UC Davis Engineering Progress, Winter 2019

WINTER 2019

Gearing Up for Big Changes: John and Melinda Baum give $5 million to the College of Engineering

Diane Bryant: Building a Better World for Women in STEM

EXPLORER: World’s 1st Total-Body Scanner

Computer Scientists Win $500k Amazon Alexa Prize

Learn more about volunteering as an evaluator: http://bit.ly/2019-design

ENGINEERING

DESIGN SHOWCASE Thursday, June 6, 2019 12 – 1 p.m. • Evaluators Lunch with Dean Jennifer S. Curtis 1 – 4 p.m. • Engineering Design Showcase ARC Pavilion The Engineering Design Showcase is the culminating experience for graduating seniors. A senior design project synthesizes all the skills students learn at UC Davis and is required to complete an engineering degree. Teams work together to design and prototype a product, device, process or software system. This event brings together project teams from all eight departments for an opportunity to share student designs with the public.

The College of Engineering invites alumni and industry partners to review and provide expert feedback to student teams on their exhibits and project demonstrations.

Admission is free and open to the public.

CONTENTS

UC Davis Engineering Progress • Winter 2019

Dean’s Message and 4 College Highlights

Engineering Progress is published twice a year by the College of Engineering at UC Davis.

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis Dean, College of Engineering Jessie Catacutan Executive Assistant Dean, Administration and Finance Jim Schaaf Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies Case van Dam Associate Dean, Facilities and Capital Planning Ricardo Castro Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Alyssa Panitch Executive Associate Dean, Academic Personnel and Planning Leigh Ann Hartman Assistant Dean, Development and External Relations DEPARTMENT CHAIRS Bryan Jenkins Biological and Agricultural Engineering Steven George Biomedical Engineering Roland Faller Chemical Engineering

UC Davis Wins Amazon’s 5 2018 Alexa Artificial Intelligence Challenge

2018 Distinguished 6

Engineering Alumni Recipients

Welcoming New Faculty 8 10 Diane Bryant, Building a

12 COVER: Baum Gift Supports Student Startup Center

16 EXPLORER Imaging Scanner 18 The Science of Lake Tahoe 22 Student Innovation Spotlight

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Matthew Farrens Computer Science M. Saif Islam Electrical and Computer Engineering Jeff Gibeling Materials Science and Engineering Stephen Robinson Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering ENGINEERING PROGRESS Aditi Risbud Bartl Director, Marketing and Communications

Steve Dana, ATS Design Cover Photo by Reeta Asmai/UC Davis

College of Engineering University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue, Kemper Hall 1042 Davis, CA 95616

http://engineering.ucdavis.edu

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Better World for Women in STEM

Amit Kanvinde Civil and Environmental Engineering

Bonnie Dickson Communications Specialist

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16

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Message from the Dean No profession unleashes the spirit of innovation like engineering. From inventive research to real-world applications, Aggie engineers are problem-solvers who have a direct and positive impact on people’s everyday lives. Our college provides an engineering education based on strong fundamentals, giving students the tools they need to prepare for fulfilling careers that allow them to grow and adapt in a quickly changing world.

In this issue of Engineering Progress, we highlight some of the outstanding efforts of our engineering faculty, students and alumni to drive innovation forward. This fall, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Professor Ken Giles was elected into the National Academy of Inventors for his sensor-based spray systems for crops that lead to significantly reduced pesticide use. Four College-led companies were honored at the Sacramento Region Innovation Awards for translating advanced manufacturing and electronics technology into the marketplace. You’ll also learn about the activities of some entrepreneurial-minded students from our college’s Student Startup Center, who have developed solutions for global waste, clean transportation and more.

Upcoming College

Picnic Day April 13, 2019

Spring Distinguished Lecture Allison Okamura, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University UC Davis Student Community Center April 15, 2019

Engineering Design Showcase June 6, 2019 • ARC Pavilion

Spring Commencement June 14, 2019 • ARC Pavilion

In addition, we are delighted to report that our Engineering Student Design Center expansion project received a generous $5 million gift from John (’69) and Mindy Baum.

