Engineering Grand Challenges - UC San Diego

Make Solar Energy Economical

2008-09-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Electrical engineers at the Jacobs School are working on very high efficiency photovoltaic devices that may lead to more economical solar energy. In November 2007, UC San Diego received $885,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – part of a recent $21 million DOE investment in next generation photovoltaic technology that aims at accelerating the widespread use of advanced solar power.

The UCSD engineers are working on high-efficiency photovoltaics based on semiconductor nanostructures. Electrical engineering professor Edward Yu is the principal investigator on the project. Yu and his team – which includes electrical engineering faculty members and co-PIs Deli Wang and Paul K. Y. Yu – aim to exploit a variety of semiconductor nanostructures, specifically semiconductor quantum wells and nanowires, to achieve high photovoltaic power conversion efficiency. Media contact: Daniel Kane (858) 534-3262 dbkane@ucsd.edu

Develop carbon sequestration methods

2008-09-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Biologists at UC San Diego working with colleagues in Europe reported in Nature that rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may not lead to greater photosynthetic activity and carbon sequestration by plants as atmospheric ozone pollutants increase.
Media Contact: Kim McDonald, 858-534-7572, kmcdonald@ucsd.edu

California researchers plan to make alcohol fuel in a novel way that doesn't involve food crops or microbial fermentation. Three University of California campuses (San Diego, Davis, and Berkeley) and West Biofuels LLC, are developing a prototype research reactor that will use steam, sand and catalysts to efficiently convert forest, urban, and agricultural "cellulosic" wastes that would otherwise go to landfills into alcohol that can be used as a gasoline additive.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, 858-534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Reverse Engineer the Brain

2008-09-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

A UC San Diego bioengineer reveals some of the secrets behind understanding the new analytical tools and models of neuronal functions now being developed via a new book called Databasing the Brain: From Data to Knowledge. The book, co-authored by Shankar Subramaniam, chair of the Jacobs School Department of Bioengineering; and neurinformatics expert Stephen H. Koslow, is the first comprehensive book on neuroinformatics, and covers everything from relevant computational science and modeling issues to their diverse applications.
Media Contact: Daniel Kane, 858-534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Provide energy from fusion

2008-02-29T10:09:00.000-08:00

Researchers at UC San Diego and San Diego-based General Atomics have reported an improved control method for a type of nuclear fusion technology that confines a cloud of ionized hydrogen in a doughnut-shaped machine called a tokamak.

Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu

UC San Diego's Center for Energy Research has several programs focused on creating efficient energy sources, including next generation fusion solutions. One project CER scientists are working on is PISCES, which focuses on fundamental and applied research in the field of boundary plasma science for fusion applications. Some of the research for PISCES will be used to create solutions for ITER, the International Thermonucklear Experimental Reactor, a joint research project between the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea. ITER will be the first fusion experiment to produce long pulses of energy released on a significant scale.
Media Contact: Andrea Siedsma (858) 822-0299, asiedsma@soe.ucsd.edu

Reverse-engineer the brain

2008-02-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

Neurobiologists at UC San Diego have discovered that altering electrical activity in nerve cells can change the chemical messengers the cells generate to communicate with other cells, a finding that may one day lead to new treatments for mood and learning disorders. In a study published in Nature, the UCSD team showed that manipulating the electrical activity of developing nerve cells can alter the type of neurotransmitter they produce.

Media Contact: Sherry Seethaler, (858) 534-4656,
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The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind has awarded grants to 12 investigative teams at UCSD:

--Neurotransmitter Changes in Patients Awake during Brain Surgery.
--How a Neuron Becomes a Mirror in the Developing Brain.

--The Role of the Amygdala in Social Cognition Across Animals.

--Phenotypic Markers for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

--Molecular Genetic Characterization of the Lesch Nyhan Disease.

--Neurogenesis in Dentate Gyrus: A Computational Exploration.

--Exploring the Role of GABAergic Activity in the Brain.

--Relating Functional and Physical Long-Distance Connectivity in Development.

--Brain Dynamics and Motor Control.

--Consciousness in Blindsight and Hypnosis.

--Human Brain Responses to Humanoid Robots.

--Cortical Models of Fluid Intelligence.

Media contact: Barry Jagoda, (858)534-8567, bjagoda@ucsd.edu.

Ketamine, also known as “Special K,” can induce schizophrenia-like symptoms in drug abusers. Ketamine is also used as an anesthetic and an antidepressant, leading to impairments in brain circuitry that are observed in drug abusers and schizophrenic patients. Increased production of a toxic free radicals is the molecular culprit, and findings reported in Science by UC San Diego researchers could point the way to novel treatments for schizophrenia.

