Reference Database Helps Scientists Estimate a Person's Genetic Repeats

There are many ways in which our genomes vary from one another, leading to differences in various traits or disease susceptibilities. Most researchers who want to uncover these differences focus on simple “spelling” mistakes in our DNA.

“Yet there are complex, repetitive parts of our genome that are also known to cause diseases, such as Huntington’s disease, and these parts of the genome are not analyzed in most large medical genetics studies,” said Melissa Gymrek, PhD, assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering.

So Gymrek and her team built a reference database that allows researchers to estimate a person’s genome at these repetitive regions, even when they are not directly measured.

“This resource will enable analyzing the effects of repeat variation for the first time across hundreds of thousands of individuals on thousands of traits without the need to collect any additional data,” Gymrek said.

Read more about this new resource and its applications in Nature Communications, October 23:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06694-0

A reference haplotype panel for genome-wide imputation of short tandem repeats. 

ThoughtSTEM, company founded by UC San Diego alumni, receives $330k grant from National Science Foundation

ThoughtSTEM, LLC, a San Diego-based company teaching computer science skills to students ages 5 to 18, has received a $330,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation. ThoughtSTEM is most well-known for being the first company to release a Minecraft Modding software, LearnToMod, that allows kids as young as 5 to reprogram the popular video game, Minecraft.

ThoughtSTEM is led by UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. alumnus Stephen Foster and biochemistry PhD alumna Lindsey Handley.

“Thanks to the NSF, we are now going to be able to reach more students in different countries with different interests," Handley said. "The same experience students have had in our classrooms will soon be available online to both students... and adults. We're really interested in sharing our educational tools with more adults so they can help us reach more kids.”

With this new grant funding, ThoughtSTEM will able to offer more of their innovative, video game-inspired computer science curriculum to students around the world by moving online the curriculum they've been using in classes with students in San Diego. There will also be a push to develop a completely new computer science curriculum designed to meet the interests of a broader population of video game-playing students worldwide.

The mission of ThoughtSTEM is to find every student interested in understanding how computer programming works and teach them in a context they can understand - video games. ThoughtSTEM has taught over 7,000 students in San Diego and over 100,000 students online.

This grant is allowing us to accelerate our development of computer science educational products for students who we are looking for new ways to interact with their favorite video games," Foster said. "Our students in San Diego have really enjoyed our approach, and we are excited to now be able to share it with other areas.”

ThoughtSTEM also was co-founded by computer science Ph.D. alumna Sarah Guthals, who now works at GitHub.

Video: Jacobs School computer scientist talks about the future of health care robotics

 UC San Diego computer scientist Laurel Riek wants to put a robot in someone's home for six months.
"We want to build robots that can adapt to learn from and change with a person, not only throughout the week, but throughout the day," she says in this video for the journal Communications of the ACM.
Riek is the author of a review article titled Healthcare Robotics in the journal's November 2017 issue.
The full text of the article is available here: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2017/11/222171-healthcare-robotics/fulltext
She is a professor of computer science at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego and a faculty member of the campus' Contextual Robotics Institute.
Her research goal is to enable robots to robustly solve problems in dynamically- changing human environments. Riek is particularly focused on problems in real-world, safety-critical healthcare environments, such as hospitals, homes and clinics. Her work tackles the fundamental and applied problems that make complex, real-world perception and interaction in these spaces so challenging for robots. Riek’s work draws on techniques from the fields of computer vision, machine learning, non-linear dynamics, and human factors to enable robots to autonomously perceive, respond, and adapt to people in the real world.  

Alum demos 3D avatar from just one 2D picture

Watch Jacobs School alum Iman Sadeghi demonstrating how you can build a 3D avatar from just one 2D picture by using software from Pinscreen, the company where Sadeghi is VP of engineering.
The technology is powered by neural networks and GPUs.
The Pinscreen demo starts around the 50:30 mark.
The 3D avatar can be used in VR environments. It is expressive and reflects different light conditions.

