It's been compared to a frog, called "extremely cute" and "a bouncing bot." A robot designed by engineers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, became a media darling this week. The robot is the first of its kind with a 3D-printed body that transitions from hard at the core to soft on the outside. It also is capable of more than 30 untethered jumps.
Below are some of the videos it starred in this week:
And many more...
Friday, July 10, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Jacobs School alum teaches how to program inside of Minecraft at Minecon 2015
About to teach in the #Glassroom #Minecon2015 #Minecraft in #Education #TNTCanon pic.twitter.com/ULHp6GpYT3
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 5, 2015
Sarah Guthals, a postdoctoral researchers in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, got to teach at Minecon 2015, the all-things-Minecraft convention that took place in London July 4 and 5.She was at the event with fellow ThoughtSTEM co-founders Stephen Foster, a computer science Ph.D. student, and Lindsey Handley, a biology Ph.D. student.
ThoughtSTEM developed LearntoMod, a software package that teachers how to program inside of Minecraft. At Minecon, Guthals trained teachers to do the same. Event recap in Tweets below.
#Minecon2015 #Minecraft #Educators selfie!!!!! Competing with the one we did in #ISTE2015 pic.twitter.com/tEkbsv075q
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 5, 2015
Learning minecraft round 2 with the infectiously smiley @sarahguthals. #msminecon15
— Danny (@118perdoni) July 5, 2015
— Nic Hughes (@duck_star) July 5, 2015
@sarahguthals teaching fractions & logic gates with #Minecraft - totally engaging & inspiring #girlsinSTEM #STEAM pic.twitter.com/h3fBoeHuOU
— Louise Harris (@Louiseharris33) July 5, 2015
One of the #Educators made a half adder with logic gates in #Minecraft! #teachcs #teachstem #Minecon2015 pic.twitter.com/gyuCw79hFM
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 5, 2015
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 5, 2015
After the last 2 weeks I can't wait to see what http://t.co/tTvt2svrlA turns into This is going to be a great time for #Minecraft #Education
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 6, 2015
Love the dedication to solving circuitry challenges with #redstone in #Minecraft! https://t.co/FgFStSMudR
— Sarah Guthals (@sarahguthals) July 6, 2015
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
IEEE Chapter Continues to Grow
IEEE is one of the largest student organizations at UC San
Diego. The national organization is the largest professional organization for
electrical engineers nationwide. Despite having endless electrical engineering
students at its disposal, the university’s IEEE has done a notable job
developing both professional and leadership opportunities for all members, and
strong connections amongst members for a “family feel."
IEEE is divided into three different groups: organization
members, staff members and officers. Any organization member can be staff, who shadow
the officers. This creates a stepping-stone process to an officer position.
Staff members receive priority at IEEE’s technical workshops in return for the
extra work they put in. Gerardo Gonzalez, a staff member, notes that getting to
attend as a staff member is “a great introduction into the organization as a
whole,” and he believes his participation in the organization has been a true
learning experience with an important introduction to the real world. Staff
members have many directions in which they may go, such as outreach or even
project teams.
Outreach
According to Will Chen, Outreach Chair this past school year
and Electrical Engineering major about to enter his junior year, IEEE’s
volunteer work is geared towards creating more STEM opportunities for both
students on campus and within the greater San Diego community. The Outreach
Team puts forth its best efforts to “expose others to all different resources
and opportunities as possible.” Chen recalls that after their STEM Merit Badge
Fair event in which boy scouts may earn their electronic and computer
programming badges, he received an email from a grateful mother whose son was
about to drop out of his school’s programming class before attending IEEE’s
STEM program. He was eager to return to his school’s program, proving that t
IEEE’s members are making a difference through hands-on learning activities.
Workshops and Project
Teams
Electrical engineers are no exception to the many engineers
who seek hands-on experience, and IEEE has been successfully facilitating the
development of engineering skills using technical workshops and project teams.