This gift enables the creative and entrepreneurial ventures occurring in the Student Startup Center to be co-located within the expanded Engineering Student Design Center. Using a client-focused, project-based approach to engineering education starting in their first year of engineering studies, our students will gain both real world experience and business acumen in the Engineering Student Design Center long before graduation. We are energized by this vision of engineering education that will further propel the prominence of UC Davis Engineering through the successes of its outstanding graduates.

Go Aggie Engineers!

Join us for Jennifer Sinclair Curtis Dean, UC Davis College of Engineering

Night of Design JOIN US on April 11 in Silicon Valley for Night of Design! At this exclusive interactive opportunity, UC Davis alumni, corporate partners and friends of the College of Engineering will learn about design education from leaders in the field. The event will feature distinguished speaker David Kelley, founder of IDEO, a panel discussion, networking and innovation tours.

For more information, contact Molly Bechtel, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator, at mmbechtel@ucdavis.edu. ­4 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

PICNIC DAY 2019

The College will host several alumni events this year, including class reunion photos for alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago, along with the classes of ’69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ’99, ’04 and ’09.

Hey Alexa, Pay These Students 500K UC Davis Wins Amazon’s 2018 Alexa Artificial Intelligence Challenge

By Bonnie Dickson

A TEAM OF STUDENTS FROM THE UC DAVIS won the global 2018 Amazon Alexa Prize and a $500,000 prize for creating a “chatbot” that can converse engagingly with humans on a range of topics such as entertainment, sports, politics, technology and fashion. The prize was announced at the annual Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference in Las Vegas last fall.

Zhou Yu, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science, led the team of 11 graduate and undergraduate students to victory.

“When our team first came together, we were competing against teams that had already participated in this challenge,” Yu said. “For us, it was our first time competing. Now, we are the best in the world in social conversational systems. They really came together and made this happen.”

The team’s bot—affectionately named “Gunrock” after the university’s mascot—earned a final score of 3.1 out of 5. Gunrock was able to maintain an average of 9 minutes and 59 seconds of conversation during the competition’s final round of judging. Team Alquist from the Czech Technical University in Prague earned second place with a score of 2.6.

The competition was the culmination of nearly a year of research and development efforts

by Team Gunrock. The team programmed their conversational bot using data from millions of Amazon Alexa user conversations.

Some of the distinguishing features of the bot included incorporating language disfluencies— pauses such as “hm” or “ah.” These humanlike attributes help distinguish Gunrock from traditional artificial intelligence bots.

The team also designed a robust natural language understanding model for their bot, which helped it break down dialogue into self-contained semantic units and parse through language to better determine context. They integrated structured knowledge bases such as Google Knowledge into the bot. This helped Gunrock handle a wide variety of user behaviors, including switching topics and answering questions.

In addition to Yu, the team includes UC Davis students Chun-Yen Chen, Dian Yu, Weiming Wen, Yi Mang Yang, Mingyang Zhou, Kevin Jesse, Austin Chau, Antara Bhowmick, Shreenath Iyer, Giritheja Sreenivasulu and Ashwin Bhandare.

Although they have not yet decided how to use their prize money, the team will definitely compete again next year, Yu said.

“NOW, WE ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD IN SOCIAL CONVERSATIONAL SYSTEMS.” – ZHOU YU

Zhou Yu, back, center, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science, led Team Gunrock to victory in Amazon’s 2018 Alexa Artificial Intelligence Challenge. Photo by Zhou Yu/UC Davis

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COLLEGE HONORS 2018 DISTINGUISHED ENGINEERING

ALUMNI RECIPIENTS

By College of Engineering Staff

LAST FALL, the College of Engineering honored JoeBen Bevirt, mechanical engineering, ’95, Cynthia Murphy-Ortega, chemical engineering, ’91 and Ken Ouimet, chemical Engineering, ’90 as its 2018 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal recipients. The award is the highest recognition presented by the College to alumni.

The three alumni were honored at the College of Engineering’s Alumni Celebration on Oct. 26 at the UC Davis Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. The evening included a cocktail hour with engineering demonstrations, followed by a dinner and awards ceremony.

JoeBen Bevirt

Founder, Joby Aviation B.S. Mechanical Engineering, ’95 JoeBen Bevirt holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from UC Davis and a master’s in mechanical engineering design from Stanford University.

