Jacobs School Research in the News: Science Highlights from 2017

A new recipe for Martian bricks. Soft robots that walk on rough terrain. Combining squid ink and ultrasound to make a pain-free gum disease probe. These are among the science stories from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering that made headlines in 2017. Here is a roundup of the year's top science news hits:

New Blood Test Could Help Detect and Locate Cancer Early On
Bioengineers at UC San Diego have developed a new blood test that could detect cancer—and locate where in the body the tumor is growing. By screening for particular DNA signatures from both cancer cells and normal cells in the body, researchers discovered a new clue that indicates not just the presence or absence of a tumor, but also where it resides. The proof-of-concept study could provide a way to diagnose cancer early on without having to do invasive surgical procedures like biopsies. 

Featured in Newsweek, CW6 San Diego, NBC Bay Area and Yahoo! News

New Nano-Implant Could One Day Help Restore Sight
A team of engineers at UC San Diego and La Jolla-based startup Nanovision Biosciences Inc. have developed the nanotechnology and wireless electronics for a new type of retinal prosthesis that brings research a step closer to restoring the ability of neurons in the retina to respond to light. The researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro. 

Featured in The San Diego Union Tribune, NBC News and Yahoo! News

Engineers Investigate a Simple, No-Bake Recipe to Make Bricks From Martian Soil
Explorers planning to settle on Mars might be able to turn the planet’s red soil into bricks without needing to use an oven or additional ingredients. Instead, they would just need to apply pressure to compact the soil—the equivalent of a blow from a hammer. While proposals to use Martian soil to build habitats for manned missions on the planet are not new, this is the first that shows astronauts would need minimal resources to do so.

Featured in Smithsonian, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, The New York Times, WIRED UK, The San Diego Union Tribune, Yahoo! News, Forbes, USA Today, The Verge and Engadget

Nano Fiber Feels Forces and Hears Sounds Made by Cells
Engineers at UC San Diego have developed a nanosized optical fiber that's sensitive enough to feel the forces generated by swimming bacteria and hear the beating of heart muscle cells. It can detect forces down to 160 femtonewtons and sound levels down to -30 decibels. Applications of the device include measuring bio-activity at the single cell level, or an ultra-sensitive mini stethoscope to monitor cellular acoustics in vivo.

Featured in STAT news, The San Diego Union Tribune, BBC Inside Science and Physics World

3D-Printed Soft Four Legged Robot Can Walk on Sand and Stone
Engineers at UC San Diego have developed the first soft robot that is capable of walking on rough surfaces, such as sand and pebbles. The 3D-printed, four-legged robot can climb over obstacles and walk on different terrains. The robot could be used to capture sensor readings in dangerous environments or for search and rescue.

Featured in CNN Tech, NBC 2, IEEE Spectrum, IFLScience! and Engadget

Researchers Find Computer Code That Volkswagen Used to Cheat Emissions Tests
An international team of researchers has uncovered the mechanism that allowed Volkswagen to circumvent U.S. and European emission tests over at least six years before the Environmental Protection Agency put the company on notice in 2015 for violating the Clean Air Act. During a year-long investigation, researchers found code that allowed a car’s onboard computer to determine that the vehicle was undergoing an emissions test. The computer then activated the car’s emission-curbing systems, reducing the amount of pollutants emitted. Once the computer determined that the test was over, these systems were deactivated. 

Featured in The New York Times and CNET

Low-Cost Smart Glove Converts Signs of American Manual Alphabet to Text
A new smart glove wirelessly converts signs of the American Manual Alphabet into text and controls a virtual hand to mimic sign language gestures. The device, which engineers call “The Language of Glove,” was built for less than $100 using stretchable and printable electronics that are inexpensive, commercially available and easy to assemble. While the glove is capable of gesture recognition, researchers at UC San Diego are developing the glove to be used in a variety of other applications ranging from virtual and augmented reality to telesurgery, technical training and defense.

Featured in Newsweek, 10News - ABC San Diego, Popular Mechanics, KPBS, IEEE Spectrum and New Scientist

Drug-Delivering Micromotors Treat Their First Bacterial Infection in the Stomach
Nanoengineers at UC San Diego have demonstrated for the first time using micromotors to treat a bacterial infection in the stomach. These tiny vehicles, each about half the width of a human hair, swim rapidly throughout the stomach while neutralizing gastric acid and then release their cargo of antibiotics at the desired pH. This micromotor-enabled delivery approach is a promising new method for treating stomach and gastrointestinal tract diseases with acid-sensitive drugs, researchers said.

Featured in Discover Magazine, The San Diego Union Tribune, IFLScience!, New York Post, The Scientist, New Scientist and Engadget

New Dental Imaging Method Uses Squid Ink to Fish for Gum Disease
Squid ink might be a great ingredient to make black pasta, but it could also one day make getting checked for gum disease at the dentist less tedious and even painless. By combining squid ink with light and ultrasound, researchers have developed a new dental imaging method to examine a patient’s gums that is non-invasive, more comprehensive and more accurate than the state of the art.

Featured in BBC World Service - Health Check, STAT News, Engadget and NY Daily News

This Soft Robotic Gripper Can Screw in Your Light Bulbs For You
How many robots does it take to screw in a light bulb? The answer: just one, assuming you’re talking about a new robotic gripper developed by engineers at UC San Diego. The engineering team has designed and built a gripper that can pick up and manipulate objects without needing to see them or be trained.  The gripper not only can twist and sense objects, it can also build models of the objects it’s manipulating. This allows the gripper to operate in low light and low visibility conditions, for example.

Featured in Reuters

Triton Racing unveils their 2017 car

Triton Racing's 2017 Car

Triton Racing recently held an unveiling event for their 2017 car, which they will take to competition in Lincon, Nebraska June 21 – 24, 2017.

“It’s an iteration of the 2015 car,” said Ivan Voroshilov, Vice President of Triton Racing and a third year mechanical engineering major. “We have all year to test it.”

At the same time, the team is developing 2018 car.

“Our team is the best it’s ever been,” said Voroshilov.

Formula SAE started with six teams in 1981 and has grown to over 160.

The day of the unveiling event, Steve Fox, President of PowerTrain Technology (Chief judge of Formula SAE) and Tony Lyscio, Senior Structural Engineer at SpaceX were on site to meet with SAE chapters from multiple southern California universities and providing a lecture. They toured facilities, enjoyed a meet and greet, and saw test runs of racing team vehicles.

“We invited 10 other university teams from Southern California,” said Alex Tran, Sponsorship Director for Trion Racing and a fourth year bioengineering major. “This is a regional event every year, and this is the first time it’s been held at UC San Diego.”

“Formula SAE refines engineers,” said Fox during the lecture portion of the event. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to support this type of a program. Every engineer that graduates with Formula SAE experience under their belts gets cherry-picked into the best jobs.”

“At SpaceX, we recruit heavily from Formula SAE,” said Lyscio. “These are the types of mentalities that we want.”

It’s not just SpaceX – Hunter Industries, Triton Racing’s title sponsor, brought on Triton Racing members, including Daniel Morris and Ian Holmes, as interns over the summer, and recently hired Chris Campagnoni (BS, Mechanical Engineering, ’16) as an associate mechanical engineer.

“UC San Diego provides us with the highest quality of engineering talent in the region,” said Scotty Lombardi, Manager of Talent Management at Hunter Industries. “But the talent that comes out of Triton Racing comes with an extra skillset. It sets them apart from the competition.”

See more photos here