Highlights from the 2016 UC San Diego Center for Visual Computing Retreat

UC San Diego held its first annual Center for Visual Computing Retreat May 20-21, 2016. Faculty members of the Center reviewed the work that has been done since it’s opening in 2015. The Center was created to find innovative solutions in computer vision and computer graphics. The retreat included 50+ participants, including 19 visitors from nine industrial sponsors.

At the retreat, Ravi Ramamoorthi, Director of the Center and Ronald L. Graham professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, and Jacobs School of Engineering Dean Albert P. Pisano gave opening remarks and introduced the Center.

Following opening remarks, Ramamoorthi and other UC San Diego faculty members from the Computer Science and Engineering Department and Calit2 gave updates on their research:

Thomas A. DeFanti, R​esearch Scientist, Calit2
Cameras for Virtual Reality Displays

Ravi Ramamoorthi, PhD, ​Director, Center for Visual Computing | Professor, CSE
Sampling and Reconstruction of High­Dimensional Visual Appearance

Zhuowen Tu, PhD, P​rofessor, Cognitive Science, CSE
Deep Supervision for Deep Learning: Training, Regularization, and Multi­Scale Learning

Jürgen Schulze, PhD, A​ssociate Research Scientist, Computer Science
Virtual Reality with Head Mounted Displays

The majority of the first day consisted of student presentations on past and ongoing work, as well as a poster session in the evening.

Computer science and engineering professor Henrik Wann Jensen also spoke on the challenges presented by light transport simulation.

Following more student presentations on Day 2, Ramamoorthi, professor of computer science Jurgen Schulze and cognitive science professor Zhuowen Tu served on a panel featuring a discussion about 3D and VR imaging.

The retreat concluded with feedback from sponsors, including Cubic, which posted a blog post about the event.

Women in tech: how do to close the gap

For International Women's Day, Coursera asked two UC San Diego female teaching professors for their thoughts on Women in Tech. Mia Minnes and Christina Alvarado co-teach "Mastering the Software Engineering Interview" with teaching professor Leo Porter on Coursera.

Some thoughts from Alvarado:

In high school when I took my first real computer science class, I discovered that computer science was intriguing and challenging. For me, solving concrete problems was just plain fun. I was hooked.

 Over the early years of my career as a professor, the goal of increasing women’s participation in computer science moved from a hobby to a central goal of my teaching and research. I was distressed by women’s absence in a field that I found so fascinating

 At the heart of the tech industry, there’s a broad cultural change that needs to happen. It’s not about just pushing more women into computer classes or STEM disciplines from a young age. Women are still entering higher education and are confronted with barriers in a learning environment dominated by male students and instructors and later on, in the industry.

 We need to address the cultural issues and biases that are at the root of gender diversity, to make women feel that they are accepted and belong in computer science and the tech industry. The more people who acknowledge these biases publicly, from educational institutions to technology companies, the more we all will be able to confront this problem and work together to change it.

And some thoughts from Minnes:
 

Being a role model is something I take very seriously, and it’s something that my own experiences as a student in college have helped shape. As an undergraduate, I remember the jolt of realizing, almost every time I stepped into a lab or a lecture hall, that I was the only woman in the room or one of very few women.

Anyone embarking on a challenging field or project can benefit from having someone that they can relate to and look up to. I think it’s especially important to be able to see others who you can identify with and who have gone before you and succeeded.

 Many of the women who attend my office hours have told me this is the first time they’ve ever felt comfortable approaching one of their professors, not to mention participating in office hours. I think that’s very telling of just how crucial it is to have networks of women – both in the workplace and in education. They are essential to supporting them and further setting them on the path to succeed in the technology industry and their future career paths.

I agree with many who will tell you that mentorship isn’t the only solution, but I think it’s an important factor in empowering women to pursue their passions and follow their curiosity, whether it be in technology or any other field.

Let your inner kid geek come out to play, says alumna

Remember the first time you geeked out over something? It might have been technology, or cooking, or a book--it doesn't matter. That's the feeling Jacobs School alumna Jennifer Arguello is trying to spark in a new generation of computer scientists. She is especially focused on under-represented students, such as people of color and women.
Arguello, who is now the senior technical development manager at GitHub, gave a talk at an event for the SheCodes organization. It is now featured on the Smithsonian's Latino Virtual Museum.
According to the museum's website:

Argüello is part of the Silicon Valley Latino advisory board, an organization “committed to celebrate the stories of successful Latinas and Latinos, to challenge perceptions and inspire new generations of Latino heroes”.

