UCLA Engineers Become 6-Time RoboCup Soccer World Champions Led by Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA, the team dominated at RoboCup 2024 July 18–21 in Eindhoven, Netherlands, with a pair of humanoid ARTEMIS robots winning every game in the soccer tournament to snag the world championship.
Researchers Discover New Mechanism to Cool Buildings While Saving Energy Researchers led by Aaswath Raman, an associate professor of materials and science engineering, have found an affordable way to cool buildings in the summer and heat them in the winter, leveraging common building materials while reducing carbon footprint.
Engineers Make Tunable, Shape-Changing Metamaterial Inspired by Vintage Toys Led by Ankur Mehta — an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, postdoctoral scholar Wenzhong Yan and Jonathan Hopkins — a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, the team has created a new material that mimics the inner workings of push puppet toys, with applications for soft robotics, reconfigurable architectures and more.
Layered Superconductor Coaxed to Show Unusual Properties with Potential for Quantum Computing The team that designed a unique material based on a conventional superconductor is led by researchers from the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, including the Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Professor of Engineering Yu Huang of materials science and engineering and Kang Wang, the Raytheon Company Professor of Electrical Engineering and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and of materials science and engineering.
UCLA Researchers Receive $3.1 Million U.S. Department of Energy Grant to Expand the Use of Renewable Power The department has awarded a grant to UCLA chemical and biomolecular engineering researchers to develop a new prototype design for a carbon dioxide electrolyzer that will operate with a much lower energy requirement than current electrolyzers. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy will manage the project through its Grid-free Renewable Energy Enabling New Ways to Economical Liquids and Long-term Storage program.
Utilities Are Trying Hydrogen-Blended Fuels. There Are a Lot of ‘Unknowns.’ The hydrogen blend pilot testing with 44 partners is spearheaded by UCLA Samueli’s Evalyn Knight Professor in Engineering Ali Mosleh — the director of the Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at UCLA and a professor with appointments in materials science and engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Device May Help Disabled Vocal Cords Speak Again Bioengineering associate professor Jun Chen explains how he and his team of researchers at UCLA developed a non-invasive wearable device to help the vocally impaired speak.
Cheaper Way to Passively Heat and Cool Homes on Horizon Associate professor of materials science and engineering Aaswath Raman discusses an alternative way to manipulate the movement of radiant heat from buildings’ vertical walls and windows by using common building materials, including plastics.
Brain-Computer Interface Links Mind to Mixed Reality The piece mentions that the term “brain-computer interface” was coined by the late UCLA computer science professor emeritus Jacques Vidal. A recent breakthrough may disrupt the brain-computer interface, neurotechnology, spatial computing and mixed/virtual reality industries.
STUDENTS
Aerospace Engineering Student-Athlete Excels in Sport and Studies Mackenzie Ficke, a rising fourth-year aerospace engineering major and pitcher for UCLA Softball, is making a name for herself both on the field and in the classroom. Ficke was recently named to the Pac-12's 2024 Spring Academic Honor Roll, highlighting her achievements among 98 UCLA student-athletes recognized for their academic and athletic balance. (Photo credit: Suzi Mellano via UCLA Athletics)
ALUMNI
UCLA Engineering Alumna and Canadian Soccer Star Jessie Fleming Shows Athletes Can Lead On Climate Canada Women’s Soccer captain and Portland Thorns FC midfielder Jessie Fleming '21, who graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in materials engineering, has decided to compensate the social cost of carbon associated with her 2023/24 season, donating the money to Zero Foodprint — an initiative that supports farmers to build healthy soil and put carbon back into the ground. (Photo credit: Scott Chandler via UCLA Athletics)
SOCIAL MEDIA
UCLA Samueli Dean Alissa Park, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is a co-author of a new National Academies report on carbon utilization for a net zero carbon future. Read more
Civil and environmental engineering professor Jenny Jay has been awarded a Hypothesis Fund grant for her project exploring how antimicrobial resistance emerges in the environment. Read more
