AI Innovation: World Cup to Wildfire Tech |
|
| | |
Dear SDSC Collaborators, Partners and All Friends:
When people ask what excites me most about where we are headed, it comes down to real-world impact. This issue highlights the many ways SDSC put that into action this season to serve communities across the country.
We marked a major milestone with the launch of the NSF-funded Category I National Data Platform. This project will unify fragmented national infrastructure into an AI-ready ecosystem, putting powerful data and computing resources at the fingertips of U.S. researchers, educators and students.
That same commitment to practical solutions drives our work across local communities...
|
| |
|
SCIL received $1.8 million for the Wildfire Science and Technology Commons, a collaborative platform for sharing data and developing wildfire tech, and to build digital twins, enabling researchers and fire managers to test tools and strategies before real wildfire events.
|
|
|
As Mexico City prepared for the surge of international visitors expected during the FIFA World Cup, developers behind Xoli, an AI-powered tourism assistant, turned to a team from SDSC for help scale testing their technology to meet anticipated demand from high volumes of users.
|
|
|
|
The NSF awarded NDP $24.5 million over five years to build a federated, AI-ready national data ecosystem. Led by UC San Diego, the project will connect data, computing, and AI resources for nationwide researchers and educators.
|
|
|
SDSC’s Ilya Zaslavsky teaches a UC San Diego course focused on work with geospatial datasets that allow students to tackle challenges involving international economics, migration, sustainable development, infrastructure conditions, risk forecasting and ecological systems.
|
|
|
|
Ilkay Altintas, SDSC chief data science officer and director of the Societal Computing and Innovation Lab, has been nominated for the Gamechanger Award. This award recognizes a faculty member or researcher who has invented an impactful product that has been introduced to the market and translated into a technology, product or service with societal, economic or scientific impact.
|
SDSC Director Frank Würthwein has joined the CENIC Board of Directors as Science Advisor for the 2026–27 fiscal year. In this role, he will help advance the educational and economic initiatives of the CENIC AI Resource across California's higher education institutions and local industries.
|
F3 Innovate, Fresno State and SDSC launched the F3i Supercomputing Center to provide advanced computing resources, technical expertise and workforce training for California's food and agriculture sector. The center will help researchers, students and industry partners develop AI technologies and accelerate innovation across the agricultural supply chain.
|
Yifeng Cui and his group are advancing the state of the art with an earthquake simulator that models earthquake risk at unprecedented fidelity. The project runs vast ensembles of simulations across more than 1,000 sites, executing approximately one million jobs per site on leadership-class supercomputers to generate detailed seismic hazard forecasts.
|
|
|
Researchers at Murray State University used Expanse to model hydrogen storage materials that could help improve the safety and efficiency of hydrogen-based energy. The study, which offers new insights into how hydrogen binds to magnesium-based materials, was featured on the cover of the journal Hydrogen.
|
|
|
SDSC's Expanse and PSC's Bridges-2 supercomputers were utilized to develop an AI system that identifies the sex of endangered red abalone using ultrasound images. The non-invasive approach could help hatcheries and conservation programs improve breeding success while supporting abalone population recovery.
|
|
|
|
Using SDSC's Expanse, MIT researchers created an AI framework that improves simulations of complex materials by more accurately modeling how atoms are arranged. The approach could help accelerate the design of stronger, more efficient materials for applications ranging from aerospace to electronics.
|
|
|
UC San Diego scientists have found a better way to understand and stabilize hydroxyapatite, the calcium phosphate mineral that makes up much of our teeth and bones. By incorporating europium’s light-emitting properties into the material, it becomes easier to see in bioimaging applications.
|
|
|
|
The United Nations, SDSC and UC San Diego hosted Southern California's first Reboot the Earth hackathon, bringing together students to develop technology solutions for wildfire prevention and management. Teams created applications addressing challenges such as emergency communication, agricultural protection and livestock evacuation, highlighting the role of technology in improving wildfire preparedness.
|
Participants made NDP workspaces, modules and classrooms, and explored how the platform can be utilized across a wide range of disciplines — from introductory computer science to health informatics programs for physicians.
|
SDSC researchers recently co-hosted an interactive workshop at the ACM FAccT conference in Montreal, urging broader public participation in shaping the design and governance of artificial intelligence. The session introduced creative framework techniques to help participants imagine inclusive, justice-oriented tech futures rooted in community needs and environmental sustainability.
|
|
|
Social Media & Video Highlights |
Another incredible season of the Research Experience for High School Students (REHS) program wrapped up on a high note as students gained hands-on experience across a wide range of disciplines — from developing training for high-performance computing and building secure pipelines for large language models to processing neuroscience data and creating engaging science communications.
|
While SCIL is celebrating its first anniversary, its ideas, partnerships and applied research span more than two decades. From the WIFIRE Program to the National Data Platform and the CORE Institute, we tell a 25-year story of innovation and impact that laid the foundation for SCIL and continues to shape its future.
|
|
|
Inside San Diego’s Innovation Engine
A national conversation on competitiveness highlighted UC San Diego’s role as both a catalyst for innovation and a convener of leading minds.
UC San Diego Launches New Business Data Science Major
The first program of its kind in the UC system, a new bachelor’s degree from the Halıcıoğlu School for Data Science and Computing and the Rady School of Management will enable students to turn data into strategic business decisions.
For a full listing of news around campus, please visit UC San Diego Today.
|
|
|
SDSC Innovators newsletter is published six times a year, every two months.
To submit information to be included in the next edition, please send details to kbruch@ucsd.edu.
Unsubscribe | Subscribe | Privacy Policy
9500 Gilman Drive MC 0505 | La Jolla, CA 92093 US
Copyright 2026 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
|
