November 20, 2014
November 20, 2014 —
A team of developers that includes UC San Diego cognitive science alumna Jelena Jovanovic has won the $500,000 grand prize in Intel’s Make It Wearable challenge for their wrist-mounted drone. The device—named Nixie—can travel a fixed distance from its owner to take a photo or video of them, and then return. Images or video can instantly be shared with friends.
November 10, 2014
November 10, 2014 —
The Assyrian Empire once dominated the ancient Near East. At the start of the 7th century BC, it was a mighty military machine and the largest empire the Old World had yet seen. But then, before the century was out, it had collapsed. Why? An international study now offers two new factors as possible contributors to the empire’s sudden demise – overpopulation and drought.
October 30, 2014
October 30, 2014 —
Cal-BRAIN—a statewide research grants program that aims to revolutionize our understanding of the brain—is officially underway. The first call for proposals has gone out, and the program expects to announce its first awards in early 2015.
October 23, 2014
October 23, 2014 —
It’s no secret that philosophy, around the country and abroad, has “a woman problem.” From undergraduate majors through to faculty ranks, women are underrepresented in the discipline. Philosophers are also notorious for talking more than doing. Not so much at UC San Diego, where faculty and students are actively working to change the numbers for the better.
October 16, 2014
October 16, 2014 —
Undergraduates at UC San Diego will now be able to pursue a bachelor of arts in global health – an increasingly popular new field of study and urgent social concern.
October 9, 2014
October 9, 2014 —
President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, a federal research effort designed to help researchers answer fundamental questions about how the brain works, has in recent months awarded scientists at UC San Diego with more than $10 million in grants, cementing the campus’s reputation as one of the world’s top centers for neuroscience research.
October 6, 2014
October 6, 2014 —
“World War I and the Birth of the Modern World,” a free public lecture series featuring UC San Diego faculty, launches on Oct. 14 and continues through Dec. 2.
October 2, 2014
October 2, 2014 —
“Learning How to Learn,” the most popular massive open online course (or MOOC) offered by UC San Diego to date, is starting again Oct. 3. Based on research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the four-week class drew nearly 200,000 people from around the world in August and appears to be the only university MOOC of its kind: It focuses on learning itself. And it presents practical tips that can be put to use by learners of all stripes.
July 23, 2014
July 23, 2014 —
This will not surprise most dog owners: Dogs can act jealous, finds a new study from the University of California, San Diego. Darwin thought so, too. But emotion researchers have been arguing for years whether jealousy requires complex cognition. And some scientists have even said that jealousy is an entirely social construct – not seen in all human cultures and not fundamental or hard-wired in the same ways that fear and anger are.
June 20, 2014
June 20, 2014 —
The California budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on June 20 creates a statewide research grants program called Cal-BRAIN, an initiative led by UC San Diego. With an initial allocation of $2 million, Cal-BRAIN – short for California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience – is a state complement to the federal BRAIN Initiative announced by President Barack Obama in April of 2013. It aims to “accelerate the development of brain mapping techniques, including the development of new technologies.”