During her talk, she urged her audience to volunteer, enlist their company for support, become mentors and advocate for computer standards across the board in elementary, middle and high school.

"Find your inner boy geek or girl geek and allow them to play," she said. 

FBI issues PSA on cars' cybersecurity citing work by Jacobs School researchers

Last summer, computer scientists at the Jacobs School demonstrated that they could wirelessly control thousands of vehicles via a gadget that's often used by insurance companies to monitor cars. The team, led by Professor Stefan Savage, has worked to raise awareness of flaws in the cybersecurity of cars since 2010.

On March 17, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a public service announcement titled "Motor Vehicles Increasingly Vulnerable to Remote Exploits," which alludes to the researchers' work:

As previously reported by the media in and after July 2015, security researchers evaluating automotive cybersecurity were able to demonstrate remote exploits of motor vehicles. The analysis demonstrated the researchers could gain significant control over vehicle functions remotely by exploiting wireless communications vulnerabilities. While the identified vulnerabilities have been addressed, it is important that consumers and manufacturers are aware of the possible threats and how an attacker may seek to remotely exploit vulnerabilities in the future. Third party aftermarket devices with Internet or cellular access plugged into diagnostics ports could also introduce wireless vulnerabilities.

The PSA also says:

The FBI and NHTSA are warning the general public and manufacturers – of vehicles, vehicle components, and aftermarket devices – to maintain awareness of potential issues and cybersecurity threats related to connected vehicle technologies in modern vehicles.

The agency recommends that vehicle owners check the safercar.gov website twice a year for recalls on their cars.

#ILookLikeAnEngineer: Paul Epperson

Meet the next student with our campaign who hopes the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer will inspire peace of mind and positive change.

Name: Paul Epperson

Major: Computer Science

Graduation Date: June 2018

Why did you choose engineering at UC San Diego?

I chose engineering at UC San Diego because I wanted to be able to make real things. As someone with an interest in computer science, I had a desire to be able to design and create practical code that would provide useful solutions to applicable problems.

What are your career goals?

My career goals are to help design and implement software solutions for hard, science-based problems. The closer to outer space and robots, the better.

Do you have a favorite quote or mantra?

"As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown . . . I sort of realize there’s a fundamental truth to our nature: Man must explore . . . and this is exploration at its greatest." - Dave Scott, becoming the 7th person to step on the moon.

What are three things that are unique about you?

I actively study calculus and linear algebra because I find the subjects really enjoyable. I fantasize about controlling robot swarms in space. I composed and improvise on some of my own musical piano themes.

What does this campaign mean to you?

I appreciate efforts by groups of people to shift social perspectives away from otherwise inordinate stereotypes. I support actions to better define what it means to be a certain individual in a world where there are many distinct definitions, accurate or inaccurate. Hopefully this gives a wide spread of people peace of mind, confidence and inner strength to enact positive change.

Still connected after all these years

When he doesn't bodysurf, S. Gill Williamson focuses on providing free educational materials for CSE 20 and CSE 21. The former chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, now in his 70s and an emeritus, was profiled in This Week @ UC San Diego as part of a feature about faculty members who have been connected to the campus for 50 years or more.

Williamson joined UC San Diego as a professor of mathematics in 1965 and then became the chair of the computer science department in 1991.  He retired in 2004.

Here are some of the things he had to say:

On why he decided to provide free educational materials:

 “From 1965 to 1991, I was a mathematics professor. I taught many calculus classes large and small during this period. In 1991, I transferred to Computer Science and Engineering—so my calculus teaching days were over. But in cleaning out files I came across handouts that I used to give to students who wanted to tutor for my integral calculus classes. I had fun rereading this ‘tutors’ guide,’ so I decided to bring it up to date with respect to online resources now regularly used by students.”

