This Jacobs School alumna is featured in Elle

Brina Lee was Instagrams's first female engineer but in this Elle interview, she confesses that she likes her pictures without a filter. The Jacobs School alum talks about why she likes coding, what engineering is and the gender gap at tech companies.  (Lee earned a bachelor's in communications and a master's in computer science from UC San Diego).

Sample quotes:

Engineering can be a bunch of things. In all cases, engineering is building things, whether it be with your hands like a mechanical engineer, or with code. To me it’s a creative tool to build communication in many different ways. And solving problems.

 A lot of people think that coding is boring, but you have to understand the impact that you’re having by submitting one or two lines of code. Just submitting one extra line of code into the Facebook repository impacts a billion people. Same thing with Instagram!

Oh, and Lee's favorite Instagram filter for video is Vesper.

Check out Lee's posts on Huffington Post

Qualcomm Program Management / INFO SESSION

UC San Diego students and alumni:

Qualcomm Program Management: INFO SESSION

Thursday March 6, 2014

5:30pm – 6:30pm

UCSD Rady School of Management (room 3W113)

Qualcomm’s Program Management team is hiring

QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (QCT) is the largest provider of 3G/4G chipset and software technology in the world, with chipsets shipped to more than 50 customers and powering the majority of all 3G devices commercially available. QCT partners with nearly 60 3G network operators around the globe, has the largest CDMA engineering team in the wireless industry and is in need of a few new Project/Program managers.

If you are interested in any of the roles below (or just want to learn more about Qualcomm) please join us this evening to find out how to make yourself the most qualified candidate and talk to the hiring manager.

You may create a profile and apply using the links below.

N1923408

Program Manager - Modem SW Technologies

N1922829

Program Manager - Connectivity & Networks Software Technologies

more info: qualcomm.com/careers

Why Minecraft is good for teaching computer science

Minecraft enthusiasts in San Diego will be able to take a unique inside look into their favorite game during a class taught by Jacobs School computer science Ph.D. student Stephen Foster at UC San Diego Extension.

Students will learn how to set up Minecraft servers and build Minecraft mods. In the process, they will learn about client/server architectures, network security, operating systems and computer programming. The class will be taught in a project-based style.

Heads-up: the class, which starts March 1, is full. But Foster says it'll be offered again soon.

In this video, Foster explains why the video game is a great tool to teach computer science. In the process, he makes some interesting connections between Alan Turning, one of the fathers of computer science, and Minecraft.

Note: Foster is one of three co-founders of ThoughtSTEM, a company that teaches students ages 8 to 18 how to program. He is also one of two creators of CodeSpells, a first-player video game that teaches children (and adults too) how to program in Java.

Related stories:

Teaching Kids How to Code

UC San Diego Computer Scientists Develop First-Person Player Video Game that Teaches how to Program in Java

Awards Season

You don't have to talk to a Jacobs School of Engineering professor for very long before they start raving about the amazing creativity, intelligence and work ethic of their students. Those voices are echoed in the awards and recognition engineering students receive throughout the year in scholarships and fellowships that help them continue their cutting-edge research.

The latest honors come from the Society for Biomaterials and the UC San Diego Graduate Student Association.  Congratulations to Aereas Aung, who is one of three UC San Diego graduate students to receive the association's 2014 Interdisciplinary Research Award. Aung is being recognized for his work using engineering principles to understand cancer metastasis.  

Bioengineering professor Shyni Varghese and graduate student Aereas Aung attend a UC San Diego Graduate Student Association's celebration at The Loft. Aung is one of three graduate students on campus to receive the association's 2014 Interdisciplinary Research Award.

