Computer Science Startup Taaz.com on front page of Union Tribune on Sunday 13 April

Scott LaFee from the San Diego Union Tribune wrote a great Taaz.com story that ran on the Sunday 13 April 2008 issue, above the fold. Congratulations to computer science professor David Kriegman, and Satya Mallick, the freshly minted Jacobs School Ph.D. This pair came up with the "lipstick algorithms" that made way for Taaz.com which is the most realistic virtual makeover site on the Web. And it's free.

The promo video we made for the company launch was mentioned in the story. If you haven't watched the video, check it out here on YouTube.

The UCSD press release is here.

UPDATE APRIL 21: The YouTube video now has more than 7,000 hits

Drug Development Bottleneck Eliminated

Determining the structure of unknown natural compounds is a slow and expensive part of drug screening and development – but this may now change thanks to a new combination of experimental and computational protocols developed at the University of California, San Diego and presented at RECOMB 2008 (Research in Computational Molecular Biology) on March 31 in Singapore.

Read the press release here.

Check out a draft of the RECOMB 2008 paper here.

Sweet New Online Makeover Tool

TechCruch broke the story on Tuesday...UCSD engineers had unveiled the most realistic virtual makeover tool on the Web. You can watch a video that I shot and produced on YouTube, read the press release, or just go to Taaz.com and upload a photo of your face and give it a try. It's fun, easy and free to use.

Grand Challenges in Engineering from the NAE

The National Academy of Engineering issues its Grand Challenges in Engineering last month at the AAAS annual meeting. Researchers at UC San Diego are working on various aspects of all 14 of the challengs. We have put together a blog in order to get information about the various projects all in one place.

And the challenges are...

Make solar energy economical
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Reverse-engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Advance personalized learning
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

San Diego is Amazing

San Diego is famous for its beaches and sunshine and proximity to both Mexico and LA. But there is much more. And if you end up coming to UCSD to study or work, you'll have the chance to explore San Diego county. You hear people say that you can hike in the mountains, hang out in the desert and watch the sun set over the ocean all in one day, without leaving San Diego county. It's true. And it's cooler than it sounds. And when we get our winter rains, the wildflowers are amazing.

Career Fair Video

1000 engineering students from UCSD's Jacobs School jammed the Price Center on Feb 22to talk to potential employers at DECaF -- the largest student-run engineering career fair on the West coast.

Among the 90 companies recruiting companies was Walt Disney Imagineering. One of the recruiters was Joel Payne, a Jacobs School alum who was hired at this same fair back in 2002. At Disney, Payne is at work on a new roller coaster.

ENSPIRE student outreach event

Above: one of the cool straw desings created by 8th graders at ENSPIRE -- the huge outreach event run by Jacobs School undergrads. They pulled together 200 volunteers!




Ensprire rocked last week. It's a great new addition to National Engineers Week at UC San Diego. The 8th graders had a ton of fun and really got into the design projects and hands-on experiments. The good energy was infectious.