Media Watch Archives
What’s New in Civic Tech: New App Traces Coronavirus Contact
Government Technology -
Developers have built a new smartphone app for tracing potential coronavirus infections. A team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine announced the tool this week, describing as potentially “instrumental” in the effort to trace and track infections, which is something governors have described as a vital step in reopening the economy. The tool is called TrackCOVID, and it is a free, open-sourced app that its creators say also ensures the privacy of those who are potentially affected. Read More
How healthcare is using tech to accelerate COVID-19 contract tracing
Becker’s Health IT -
UC Irvine researchers created a free smartphone app, dubbed TrackCOVID, which develops an anonymous graph of interactions by pooling user data every time an individual gathers with others or goes to a public place. App users can log their interactions and "checkpoints", or places visited, and the app anonymously links users' interactions as they congregate in the same places over time. Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 can anonymously report it through the app, which will notify users who may be at risk of exposure based on the graph of interactions. Read More
US Senator concerned about privacy in Apple and Google’s Covid-19 tracing tech
E&T Magazine -
One solution could be a new open-source app that permits contact tracing for potential coronavirus infections while preserving the privacy of its users. Developed by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, TrackCOVID works by creating an anonymous graph of interactions. Every time a person gathers with others or goes to a public place, he or she can use the app to log contacts by either hosting or joining a checkpoint, which allows possible paths of virus transmission to be discovered. Read More
New app uses QR codes to trace coronavirus exposure
Futurity -
TrackCOVID could be instrumental in this effort. The project appears in a paper published recently in JMIR mHealth and uHealth. “Contact tracing is the process of tracking down and isolating people who may have been exposed to an infectious disease after someone has tested positive,” says lead author Tyler Yasaka, a software engineer and junior specialist in otolaryngology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. … TrackCOVID works in a different way, he says, by creating an anonymous graph of interactions. Read Now
UCI team develops smartphone application for coronavirus contact tracing
Medical Xpress -
On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested that reopening the state's economy will require six steps, the first of which involves "tracing and tracking individuals" in order to identify those who need to remain in isolation. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a tool that could be instrumental in this effort. TrackCOVID is a free, open-source smartphone application that permits contact tracing for potential coronavirus infections while preserving privacy. Read More
Researchers Create Carbon Nanostructure Stronger Than Diamond
IFL Science -
"Scientists have predicted that nanolattices arranged in a plate-based design would be incredibly strong," lead author Cameron Crook, a UCI graduate student in materials science & engineering, said in a statement. "But the difficulty in manufacturing structures this way meant that the theory was never proven, until we succeeded in doing it." Read Now
He was building rockets. Now he's taking on America's ventilator shortage
CNN -
As the coronavirus outbreak spread into the United States, Dr. Brian Wong, a plastic surgeon at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, wanted to know what doctors on the front lines could do if they ran out of ventilators. In March, Wong organized daily conference calls on Zoom to brainstorm ideas with a couple of his colleagues, and they adopted the name Bridge Ventilator Consortium. Soon, medical professionals from all over the country began dialing in. … "I was amazed." Dr. Govind Rajan, an anesthesiologist at UCI, said. "They took all these ideas, synthesized them and they put it together very fast — which is what is critical right now." Read More
“Stronger Than Diamonds” Carbon Nanostructure Designed – Reaches Theoretical Limit of Performance
Science Tech Daily -
“Scientists have predicted that nanolattices arranged in a plate-based design would be incredibly strong,” said lead author Cameron Crook, a UCI graduate student in materials science & engineering. “But the difficulty in manufacturing structures this way meant that the theory was never proven, until we succeeded in doing it.” Read More
New plate-nanolattices are stronger than diamonds
Futurity -
“Previous beam-based designs, while of great interest, had not been so efficient in terms of mechanical properties,” says corresponding author Jens Bauer, a researcher in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. “This new class of plate-nanolattices that we’ve created is dramatically stronger and stiffer than the best beam-nanolattices.” Read More
Scientists design a carbon nanostructure stronger than diamonds
SlashGear -
Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, and other institutions have announced that they have architecturally designed plate-nanolattices, which are nanometer-sized carbon structures. The team says that the structures are stronger than diamonds as a ratio of strength to density. The scientists reported their success in conceptualizing and fabricating a material, consisting of closely connected, close-cell plates instead of the common cylindrical trusses common in such structures. Read More