UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering

New AI Tool Learns to Read Medical Images With Far Less Data A new AI tool could make it much easier — and cheaper — for doctors and researchers to train medical imaging software, even when only a small number of patient scans are available. It could lead to fa...

A team led by electrical and computer engineer Pengtao Xie created an AI tool that can learn to read medical scans with far less data than existing deep learning-based methods. It could aid diagnoses even when only a small number of patient scans are available. today.ucsd.edu/story/new-ai...

Engineers Take a Closer Look at How a Plant Virus Primes the Immune System to Fight Cancer A virus that typically infects black-eyed peas is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—and researchers are uncovering why.

New research led by UC San Diego chemical and nano engineer Nicole Steinmetz sheds light on why a certain plant virus that infects black-eyed peas shows remarkable promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—while other plant viruses do not. today.ucsd.edu/story/engine...

Wearable ultrasound technology - Nature Reviews Bioengineering This Review discusses wearable ultrasound technology, covering device design, integration, clinical applications and translational potential. It highlights key barriers to wide deployment and explores...

Ultrasound once meant brief snapshots inside the body. Now, wearable ultrasound tech is moving us toward continuous, hands-free monitoring to capture health changes in real time. Engineers led by Sheng Xu map out the advances in wearable ultrasound in this article: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Researchers led by @ucsandiego.bsky.social electrical engineer Noah Rubin have developed a compact, flat camera that can capture the polarization of light across a wide field of view—thus addressing a long-standing challenge in optical design. opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...

a humanoid robot in a surgical setting

As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule, humanoid surgical robots offer a solution. @ucsandiego.bsky.social Prof. Michael Yip argues why this human form factor and foundation model is best in Science Robotics: today.ucsd.edu/story/the-ro...

You can also check out the project's website here: cfs10.ucsd.edu

What happens when you shake a 10-story cold-formed steel-framed building on the world's only outdoor earthquake simulator? That's the question engineers from @ucsandiego.bsky.social & @jhu.edu worked to answer this past month.
today.ucsd.edu/story/engine...

Why is #NIHfunding critical to early-stage clinical research? @ucsandiego.bsky.social #bioengineering professor Karen Christman explains.
Biomaterials from the @christmanlab.bsky.social are in clinical trials to heal heart conditions, from heart attacks to congenital defects.

Air Pollution May Contribute to Development of Lung Cancer in Never-smokers, New Study Finds A new study reveals that air pollution, traditional herbal medicines and other environmental exposures are linked to genetic mutations that may contribute to the development of lung cancer in people w...

New Nature study co-led by @ucsandiego.bsky.social links air pollution to cancer-related DNA mutations in lung tissue of never-smokers. Other exposures, such as traditional Chinese herbal medicines, were also linked to lung cancer cases of never-smokers. today.ucsd.edu/story/air-po...

Living Materials Now Easier to Build with a Larger Palette of Ingredients Sustainable materials—powered by sunlight and living microbes—that remove pollutants from water, release oxygen into a wound or heal themselves after damage could become simpler to create thanks to ne...

Scientists have found a simpler way to make engineered living materials—by adding living microbes after a polymer is formed. This method can enable researchers to use a wider variety of ingredients to make living materials, including those too toxic for cells. today.ucsd.edu/story/living...

Toothbrush-shaped ultrasound allows for gum monitoring | Newswise Researchers publishing in ACS Sensors report a toothbrush-shaped ultrasound transducer that can provide a less invasive screening for gum disease. In proof-of-concept demonstrations on animal tissues,...

Getting checked for gum disease at the dentist may no longer involve uncomfortable poking of your gums with a metal dental tool. Engineers led by Jesse Jokerst created a toothbrush-shaped ultrasound device that can provide a less invasive way to image teeth and gums. www.newswise.com/articles/too...

Sensitive Yet Tough Photonic Devices Are Now a Reality Engineers have achieved a long-sought milestone in photonics: creating tiny optical devices that are both highly sensitive and durable. This work could lead to a new generation of photonic devices tha...

Researchers in the lab of @ucsandiego.bsky.social electrical engineer Abdoulaye Ndao have achieved a big milestone in photonics! They created tiny optical devices that are both highly sensitive and tough—a combo once thought impossible. today.ucsd.edu/story/sensit...

New Cooling Tech Could Curb Data Centers’ Rising Energy Demands A new cooling technology could significantly improve the energy efficiency of data centers and high-powered electronics while reducing water use associated with cooling. By passively removing heat thr...

Cooling can use 40% of a data center's energy. A low-cost fiber membrane—originally designed for filtration—could change that. Through passive evaporation, it removes extreme heat with no extra energy input. It has the potential to cool high-power electronics. today.ucsd.edu/story/new-co...

World's largest earthquake simulator tests 10-story building The University of California, San Diego, has the largest outdoor shake table, or earthquake simulator, in the world — the only one capable of testing a 10-story building. The shake…

The upcoming tests at our #earthquake simulator are featured in @boingboing.net!
boingboing.net/2025/05/30/w...
Heads up @ucsandiego.bsky.social!

Researchers @ucsandiego.bsky.social are getting ready to shake a 10-story building to see how well it withstands #earthquakes! They are helping decide if height limits for cold-formed steel-framed buildings should increase from 6 to 10 stories.
Learn more about why: today.ucsd.edu/story/10-sto...

Colon cancer is rising in young people. Finally, scientists have a clue about why. As scientists question the rise in early colon cancer cases, a new study is offering some potential answers.

