News Archive

Cars, Start Your Engines!

October 21, 2021

Engineering and data science students from UC San Diego will participate in the inaugural Indy Autonomous Challenge on Oct. 23. The competition, which offers a $1.5 million prize pool, is designed to inspire the next generation of STEM talent and challenges university students from around the world to develop autonomous vehicle software. Full Story

Students make it to finals of first autonomous EV GrandPrix race

September 30, 2021

A group of UC San Diego engineering and data science students was one of three teams to make it to the final round of the inaugural autonomous EV GrandPrix go-kart race hosted by Purdue University in Indianapolis on Sept. 17. Full Story

IROS 2021 preview: robotic mapping and manipulation

September 22, 2021

Researchers at the UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute will present three papers at the IROS 2021 conference, which takes place Sept. 27 to Oct. 1, 2021, both online and in person in Prague.    Full Story

Researchers develop first steerable catheter for brain surgery

August 18, 2021

A team of engineers and physicians has developed a steerable catheter that for the first time will give neurosurgeons the ability to steer the device in any direction they want while navigating the brain’s arteries and blood vessels. The device was inspired by nature, specifically insect legs and flagella--tail-like structures that allow microscopic organisms such as bacteria to swim.     Full Story

NSF Invests $20M in UC San Diego-headquartered Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Institute

July 29, 2021

Robotics researchers at UC San Diego are a key part of new NSF AI Institute. AI-driven optimization will allow robots to better perceive their environment and interact with them in a robust manner. Full Story

Improved maps for self-driving vehicles win Research Expo 2021

May 25, 2021

From monitoring the structural integrity of airplane wings, to improving lithographic 3D printing processes, to creating better maps for self-driving cars, this year’s Research Expo symposium showcased the depth and breadth of work done by graduate engineering and computer science students at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.   Full Story

This system helps robots better navigate emergency rooms

May 10, 2021

Computer scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a more accurate navigation system that will allow robots to better negotiate busy clinical environments in general and emergency departments more specifically.  The researchers have also developed a dataset of open source videos to help train robotic navigation systems in the future.    Full Story

CAREER awards for three researchers at UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute

April 29, 2021

Three researchers at the Contextual Robotics Institute at UC San Diego have received CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation in 2021. Their work ranges from robot mapping, to invertebrate locomotion, to autonomous robotic surgery.    Full Story

From self-driving cars, to drones, to healthcare robotics: UC San Diego at ICRA 2021 preview

April 26, 2021

A record number of papers from robotics faculty at the University of California San Diego were accepted to the 2021 International Conference on Robotics and Automation taking place in Xi’an.China, May 30 to June 5. Full Story

Robot, heal thyself

March 26, 2021

Living tissue can heal itself from many injuries, but giving similar abilities to artificial systems, such as robots, has been extremely challenging. Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego reporting in Nano Letters have developed small, swimming robots that can magnetically heal themselves on-the-fly after breaking into two or three pieces. The strategy could someday be used to make hardier devices for environmental or industrial clean up, the researchers say.  Full Story

Human-centered mobility and transportation options for disadvantaged communities is the goal of new partnership

February 24, 2021

The University of California San Diego is teaming up with several community-based organizations and the San Diego Association of Governments to improve access to transportation for the county’s low-income and underserved neighborhoods. The team is adopting a human-centered design approach to their work to try and repair the harm done by car-oriented transportation policies of the past.    Full Story

This robot doesn't need any electronics

February 17, 2021

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems. The team, led by Michael T. Tolley, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, details its findings in the Feb. 17, 2021 issue of the journal Science Robotics.   Full Story