One Year After the LA Fires, UCLA Engineers Advance Fire Mitigation Efforts Work launched by UCLA Samueli civil and environmental engineering faculty Idil Akin, Scott Brandenberg, Jennifer Jay, Jiaqi Ma, Sanjay Mohanty and Jonathan Stewart in the immediate aftermath of the January 2025 blazes continues to deliver practical insights and tools for wildfire risk reduction and disaster response.
UCLA-Led Team Discovers Metallic Material with Record Thermal Conductivity A multi-institution research team led by Yongjie Hu, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, discovered that theta-phase tantalum nitride conducts heat nearly three times better than copper, opening new pathways for cooling electronics and AI hardware.
UCLA Receives $7.3M for Wide-Ranging Cannabis Research Yi Tang, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and chemistry and biochemistry, is a co-recipient of one of the four grants awarded to UCLA for cannabis research. The team will evaluate new and rare cannabinoids for their potency and potential benefits in therapeutics.
Heat Transfer Pioneer Tim Fisher Named Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Tim Fisher, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is recognized for his pioneering research at the intersection of heat transfer and nanomaterials and for his distinguished service to the profession through conference organization and technical committee leadership. The honor is one of the society’s oldest and most prestigious distinctions.
Shaily Mahendra Appointed to Richard G. Newman AECOM Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering The civil and environmental engineering professor’s research focuses on mitigating environmental hazards, aiming to expand nature-inspired solutions for sustainable treatment of groundwater, stormwater and wastewater. The endowed chair was established in 2009 with a $1.5 million gift from the executive team of AECOM in honor of Richard G. Newman, the company’s longtime former chairman and CEO.
Bioengineering Doctoral Student Co-Authors AI Heart Model Paper Published in Nature Fourth-year UCLA bioengineering Ph.D. student Milos Vukadinovic is the first author on the paper, which details the development and testing of a video-based, artificial intelligence model for echocardiography that interprets ultrasound images of the heart.
Robot Succeeds in Performing the First Cataract Surgery on Humans The article, published in Spanish, features the surgical robotics platform developed at UCLA and commercialized by Horizon Surgical Systems, a startup co-founded by UCLA faculty including Jacob Rosen, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and bioengineering, and Tsu-Chin Tsao, a distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
The Paints, Coatings and Chemicals Making the World a Cooler Place Aaswath Raman, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, comments on the potential of materials engineered for radiative cooling, a zero-energy way to chill the interiors of buildings below ambient temperature.
What 2025 Revealed About Microplastics in Everyday Food and Drinks Sanjay Mohanty, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, shares insights from a recent UCLA study he led on the number of microplastics shed by chewing gum. He is also featured in the environmental news publication The Earth & I.
He Designs Robots to Fight Fires and Deliver Food Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, discusses the creation of more than 50 different robots by his team of students and postdoctoral scholars.
