2026 News Releases

April 23, 2026
Six New Projects Are Empowering Early-Career Engineering and Computer Science Faculty
Six teams from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been awarded funding to accelerate interdisciplinary research collaborations that include an early-career faculty member. The big idea is to empower early-career faculty to build interdisciplinary research collaborations to the point that they are competitive for multi-year external funding. The effort is funded by Irwin Jacobs and his late wife, Joan. Full Story

April 21, 2026
MRI and Augmented Reality for Better Back Pain Surgery Wins at Research Expo 2026
Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Songyuan Lu won the grand prize at this year’s Research Expo, where more than 150 students presented their research posters across the six departments at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Lu’s work focuses on computer-assisted surgery using MRI and augmented reality. Full Story

April 7, 2026
On the Rise: Jacobs School Ranks #9 Best Engineering School in the Nation
The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is ranked the #9 engineering school in the nation in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Rankings of Best Engineering Schools. This is up from #10 last year. Full Story

March 11, 2026
Automated Grading System Earns Inaugural Outstanding Teaching Innovation Award
A scalable, automated grading system designed to provide students with intelligent feedback on their work while freeing up instructor time for in-person student support was recognized with the Jacobs School’s inaugural Award for Outstanding Teaching Innovation. Full Story

February 17, 2026
Safer Railroads Through Ultrasound
Partnering with industry and government railroad organizations, structural engineers at UC San Diego applied an innovative form of ultrasound with new beamforming algorithms to create a device that can be embedded in the wheel of a cart — and one day, potentially a train itself — to inspect each and every mile of rail for defects and internal cracks not visible to the naked eye. Full Story