On why he stayed at UC San Diego for so long:

“The main change in higher education for me,” said Gill Williamson, “was the increasing number of students in my classes and less opportunity to talk with them personally about the subjects I was teaching. A student can ace every exam but, under questioning in person, show little imagination or curiosity. This important type of information about students was missing for me in later years.”

On being chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering:

"Although I had had little experience in administrative work, the change worked out well for me. CSE had hired many talented young people who were willing to tell me about their research. I learned a lot from them. Also, CSE had an excellent and talented staff.”

On higher education and research:

“The main change in higher education for me,” said Gill Williamson, “was the increasing number of students in my classes and less opportunity to talk with them personally about the subjects I was teaching. A student can ace every exam but, under questioning in person, show little imagination or curiosity. This important type of information about students was missing for me in later years.”

Read the full story here. 

Two Jacobs School alumni featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 for 2016

We are incredibly proud of Sarah Guthals and Daniel Lee, two Jacobs School alumni who are featured in this year's 30 Under 30 selection by Forbes Magazine.

ThoughtSTEM cofounder Sarah Guthals

Guthals is a co-founder of ThougthSTEM, a company that focuses on teaching kids how to program, in San Diego and beyond, as well as online. The company has created LearnToMod, a software package that allows students to learn how to code inside of Minecraft. ThoughtSTEM currently offers a free Coursera course to teach educators how to use LearnToMod in their classrooms as a learning tool. The company has also developed CodeSpells, a first-person player video game to teach coding.

Guthals leads ThoughtSTEM's initiatives that connect with schools and teachers, online and in real life. She often chats with educators online to help them customize their programming lessons. She presented a many educational and programming conferences, including Minecon, a Minecraft-centric event that draws crowds every year.

With fellow ThoughtSTEM co-founders and UC San Diego alumni Stephen Forster (computer science) and Lindsey Handley (biochemistry), she co-authored "Minecraft Modding for Kids," in the For Dummies series. Guthals earned her bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in computer science at UC San Diego.

Daniel Lee with one of the Hush smart earplugs prototypes.

Daniel Lee, nicknamed "Ewok," co-founded Hush Technology, a company that makes smart earplugs with fellow UC San Diego student and alumni Daniel Synn and Daniel Chesong Lee (hence the need for nicknames to distinguish between the three Daniels).

The team raised more than $450,000 for their product on Kickstarter. The three Daniels then turned to making the product a reality. As of December 2015, the company completed a 400 unit preliminary mass production run. Hush plans to deliver its units in January 2016.

Lee, who graduated in 2014 with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering, came up with the idea for the smart earplugs during an entrepreneurship class taught by Teaching Professor Nathan Delson. Lee and the other two Daniels took part in Phases 1 and 2 of the NSF I-Corps program offered at the von Liebig Center here at the Jacobs School.

UC San Diego team takes 4th place in regional programming competition

A team of UC San Diego computer science students tied with seven other campuses for first place in the 2015 ACM Southern California Regional Programming Contest on Nov. 14.

The tie was finally resolved based on the time it took to solve problems, with the UC San Diego team landing in fourth place, after Caltech, USC and UCLA. Fourth-ranked UC San Diego Team "Phuket" comprised of Juliati Alafate, Chicheng  Zhang and Lifan Wu.

Hat tip to graduate student coaches Igors Stepanovs and Yuliang Li, as well as faculty coach Michael Taylor.

In all, UC San Diego fielded four teams during the competition. The other three teams placed 14th, 15th and 19th out of 89 teams that took place in the competition. Members of the other three teams were:

Karan Wadhera
Jason Wu
Timothy Wang

Archana Radhakrishna
Darshan Patil
Ujjwal Gulecha

Huayin Zhou
Galen Krulce
Huajie Wu

Yeyao Tao
Junxi Li
Zhiwei Jia
Sung Rim Huh

More info:
Team website:  http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/groups/UCSDProgramContest/
For final standings, go to:  http://socalcontest.org/history/2015/details-2015.shtml

#TBT: "Grad School" by by Lamdba Style Productions

Back in January of this year, Lambda Style Productions, from the UC San Diego computer science department, posted their tongue-in-cheek description of life as a Ph.D. student in the form of "Grad School," a parody of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space."

