Campus News

UC San Diego Breaks Ground on Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center

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.

Paul Kube Honored as Computer Science Educator

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.”

IDEA Scholars Program Boosts Retention Rates of Underrepresented Engineering Students

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.”

UC San Diego Students Aim to Break World Record for Longest Flight of 3D-Printed Rocket Engine

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.

Beyond MOOCs: Campus Launches Online Learning Office Headed by Jeff Elman

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.”

More than 8,000 Graduates to Participate in UC San Diego’s 2015 Commencement Series

Some 8,364 graduating students of the University of California, San Diego will gather to hear commencement speeches from dynamic speakers such as alumnus J. Craig Venter, a biochemist, geneticist and entrepreneur; Frank Bruni, New York Times op-ed columnist; alumnus Dan Santat, author and illustrator; and Christina Figueres, United Nations Executive Secretary. The students will participate in the campus’s 11 commencement events, with the majority of ceremonies taking place June 13-14, preceded by the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences May 16 and the School of Medicine’s June 7 graduation.