A self-described serial entrepreneur, Bevirt has successfully founded four companies over the last 10 years. In 2000, just five years after graduating from UC Davis, Bevirt co-founded Velocity11, which developed high-performance laboratory equipment and automation solutions for life science researchers. He served as CEO, president and board member for Velocity11 until 2005, when he founded Joby, Inc. to develop, market and sell useful, unique, consumer products, including the extremely popular GorillaPod line of flexible, portable tripods. In 2008, Bevirt turned his focus to renewable energy and founded Joby Energy Inc. to develop groundbreaking airborne wind turbines to harness the abundant power of high-altitude wind. A year later, he founded Joby Aviation to develop compact electric personal aircrafts designed for efficient high-speed flights and has worked on the NASA “LEAPTech” X-57 Maxwell project, an experimental aircraft that aims to reduce fuel use, emissions and noise in light aircraft. Bevirt holds dozens of U.S. patents, including several pertaining to air travel.

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Cynthia MurphyOrtega

Manager, University Partnerships and Association Relations, Chevron Corporation B.S. Chemical Engineering, ’91 After graduating from UC Davis with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1991, Cynthia Murphy-Ortega was hired as an engineer at Chevron Corporation’s Richmond Refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area. Now in her 27th year with the company, she serves as a manager in Chevron’s University Partnerships and Association Relations group, where she develops strategic relationships with universities, including UC Davis, and national associations to support the curriculum, faculty and facilities needed to lead students to success after college. Murphy-Ortega previously held positions in engineering, maintenance, operations, financial and business planning, process safety management and technical competency development at Chevron. MurphyOrtega is passionate about engineering education and diversity and inclusion, and dedicates her time to these areas by serving on numerous boards at universities and national associations across the globe. At UC Davis, she is active in several advisory groups, including the Engineering Dean’s Executive Committee, along with advisory committees for Chemical Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Leadership in Engineering Advancement Diversity and Retention (LEADR) program and the AvenueE community college transfer program.

Ken Ouimet

CEO and Founder, Engage3 B.S. Chemical Engineering, ’90 Ken Ouimet earned a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from UC Davis in 1990 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Santa Barbara in 1995. While studying statistical physics at Santa Barbara, Ouimet discovered he could apply the same principles to model retail markets to optimize retail pricing decisions.

His move to retail marketing also stems from his experience auditing in-store prices while working for his parents’ business, Comparative Prices International, as a young boy. In 1996, he founded KhiMetrics, one of the first companies to successfully develop and utilize retail revenue management technology. His company dominated the retail revenue management and price optimization market for nearly a decade before it was successfully acquired by multinational software corporation SAP. Ouimet went on to serve as chief scientist and vice president of innovations at SAP AG from 2006-2007. He also served on the board of directors of Revionics, a prescriptive analytics and machine-learning software company in Roseville, from 2007-2011.

In 2008, Ouimet founded Engage3, a Davis-based startup that uses predictive analytics and data to help retailers understand their competition and their customers. Ouimet maintains close ties with UC Davis by participating in seminars and recruiting students to work at his company.

NOMINATIONS for the 2019 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal are open through Monday, April 1, 2019. If you know of UC Davis College of Engineering alumni who are deserving of recognition, please submit nominations online: bit.ly/deam-nomination-2019.

Ken Giles, Ph.D. 2019 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors Giles is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at UC Davis and an expert in agricultural and industrial spray applications. He created the pulsedwidth modulation spray control system that is now the industry standard for environmental protection, as well as other sensor-based spray systems for crops, leading to significantly reduced pesticide use.

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Meet Our New

FACULTY

The College of Engineering is pleased to introduce 12 new engineering faculty members who have joined us during the 2018-2019 academic year. Our faculty are a reflection of our growing engineering community and bring with them diverse perspectives, research and experiences.

Ambarish Kulkarni

Chemical Engineering, Assistant Professor Kulkarni’s research focuses on developing and using a suite of computational methods to accelerate the design and discovery of novel, functional materials. His research group collaborates with a number of experimental groups on applications including catalysis, separations, sensing and electronics. Prior to joining UC Davis, Kulkarni was a postdoc researcher at Stanford University. Kulkarni holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jiandi Wan

Chemical Engineering, Assistant Professor Wan conducts research around three themes that all have a core of fluids: the blood flow in the brain, organ-on-chip and multi-phase flows. Prior to joining UC Davis, Wan was an assistant professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology and an adjunct assistant professor at University of Rochester. He completed his Ph.D. in chemistry from Boston University. Wan is a first-generation faculty member.

