MAE Ph.D. student Kevin Schwarm uses drone sensing in prescribed burns to prevent wildfires
As California and other states continue to battle extreme heat this fire season, Kevin Schwarm, who is pursuing a Ph.D. at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been fighting fire with fire alongside other researchers at Blodgett Forest in Northern California....
Richard Wirz part of team to lead $15M NASA Space Propulsion Research Institute
UCLA Samueli School of Engineering professor Richard Wirz, a veteran researcher in space propulsion technologies, is leading the modeling and integration team for a recently established five-year, $15-million, multidisciplinary NASA Space Technology Research...
Lihua Jin Receives NSF CAREER Award
Lihua Jin, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, the agency’s highest honor for faculty members in the early stages of their teaching and...
DNA Nanotechnology Creates Dynamic Cytoskeleton for Artificial Cells
Study provides a toolkit for custom nanoscale materials that mimic lifelike functions in synthetic cells. Using DNA and RNA molecules, UCLA engineers have built a tiny artificial molecular scaffolding system that resembles the complex network of interlinking protein...
Reinventing Solar Sail Technology to Push Space Exploration Boundaries
Improvements may enable propulsion five times faster than record held by Voyager 1 space probe. Enhancement on spacecraft propulsion technology “solar sails” will likely lead to novel interstellar missions. UCLA Engineering professor Artur Davoyan led a team of...
Novel Heat-Management Material Keeps Computers Running Cool
UCLA engineers have demonstrated successful integration of a novel semiconductor material into high-power computer chips to reduce heat on processors and improve their performance. The advance greatly increases energy efficiency in computers and enables heat removal...
UCLA Professor Launches YouTube Channel on Compliant Mechanisms
While browsing through science videos on YouTube one day, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Jonathan Hopkins experienced a lightbulb moment. Hopkins found himself inspired by the many creative ways YouTube channels are used to share scientific information...
Soft Focus: A Flexible Future for Robots
UCLA engineers lay the groundwork for machines with astounding abilities. Picture a robot. In your mind’s eye, do you see a shiny protocol droid from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? Perhaps a large, moving steel arm from our industrial present? Or even an...
Veronica Santos Part of Avatar Team Advancing to $10M XPRIZE Semifinals
A multidisciplinary team developing an immersive avatar system that enables remote human connection has advanced to the semifinals for the $10 million ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition. XPRIZE announced on April 5 that 38 teams from 16 countries were selected out of 77...