The video featured UC San Diego computer science professor Ranjit Jhala and computer science Ph.D. student Alexander Bakst.  Lyrics are courtesy of research scientist Kirill Levchenko. The chorus? "I've got a big grant, baby, and I'll fund your work."

Computer science alumna wins San Diego County Teacher of the Year award

Photo: San Diego Unified

Huge congratulations to computer science alumna Shirley Parrish Miranda, who won a San Diego County Teacher of the Year award this year. Miranda teaches math and computer science at Morse High School. She is also a fellow with COSMOS, a residential science program for high school students run by the Jacobs School.

Here is the San Diego Union-Tribune on Miranda:

To establish trust in her classroom, Miranda greets students at the door every day, and then thanks them as they exit.

“It is a small gesture that is often overlooked, but is an important component in building relationships and respect with my students, both important aspects of education,” she wrote.

The tradition was inspired by a student who told her she was the only teacher to speak to him the entire year.

“It simultaneously broke my heart and made me happy,” she wrote. “Respect and relationships help close the achievement gap with at-risk students.”

A former software engineer, Miranda works to steer students to pursue an education in science, technology, engineering and math. Her STEM career was inspired by a teacher who encouraged her to enter the science fair.

Miranda assess her students daily, and groups them together for mentoring. She forged a partnership with UC San Diego, which allows her to bring in professors, professionals and students with work in her class.

When teaching computer science, Miranda weaves in relevant issues into the curriculum — including cyberbullying.

Full story here: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/oct/10/cox-teachers-of-year-2015/

You can also watch Miranda on KUSI News:  http://www.kusi.com/clip/11913386/winners-of-the-san-diego-county-teacher-award

Alumni from computer science research group wrote two For Dummies books

Bill Griswold during a talk.

The research group of William Griswold now boasts two alumni who have written For Dummies books. We're ready to bet that's a pretty unique occurrence.

The most recent tome, "Minecraft Modding for Kids" was co-authored by two Ph.D.s in Griswold's group, Sarah Guthals and Stephen Foster, as well as biochemistry Ph.D. Lindsey Handley. The book was released July 13, 2015.  In 2013, the trio co-founded ThoughtSTEM, a company dedicated to teaching students in elementary, middle and high schools how to program. Last year, they launched LearnToMod, a software package that teaches users how to program while playing Minecraft.

After an introductory chapter about creating modifications, or “mods,” within Minecraft, the majority of their book focuses on learning programming concepts by building games inside of Minecraft, including:

• Spleef: build an arena paved with blocks, which disappear every time every time players step on them. The goal is not to fall. Players can add other challenges to the game, such as creatures blocking their way.
• Monster Arena: build an arena full of monsters. Players need to avoid the monsters to get through to the other side of the arena, where they break a block. They are then sent back to the starting point of the game, which gets even harder.
• Capture the flag: create magic wands that can emit exploding projectiles. Players then need to use the wands to destroy their adversaries’ flags, while protecting their own.

While they create the mini-games, players learn computer science concepts such as functions, variables, lists, parameters and libraries. The book also includes information about game design and game mechanics.

More info here. 

 Meanwhile, "Android App Development" is in its third edition. The book's author, Michael Burton, earned a bachelor's in electrical engineering and a master's in computer science at UC San Diego--also in Griswold's research group. He is now director of mobile engineering at Groupon. His book includes easy-to-follow access to the latest programming techniques that take advantage of the new features of the Android operating system. Plus, two programs are provided: a simple program to get you started and an intermediate program that uses more advanced aspects of the Android platform.

Learn more about Burton in this Q&A. 

Bitcoin experts and CSE alumna wins Chancellor's Dissertation Medal

Sarah Meiklejohn, an alumna who earned a Ph.D. in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Jacobs School, has won the 2015 Chancellor's Dissertation Medal. She is now an assistant professor at University College, London.