William Putnam

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Assistant Professor Putnam’s research seeks to explore, understand and leverage the basic science underlying extreme light-matter interactions for technological applications ranging from light wave microelectronics to lightdriven, microscale particle accelerators.

Prior to joining UC Davis, Putnam was a staff scientist at Northrop Grumman’s ­8 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

basic research laboratory, NG Next, where he researched ultrafast, few-cycle laser technologies and extreme nonlinear optics. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Marina Radulaski

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Assistant Professor Radulaski’s research explores the intersection of quantum, nano and photonic technologies. More specifically, she studies the light emitted by tiny defects in gems such as silicon carbide and diamond for applications in quantum information processing.

She earned a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University and undergraduate degrees in physics and computer science from the University of Belgrade and the Union University in Serbia.

Weijan Yang

Electrical and Computer Engineering, Assistant Professor Yang’s research is focused on biophotonics, implantable biomedical devices, MEMS/NEMS devices, metastructures, optical imaging, two-photon microscopy, brain imaging and modulation and neural circuits.

His research group aims to develop advanced optical imaging technology and novel miniaturized devices, and use these new tools to investigate problems in neuroscience and biomedicine.

Yang earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2013.

“I CHOSE UC DAVIS BECAUSE I WANTED TO WORK AT A WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITY, CONDUCTING CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH ALONGSIDE A VERY TALENTED AND DEDICATED GROUP OF COLLEAGUES.” – Professor Michele Barbato, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Randy Carney

Biomedical Engineering, Assistant Professor Carney’s research is focused on developing new platforms for earlystage cancer diagnosis by applying spectroscopic methods to characterize circulating exosomes and related extracellular vesicles (EVs). His research lab builds cutting-edge Raman spectroscopy and surfaceenhanced Raman scattering tools to investigate the broad range of EVs, with the goal of more sensitively and specifically identifying tumor-associated subpopulations. Carney earned his master’s in materials science and engineering at MIT and his Ph.D. in materials science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rucha Joshi

Biomedical Engineering, Lecturer Joshi researches the enhancement of teaching, learning, outreach and diversity of engineers and instructional innovation in biomedical engineering.

Her current research explores the application of human-centered design thinking to approaching challenges in teaching engineering. Joshi is actively involved in educational entrepreneurship projects, STEM popularization activities and making engineering accessible to underrepresented high school students in the U.S. and India. Joshi earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Purdue University.

Sanjeevi Sivasankar

Michele Barbato

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Barbato’s research focuses on traditional and innovative construction methodologies and materials, with an emphasis on new recycled and green materials. His research encompasses modeling and analysis of reinforced concrete, steel, steel-concrete, wood-concrete composite structures, reinforced concrete structures retrofitted with fiber reinforced polymers, and soil-foundationstructure interaction systems, structural dynamics and stochastic process modeling. Prior to joining UC Davis, Barbato was an associate professor at Louisiana State University. He received his master’s and Ph.D. in structural engineering from UC San Diego.

Thilo Gross

Professor, Computer Science Gross’ research is focused on network science, nonlinear dynamics, statistical physics, game theory, opinion formation, community ecology, cell biology development and operations research. After completing postdoc work at the University of Potsdam and at Princeton University, Gross was a group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden University of Technology in Germany and then a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol. Gross earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Oldenburg in Germany.

Christopher Nitta

Computer Science Engineering, Lecturer Nitta’s research interests include hardware power management, on-chip nanophotonic interconnects, embedded system and RealTime Operating System design and hybrid electric vehicle control. Nitta previously worked at UC Davis as an adjunct professor, a postdoc research associate and as temporary lecturer.

He also spent over a decade as a chief software engineering with Extensible Control Solutions, LLC. Nitta earned his master’s and Ph.D. in computer science from UC Davis.