In fact, the technical resources IEEE offers are what first attracted past
Outreach Chair Will Chen to the organization. Chen was involved in the Grand PrIEEE (pronounced “pr-ee”)
project, gaining experience programming and working with circuit boards.
Jamie Chao, this past school year’s Project Team Chair, was
in charge of the Grand PrIEEE, which is only one of many projects IEEE develops, like the Micromouse competition.
Chao, an Electrical Engineering senior, says the Grand PrIEEE project consists
of constructing an autonomous line-following robot. During the Fall quarter,
the team brainstorms the schematics. In the winter, they configure the basic
components, build sensors (usually ROC or optimal cam sensors) and use high
pass filters. To follow the line, the robot either needs to see a white taped
line or a copper wire emitting electromagnetic fields. Finally, in the Spring
quarter, the team combines all the processes and refines the robot.
IEEE project projects are coordinated in relation to the
classes electrical engineers must take. For example, ECE 125A and ECE 125B are
both power classes and are referenced when dealing with the power components of
the robots.
“You get what you put in,” said Chao. And because IEEE
members put heavy effort into their projects, most students are inspired to
return the year after.
IEEE member and officer Tony Wong describes his experience
with the organization as “helpful, especially as a first year student and when
you don’t know what resources to utilize.” The interdisciplinary aspect of the
club, given its technical workshops, professional development, engaging
students, and extensive bonding and ties made amongst members, prepared Wong
before making any mistakes.
As for Ryan Collins, current 2016 President, he says members
are “not just people who want to get their resumes boosted.” In addition, he
notes that the skills-building opportunities allow members to become more
confident in what they are learning – confidence that they can then lend to
others when given the role of, say, staff member or officer.
As for the future of UC San Diego’s IEEE chapter, Collins
hopes to hear from recruiters and leverage their expertise as he plans for more
professional events and Tech Talks in order for members to gain exposure to
more companies. Collins is also working towards obtaining a new project space –
a designated area for multiple student organizations to work on side projects.
Keep up with IEEE at http://ieee.ucsd.edu/
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Cocoon Cam, the first Wellness Video Baby Monitor
Congratulations to the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center Cocoon Cam team for graduating the NSF I-Corps Program in Washington DC!
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| (From left to right) Dr. Nadir Weibel (Mentor from UCSD CSE Department), Rubi Sanchez, Pavan Kumar and Dennis Abremski (Mentor from von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center) |
Recognizing that there was a need for smarter baby monitoring, team founders Pavan Kumar, Siva Nattamai and Rubi Sanchez developed Cocoon Cam to make baby parenting less worrisome through continuous tracking of heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature.
"Siva had a baby about 2 years ago," explained Pavan Kumar, one of the founders of Cocoon Cam. "He started looking for a baby monitor that could tell that his baby is okay when he is away, but was not able to find any product in the market that met his needs."
Using machine vision to measure heart and respiratory rate and infrared sensors to detect skin temperature, Cocoon Cam allows parents to view videos and receive alerts on their smartphone when their baby needs attention.
During the von Liebig I-Corps program, the team identified the market size for the baby monitor industry as well as stakeholders and channels for bringing Cocoon Cam to market. Throughout the program, the team was mentored by entrepreneur Dennis Abremski and Computer Science and Engineering research scientist and lecturer Dr. Nadir Weibel. With their help, the team was able to start building relationships with potential partners and customers. After over 100 customer interviews, the team realized that Cocoon Cam would be viable as both a consumer product and tool in the medical field. To those who want to start their own companies, the team urges startup founders to get out of the building.
"It is important for startup founders to talk to as many potential customers as possible to understand the real customer need for your product or service," Pavan explained.
Not long after completing the von Liebig I-Corps program, the team was accepted into the NSF I-Corps Program in Washington DC in April and graduated from the program in June. Since then, the Cocoon Cam team has continued working at full speed. Within the last few months, the team took home a prize at the Moxie Center's Zahn Prize Competition, launched their website, completed prototype development and began testing Cocoon Cam with customers in San Diego.
