|
|
|  NEWS
March 2024
| |
It has been two months since I announced my new dual role as both Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering. As I dig further into this dual role, I am increasingly energized. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage in both high-level strategy and hands-on practicality – both at the campuswide level and here at the Jacobs School.
UC San Diego is not alone in moving in this direction. Five weeks after my own dual role was announced, MIT announced that its dean of engineering had taken on a new role as MIT’s first chief innovation and strategy officer, in addition to serving as dean of engineering.
I think it’s important to note the widening circle of institutions, including UC San Diego, that are returning – very publicly – to something that many of us have known firsthand all along: to create scalable solutions to tough problems, engineers and computer scientists must be engaged in the early stages of both fundamental and applied research projects. This is often how big challenges actually get solved.
Just two weeks ago, we announced a powerful move in this direction here at the Jacobs School. I’m honored to celebrate a new $2.1M gift from nanoengineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Aiiso Yufeng Li (Jeff), together with his family. The gift will empower us to accelerate our vision of enhancing the connection between chemical engineering and nanoengineering research and education here at the Jacobs School. Our vision is to better combine nanoscale science and engineering advances with fabrication-oriented and production-oriented innovations from chemical engineering. Individuals and teams with expertise in both chemical engineering and nanoengineering have far more tools for taking the long view and guiding fundamental discoveries to practical applications that improve lives. This is why I’m so excited for the momentum that is building in our nanoengineering department, which is also home to chemical engineering.
More broadly, when we bring the right people together at the start of projects, scalable solutions that are both economically and environmentally sustainable are far more likely to emerge. In fact, in my dual role, I am helping to facilitate and strengthen these kinds of collaborations all across the Jacobs School and the UC San Diego campus. For example, it’s still early days, but we are having exciting conversations about clinical-grade wearable sensing technologies being employed to transform healthcare into a much more proactive data driven approach focused on prevention. This is just one direction, and the opportunities on our campus are truly limitless. If you have ideas for game-changing collaborations, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu
Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives
| |
With $9M in Funding, Fusion Engineering Momentum Continues to Build
Funded by the Department of Energy and powered by a $9 million budget over four years, the SMARTS (Surrogate Models for Accurate and Rapid Transport Solutions) project aims to pave the way for more efficient and reliable fusion reactor performance prediction. SMARTS brings together a consortium of institutions including UC San Diego, MIT, General Atomics, Sapientai, Kalling Software, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory. The work at UC San Diego is led by Chris Holland at our Center for Energy research, which is directed by mechanical and aerospace engineering Professor Jan Kleissl.
| |
Five Grand Challenges in Biomedical Engineering
A new roadmap outlines transformative biomedical engineering research that will likely transform the practice of medicine, and engineering and medical education, over the next decade. The advances: personalized physiology avatars; on-demand tissue and organ engineering; advanced brain interface systems powered by AI; immune system engineering; and the design and engineering of genomes. The roadmap is the work of a 50-person task force which includes five faculty from the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego, including Shankar Subramaniam who is one of the lead authors.
| |
NanoEngineering Department Receives $2.1M Gift from Aiiso Yufeng Li
Nanoengineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Aiiso Yufeng Li (Jeff), together with his family, have pledged a $2.1 million gift to the Jacobs School of Engineering. The gift will support research, education and student activities in our Department of NanoEngineering. This department is unique in that it is home to world-renowned research teams in both chemical engineering and nanoengineering. The gift will support efforts to create and strengthen research and educational bridges between chemical engineering and nanoengineering within the department.
| |
New Lead Detector Could Improve Water Quality Monitoring
Mechanical engineers at the Jacobs School developed an ultra-sensitive sensor made with graphene that can detect extraordinarily low concentrations of lead ions in water. The device achieves a record limit of detection of lead down to the femtomolar range, which is one million times more sensitive than previous sensing technologies. The sensor offers other benefits in cost and reliability over existing methods. While the technology is currently at the proof-of-concept stage, the goal is for it to eventually be deployed in homes.
| |
Electrical Engineer Selected to Receive Sloan Research Fellowship
Abdoulaye Ndao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is one of three UC San Diego early career faculty to receive an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship. Ndao received the award in Physics, for his research to develop smaller, lighter, more efficient optical devices without compromising on functionality. The Sloan Research Fellowship will allow Ndao and his team to push forward interdisciplinary efforts at the boundaries between fundamental physics and technology development, paving the way for groundbreaking advancements in photonic and biomedical applications.
| |
Detecting Bloodstream Pathogens in Hours, Not Days
A new analysis method can detect pathogens, and sepsis, in blood samples faster and more accurately than blood cultures, which are the current state of the art for infection diagnosis. The new method, called digital DNA melting analysis, can produce results in under six hours, whereas culture typically requires 15 hours to several days. The bioengineers conducted a pilot clinical study of blood samples from pediatric patients and showed that the results from their method exactly matched blood culture results in detecting sepsis. Read coverage in New Atlas.
| |
Two New Master’s Specializations for Working Professionals
The Jacobs School of Engineering is launching two new degree specializations, focused on Cyber-Physical Social Systems and Value Supply Chains, in our expanded systems engineering master’s program for working professionals. These new specializations in Cyber-Physical Social Systems and Value Supply Chains both grew out of the Jacobs School of Engineering’s highly regarded, and well-established, Architecture-Based Enterprise Systems Engineering (AESE) master’s degree program. Together, the three specializations cover the entire system’s engineering spectrum, from products and service, to the enterprise, and on to the global supply chains. The expanded program will be named Convergent Systems Engineering to emphasize the broadened scope.
| |
Register to Join us for Research Expo
Save the date and plan to join us for the Jacobs School of Engineering's 42nd annual Research Expo symposium on Wednesday, April 17. Research Expo is a unique opportunity to see the latest research advances and technology developments all across the Jacobs School, meet world-class graduate students, recruit top engineering and computer science talent, and connect with people from all across San Diego's intersecting innovation ecosystems. Students interested in presenting their research can find more information here.
| |
Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to receive this email in your inbox.
| |
|
|
|
|
