Photo of the Week: Electrical engineering professor Charles Tu connected with an alumni in the airport over the holidays

Electrical engineering professor Charles Tu connected with an alumni in the airport over the holidays

"It was very nice bumping into an ECE alum at the airport on New Year's Eve!" said Charles Tu, a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. "It had been several years since I'd seen Oluwafemi Akinwale - 'Femi' for short."

Akinwale, on his way to Hawaii for the holidays, is now working at Intel. During his time at the Jacobs School, he worked in the IT unit of the ECE department until it was disbanded.

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The art and science of engineering

Who said science and art don't go hand in hand? Just take a look at images produced by the research groups of three Jacobs School scientists that were on exhibit at the San Diego Airport last month. Gabriel Silva and Kathy Shaoying Lu, respectively a professor and a researcher in the Department of Bioengineering, and Shaochen Chen contributed striking images to the Airport Art Project, an installation representing the San Diego life sciences industry, coordinated by Biocomm. The installation was "a beautiful representation of science and art that reflects the groundbreaking work being done in the region," according to the project's website.
The exhibit's contributor list reads like a who's who of San Diego's scientific community and includes the UC San Diego School of Medicine and The Scripps Research Institute, among many others. 
Below are the Jacobs School images, with brief explanations about what they represent. 

 Fluorescent staining image showing smooth muscle cells aligned with a 3D-printed stiffer hydrogel. (Shaochen Chen research group/Department of NanoEngineering, UC San Diego)

This image shows the activation process of Fyn kinase in a live cell. Initially the cell shows a blue color indicating low activity (2 o’clock position). After stimulation, the cell turns green and then turns red counterclockwise, indicating Fyn activation. (Laboratory of Molecular Engineering for Cellular Imaging and Reprogramming, Department of Bioengineering, UC San Diego)

Primary mouse cortical neurons cultured on top of an array of optoelectronic nanorwires, showing an extensive neurite and network formation. (Gabriel Silva research group, Department of Bioengineering, UC San Diego)