Congratulations again to this team for all their success! We know it won't be long until Cocoon Cam hits the market!
Want to know more?
See more on their website, "like" Cocoon Cam on Facebook and keep up with the Cocoon Cam team's updates on Twitter.
The Moxie Center Closes On a High Note
The Moxie Center for Student Entrepreneurship capped its 2 ½-year life by winning the “Excellence in Entrepreneur Mentorship” Award from San Diego Startup Week 2015. Created with a gift from the Moxie Foundation, the Moxie Center opened its doors in January 2013 as an entrepreneurial space, education program and resource for all UC San Diego students. The Center developed and delivered programs to teach students how to turn their ideas into businesses in the Entrepreneur’s Academy, to advise and mentor student startup teams in the Incubator program, and to provide opportunities to practice pitching their business ideas through quarterly Pitchfest prize competitions.
Without further philanthropic support to fund its operations, the Moxie Center officially closed on June 30, 2015, and its student teams have now transitioned into The Basement, a new student incubator space managed by Alumni and Community Engagement. Moxie Center Executive Director Jay Kunin, PhD, will continue to teach entrepreneurship and commercialization classes as a Lecturer in the Jacobs School of Engineering and in the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center.
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| Dr. Jay Kunin, Executive Director of the Moxie Center, receives the Award for Excellence in Entrepreneur Mentorship from Austin Neudecker, Co-Founder of San Diego Startup Week, June 19, 2015 |
During his time at the Moxie Center, Kunin introduced entrepreneurship and commercialization to over 500 students in multiple classes in several Engineering departments, as well as the Social Innovation classes offered by the Center for Student Involvement, and numerous student professional groups. He also developed and taught the Center’s Entrepreneur’s Academy, and managed a corps of over 20 volunteer advisors and mentors from the San Diego business, investment and entrepreneur community.
“Dr. Jay Kunin and advisor Dr. Jay Gilberg are rare gems who helped foster and empower the students in the Moxie Center and Moxie Incubator,” said Joyce Sunday (Chemistry ‘15). “They taught us to not only be dreamers, but doers and innovators.” Joyce’s startup, Wastelights, began as a Moxie Center Incubator Team and is now providing power to underserved communities by converting sewage into electricity and turning kitchen waste into biofuel and biochar.
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| Moxie Center students pose for a celebratory photo after the 2014 Zahn Prize Competition. |
Since opening in 2013, the Moxie Teaching Incubator Program admitted 46 teams, including over 150 students from across the campus. Students came to the Moxie Center with majors from all six departments in the Jacobs School of Engineering (Bioengineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NanoEngineering, and Structural Engineering), as well as from Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Music, Urban Studies & Planning, Communication, the Rady School of Management and the School of Medicine.
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| Moxie Center startup Autoponics at work in one of the Center labs. |
“The Moxie Center welcomed students from all departments and provided anyone interested in innovation with tremendous, genuinely motivated resources,” said Jane Henderson. “I am a Physical Chemistry PhD student and admit I was lured to my first Moxie Center Pitchfest competition on account of the free pizza. Jay Kunin welcomed me to the event and was a great host, encouraging all of the students in attendance to stand in front of the audience and share their ideas.”
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| Entrepreneur’s Academy is the open, non-credit experiential class that was offered by the Moxie Center to teach entrepreneurial thinking. |
In Spring Quarter 2015, Jane also took part in the Moxie Center’s Entrepreneur’s Academy, an open, non-credit experiential class to teach students how to turn an idea into a business. The Moxie Center offered the course every quarter since Spring 2014, introducing entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial thinking to over 160 students. “As a scientist, I greatly appreciated the instruction of the scientific method of innovation taught by Jay Kunin and Jay Gilberg,” said Jane. “It was an exceptional opportunity to listen to and learn from their experience as both entrepreneurs and investors. The Academy's inherent value to the students of UCSD is exceptional and I am very grateful for the experience.”
