #BaskinEngineering Prof @talsharf.bsky.social suggests the brain might be preloaded with a kind of internal template for reading the world, even before the world reaches us - via
@discovermag.bsky.social bit.ly/4rFJMx8

2025 iGEM team investigates solution to common food toxin The undergraduate research team won a silver medal at the 2025 international jamboree.

Congrats to the 2025 @ucsantacruz.bsky.social iGEM team for placing 2nd at this year's iGEM competition!🥈 The team of #BaskinEngineering undergraduates developed a novel, accessible method for removing aflatoxin B1—a common microtoxin—found in fruits, nuts, rice and grains. Read on: bit.ly/4pmdjdH

Evidence suggests early developing human brains are preconfigured with instructions for understanding the world Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Tal Sharf's lab used organoids to make fundamental discoveries about human brain development.

🧠 Are we born with built-in instructions for navigating the world? #BaskinEngineering Prof Tal Sharf found that early brain activity occurs in structured patterns before outside input—suggesting our brains are preconfigured with instructions for understanding the world! 🤯 Read on: bit.ly/3K8dr19

Inspiring Change: Help us invest in expanding life-changing educational opportunities and advance world-changing ideas and solutions that benefit all of us💫

David Deamer, professor emeritus at Baskin Engineering, applied for funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop nanopore sequencing technology—leading to the creation of the MinION sequencing device, seen here.

In a new opinion piece, #BaskinEngineering Dean Alexander Wolf highlights growing concerns about the U.S. government-university-industry ecosystem and calls on our community to come together and address the challenge. bit.ly/4i8gpyW

UC Santa Cruz is the top public research university in the world for highly cited researchers amid strong 2025 list 25 UC Santa Cruz researchers earned a spot on the prestigious annual list.

UC Santa Cruz was ranked the #1 public research university in the world for highly cited researchers over the past 10 years (2014-2024) by Clarivate.

Jenya Meydbray: Forging a path through a maturing solar industry By joining Nextpower, formerly Nextracker, Meydbray intends to help the solar industry mature by integrating components that make up today’s PV power plants.

Jenya Meydbray, a #BaskinEngineering alum, has spent two decades focused on how quality and reliability shape #solar commercialization. After founding Kiwa PVEL and holding roles at Cypress Creek Renewables and Nevados Engineering, he now serves as a vice president at Nextpower.⚡️ bit.ly/4p9Q6Ld

Researchers pinpoint target for treating virus that causes the stomach bug New study reveals how human astroviruses bind to humans cells and paves the way for new therapies and vaccines

😷 Ever had a stomach bug? New #BaskinEngineering research brings us one step closer to stopping one of its viral causes! Prof Rebecca DuBois's lab revealed how human astroviruses—a cause of the stomach bug—bind to human cells, paving the way for future therapies and vaccines. bit.ly/3JfDrqY

Effort aims to uncover the learning and reasoning potential of brain organoids The Braingeneers team will to test the ability of brain organoids to solve tasks in real time

Can lab-grown brain tissue learn like #AI? 🧠🤖 @ucscgenomics.bsky.social researchers led by #BaskinEngineering prof Tal Sharf will explore whether brain organoids can learn from experience, respond to feedback, and solve tasks in real time. bit.ly/4howct5

Arsema Moges

Ricardo Esquivel

From @baskinengineering.bsky.social, ​​Arsema Moges (College Nine, technology and information management) is a product manager at Apple, and Ricardo Esquivel (John R. Lewis, computer science) is a software engineer at Microsoft.

United Nations and Baskin Engineering to host West Coast’s first ‘Reboot the Earth’ hackathon The event will bring together developers to create technological solutions to address the climate crisis.

👋 BIG news! We're collaborating with the United Nations to bring the “Reboot the Earth” hackathon to the West Coast for the first time! The event will gather aspiring developers to create open source technological solutions to address the climate crisis. 🌎 Learn more and get involved: bit.ly/3J8VrD3

AI leaders gather in Silicon Valley for UC Santa Cruz, SF Tech Week event More than 200 people gathered for an event called “AI Frontier: Data, Agents & Robots.”

Thank you to all who joined us for the #SFTechWeek event " #AI Frontier: Data, Agents & Robots” co-hosted by #BaskinEngineering GenAI Center! Major themes emerged during discussions including #cybersecurity, #verifiability, and #scalability. Learn more: bit.ly/4nLwNaB

Regional ocean dynamics can be better emulated with AI models Researchers show the success of their technical in a critical region: the Gulf of Mexico.