Here is what Mihir Bellare, a professor in the department and her dissertation co-advisory had to say when outlining Meiklejohn's merits:

1. Impact: The results in Sarah’s thesis have shaped government policy. The methods in the thesis have been used to track cyber-criminals. The thesis has received significant media attention (NY Times, Washington Post, radio, TV, ...).
2. Intellectual and technical depth: The thesis introduces an innovative new experimental technique to track Bitcoins that was used not only to obtain the thesis results but is now used as a key forensic tool by law enforcement.
3. Independence: Unlike many theses, which write up group projects, this one was entirely Sarah’s work. She alone conceived the idea and methods and pushed it through from algorithms to reality.
In my 20 years of experience at UCSD, I would say that a thesis with one of the above elements is rare. To have all three in the same thesis is unique and extra-ordinary.

Read our story about Meiklejohn's work here. 

More media coverage of her work:

Forbes 

The Economist

Wired

MIT Technology Review

KPBS

Lovely digital creatures on display at Research Expo April 16

A relative of this cute digital white rabbit will be part of one of the many posters on display April 16 at Research Expo at the Price Center. The picture is a--very rough--draft for the work of computer science Ph.D. student Chiwei Tseng, who works with Professors Ravi Ramamoorthi and Henrik W. Jensen. The work also is part of the Jacobs School's new Center for Visual Computing.
Here's the abstract for Tseng's poster, which is titled "A generic light scattering model for rendering photorealistic animal fur fibers:"

Rendering photorealistic animal fur is of practical importance in many computer graphics productions. In the past, the visual appearances of specific fiber types have been studied, and various light scattering models derived from cylindrical geometry have been proposed. These models, however, lack either physical accuracy or versatility to produce the wide range of specular and diffusive material properties observed on animal fur fibers in the wild. We propose an anatomically based light scattering model for arbitrary animal fur fibers, represented by two coaxial cylinder volumes. We show that our model preserves high fidelity to actual animal fur and can simulate a large array of visual appearances by qualitatively matching synthetic optical microscopy images and far-field scattering profiles with measured data. Through reconstructing the light paths for formerly unexplainable scattering lobes observed on 10 animal fur fiber types, we reveal how the subsurface structures of a fur fiber can bring about decisive effects to its visual appearance.

More info about Research Expo at: http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/re/

Watch a Jacobs School scientist on CBS's 60 Minutes

It's not every day that you get to hack into a car driven by a celebrity news correspondent--with their permission. But that's exactly what Karl Koscher, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Jacobs School, got to do for an episode of CBS's 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Feb. 8.

The show was focusing on security flaws within the Internet of Things--the effort to connect appliances, computers and other devices, including cars, in a network that would make users' lives easier.  Watch the full show here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/darpa-dan-kaufman-internet-security-60-minutes/

Koscher was putting into practice knowledge accumulated over the years by researchers in the Systems and Networking group here at the Jacobs School and in the Security and Privacy Research Lab at the University of Washington. The team first presented a ground-breaking paper on the topic in May 2010 at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland, Calif. They summed up in a press release at the time:

Modern automobiles are becoming increasingly computerized — with many components controlled partially or entirely by computers and networked both internally and externally. This architecture is indeed the basis for significant advances in safety (e.g., anti-lock brakes), fuel efficiency, and convenience. However, increasing computerization also creates new risks that must be addressed as well. Our research mission is to help ensure that these future automotive systems can enjoy the benefits of a computerized architecture while providing strong assurances of safety, security, and privacy.

Our research consists of three complementary strands: conceptual, experimental, and developmental. We conceptually evaluate the computer security landscape for potential future automobiles in order to guide our experimental and developmental research. Weexperimentally evaluate real examples of today's technologies to create informed understandings of potential computer security risks with future automobiles, as well as understandings of the challenges for overcoming those risks. We then develop new security technologies to overcome those challenges and mitigate the associated risks.

However, the researchers were quick to point out that car owners should not panic:
 

 We believe that car owners today should not be overly concerned at this time. It requiressignificant sophistication to develop the capabilities described in our paper and we are unaware of any attackers who are even targeting automobiles at this time.

However, we do believe that our work should be read as a wake-up call. While today's car owners should not be alarmed, we believe that it is time to focus squarely on addressing potential automotive security issues to ensure that future cars — with ever more sophisticated computer control and broader wireless connectivity — will be able to offer commensurately strong security guarantees as well.