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| The Moxie Center hosted Bill Aulet - managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and senior lecturer at MIT - for a Distinguished Lecture in November 2014. |
The Moxie Center also sponsored Distinguished Lectures by leading entrepreneur educators including Bill Aulet (MIT) and Steve Blank (Stanford). Though each lecture was presented to standing-room audiences of over 200 students, staff and faculty, many students were able to personally meet and connect with the lecturers after each session.
The Moxie Center helped inspire many student entrepreneurs, but was also able to help jumpstart some of their careers. Many of these successful students are already well on their way to commercializing the very products they incubated at the Moxie Center.
Uzair Mohammad (Bioengineering ‘16) saw the Moxie Center as “the perfect first step” and the key to accessing UC San Diego’s numerous resources as a freshman. “In my experience at UCSD, the Moxie Center was exactly what I needed to move forward and turn my idea into an ongoing serious venture. UCSD has a lot of resources available to its engineers and entrepreneurial students, but understanding where to start proved to be one of the most difficult portions of the process,” Uzair said. “In addition to the many services it provided (advice, work space, fabrication workshops, computers, etc), it made it easy to find and approach other resources, both on and off campus.” Uzair’s startup, Saaf Engineering, is creating innovative bacterial water filters, using fibers created through bacterial metabolism.
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| Uzair Mohammad (BE ‘16) receives a Zahn Prize award at the Moxie Center’s grand opening in 2013. |
“The Moxie Center's overall purpose was to act as an incubator for undergraduate entrepreneurial ventures, and it accomplished this and much more by presenting us with extremely useful tools and spaces, and by acting as a hub for all other resources we could reach out to,” said Uzair.
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| Daniel Lee, co-founder of Hush Technology, pitches Hush smart earplugs at the EvoNexus incubator Demo Day, which he won. |
Hush Technology, founded by a group of UC San Diego students known for creating the world’s first smart earplugs, also began as a Moxie Center team and utilized its resources to create their company. “The Moxie Center was one of the fantastic UCSD entrepreneurship programs that were critical for Hush to get started in the first place,” said Hush Technology Co-founder Daniel Lee. “The infrastructure and programming that they set in place was very important for learning how to create a startup, and I'm truly grateful for the groundwork that they helped lay for me to become an entrepreneur.” Hush graduated from the Moxie Center to the EvoNexus incubator in San Diego.
In only a few short years, the Moxie Center became an invaluable student resource and innovation space for interdisciplinary collaboration, and at its close, Kunin is glad to see the Center’s students and teams continue their work and transition into The Basement.
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| Winning Moxie Center teams with the judges at the 2015 Zahn Prize Competition |
“The Moxie Center provided a wonderful opportunity to introduce entrepreneurial thinking to UC San Diego students and to mentor students in starting up their businesses,” said Kunin. “It’s been a great joy for me to work with the next generation of entrepreneurs – I learn so much from each of them, and believe we’ve been a useful resource for them. I think the Moxie Center has greatly enhanced entrepreneurial education and opportunities for UC San Diego students, and I’m hopeful that The Basement will be able to expand on the Moxie Center’s success.”
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The gift from the Moxie Foundation that created and sustained the Center for three years has run its course. Entrepreneurship, however, is alive and well at the Jacobs School of Engineering. It is a key part of the Jacobs School’s mission to transfer discoveries for the benefit of society.
The Moxie Center has been a tremendous resource for students at the Jacobs School of Engineering and for the campus as a whole. The Moxie Foundation made a significant investment in entrepreneurship at the Jacobs School of Engineering, for which the Jacobs School is sincerely grateful.