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Joël Porquet

Sivasankar’s research aims to resolve the physical principles by which cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli. His research group focuses on the biophysical studies of mechanical tension sensing in cells and bioengineering tool development. The group’s projects include biophysical studies of cell-cell adhesion and its regulation and the development of high resolution techniques to quantify the effect of mechanical force on protein structurefunction. Sivasankar earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Porquet’s research mainly focuses on developing new tools to improve engineering education. Prior to joining UC Davis, he worked in many diverse settings across the private sector and academia and around the world.

His latest experiences included working on Google’s modular smartphone Project Ara as team lead of the Firmware Development Kit and documentation, and porting the Linux kernel to a massively parallel 96-core processor architecture designed for a research project led by Sorbonne University. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Sorbonne University in Paris, France.

Computer Science and Engineering, Lecturer

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UC DAVIS ALUMNA

DIANE BRYANT UC DAVIS ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING ALUMNA DIANE BRYANT (’85) is one of the most powerful women in tech. Most recently, she was the chief operating officer of Google’s Cloud Platform, where she managed Google Cloud’s supply chain optimization, customer adoption and IT product development efforts. She was previously the senior vice president and general manager of Intel Corporation’s Data Center Group, a role that landed her on Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” and Business Insider’s “Silicon Valley’s 100” lists, among other accolades.

Unlike some of today’s tech leaders, Bryant’s success did not begin in an Ivy League dorm room.

Instead, when Bryant was 18 years old, she was homeless. After graduating from Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, Calif. she started free community college classes at American River College. She juggled three waitressing jobs to make ends meet.

Although she was enrolled in science and math-intensive courses at America River College, she had never considered pursuing engineering. That all changed one day when a classmate struck up a conversation with Bryant. He told her that engineers had the highest starting salary for graduates with a four-year degree.

Bryant recalls marching down to the counselor’s office and declaring that she wanted to be an engineer. Her counselor enthusiastically responded, “That’s great!

What kind of engineer? Hardware or software?”

After a brief moment of panic—at the time, Bryant confessed, she knew very little about what an engineer actually did—she landed on hardware engineering.

Bryant took advantage of the transfer agreement between Sacramento area community colleges and UC Davis, transferring to Davis in 1983.

“Those two years at Davis were truly the best years of my life,” Bryant says. “That time and my degree in electrical engineering absolutely enabled me to accomplish what I have in the tech world.”

By the time Bryant graduated in 1985, she had attracted 11 engineering job offers, ultimately accepting one from Intel, given it was the only offer in her hometown of Sacramento, enabling her to remain close to her mom. “A UC Davis engineering degree was a strong magnet for employment,” Bryant remembers. “It still is.”

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Photo by Alexander Fisher-Wagner/UC Davis

On leadership, grit and social intelligence

Looking ahead: big data and artificial intelligence

When Bryant first joined Intel, the personal computer had Since her departure from Google Cloud last year, Bryant has just hit the market. Her career has seen her through all of been elected to Broadcom’s board of directors and continues to society’s major computing evolutions. From the launch of keep her finger on the pulse of global tech trends.

PCs to the revolutionary arrival of cloud computing, Bryant As cloud computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous, Bryant has designed technologies and led successful engineering says the potential to harness big data for applications like teams through them all. artificial intelligence is tremendous.

Over the course of her nearly 35-year career in tech, “Cloud computing has created an incredible opportunity.

Bryant has also shattered glass ceilings for women. Her People now have access to a highly-efficient compute model, early leadership roles included serving as general manager which allows more and more devices and ‘things’ to become of Intel’s Server Platforms Group and then director of connected, in turn generating massive amounts of data. This the Corporate Platform Office, where she led Intel’s creates the opportunity for new discovery through artificial transformation into a platform-directed company. Early in intelligence.” her career, she was director of engineering Big data is a game changer, Bryant explains. of the Mobile Products Group, followed She believes in the power of big data and by a stint as general manager of the artificial intelligence to move society forward, “AS LEADERS IN Enterprise Processor Division, which was citing the application of artificial intelligence INDUSTRY, WE HAVE A responsible for the architecture, design to develop autonomous vehicles and to feed and delivery of Intel’s Xeon processor the world’s growing population through smart RESPONSIBILITY TO ASK families—the processor that went from farming. absent to now over 95% share of the “Farming, the oldest industry on the planet— THE HARD QUESTIONS world’s servers during Bryant’s time. founded in 10,000 BC—is an early adopter AND INVEST IN Under Bryant’s leadership in 2017, of cutting-edge AI technology. Combining Intel’s Data Center Group generated $19 data sources from soil samples with weather UNDERSTANDING billion in revenue, nearly half of the forecasts and satellite imagery of the fields, company’s overall earnings for that year. along with sensor data from the farming BOTH THE RISKS AND Bryant attributes her success to always equipment, the farmer suddenly has the REWARDS.” being open to the next opportunity, the information needed to generate healthier crops next challenge and the next problem with increased yield,” Bryant says.

