All of my work at Qualcomm Institute can be found under the news section of Qualcomm Institute's webpage at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news.php
Marine Corps Hybrid Logistics Symposium Turns to UC San Diego Researchers for Innovative Thinking and Technology
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3027
War-fighting innovation and the future that such innovation would make possible were the focus of four days of talks, tours and workshops as part of the United States’ Marine Corps Hybrid Logistics Symposium, held from Feb. 26 to Mar. 1 at the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute.
Hosted by the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics Michael Dana (in partnership with UC San Diego), the first-ever symposium comprised a series of interconnected briefs, panels and breakout groups that focused on identifying the people, processes and equipment — in other words, hybrid logistics — that the next generation of Marines will need in 2025 and beyond. One hundred Marines and sailors, including junior enlisted, junior officer and civilian Marines joined UC San Diego students and faculty — including UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla — at the symposium.
Also present were key private industry partners, including Microsoft, which provided insights into how to solve some of the military’s most difficult logistical challenges.
“Moving toward a hybrid logistics model will require a logistics community that questions conventional wisdom without ignoring the realities of the modern battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Dana. “The Hybrid Logistics Symposium is the first step toward getting feedback on our processes from some of our brightest Marine logisticians.”
Hosted by the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics Michael Dana (in partnership with UC San Diego), the first-ever symposium comprised a series of interconnected briefs, panels and breakout groups that focused on identifying the people, processes and equipment — in other words, hybrid logistics — that the next generation of Marines will need in 2025 and beyond. One hundred Marines and sailors, including junior enlisted, junior officer and civilian Marines joined UC San Diego students and faculty — including UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla — at the symposium.
Also present were key private industry partners, including Microsoft, which provided insights into how to solve some of the military’s most difficult logistical challenges.
“Moving toward a hybrid logistics model will require a logistics community that questions conventional wisdom without ignoring the realities of the modern battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. Dana. “The Hybrid Logistics Symposium is the first step toward getting feedback on our processes from some of our brightest Marine logisticians.”
We Welcome Our Robot Tour Guides
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3020
Take a walk inside the entrance to UC San Diego's Atkinson Hall and you might be greeted by a robot made of two cardboard boxes stacked one upon the other, complete with a signature smiley face. BoxBot, as the bot is called, works with his counterpart TritonBot, a robot with a fully functional body, in the hopes of one day becoming a lobby receptionist for the building. But the 'bots are also being used for more sophisticated purposes: to collect information about how humans respond to robots.
The robots are “chaperoned” by several graduate students, including Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. student Shengye Wang of the UC San Diego Contextual Robotics Institute, which is based in Atkinson Hall. Wang, along with postdoctoral researcher Heerin Lee, is working with Professor Henrik Christensen to create robots that have the long-term memory autonomy (the ability to remember faces and names, for example) required for interaction with humans. The two robots have been greeting guests in the lobby of Atkinson Hall for about a month, and will be part of QI outreach efforts on Friday, March 23 when they will greet visitors at the institute’s free monthly tour, from noon to 1 p.m. |
QI Student Leader Wins UC San Diego Sustainability Award for His Work to Combat Ocean Pollution
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3030
While on a trip with UC San Diego oceanographers to collect aerial imagery of local ecosystems in Baja, California, QI Engineers for Exploration student leader Nikko Dutra Bouck discovered massive amounts of trash covering mangrove ecosystems and contributing to ocean pollution. Dismayed at what he saw, Dutra developed a solution to the problem that could keep 50-80% of the trash out of the ocean. For all his hard work in improving sustainability, he has received the 2018 UC San Diego Sustainability Outstanding Student Award.