Research by @ucsandiego.bsky.social bioengineers uncovering a link between early-onset colorectal cancer and childhood exposure to a bacterial toxin is making headlines—and was just featured in National Geographic! www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

This #AI tutor developed and tested by @ucsandiego.bsky.social researchers will now be deployed more broadly in San Diego County. It’s trained on course-specific materials and to never just to give answers to course assignments.
today.ucsd.edu/story/san-di...
@sdsuresearch.bsky.social

Congratulations to computer science faculty member @kumarde.bsky.social! His play, "House of India," debuts today at the Old Globe Theater!
www.theoldglobe.org/pdp/25-seaso...
@ucsandiego.bsky.social #OldGlobeTheater

It’s Hard to Get Meds to the Lungs: Breathable Algae Offer a New Path Algae are the new delivery drivers: they are tiny enough to float in inhalable liquid particles and travel deep inside the lungs of mice where they drop off drugs to fight pneumonia.

#Algae are the new delivery drivers: they are tiny enough to float in inhalable particles and travel deep inside the lungs of mice to drop off drugs to fight pneumonia. Years of research @ucsandiego.bsky.social have turned this seemingly science fiction into a reality. today.ucsd.edu/story/its-ha...

A Battery Breakthrough Inspired by a Can of Compressed Air A UC San Diego engineering alumnus reflects on how a chance curiosity about a can of compressed air, along with support across campus, fueled an innovation in battery technology.

Breakthroughs can start from simple curiosities, like a can of compressed air inspiring the battery tech at South 8 Technologies. Co-founder/CSO &engineering alum Cyrus Rustomji reflects on how @ucsandiego.bsky.social support boosted his battery startup in this Q&A. today.ucsd.edu/story/a-batt...

A beautiful blue butterfly wing offers a new way to study cancer Once a morpho butterfly wing is placed atop a thin slice of tissue, shining polarized light through it can help reveal how likely breast cancer is to spread.

Exciting to see the work of @ucsandiego.bsky.social mechanical engineers in Science News Explores! Prof. Lisa Poulikakos & grad student Paula Kirya show how Morpho butterfly wings could one day help doctors investigate the development & severity of some cancers. www.snexplores.org/article/butt...

Self-assembling Molecules Take the Spotlight at Research Expo 2025 UC San Diego materials science and engineering Ph.D. student Liya Bi won the grand prize at the 43rd annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo for his work studying how molecules organize them...

Congrats to the grand prize winner of our 43rd annual Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo, Liya Bi, for his work on molecular self-assembly. The event featured 160+ grad students communicating their work to a broad audience. Congrats to all our award winners! today.ucsd.edu/story/self-a...

Félicitations to Miroslav Krstic on being named a 2025 Fellow-Ambassador of CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research! He was recognized for his world-renowned work in automation and control engineering for nonlinear and adaptive systems. today.ucsd.edu/story/uc-san...

One Timed-release Capsule Could Replace Taking Multiple Pills Managing complex medication schedules could soon become as simple as taking a single capsule each day. UC San Diego engineers have developed a capsule that can be packed with multiple medications and ...

Imagine replacing an entire day’s worth of pills with just one capsule, like this one. Created by @ucsandiego.bsky.social engineers, it can house multiple meds and release them at different times of day. No more missed doses or accidental overdoses! today.ucsd.edu/story/one-ti...

The causes of #AlzheimersDisease have been unclear—but @ucsandiego.bsky.social researchers may have unlocked the mystery. A new study found, with help from #AI, that the PHGDH gene has a previously unknown role: disrupting how cells in the brain turn genes on and off. today.ucsd.edu/story/ai-hel...

This Injected Protein-like Polymer Helps Tissues Heal After a Heart Attack Researchers have developed a new therapy that can be injected intravenously right after a heart attack to promote healing and prevent heart failure. The therapy both prompts the immune system to encou...

This injected, protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a #heartattack: work by @ucsandiego.bsky.social @christmanlab.bsky.social & Northwestern: today.ucsd.edu/story/this-i...
#bioengineering #heartfailure #engineeringinmedicine

Computer Science Professor Earns Undergraduate Mentorship Award for Going the Extra Mile, Literally Ryan Kastner, a professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, recently received the prestigious award for undergraduate research faculty mentoring fro...

Congratulations to #computerscience Professor Ryan Kastner, honored for exceptional undergraduate mentorship by there Computing Research Association! This is a first for @ucsandiego.bsky.social!
Kastner is also a @qi-ucsd.bsky.social affiliate.
today.ucsd.edu/story/comput...

Congratulations!

Childhood Exposure to Bacterial Toxin May Be Triggering Colorectal Cancer Epidemic Among the Young Researchers have identified a potential culprit behind the alarming rise in early-onset colorectal cancer: a bacterial toxin called colibactin. Exposure to colibactin in early childhood imprints disti...

Colorectal cancer is on a mysterious rise in young adults—now researchers may know why. A study led by @ucsandiego.bsky.social shows that a bacterial toxin in the gut generates DNA mutations during early childhood that could be driving early-onset colorectal cancer. today.ucsd.edu/story/childh...

An engineer checks research braker boxes

This #EarthDay, our researchers are future-proofing the planet is by helping get more #renewables on the power grid. With DERConnect, a $42 million NSF-funded “grid sandbox," they are using the campus as a living laboratory toward this goal.
today.ucsd.edu/story/6-ways...