– DIANE BRYANT to be solved. She also cites her grit and When Intel got into the server business, emotional intelligence. the reduced cost of compute meant anyone “When a new project arose at Intel, I could have a large-scale, high-performance accepted the challenge without pause despite the lack of computer. Massive compute capacity would no longer be limited clarity on what the solution would be, or how I could be to governments and large academic institutions. The result was successful,” Bryant says. “But I knew success was important people worried that technology would land in the wrong hands to the company and I knew I was going to figure it out— and result in uncontrolled development of nuclear weapons that’s grit.” using commercial, off-the-shelf servers, she remembers.

Another part of grit is creating your own luck, Bryant “But you can’t be encumbered by fear and throw up your hands says. “Because things aren’t always going to fall into place, in despair when the topic is controversial, as is AI. As leaders in you have to be someone who can manufacture luck and the industry, we have a responsibility to ask the hard questions opportunity.” and invest in understanding both the risks and rewards, look Bryant’s strong emotional intelligence—her ability to at all sides of the technological advancements and the use navigate complex social relationships and organizational cases, and fight for fair, humane, democratic and beneficial structures—has also helped her become an influential leader applications.” in the tech world. Emotional intelligence is an underrated “Artificial intelligence is still nascent, it’s still evolving and skill, especially in the engineering world, Bryant says. it’s definitely a hotly debated topic. This is a natural state for “Any time you’re working within a corporation, there are a complex issue filled with unknowns. But that’s why the complex social relationships and environments to navigate, exploration is so exciting and so fun.” especially as a leader. It’s your job to engage the organization and help them see the opportunity in everything they do.”

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Cover Story

for Big Changes

By Trevor Stewart

“IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENCE. THE PROMISE OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ALSO HELPS UC DAVIS ATTRACT TOP PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS.” – JOHN BAUM

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CREATIVITY NEEDS SPACE, time and the proper tools for an idea to come to fruition.

Thanks to a generous $5M gift from John ’69 and Mindy Baum, the Engineering Student Design Center (ESDC) will provide an expanded, visionary new space in which students will be able to dive into creative and entrepreneurial ventures.

The ESDC’s massive makeover includes a renovation and expansion from its current size of 10,458 square feet to over 21,000 square feet, encompassing the Student Startup Center, which serves as a launching pad for students’ entrepreneurial undertakings. This gift enables the Student Startup Center to be co-located within the expanded Engineering Student Design Center, and the Student Startup Center will be named in the Baum’s honor.

Using a client-focused, project-based approach, students will gain real-world experience and business acumen in the ESDC long before graduation, including all phases of the design process from project framing to creating business models.

“It’s really important to have that hands-on learning experience,” said John, who graduated from the College of Engineering. He received his degree in aeronautical engineering and would later became a commercial airline pilot. “It is a great tool to help students retain the knowledge they learn in the classroom. The promise of experiential learning also helps UC Davis attract top prospective students.”

As a student, John learned the value of collaborative teamwork, joining in engineering projects with peers to find solutions to mechanical problems. And as a member of the UC Davis Student Flying Club located at University Airport, John turned his love of aviation into a career, honing his skills and eventually flying commercially for United Airlines.

It was at United where he met his wife, Mindy, a flight attendant at the time. Mindy was excited to provide donor support to John’s alma mater, of which he speaks glowingly.

“It really comes down to finding an interest in something you are passionate about, assessing where there is a need and what the benefit would be,” Mindy said. “We certainly saw the need to give so that this project could move forward.”