Much of the pollution that Dutra saw during his trip is the result of illegal dumping. Because garbage collectors in Baja California are paid before trash is delivered to designated landfills, drivers are motivated to dump wherever it is convenient, leading to polluted ecosystems. To correct the problem, Dutra proposed a new system using drones and mobile technology that would incentivize proper trash disposal and facilitate monitoring of illegal dumping. His system, Operation Trash Route, creates jobs that pay drivers once trash is delivered to designated waste sites. The system also includes a high resolution aerial imagery labeling tool, developed in conjunction with Engineers for Exploration, that gives park rangers the power to stop illegal dumping and identify garbage sites that need to be cleaned up. It uses mobile device technology to engage communities, drones to track changes in ecosystems and scientific analysis to inform government programs. His idea was chosen as a National Geographic Chasing Genius Finalist, and a beta release of the tool used to track trash is publicly available so that everyone, not just scientists, can help label trash data. |
QI Student Innovator Marquez Balingit and his Interest in the Nanoscale
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3068
QI encourages the curiosity of student innovators. We offer training programs that give students the chance to conduct research, prototype technologies and test those technologies in the field. Meet one of our students: Marquez Balingit, a third year undergraduate majoring in nanoengineering.
As a high school sophomore in a robotics club, Marquez couldn't help but wonder: How do these parts work and how do circuits communicate with each other? Once he realized the answers to his questions could be answered within the major of nanoengineering, he was set to pursue one of his main interests -- understanding what things at the nanoscale or submicron level look like. Now, Marquez tackles this question at the Nano3 lab. Here, he works to teach internal and external users unfamiliar with the scanning electron microscope, SEM, how to use it independently. Unlike regular optical microscopes, SEM does not use photons. Instead, they use electrons, which allows for smaller features in the 1 micron scale, approximately ⅕ the size of a human red blood cell. |
Qualcomm Institute Launches a Series of Big Data Day Camps
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3051
Each day, our society creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data (that’s 2.5 followed by 18 zeros!) and a whopping 92 percent of all the data in the world was created in just the last two years. In other words, there’s a lot of data and it’s growing fast.
In parallel with its growth in volume and diversity, the value of data is also growing. While all of this is great news for researchers and industry professionals, managing and making sense of such a massive volume of information is often a challenge. That’s where the organizers of a new series of Big Data Day Camps at the Qualcomm Institute (QI) at UC San Diego hope to change things.
“Our mission is to help create the 21st century workforce of Big Data experts by leading a collaborative, nationwide education and training effort among academia, industry and government via a novel, multi-level curriculum,” said Natasha Balac, organizer of the series and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Data Science at QI. “We’ve created a space where where industry professionals, researchers and graduate students alike can come together to learn how to use data to make wise, actionable decisions.”
In parallel with its growth in volume and diversity, the value of data is also growing. While all of this is great news for researchers and industry professionals, managing and making sense of such a massive volume of information is often a challenge. That’s where the organizers of a new series of Big Data Day Camps at the Qualcomm Institute (QI) at UC San Diego hope to change things.
“Our mission is to help create the 21st century workforce of Big Data experts by leading a collaborative, nationwide education and training effort among academia, industry and government via a novel, multi-level curriculum,” said Natasha Balac, organizer of the series and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Data Science at QI. “We’ve created a space where where industry professionals, researchers and graduate students alike can come together to learn how to use data to make wise, actionable decisions.”
QI Student Innovator Natalie Toon and Her Love of the Outdoors
Published at http://qi.ucsd.edu/news-article.php?id=3072
QI encourages the curiosity of student innovators. We offer training programs that give students the chance to conduct research, prototype technologies and test those technologies in the field. Meet one of our students: Natalie Toon, a third year undergraduate majoring in environmental engineering.
Tucked into her sleeping bag in a tent in Carpinteria, California, Natalie Toon is immersed in her favorite surroundings — the outdoors. Since she was a young child, she remembers hiking, camping and making trips to the beach. As she grew up, her love for the outdoors grew alongside her knowledge of environmental issues. Natalie hopes to contribute to the push for renewable energy and work in the field of renewable energy through energy system designs. Her interests include nuclear power and solar energy. As a lab assistant at the Qualcomm Institute’s Nano3 facility, Natalie trains users including UCSD alumni and industry professionals to use the scanning electron microscope (S.E.M.) for their research. |