Media Contact: Debra Kain, 619-543-6163, ddkain@ucsd.edu

Advance personalized learning

2008-02-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

Jacob Whitehill, a computer science Ph.D. student at UC San Diego, can turn his face into a remote control that speeds and slows video playback. The proof-of-concept demonstration is part of a larger project to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers. Whitehill's new work (PDF) builds on technology for detecting facial expressions being developed at UC San Diego’s Machine Perception Laboratory (MPLab), part of the Institute for Neural Computation, and housed in the UCSD Division of Calit2.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Computer scientists at UC San Diego are working on ways to get students to blog, read blogs, instant message and send text and photo messages from cell phones during class. It's not about goofing off; it's about using technology to engage students in active learning exercises in the classroom.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

The Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center (TDLC) at UC San Diego is developing a science of the temporal dynamics of learning that treats time as a crucial element in the learning process. Researchers are integrating the study of learning dynamics across multiple time scales - from milliseconds, to life-long learning. This new science will inform educational practices and result in better learning outcomes. The TDLC is directed by computer science professor Garrison Cottrell along with a team of seven C0-PIs: Dan Feldman, Andrea Chiba, Javier Movellan, Isabel Gauthier, Thomas Palmeri, Paula Tallal and Terry Sejnowski

Media contact: Inga Kiderra, (858) 822-0661, ikiderra@ucsd.edu; Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Mentor Net: Long-distance relationships are often tough. But when it comes to mentoring, the distance can turn out to be a good thing. Over email, a mentor who is hundreds or thousands of miles away can give advice and feedback based on a perspective that you might not get from an advisor down the hall. At no charge, all UCSD engineering, mathematics and science undergrads, grad students, postdocs and new faculty members can link up with a mentor over email thanks to a partnership between UCSD and MentorNet – an e-mentoring network promoting diversity in engineering and science.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Restore and improve urban infrastructure

2008-02-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

UC San Diego engineers have launched a series of earthquake tests on a structure approximating a parking garage. The 1 million-pound precast concrete structure possesses the largest footprint of any structure ever tested on an earthquake simulator in the United States.

This test has a very high priority for the construction design industry because during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, nine precast parking garages in the Los Angeles area collapsed. The problem with current precast, prestressed concrete is that individual precast elements pull apart.

Besides parking garages, this type of precast, prestressed concrete is used in college dorms, hotels, prisons, stadiums and now office buildings. The goal of the $2.3 million project is to provide designs for buildings by 2012 that can withstand a major earthquake. Media Contact: Andrea Siedsma, (858) 822-0899, asiedsma@soe.ucsd.edu.

UC San Diego structural engineers used one of the largest “shake tables” in the world to subject a seven-story structure to the same seismic shaking recorded during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The experiment proved a revolutionary new theory that mid-rise concrete apartments, condominiums and hotels can be built to survive powerful earthquakes with less steel reinforcement than currently required by California building codes.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu.

UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering has performed large-scale seismic tests on a 50 foot-long, 20 foot-high and 14 foot-wide bridge to gauge how it would respond in an earthquake. The bridge superstructure is made with a pre-cast segmental construction technique similar to the design of the Skyway portion of the new San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge East Span. Unlike traditional “cast-in-place” designs, this approach uses pre-cast concrete sections that are held together by strong steel tendons. Because the deck pieces can be manufactured elsewhere and then fastened to concrete columns upon arrival, they offer an economical solution to bridge construction.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu.

Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a new technique they said is better able than currently used technology to find defects in steel railroad tracks, including hard-to-find internal cracks that can break under the weight of passing trains. Defects in the rail account for about one-fourth of the 1,000 annual track-caused train derailments in the U.S., according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the federal agency charged with enforcing rail safety regulations.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu.
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Researchers at UC San Diego's Cymer Center for Control Systems and Dynamics are helping the U.S. Navy figure out ways to improve ship-to-ship cargo transfer. The researchers are developing real-time optimization and active control techniques for a 3D model with hydrodynamics effects. Currently, ship-to-ship cargo transfer over a ramp in moderate to high seas represents significant challenges for ship and control system designers due to the sometimes unpredictable swaying of the ramps that connect vessels. Cargo transfer between large container ships and smaller connector ships is critical to the U.S. Navy’s ability to provide logistical support for military operations abroad.
Media contact: Andrea Siedsma, (858) 822-0899, asiedsma@soe.ucsd.edu.

Advance health informatics

2008-02-28T15:07:00.000-08:00

UC San Diego researchers have pioneered a more accurate approach for predicting the risk of breast cancer metastasis in individual patients and described the technique in Molecular Systems Biology. The researchers took advantage of new protein interaction databases and identified networks of genes from breast cancer patients – rather than individual genes – that can be used to predict whether a breast cancer tumor is likely to spread.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu.

Bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego have painstakingly assembled a virtual human metabolic network that will give researchers a new way to hunt for better treatments for hundreds of human metabolic disorders, from diabetes to high levels of cholesterol in the blood. This first-of-its-kind metabolic network builds on the sequencing of the human genome and contains more than 3,300 known human biochemical transformations that have been documented during 50 years of research worldwide.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu.