The UC San Diego entrepreneurship
ecosystem includes the following:
*entrepreneurship classes
*entrepreneurship mentoring
* Innovation Corps (I-Corps) at UC San Diego (funded by the NSF and
administered by the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center). Read a story about the NSF I-Corps program at the on Liebig Entrepreneurism Center.
Gordon Engineering Leadership Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering
The Gordon Center offers a novel, end-to-end set of leadership and training curricula for students at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as for professionals working in technology fields.
The Basement at UC San Diego In February 2015, UC San Diego opened The Basement, a co-working space for all UC San Diego students. The Basement serves as a resource and meeting place for entrepreneurial students from across all of UC San Diego.
*administered by the UC San Diego Rady School of Management
*open to engineering undergraduates (and all other UC San Diego undergraduates)
*student-run
organization that organizes entrepreneurship events and competitions throughout
each academic year. Each year’s events culminate in high-profile business plan
competitions.
*learn more about the mission of the Entrepreneur Challenge
here
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
UC San Diego Researchers Launch Startup and Secure VC Investment
Congratulations to MANTA Instruments Inc. for recently securing seed funding investment from the Triton Technology Fund for their breakthrough technology to effectively characterize nanoparticles! Read the press release here.
With decades of fieldwork and experience studying nanoparticles in seawater, MANTA founders Dr. Dariusz Stramski, Dr. Kuba Tatakiewicz and Dr. Rick Reynolds of the Ocean Optics Research Lab at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) experienced firsthand the difficulty of getting good characterization data from nanoparticle samples. Even with the best technologies and scientific instruments on the market, methods were tedious and inaccurate results were often not usable for their scientific papers. Their experience inspired them to solve this core problem for measuring nanoparticle size and concentration. Stramski, Tatakiewicz and Reynolds developed their initial idea in 2010 and conducted research and development for 36 months at SIO. In 2014, the MANTA team connected with Rosibel Ochoa, Executive Director of the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center, and received mentorship from von Liebig mentor Rick Cooper. Cooper helped the team develop a business plan and financing strategy, and launch MANTA in September 2014.
Though only a little over a year old, the Triton Technology Fund has already funded four exciting new startup companies based on UC San Diego affiliated technology. Since its launch in April 2014, the Triton Technology Fund has drawn interest from UC San Diego undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and alumni, receiving over 64 diverse applications from 17 different UC San Diego departments – including the Rady School of Management, Economics, the School of Medicine and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography alongside several departments within the Jacobs School of Engineering.
The Triton Technology Fund was created to support UC San Diego students, faculty and affiliates by helping them accelerate the commercialization of their discoveries and technologies. The Fund’s goal is to leverage UC San Diego breakthroughs that will ultimately benefit society and is actively looking to fund software, communications, electronics, materials and medical devices and support those that have innovative business-to-business solutions. If you’ve got a concept that you’ve been working on, swing by the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center. They’ll point you in the right direction.
The Gordon Engineering Leadership Center's Think Tank on Digital Health
CEO of Cambridge Life Sciences, Dr. Cleland Landolt, MD kicked off the event as this year’s keynote speaker. Dr. Landolt’s talk was titled “Digital Diagnostics – Identify the Killer You Never Saw Coming”. His background as a cardiac surgeon and experience in the biotechnology industry gave unique perspective into how new diagnostic technology detecting metabolic indicators could make a significant difference in predicting onset of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Landolt emphasized that while statistics developed via “Big Data” and diagnostics are interesting, focus has to be on making statistics clinically useful and applied in a preventive model of healthcare.
Following Dr. Landolt’s talk, Gioia Messinger, MS, MBA, gave insight on the intersection of engineering and technology commercialization in healthcare. Messinger is a serial entrepreneur, who has served as Chief Judge of Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, Founder/CEO of MedSmart, and participated in the development of the endoscopic PillCam.. In her talk titled “Why Digital Health, Now!”, Messinger introduced the audience to trends in entrepreneurship, funding, and startup companies while highlighting key characteristics of companies that caused them to succeed.
