Michelle Khine’s latest medtech startup was inspired by one of the scariest moments of her life. In 2018, Khine, a UCI biomedical engineering professor and entrepreneur, was watching her newborn baby being treated for a collapsed lung when she noticed that doctors weren’t monitoring his breathing. As she soon discovered, respiration has long been a neglected vital sign. State-of-the-art monitors are often bulky and can be inaccurate. “I went back and told my students: ‘This is ridiculous!’” she recalls.

Amir AghaKouchak, UCI associate professor of civil & environmental engineering and others write, “Scientists are also closely watching the impact that the rapid warming and drying is having on trees, worried that water stress could lead to widespread tree deaths.

Over decades of