🌊 Research led by #BaskinEngineering Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics @ashesh6810.bsky.social shows that regional ocean dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico can be better emulated with #AI models—offering new possibilities for navigation and extreme weather monitoring. Read on: bit.ly/4n0AHvj

CAE in cybersecurity community

Exciting news! UC Santa Cruz has been named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research by the U.S. National Security Agency. This recognition highlights #BaskinEngineering's research and educational contributions to advancing #cybersecurity. Read more: bit.ly/3VO9xN7

🏆 Our students made waves at the @acm.org SIGBED International Student Research Competition! Ph.D. student Morgan Masters won 1st in the grad category and Caden Jacobs [pictured] was runner-up in the undergraduate category. Both are co-advised by Profs Colleen Josephson and Steve McGuire.

‘Future-guided’ AI improves seizure prediction Engineers developed a deep learning method that manipulates time to make better predictions.

🧠 Researchers at #BaskinEngineering have a developed an #AI - powered #seizure prediction method that improves performance by up to 44.8%—led by one of our computer science undergrads! #deeplearning Read more: bit.ly/4nPqO4Z

Learn more: bit.ly/48PbVuq

Welcome new faculty! Nilah Monnier Ioannidis, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Chenguang Wang, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Tyler Munger, Associate Teaching Professor of Technology and Information

Join us in welcoming three new #BaskinEngineering faculty for the 2025–26 academic year! They bring expertise in #AI, #machinelearning, #security, computational biology, and more—helping to mentor the next generation of engineers and advance innovative research.

More than 90 people gathered at the NeSy conference

💡We hosted the 2025 conference on #Neurosymbolic Learning and Reasoning, the longest-standing gathering for the discussion of cutting-edge research in neurosymbolic #AI! “It is the first time the conference was held in the U.S. as a full conference rather than a workshop," said prof Leilani Gilpin.

Smart device uses AI and bioelectronics to speed up wound healing process A wearable device called “a-Heal,” designed by engineers at UC Santa Cruz, aims to optimize each stage of wound healing the process.

Learn more: bit.ly/46ET96E

A team of #BaskinEngineering researchers at @ucsantacruz.bsky.social is using #AI and #bioelectronics to speed up wound healing! Their #WearableTech device tracks healing stages and delivers personalized treatment—speeding healing by ~25% in preclinical trials! 🤯

Levi Laden

Alice Gerchanovsky

💻🌱 Through the QB3 Biotech Summer Internship program, #BaskinEngineering CS student Levi Laden tested #AI + #VR tools at ImmergoLabs, and bioinformatics student Alice Gerchanovsky developed #DNA sampling methods at Ohalo—gaining hands-on industry experience! Read on: bit.ly/48AM35r

New + returning Slugs checked out all the amazing #BaskinEngineering clubs and orgs we have to offer. Excited to see how you'll make your mark this year!

@ucsantacruz.bsky.social

Study reveals user preferences for social media in the AR ‘metaverse’ Research explores how privacy and content format impact users' level of comfort in sharing and consuming social media AR content.

💡New research from #BaskinEngineering explores how privacy of the surrounding space, dimensionality (2D vs. 3D), and dynamics (image vs. video) influence comfort with sharing and viewing augmented reality (AR) content on social media. bit.ly/48vtHCU

Alex Wolf at the 2023 US-India Conference

Alexander Wolf, Dean of #BaskinEngineering will moderate a discussion at the eighth annual US-India Conference about the emerging competition over AI standards, access to critical technologies, and regulatory influence.

As a new state bill pushes back against license plate cameras, Watsonville looks to add more - Santa Cruz Local As Watsonville City Council is set to add more controversial license plate reader cameras to its streets, concerns mount over illegal uses.

The public can’t verify how data is handled by surveillance company Flock Safety, said #BaskinEngineering prof Ram Sundara Raman—raising concerns about encryption, AI training, internal oversight and potential for leaks. Via Santa Cruz Local: bit.ly/3VOr0Vt

Models explain mysterious feature controlling magnetic properties of the Sun UC Santa Cruz applied mathematicians produced the first self-consistent models of the Sun’s tachocline incorporating the correct dynamical ingredients.

Big step forward in #solarscience! 🔭☀️ #BaskinEngineering researchers created the first self-consistent model that can reproduce the mysterious tachocline layer of the Sun—which could help predict solar events that disrupt #powergrids and #satellites. bit.ly/461EMtX