Skip to main content

News Archive

News Archive - Ioana Patringenaru

Tough, Light and Strong: Lessons From Nature Could Lead to the Creation of New Materials

In a sweeping review of the field of bio-inspired engineering and biomimicry in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science, two engineers at the University of California, San Diego, identify three characteristics of biological materials that they believe engineers would do well to emulate in man-made materials: light weight, toughness and strength.

Engineering Students Develop App to Help Protect Marine Conservation Areas

A team of engineering students at UC San Diego has been working hard to help protect the beaches and waters off the La Jolla coastline by developing a web app that will allow volunteers to monitor the health of marine conservation areas. Volunteers will input information about human activity, pollution, and even poaching, into the app via an interactive form.

Working Alone Won’t Get You Good Grades

Students who work together and interact online are more likely to be successful in their college classes, according to a study published Jan. 30 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports co-authored by Manuel Cebrian, a computer scientist at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

Small, Portable Sensors Allow Users to Monitor Exposure to Pollution on Their Smart Phones

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have built a small fleet of portable pollution sensors that allow users to monitor air quality in real time on their smart phones. The sensors could be particularly useful to people suffering from chronic conditions, such as asthma, who need to avoid exposure to pollutants.

Jacobs School Shines at Fluid Dynamics Conference

Simulations that help doctors perform life-saving surgeries; a better way to model climate in urban areas; and optimized blood flow patterns for heart patients with pacemakers. Fluid dynamics researchers from the University of California, San Diego, are discussing their research on these topics—and many others—at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics here in San Diego Nov. 18 to 20. With about 2,300 contributed presentations, the APS/DFD annual conference is the largest scientific meeting of researchers in fluid dynamics.

The Quest for a Better Electric Vehicle Battery

As the United States moves toward a switch from gas-powered to electric vehicles, one significant stumbling block remains: the massive batteries needed to run them. The devices remain fairly heavy, costly and slow to charge.

Making Crowdsourcing More Reliable

From Wikipedia to relief efforts after natural disasters, crowdsourcing has become a powerful tool in today’s connected world. Now an international team of researchers including a computer scientist at the University of California, San Diego, report they have found a way to make crowdsourcing more reliable. They describe their findings in the Oct. 10 issue of the open access journal PLOS ONE.

New Structural and Materials Engineering Building Brings Visual Artists, Engineers Under One Roof

Aerospace engineers and structural engineers are working together to make composite aircraft structures safer. Visual artists are using nanoengineering tools, such as a scanning electron microscope, to make art. Structural engineers and medical device researchers are joining forces to improve the design of a heart pump for children born with heart defects. These are only a few of the examples of multi-disciplinary work taking place in the new Structural and Materials Engineering building at the University of California, San Diego.

New and Improved Solar Variability Model in High Demand

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have released a new, more accurate version of a software program that allows power grid managers and solar power plant developers to easily model fluctuations in solar power output caused by changes in the cloud cover.

$10 Million NSF Grant to Help Computer Scientists Understand the World of Cybercrime

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley and George Mason University have received a $10 million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to map out the illicit activities taking place in the cybersecurity underworld and to understand how the mind of a cybercriminal works.

Search UC San Diego Today