Shankar Subramaniam, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program, has co-authored the first comprehensive book on neuroinformatics. The extensively illustrated book covers everything from relevant computational science and modeling issues to their diverse applications. Databasing the Brain: From Data to Knowledge (Neuroinformatics) is devoted to an emerging interdisciplinary field that integrates neuroscience with informatics to create unique databases and analytical tools. Neuroinformatics is making use of a large variety of data types, applying them to brain research, and linking them with databases within both neuroscience and other fields, such as genomics and proteomics.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu

One gene for pea pod color generates green pods while a variant of that gene gives rise to the yellow-pod phenotype, a feature that helped Gregor Mendel, the 19th century Austrian priest and scientist, first describe genetic inheritance. However, many modern-day geneticists are focused on the strange ability of some genes to be expressed spontaneously in either of two possible ways. The phenomenon is called epigenetic multistability, a major complication for Mendelian genetics.
Media contact: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu

Engineer tools of scientific discovery

2008-02-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

Seeking to capitalize on the potential of a new generation of multi-functional nanoscale devices and special materials built on the scale of individual molecules, UC San Diego has established a new Department of NanoEngineering within its Jacobs School of Engineering effective July 1. Undergraduate and graduate students will learn from an interdisciplinary team of professors who are leaders in various fields of engineering, physics and chemistry and a variety of new sub-disciplines where those fields overlap.
Media contacts: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu
Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu.

Cytoscape is an open source bioinformatics software platform for visualizing molecular interaction networks and biological pathways and integrating these networks with annotations, gene expression profiles and other state data. Although Cytoscape was originally designed for biological research, now it is a general platform for complex network analysis and visualization.
Media contacts: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu
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The Jacobs School’s Cymer Center for Control Systems and Dynamics develops the mathematical and theoretical basis of control and dynamical system modeling, analysis, estimation, and design that are applicable to a wide range of engineering problems.

UC San Diego scientists have developed a technique to use laser beams as "tweezers” to trap individual atoms, microscopic particles, DNA molecules, and various cells, including sperm cells. The technique relies on the momentum inherent in laser light: when the path of laser light bends as it passes through a small transparent object such as a cell, some of the light’s momentum is transferred to the object, effectively holding, or trapping it. The brighter the laser, the more firmly the object of interest is held.
Media contacts: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu
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Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are studying air-sea interactions, climate prediction, earthquakes, biodiversity in marine ecosystems, marine chemistry, and other multidisciplinary aspects of global change and the environment with advanced technologies and unique instruments, such as laser-based and sound-imaging devices, ocean devices, airplanes, remotely operated aircraft, land stations, and from satellites.
Media Contact: Mario Aguilera, (858) 534-3624, scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
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Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessels have played a critical role in exploring Earth, supporting a wide range of seagoing science. State-of-the-art research instruments allow scientists on board to study marine life, the ocean floor, the atmosphere, and physical and chemical properties and phenomena in the oceans.
Media Contact: Mario Aguilera, (858) 534-3624, scrippsnews@ucsd.edu

FLIP, the Floating Instrument Platform, is a 355-foot-long manned spar buoy designed as a stable research platform for oceanographic research. FLIP is towed to its operating area in the horizontal position and through ballast changes is “flipped” to the vertical position to become a stable spar buoy with a draft of 300 feet. FLIP has been used for acoustics research and in a variety of other programs including geophysics, meteorology, physical oceanography, marine mammal studies, and laser propagation experiments. FLIP is one of many state-of-the-art research instruments that allow scientists on board Scripps Institution of Oceanography vessels study marine life, the ocean floor, the atmosphere, and physical and chemical properties and phenomena in the oceans.
Media Contact: Mario Aguilera, (858) 534-3624, scrippsnews@ucsd.edu

The torpedo-shaped “Argo” instruments contain sensors that collect vital information about the ocean's impacts on weather and climate around the world. Data from the robotic floats are being used by researchers around the world for topics such as climate and weather phenomena, changes in the salinity of the ocean, ocean-driven events such as El Niño and their impacts on regional weather, impacts of ocean temperature on fisheries and regional ecosystems, interactions between the ocean and monsoons, and how the oceans drive hurricanes and typhoons.
Media Contact: Robert Monroe, (858) 534-3624 scrippsnews@ucsd.edu

Prevent Nuclear Terror

2008-02-28T14:18:00.000-08:00

The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at UC San Diego is a multidisciplinary team of scholars, students, staff, and interested parties both within and outside of the University of California, brought together by their common interest in studying international conflict and cooperation. IGCC researchers study a wide range of topics involving security, environmental, and economic policies that shape our ability to prevent conflict and promote cooperation across the globe. Evolving threats to global stability require exploration of nontraditional connections between and across disciplines and institutions.

