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faculty are truly world class, and they are already using custom machine-learning models — based on first principles — to do things like prioritize candidate materials to make in the lab.

Focusing some of our incredible materials strengths on quantum materials is timely, given that tomorrow’s quantum materials will advance low-power computing, data encryption, secure communications, medical diagnostics, sensors, stealth materials and high-performance electronics.

This is our second consecutive round of MRSEC funding at UC San Diego. With our first MRSEC, we built up our capacity to work across disciplines to discover and design relevant new materials. Now, we are augmenting all of this disciplinary strength with machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop both quantum metamaterials and two-dimensional superlattice materials. We are doing this as a powerful team drawn from the Jacobs School of Engineering and the School of Physical Sciences. 

Congratulations and thank you to the faculty leadership team across engineering and physical sciences, and to everyone who made the heavy lift required to secure this wildly competitive materials funding. Our engineers and physical scientists put in maximal effort. And their hard work, combined with world-class excellence, has paid off. 

Here at the Jacobs School, we are bringing the incredible power of disciplinary expertise combined with AI/ML to many critical R&D areas, not just to quantum materials. A 2026 report from the non-partisan think tank the Institute for Progress articulates some of the positive impacts that world-class engineering schools like ours can make by combining our disciplinary strengths with strategic efforts to accelerate the development and use of AI/ML models trained on experimental data and physics-based simulations. 

I am excited to engage in new collaborations connecting campus, industry and government efforts around new quantum materials and many other domains. By looking beyond business as usual, we have incredible opportunities to advance our global competitiveness while improving lives. If you are interested in getting engaged, please reach out. As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu.

Click here to read my entire column: "Accelerating Discovery and Design of Quantum Materials with AI."

Sincerely,

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

Physical access to an aircraft has not typically been considered a cybersecurity risk – but it should be, according to a team of computer scientists at UC San Diego. The researchers showed how physical access to an aircraft – for less than 60 seconds – would allow an attacker equipped with a custom-made hardware device to take over the communications between two key onboard computers. The researchers successfully demonstrated the attack on a testbed made of actual Boeing 737 airplane parts and airplane software. The proof-of-concept attack allowed researchers to change the plane’s flight path and change data that could make takeoff conditions unsafe.  Read coverage in Wired. Read more

Only 12% of stroke patients eligible for a time-critical and life-saving procedure to restore normal blood flow are able to access this treatment, due to distance from a specialized hospital with highly trained surgeons. With up to $22.9M from ARPA-H, engineers at UC San Diego will lead development of a soft robot that can autonomously navigate through the tiny blood vessels of the brain to remove the blood clot, expanding access to this life-saving procedure. The research team, which spans six universities and three industry partners, is led by Tania Morimoto, a mechanical engineering professor at UC San Diego. Read more

The six-year grant from the National Science Foundation funds a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) focused on making new kinds of quantum materials. The two types of new materials are quantum metamaterials and chemically tailored two-dimensional superlattices, and developing them leverages materials domain expertise as well as cutting edge AI/ML approaches. Quantum materials show promise for a broad range of national priorities including low-power computing, data encryption, secure communications and medical diagnostics. The UC San Diego MRSEC is a joint initiative between the Jacobs School of Engineering and the School of Physical Sciences. Read more

The 3D-printed tiles, designed by electrical engineers at UC San Diego, can be used to reflect millimeter wave signals in ways that address path obstruction and improve wireless network coverage. In fact, the tiles nearly doubled the average millimeter wave communications link data rates indoors. Each tile is lightweight, inexpensive and easy to adhere to wall surfaces, and requires no firmware changes, no modifications to standard network protocols, and no awareness of the metasurface network. The team is part of the UC San Diego Center for Wireless Communications. Read more 

Engineers and medical teams at UC San Diego are working toward a closed-loop sense-and-treat system that could provide both lab tests and medicine delivery through the same microneedle patch worn on the arm. The goal is for this small patch to be capable of continuously monitoring five or more different biological signals simultaneously from the fluid that lies less than 1 millimeter beneath the surface of your skin, and then directly administering medicine based on this real-time data stream. This story is from the 2026 issue of Discoveries magazine from UC San Diego Health Sciences. Read more

Bioengineers developed a microbe strain that can feed exclusively on the three major sugars present in corn stalks, which are considered an agricultural waste. In the process, the research team uncovered new insights for leveraging the process of evolution to create novel strains of microbes for tomorrow’s biomanufacturing economy — microbe strains that are highly adept at feeding off of low-cost feedstocks like agricultural waste or even mixed plastics. A key element of this line of research is the automated ALEbot (Adaptive Laboratory Evolution robot) platform developed by Adam Feist, a professor of bioengineering and director of the Future Biomanufacturing Center at UC San Diego. The platform allows the researchers to direct the evolution of microbes through multiple experiments running in parallel around the clock.  Read more

After nearly 30 years of designing and building a formula race car powered by an internal combustion engine for the annual Formula Society of Automotive Engineers collegiate competition, the Triton Racing student team at UC San Diego flipped a switch in 2023 and went electric. In 2026, for the first time, the team brought their electric vehicle, with its custom battery power system, to the national Formula SAE Electric competition. This accomplishment represents three years of intense learning and work from many Jacobs School undergrads. Read more

UC San Diego will serve as the testing ground for a new $8.48 million California Energy Commission-funded project that could transform how AI data centers receive and manage electricity. The project will make the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego one of the first operational AI data centers in the United States to demonstrate a new power architecture designed to reduce energy waste, lower costs, and improve grid reliability. Before deployment at SDSC, the technology will undergo extensive testing, including simulations, at DERConnect, the Jacobs School’s NSF-funded hardware-in-the-loop testbed. At DERConnect, researchers will model AI workloads and grid interactions before introducing the system into a live operating environment. Read more

A new generation of bioelectronic technologies that integrate biology with advanced semiconductor systems will be developed at UC San Diego thanks to a research contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The DARPA contract supports a research effort led by Kiana Aran, a professor of bioengineering and medicine. By creating direct interfaces between biological systems and electronic devices, the project aims to unlock new capabilities for biological sensing, biotechnology development, and human health applications. For example, Aran’s lab recently integrated the olfactory receptor of an insect into semiconductor chips made of graphene, creating an electronic nose capable of sniffing out a wide variety of small organic compounds. Aran recently co-authored an opinion piece in the Washington Post about the importance of continued biomedical research funding, and she will speak at TEDx San Diego on Aug. 27. Read more

The Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego ranks the #9 engineering school in the nation. With 278 faculty and 10,240 students in six departments, the Jacobs School of Engineering is the largest engineering school in California. We train the innovation workforce for the economy to come. This is one of the many ways that  we power emerging industries.