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NEWS
July 2025

We Power Emerging Industries

No matter what twists and turns the world takes, our mission here at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering remains steadfast: we are educating the innovation workforce for the economy to come.

We are able to keep focused on this fundamental duty because the Jacobs School is resilient in the face of unprecedented rates of change across the research funding landscape. We pivot as needed to deliver on our interrelated missions to advance engineering and computer science education and research for the public good. We have pivoted before, and we’ll do it again.

Looking ahead, it’s clear to me that industry, foundation and philanthropic partnerships are going to be increasingly important. New partnerships will empower our Jacobs School to have the greatest positive impacts possible on the health, prosperity and security of the region and the nation.

Government funding will remain critical of course, but the landscape is changing. As engineers and computer scientists, we are obliged to plan and to work based on the world as it is, rather than how we might want it to be. By definition, engineers and computer scientists must start with on-the-ground reality and disrupt forward from there. That’s how we build better futures. It’s what we do.

In a variety of different venues over the last few months, I have shared our strategy: the Jacobs School is building new partnerships based on shared interests – partnerships that empower us to transform our engineering and computer science students into the innovation workforce the country needs. By doing this, we power emerging industries.

Across the Jacobs School, our faculty are engaging with new and long-standing partners to identify and build out the research and education collaborations with the strongest mutual interest. We are seeking new partnerships in areas where our world-class expertise, talent and facilities align with the most difficult technical challenges and workforce development priorities of our partners. We are looking for the shared challenges that no lab, discipline, company or industry can solve alone. This is our forward-looking approach to partnering with industry, government, foundations and philanthropy.

At the same time, I recognize the personal and professional hardships that funding uncertainties are causing our community. These hardships are real and they are painful. It is more important than ever that we articulate the many roles that federal funding plays in our ability to increase the health, prosperity and security of the region and the nation. As I’ve written before, we know how to leverage the symbiotic relationship between government and private funding for the greatest positive impact in engineering and computer science research and education.

As a community, we are finding new ways to work together to accomplish the research and transformative education necessary to create the innovation workforce to power emerging industries. I look forward to working with many of you on this critical challenge.

As always, I can be reached at: DeanPisano@ucsd.edu.

Sincerely,

Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives

Air Pollution is a Major Factor for Lung Cancer In Never-Smokers

Lung cancer has long been thought of as a smoker’s disease. But as tobacco use has declined in many parts of the world, a troubling trend has emerged: lung cancer in people who have never smoked is proportionally on the rise. A study led by UC San Diego bioengineers published in Nature has uncovered compelling genomic evidence that points to air pollution—and other environmental exposures—as a potential major factor behind this growing public health concern. While previous studies have shown an epidemiological link between air pollution and lung cancer in never-smokers, this new research goes further by showing a genomic link. Read coverage in The New York Times, Science News and Newsweek.

Tallest Steel-framed Building Ever Tested on an Earthquake Simulator

The 10-story, 100-foot structure was put through simulations of real earthquakes, including the 6.9 magnitude 1989 Loma Prieta temblor, as part of an effort to determine if height limits for buildings made of cold-formed steel could be increased. The testing is taking place on the Jacobs School of Engineering's outdoor earthquake simulator, also known as a shake table,. The tests are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a range of industry and public-sector collaborators. Our shake table is one of the three largest in the world and the only one located outdoors. The outdoor location is crucial for tests like these, which push the boundaries in height limits for buildings. Look for updates on the fire-following-earthquakes tests next month. In the meantime, watch press coverage from Reuters, USA Today and KPBS.

Jacobs School Dean Emeritus Honored by NSF

Bob Conn, dean emeritus of the Jacobs School of Engineering, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Foundation’s National Science Board. Receiving this award makes Conn one of only three people ever to be honored with both this prestigious award from the NSF and also the highly prestigious Simon Ramo Founders Award from the National Academy of Engineering. Conn is being recognized for his seminal contributions to fusion engineering; his decades of service advising the federal government and scientific agencies; and for his role in founding the Science Philanthropy Alliance, which has increased philanthropic support for basic science in many disciplines. He is the third UC San Diego recipient of the Vannevar Bush Award.

Rajesh Gupta Named Dean of SCIDS

Rajesh Gupta, a distinguished computer scientist and seasoned academic leader, has been named founding dean of the UC San Diego School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences (SCIDS). The school was established in 2024 with an emphasis on research and education—particularly artificial intelligence, computing and data science—fields that are fundamentally transforming contemporary society.

One Wristband to Monitor Diabetes and Cardiovascular Care

A new wearable wristband developed by chemical and nano engineers at UC San Diego could significantly improve diabetes management by continuously tracking not only glucose, but also other chemical and cardiovascular signals that influence disease progression and overall health. The flexible wristband consists of a microneedle array that painlessly samples interstitial fluid under the skin to measure glucose, lactate and alcohol in real time using three different enzymes embedded within the tiny needles. Simultaneously, an ultrasonic sensor array measures blood pressure and arterial stiffness, while ECG sensors measure heart rate directly from wrist pulses. The technology, developed as part of our Center for Wearable Sensors, was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Cooling Tech Could Curb Data Centers’ Rising Energy Demands

Cooling systems currently account for 40% of a data center's total energy use, and are often water intensive, too. A specially engineered fiber membrane that passively removes heat through evaporation could significantly improve the efficiency of these energy-guzzling data centers and high-powered electronics. It offers a promising alternative to traditional cooling systems like fans, heat sinks and liquid pumps.

Living Materials Now Easier to Build with a Larger Palette of Ingredients

Sustainable materials—powered by sunlight and living microbes—could become simpler to create thanks to an advancement led by researchers in the UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). These so-called "engineered living materials" could be used to remove pollutants from water, release oxygen into a wound or heal themselves after damage. The team developed a method to make these materials out of a much wider range of ingredients than is currently possible.

The Robot Will See You Now

Humanoid robots could be a game changer in the operating room. As waiting rooms fill up, doctors get increasingly burnt out, and surgeries take longer to schedule, surgical robots offer possible solutions. In Science Robotics, UC San Diego roboticist Michael Yip argues that if we give arms and multi-fingered hands to our surgical robots—similar to the trend seen in industrial robots—this would not only produce a new class of robots in the operating room, but it would also allow those robots to take full advantage of the AI foundation models that have been accelerating the capability of industrial robots learning new skills and assisting in a large variety of tasks. Read coverage in The CyberGuy Report on Fox News. Computer science Professor Henrik Christensen, Director of our Contextual Robotics Institute, also elaborates on physical vs embodied AI in this Fast Company article.

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