Dr. Jacob Aptekar, PhD, CEO/Co-founder of Helynx, introduced the audience to the world of Electronic Health Records (EHR). In his talk “Data Driven Medicine in the EHR Age”, Dr. Aptekar spoke about how his company utilizes the data available in hospitals to effectively visualize trends that are clinically actionable, making an immediate impact on patients’ lives. Dr. Aptekar also described his journey of how he combined his medical and graduate education at UCLA to start an entrepreneurial venture, giving sound advice to all the students in the audience who were interested in pursuing a startup in the healthcare space.
Dr. Daniel Calac. MD, finished off the morning session with his talk “Hacking the Rez”. Dr. Calac serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the Indian Health Council, where he actively treats the Native American population. As a practicing physician embedded in an underserved community, Dr. Calac educated the participants on the challenges, the mentality, and lack of resources available to these communities. At the same time, he also posed a framework to innovate so that many of the talented participants in the room could develop ideas still being cognizant of the cultural and financial sensitivities.
After lunch, UC San Diego alum Dr. Wilson To, PhD highlighted how to impact patients personally and on a population level in his talk “Innovation Across the Healthcare Spectrum.” Dr. To emphasized how the healthcare system today is ripe for destruction, and explained why the business model of medicine is changing and how do we holistically allocate resources to the right patients and ultimately improve clinical outcomes. Dr. To argued how it is important not only to utilize analytics and data, but also programs that keep the patients engaged with their own health.
Nursing Innovation Leader at Kaiser Permanente Dr. Dan Weberg, PhD, RN finished off Friday with his talk titled “Imaging Care Anywhere: Future of Healthcare Technology.” Dr. Weberg focused on innovation within Kaiser Permanente and how emerging technology is evaluated and tested in clinical situations. As the final speaker of the day, he gave key advice for product developers on how to integrate within the healthcare system, keeping in mind the electronic systems and the workflow.
Gordon Engineering Leadership Center Executive Director Dr. Ebonee Williams PhD and von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center Executive Director Dr. Rosibel Ochoa PhD welcomed participants back on Saturday with a quick recap of Friday’s talks and an introduction of the day’s first speaker, Dr. Erik Viirre, MD, PhD. A UCSD Professor and Director of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, Dr. Viirre gave a phenomenal overview of the XPRIZE competitions and in particular how people can be empowered to change healthcare. He emphasized how the competition evaluates the devices not only based on functionality but also consumer appeal and understandability.
Next up, Dr. Royan Kamyar, MD, MBA, CEO of OWaves, explained his insight into the intersection of lifestyle medicine and entrepreneurship in this talk “New Vitals Signs and Opportunities in Mobile Health”. He emphasized how lifestyle changes including diet, exercise, sleep, meditation, and social connections are essential to living healthy. Dr. Kamyar now wants to empower patients with his app-based company OWaves which offers a method to track the time spent in various lifestyle facets.
After Dr. Kamyar’s talk, the participants split into three groups in order to tackling the issues in remote monitoring, big data analytics, and lifestyle medicine. The group focusing on lifestyle medicine came up with an idea to create a financially or academically motivated incentive system within university targeted at both undergraduate and graduate students. The Big Data Analytics team came up with a solution to use analytics to triage students with mental health issues in university settings. The remote monitoring group presented a solution to use a single lead EKG to monitor patients at risk for health failure. Dr. Mike Krupp, PhD, a Business and Technology Advisor to the von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center, moderated the presentations.
Dr. Todd Coleman, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering finished the day off with his talk titled “Three Paintbrushes.” Dr. Coleman spoke about utilizing technology, analytics, and medicine together to make a real-world impact. He focuses on wearable, unobtrusive technologies paired with clever machine learning algorithms as well as direct patient engagement in underserved communities.
Overall, the event had great speaker and participant engagement and fulfilled its goal of sharing different industries’ perspectives on healthcare.
Article by Neil Gandhi
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