Media contact: Barry Jagoda, (858)534-8567, bjagoda@ucsd.edu

UC San Dego structural engineers and a team of industry and university partners are developing and evaluating blast mitigation technologies to harden buildings and bridges against terrorist bomb attacks.Media contacts:
Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu

Scientists and engineers are collaborating across disciplines to develop and network miniaturized intelligent nanosensors that can rapidly and remotely detect change in their surroundings. A UC San Diego professor of chemistry and biochemistry is developing sensors with many potential applications: environmental, medical, military and transportation.
Media Contact: Kim McDonald, 858-534-7572, kmcdonald@ucsd.edu

Engineer Better Medicines

2008-02-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Stem Cell research at UC San Diego got an additional boost from a $2.8 million Shared Research Laboratory Grant funded in 2007 by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) supports the creation of a new 2,775 square-foot satellite core facility in UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. The laboratory will build on the research and expertise of faculty from Bioengineering and other departments in the Jacobs School, and from the Division of Physical Sciences. Faculty researchers in these departments include experts in new technologies such as nanotechnology, biomaterials, instrumentation, bioreactors and tissue engineering, all key to the stem cell research effort.
Media Contacts: Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163, lfranz@ucsd.edu

Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu
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Researchers at the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine are exploring the oceans for novel and diverse resources to help cure human disease. As the number of new sources for terrestrial biomedicines has dwindled, the oceans represent a vast, largely untapped resource. Scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography are analyzing bacteria in deep-sea sediment and marine algae from locations throughout the world.
Media Contact: Mario Aguilera, (858) 534-3624, scrippsnews@ucsd.edu
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UC San Diego's School of Medicine and the California Telemedicine & eHealth Center have developed the Southern California Telemedicine Learning Center.
Media Contact: Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163, lfranz@ucsd.edu
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In a new national effort to fight cancer with “nanoscale” devices that find and destroy tumor cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2005 awarded UC San Diego $3.9 million in the first year of a five-year $20 million initiative to establish a Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE). The UCSD center will use nanotechnology to develop anti-cancer therapies that directly target tumor cells; more accurate and faster diagnostics; and ways to track down cancer cells that survive therapy.
Media Contacts: Rex Graham, (858) 822-3075, ragraham@ucsd.edu
Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163, lfranz@ucsd.edu
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A team of researchers at UC San Diego has identified a potent new anti-cancer drug isolated from a toxic blue-green algae found in the South Pacific. The properties of the compound are described in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Media Contact: Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163, lfranz@ucsd.edu
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Researchers at UC San Diego and their collaborators have reported in Science that a drug designed to lower cholesterol also is effective against serious Staphylococcus aureus infections.
Media Contact: Leslie Franz, (619) 543-6163, lfranz@ucsd.edu

Manage the Nitrogen Cycle

2008-02-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

Nitrogen is an important element - the most abundant constituent of the atmosphere. It is also one of the essential elements for the growth of plants and animals. Nitrogen oxides are involved in environmental problems, such as acid rain, global warming, and urban smog. Thus, it is important to understand how reactions of the various nitrogen compounds are interrelated. William Trogler, a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is an expert on the dynamic environmental exchange of nitrogen between the atmosphere, land masses. and oceans.

Media contact: Kim McDonald, (858) 534-7572, kmcdonald@ucsd.edu

Secure Cyberspace

2008-02-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

We are now at an inflection point in the utility of the now global communication network. Moving forward, the reach of the network will enable a new class of applications and opportunities to collaborate and communicate. With these opportunities come a number of challenges. As networked applications and services permeate our daily experience, we will require new techniques to improve the security of our data and to manage scale and complexity of the millions of compute and communication elements powering the global network. UCSD's Center for Networked Systems has a world-class team of faculty and students performing cutting-edge research in all areas of computer networks, from optical interconnects and wireless sensor networks to data center architectures and network security.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

Enhance Virtual Reality

2008-02-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

Computer scientists at UC San Diego have taken the wraps off a new technique for mixing images and video feeds from mobile cameras in the field to provide remote viewers with a virtual window into a physical environment. Dubbed "RealityFlythrough," the application constructs a 3D virtual environment dynamically out of the live video streams.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu

When a bridge collapses, testing how well structural systems hold up in the event of an earthquake or other disaster assumes added urgency. Little attention, however, is paid to the nonstructural systems that may also be damaged in the event of a temblor -- potentially causing even more damage than the structure itself and threatening the lives of the structure's occupants. "Our information-technology research involves sketch-based modeling, simulation and visualization," said Falko Kuester, Calit2 professor for visualization and virtual reality and associate professor of Structural Engineering in UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering.
Media contact: Daniel Kane, (858) 534-3262, dbkane@ucsd.edu