9 UCLA Engineering Professors Named to 2025 List of World’s Most Influential Researchers Clarivate released its list of Highly Cited Researchers, including nine UCLA Samueli-affiliated faculty members: Nasim Annabi and Yuzhang Li (chemical and biomolecular engineering); Aydogan Ozcan, Yair Rivenson and Kang Wang (electrical and computer engineering); Bruce Dunn, Yu Huang and Ric Kaner (materials science and engineering) and Marc Suchard (computational medicine).
15 UCLA Engineering Doctoral Students Named Amazon AI Fellows Fifteen doctoral students across seven UCLA Samueli engineering departments have been selected as Amazon AI Ph.D. fellows through the company’s new $68 million program supporting more than 100 researchers across nine leading universities.
UCLA Engineering Class Publishes Research on E. coli in Water Near Farms A study led by Jennifer Jay, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, found drug-resistant environmental bacteria in surface waters downstream from large animal farms in Michigan. The research grew out of two-unit courses Jay teaches that give undergraduate students experience solving real-world problems in collaboration with community partners.
New Research Uncovers How Bad Bacteria Know Where to Cluster and Cause Infection Researchers led by Gerard Wong, a professor of bioengineering, uncovered a key mechanism controlling initial biofilm formation in a type of bacteria known as Pseudomonas. The study could lead to treatments for deadly infections in people with cystic fibrosis or those who are hospitalized.
Dynamic and Soft Cell Surroundings Shape Cell Identity A research team led by Song Li, chancellor’s professor of bioengineering, has discovered that the viscoelasticity of a cell’s surroundings — the property that allows them to harden and soften as they deform and relax under stress over time — can influence how the cell’s genetic material is organized and accessed.
Massively Parallel Implementation of Nonlinear Functions Using an Optical Processor UCLA researchers led by Aydogan Ozcan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering and holder of the Volgenau Chair for Engineering Innovation, have developed an optical computing framework that performs large-scale nonlinear computations using linear materials.
State-of-the-Art AI and Robotics Device Arrives at UCLA, Creating Opportunities for Biomedical Researchers UCLA’s new Cell Xpress.AI robotic system is capable of growing cells and tissue without human intervention, enabling more rapid and effective biomedical modeling. The system is housed in the California NanoSystems Institute lab of Robert Damoiseaux, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology and of bioengineering.
UCLA Bioengineers Develop Microscope for Ultra-Fast 3D Video Inside Living Tissue A research team led by Liang Gao, an associate professor of bioengineering, has built a new type of microscope that can make ultra-fast 3D videos inside living tissue at 1,000 frames per second, tracking individual blood cells as they flow through tiny blood vessels.
AIChE Conference Honors UCLA Professor Yoram Cohen with Invited Talk Sessions The 2025 annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers hosted four sessions in honor of Yoram Cohen, a distinguished research professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, for his many pioneering contributions to membrane science and technology.
Professor Jason Cong Wins 10-Year Most Influential Paper Award at ICCAD 2025 Jason Cong, a professor of computer science and holder of the Volgenau Chair for Engineering Excellence, received the Award at the 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Computer-Aided Design.
Season 2, Episode 4: The School and the Sea The series features civil and environmental engineering professor Gaurav Sant, Pritzker Professor of Sustainability and director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, discussing the carbon capture and utilization technologies his team has developed. (segment starts at 14:20)
How This Contraption at UCLA Sent the First DM On the internet’s 56th birthday, PBS SoCal broadcasts an interview with internet pioneer and computer science distinguished professor Leonard Kleinrock at UCLA, including from 3420 Boelter Hall, where the first message on the internet was sent from UCLA to the Stanford Research Institute on October 29, 1969.
Google’s Quantum Computer Makes a Big Technical Leap Prineha Narang, a professor of physical sciences and electrical and computer engineering, shares her perspective on how Google’s new quantum algorithm is a step closer to producing useful insights on molecule-scale chemical interactions, with potential applications for drug development.
Narang is also quoted on recent developments in quantum technology in The Wall Street Journal
and in Fast Company.
Photons Make for More Energy-Efficient AI Image Generation Aydogan Ozcan, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering, is featured for his novel image-generation model, which can produce images of comparable quality to diffusion-based models while using a fraction of the energy, with potential applications in virtual reality and other media.
Simple Mix of Enzymes Shows How Information Arises Out of Chemical Chaos Elisa Franco, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and bioengineering, comments on how a new study, in which she was not involved, could help scientists decode the chemical messages that cells use to communicate — and even learn to steer their responses.
From Italy to US: UCLA Engineering Alumnus Advances AI in Medicine and Cybersecurity Andrea Casassa Sian M.Eng. ’22 pursued a Master of Engineering degree in data science and machine learning at UCLA before joining UCLA Samueli spinoff Horizon Surgical Systems as an AI engineer, working on computer vision systems for robot-assisted cataract surgery.
