News Archive

June 17, 2015 — Curators at the San Diego Natural History Museum have enlisted University of California, San Diego archaeologist Dominique Rissolo as a content expert for a new exhibition offering insight into the ancient Maya.

June 16, 2015 — In Syria during the late Ottoman Empire through the middle of the 20th century, the writing and circulation of petitions was a practice of citizenship used by a diverse range of individuals and groups. Ben Smuin, a doctoral candidate in history at the University of California, San Diego, is researching this practice with the hope that it will contribute to a better understanding of the complex issue of citizenship in today’s Syrian society. This fall, he will travel to the Middle East as one of 10 UC San Diego scholars to receive funding for research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and Boren Awards for International Study.

June 15, 2015 — Recently, over 50 students – most of them graduate students – showed up for the day-long Big Pixel Hackathon to Discover the Planet in Atkinson Hall’s Calit2 Theater. The May 23 hackathon was organized by the Big Pixel Initiative (BPI) to showcase what can happen when you let students loose on the largest private collection of high-resolution satellite imagery on earth. Co-directors Gordon Hanson, a professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS), and Qualcomm Institute research scientist Albert Yu-Min Lin oversaw the event, with hands-on management by lead coordinator Jessica Block and postdoctoral researcher (and GIS expert) Ran Goldblatt, both based in the Qualcomm Institute.

June 11, 2015 — The University of California, San Diego was joined by members of the Spanos family at the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center earlier this week. The new center is made possible by a lead gift of $500,000 from Dean Spanos, chairman of the board of the San Diego Chargers, and his family to revamp and expand the existing Alex G. Spanos Training Facility, located on the northwest side of campus.

June 11, 2015 — Results from new geophysical experiments led by a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego are helping scientists understand the complex forces unfolding tens of miles below the planet’s surface.

June 11, 2015 — Jennifer Lu took four computer science courses with Lecturer Emeritus Paul Kube at the University of California, San Diego. She clearly remembers her first computer science class on campus. It came after a less-than-positive computer science experience in high school, and Kube was her professor. “The subject actually made sense for the first time. Because of that, I ended up switching my major from economics to computer science. I am grateful to have had Paul Kube as my professor, especially during a time when I was still unsure about my major.”

June 11, 2015 — A $2 million gift from a University of California, San Diego alumnus will provide critical support for undergraduate education in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The funds will help recruit, retain and support the professors and lecturers whose primary mission is to teach and mentor students.

June 11, 2015 — During the past four years, when the going got tough, UC San Diego bioengineering major Ismael Munoz knew he could always rely on his fellow IDEA Scholars for encouragement and a sense of community. “I see my peers doing crazy awesome projects and that motivates me to excel,” he said. “We encourage each other.”

June 11, 2015 — On a hot, dusty Friday evening in May, a caravan of five cars packed with UC San Diego students rolled onto FAR site in the Mojave Desert – a 10-acre property established by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry, Inc. to safely test and launch rockets. It took three tries, but the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space were able to successfully test the latest version of their 3D-printed rocket engine.

June 11, 2015 — Enhancing education through technology is a passion of Jeff Elman’s. “My first job after college was as a high school teacher in an area of Boston where few kids went to college,” said the UC San Diego professor of cognitive science and former dean of the Division of Social Sciences. “My love for teaching and learning has continued ever since. But over the years, I’ve become increasingly aware that there’s often a mismatch between what we know from the science of learning and the way we actually teach. Online platforms and the use of technology are not silver bullets—after all, they can be misused—but they do open up exciting new educational possibilities.”