More info about the research here:  http://www.autosec.org/

Engineers Think Business: von Liebig NSF I-Corps Program Launches 3rd Cohort

Mentors, entrepreneurs and students met in the Qualcomm Conference Room on Jan. 20, ready to dive in head first into Phase I of the 2015 National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program at UC San Diego hosted by the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center.

The NSF I-Corps program aims to bridge the gap between business and technology through hand-on experiential classes designed for scientists and researchers and taught by experienced entrepreneurs.

The von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center became an I-Corps Site in 2013 and has already conducted two 10 week workshops. This quarter, the Center received 27 excellent applications and 13 teams have been accepted into the 6-week program that will prepare them for commercialization, while expanding their opportunities to receive funding for their technology. This is the third Phase I cohort of teams participating in the program bringing it to a total of 54. Teams that successfully complete the program are also eligible to compete for up to $50,000 and participate in the national NSF I-Corps program.

Nineteen mentors and 30 participants from various departments and schools including the Jacobs School of Engineering, Rady School of Management and Scripps Institute of Oceanography attended the program's first day of class. After the mentors introduced themselves with a brief background of their work and expertise, the students took center stage. Each team gave their 60 second pitch of the concept of their technology, the customer's problem they attempt to solve and the market they hope to reach.

Andrea Belz, PhD, MBA
(Photo by Anne Cusack, Los Angeles Times)

The program mentors and students then met Adrea Belz, Director of the Southern California I-Corps node, experienced angel investor, entrepreneur and business consultant for an invigorating presentation that encompassed how the program will challenge its students and what it takes to go from idea to a business. I-Corps Nodes and Sides are members of the National Innovation Network focused on bringing best practices and collaboration around technology commercialization in the country.

During her presentation, Belz urged students to step out of their comfort zones and get out of the building and talk to customers. With the help of Frank Chen, an MBA candidate from the Rady School of Management, Belz reenacted a customer interview demonstrating the importance in identifying your market and listening to customer needs.

“You’ve done the research and you’ve got the idea. Now, you won’t find answers in the classroom, and you won’t find them in the lab,” Belz said. “You’ll only find them out there.”

To practice, the teams and mentors broke into groups and conducted their own interviews, where each team asked questions to a mentor, who acted as the team's determined potential customer for their technology.

When class was called back into session, Belz encouraged the teams to iterate and pivot, to think with the business model, to turn guesses into facts and to fail before succeeding.

Throughout the evening, it was made clear that the I-Corps program will challenge students to think on their feet and interact with their market. The program will continue to meet weekly on Thursday evenings, from January 29 to March 12.

Student Team Practicing Customer Interviews

After three cohorts, teams that completed the two-phase program have drawn a lot of success. Some of the program's most recent successes include:

Nanolipo, led by a PhD student and professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and the CACST-UCSD Center for Excellence in Nanomedicine, has designed a materila that improves liposuction procedures. In parallel with their scientific advancements, the team has begun incorporating the feedback of surgeons to their non-traditional approach, and have recently formed a company.

Plasmacaps, a team composed of a PhD student and processor in nanoengineering, has designed a powerful energy technology which improves energy density capacitors. In the I-Corps program, the team visited many customers and incorporated feedback into the compact, redesign of their nanocarbon energy capacitors. Plasmacaps was accepted into the accelerated National I-Corps Program in Washington D.C.

CocoonCam, led by a UC San Diego graduate student in Computer Science and Engineering, has designed a next-generation baby monitor that monitors the baby's health touch-free. In the I-Corps Program, he designed and conducted a series of interviews to obtain first-hand information validating CocoonCam's desirability to parents and institutions who will be utilizing it. They will soon begin product testing and are in a much stronger position to approach investors with the customer validation gleaned in I-Corps.

Eatsafe, led by a Biotechnology grad student at UC San Diego, has created a small portable device that can detect food pathogens by simply being in close proximity. Eatsafe team members took advantage of the I-Corps Program to interview several categories of customers for their device, determining that international travelers and people with food sensitivities would be the best early adopters. This, in turn, helped guide prototype development and marketing strategies for the device.