2022 Media Watch Archives
UC faces tumultuous finals week as strike reaches pivotal moment
Los Angeles Times -
Mark Roche, a 21-year-old biomedical engineering student at UC Irvine, said his classes depend on teaching assistants. Finals this quarter were altered from tests to group projects, which has resulted in less stress for Roche. “Honestly, I thought it was a win,” he said. But Iliana Rosas, 21, was disappointed this week when the professor for her sociology, race and ethnicity class canceled their final exam. She was looking forward to testing her knowledge. But without a teaching assistant to grade the test, the professor decided to eliminate it. … Professors at UC Irvine were also given additional time — until the third week of January — to submit student grades for the quarter. This means if a student fails a class, they won’t know until the next quarter has already started and they’ll be behind if they need to immediately retake it, Rosas said. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Los Angeles County seeks flood control improvements in face of climate change
Los Angeles Times -
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion calling on the Department of Public Works to prepare a report on the viability of existing flood control infrastructure, as well as plans for reducing flood risks and making disadvantaged communities more resilient. The motion … was spurred by a recent study led by UC Irvine researchers. … “Our infrastructure was built at a time when the county only cared about two things: economic development and safety from damaging storms,” Brett Sanders [UCI professor of civil and environmental engineering] said. “Now, we have an opportunity to rebuild it with a new set of goals.” [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Experts say weather helped California avoid dangerous wildfires in 2022
KCBS -
"We are keeping most fires pretty small in size, not using lots of resources," said Tirtha Banerjee, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. Banerjee studies wildfires and the prescribed burning of forests at the University of California, Irvine. Read More
New institute studies autonomous vehicles
Irvine Standard -
UC Irvine has opened a new research facility aimed at making breakthrough discoveries in zero-emission and autonomous vehicle technology. Irvine-based Horiba, a manufacturer of analytical and measurement instruments, donated $9 million to establish the institute as part of UCI’s Advanced Power and Energy Program. Called the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity2, it is housed in UCI’s Engineering Gateway building. Read More
11 Scientific Advancements Inspired by Sci-Fi Stories
Mental Floss -
Alon Gorodetsky, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UC Irvine, is one of the scientists working on human invisibility. Gorodetsky says he was “inspired by a lot of science fiction-type stuff that I used to love as a kid ….” In a 2020 Nature Communications paper, Gorodetsky and a team of scientists outlined how they used a protein from the opalescent inshore squid, which—like many other cephalopods—can camouflage itself by changing color to match its environment, to turn human kidney cells almost completely transparent. Gorodetsky believes this is just the start; his goal is to “make human skin that can change its transparency, like squid skin.” Read More
AIAA Announces its Class of 2023 Associate Fellows
AIAA -
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce its newly elected Class of 2023 Associate Fellows. … The grade of Associate Fellow recognizes individuals “who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work, or who have done original work of outstanding merit, or who have otherwise made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.” … Class of 2023 AIAA Associate Fellows: … Haithem Taha, [associate professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering], University of California, Irvine …. Read More
Startups & Innovations - New Hires
Orange County Business Journal -
Vialase Inc., an Aliso Viejo glaucoma-focused medtech startup, has hired executives to its board and C-suite. … The company’s CEO, Tibor Juhasz, previously cofounded Irvine medtech company IntraLase, which harnessed similar laser technology. Juhasz is currently a biomedical engineering [and ophthalmology] professor at University of California, Irvine. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Startups & Innovations - Funding
Orange County Business Journal -
ValVention Inc., an Irvine cardiovascular device company, received a $350,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding supports the study of ValVention’s FoldaValve, a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system, which can help restore blood flow to patients suffering from aortic valve stenosis – a disease in which the heart valve narrows and reduces blood flow to the body. … The device originated at California Institute of Technology and was developed at University of California, Irvine by Professor of [Biomedical] Engineering and Medicine Arash Kheradvar. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Sick Beats: Using Music and Smartphone to Attack a Biosafety Room
Hackaday -
As it turns out, perhaps one who has read a new paper on the potential for hacking biosafety rooms using music. The work was done by University of California Irvine researchers [Anomadarshi Barua], [Yonatan Gizachew Achamyeleh], and [Engineering Professor Mohammad Abdullah Al Faruque], and focuses on the negative pressure rooms found in all sorts of facilities, but are of particular concern where they are used to prevent pathogens from escaping into the world at large. Read More
Best of Last Week—New map of universe, smart home vulnerabilities and young people at risk of hearing loss
Science X -
In technology news, a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, discovered a way to use music to trigger a deadly pathogen release—a finding that showed that people working in negative-pressure rooms could be easily put at risk by criminals using smartphones. Read More