Adam Young, who earned his Ph.D. in bioengineering last year working under the advisement of bioengineering professor Karen Christman, was recognized by the Society for Biomaterials in the student awards category for Outstanding Research. Adam recently accepted a job offer with Maryland-based biotech company ACell. In a statement commending Adam, the Society heralded his outreach work encouraging young people to study science and engineering:

 In addition to his lab work, Adam is passionate about getting involved and having an impact on others, including increasing diversity in science and engineering. He is very involved in the UCSD BioBridge program, which works to encourage young students to go into STEM fields. He has worked in classrooms across San Diego as a mentor and given talks in summer conferences to aspiring young scientists. Adam has also received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship as well as an additional fellowship from NSF as part of the Engineering Innovations Fellows Program, which is allowing him to do a paid internship this summer at Cytograft, Inc. “Adam is an extremely bright and motivated student who was developing his own ideas and planning his own studies even in his first year in graduate school, which is rare,” commented nominator Karen L. Christman, PhD. “Adam is an outstanding graduate student both in and outside of the lab and will undoubtedly be a leading engineer in the field.”

Another of Christman's students, undergraduate bioengineering student Gillie Agmon, has received the Society for Biomaterials 2014 C. William Hall Scholarship for her work on research projects related to skeletal muscle tissue engineering and new therapies for treating ischemic skeletal muscle associated with peripheral artery disease.  Agmon is also a Gordon Scholar.


"Working in Dr. Christman's biomaterials lab has enforced my desire to pursue a Ph.D. in regenerative medicine research," said Agmon. "My experiences in this lab have given me direction and taught me so much about the applications of biomaterials in medical settings. By receiving the C. William Hall scholarship from the Society for Biomaterials I will now get the chance to attend the annual meeting in April and further my understanding of biomaterial technology.”

Engineer, toy company president explore the frontiers of science and technology at event

MiP, a robotic toy that was developed as a collaboration between the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab and toymaker WowWee.

A big thanks to CONNECT, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship in the San Diego area, for featuring mechanical engineering professor Thomas Bewley and tech transfer officer Dave Gibbons during one of their Frontiers in Science and Technology events. Bewley and Gibbons were speaking with Peter Yanofsky, the president of WowWee USA. The trio worked together on MiP, a toy robot that moves around on two wheels thanks to balancing technology developed in Bewley's lab.

Bewley spoke about his lab's ongoing work in robotic vehicle design and about some of the unique design and commercialization challenges the team faced with MiP. Yanofsky spoke about the complex process of creative prototyping, refinement of a toy's playspec, design for manufacturing, production and distribution. Gibbons served as moderator for the event.

Excerpts from the program overview:
 

Mix a bunch of university robotics fanatics together with a nimble high-tech toy company willing to take creative risks, and what do you get? A dynamic new line of game-changing self-balancing robotic vehicles that become instant hits at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) and overnight media darlings, and which are poised to shift the needle in the public’s perception of robotics in our everyday lives.

“MiP, short for Mobile Inverted Pendulum, sways gently when standing or moving, and steps back to regain its balance when disturbed,” says Prof. Bewley, director of the Coordinated Robotics Lab at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “In a very real way, the dynamics of MiP mimics life.”

Of course, with organic moves like that, MiP can’t resist dancing to your music library, boxing with other MiPs, playing stacking games, or simply kicking around ping-pong balls. And, with its (included) carrying tray, built-in bluetooth, free apps, infrared sensors, and remarkable hackability features, the perennial “yes, but can it bring me a beer” question is one major step closer to being solved.

Legos, lunch and career advice with WIC @ UCSD

Legos, lunch and conversation were on the menu at a recent Ladies Lego Lunch organized by the Women in Computing group here at UC San Diego and at Google. Undergraduate and graduate students got a chance to network with female engineers from Google and get career advice. They also chowed down on some good food. As an ice breaking activity, students competed to put together a Lego version of Google's iconic green Android logo. The student or team that finished first won.

Learning design and helping victims of Hurricane Haiyan

Students in ENG 100A got to try their hand at building prototypes and then testing them on other users--in this case their fellow students. The prototypes represented solutions that could be deployed in the Philippines, where the Jacobs School's Global TIES program works with Gawad Kalinga, a local non-profit organization. The prototypes were designed in response to problems created by Typhoon Haiyan, better known as Typhoon Yolanda in that country. All the while, students were learning about the human-centered design process.