“We are so thankful to John and Mindy for their forward-looking vision. This foundational gift is the first big step toward helping our students become the innovators of tomorrow,” Photos by Reeta Asmai/UC Davis

said Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering. “Coupled with the rigor and technical knowledge provided by our engineering departments, the ESDC will provide a transformative professional experience that will set UC Davis students apart throughout their careers.”

Where students discover the power of design Today, the Engineering Student Design Center enables students from all majors and disciplines to safely use intricate machinery to fuel their creativity. The center has lathes, mills, bandsaws, 3D printers and more. There are four full-time staff members and 12 student assistants in the ESDC, who assist the 8,400 students who come through the door each year.

Unprecedented growth in undergraduate enrollment at UC Davis means the College must be prepared to train students to adapt to all types of technology, whether they are physical or digital. New additions to the ESDC will include instruction/ huddle rooms, electronics, additive and subtractive machining, rapid prototyping and more.

Kevin Mclaughlin ’19, an ESDC student assistant and mechanical engineering major, said he enjoys being able to help others and experiment with the tools firsthand.

“If you like building Legos, or doing woodworking or metal art, this is the place for you,” he said. “There are a lot of great staff members here to help show students how to operate the equipment and teach them new things.”

ESDC student assistant Lea Sérarr ’20 said she encourages all students to come learn at the ESDC. For her female peers who may be concerned about the male-dominated stereotype of makerspaces and workshops, she wants to assure them that half of the student staff at the ESDC are women.

“A lot of women are intimidated when they walk in and see a lot of men with power tools, but there are more and more women coming in on a regular basis,” Serarr said. “All engineering students should come in, no matter their skill level.”

Mike Akahori, development engineer and manager of the ESDC, said one of the favorite parts of his job is welcoming new students. He enjoys being able to lend his technical knowledge to their work and inspire them to come back and explore the breadth of the ESDC. “These students come to college to be engineers, but they may not have had experiential learning until they walk through our doors,” Akahori said. “It’s an amazing feeling to watch someone uncover their talent for creating things, which we call ‘having the knack.’ I’m so grateful for the Baum’s gift because it will increase the number of students we’re able to help.”

navigating the corporate world using startup principles.

“The great thing about working with students is that they have insight into problems that they want to solve, and they’re trying to build companies to do just that,” said Aaron Anderson, assistant director of the SSC. “There’s nothing more exciting than seeing energetic, ambitious students solve problems that sometimes I didn’t even realize existed.”

The SSC is open to all students, from every major and background. Regardless of where a student is in their entrepreneurial journey, the SSC serves as a resource and a safe place to brainstorm new concepts.

“Entrepreneurs solve big problems,” Anderson explained. “And there’s no better university on the planet that is more prepared to take advantage of emerging trends than UC Davis, given our location next to the State Capital and expertise in areas such as climate and human and animal medicine.”

Anderson added, “The Baums’ gift will take the SSC and the entrepreneurial work on campus and scale it in a way like never before.”

The perfect partnership The collaborative nature of the ESDC and SSC helps students learn to work together in teams.

“I have been able to add things to my resume that go beyond the theoretical things we have learned in class,” said Gauree Shah ’19, an ESDC student assistant and mechanical engineering major.

“I have real, tangible proof of the engineering work I’ve done by working in this space.”

John Baum believes this merger is the perfect encapsulation of what UC Davis is—a genuine community.

“What’s happening at UC Davis is so dynamic. This expansion, renovation and merging of the ESDC and the SSC will only enhance our already stellar community,” John said. “It’s just a thrill for us to be able to support this endeavor. I suggest that if someone has a passion, come visit UC Davis, and you will find something you want to contribute to through philanthropic giving.”

For more information about supporting the ESDC, please contact Leigh Ann Hartman lahartman@ucdavis.edu.

An incubator for student innovation The Student Startup Center (SSC) exists to help students interested in entrepreneurship—whether that’s launching a company, working for a startup, or E N G I N E E R I N G P R O G R E S S / W i n t e r 2 0 1 9 13

UC DAVIS RECEIVES $2 MILLION FOR Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering

Prem Chand Jain Family Presidential Chair honors family legacy

By Katherine Lee

The University of California, Davis has received a $1.5 million gift towards the Prem Chand Jain Family Presidential Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering. This is the first ever gift to the university by alumnus and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Prem Chand Jain M.S. ’77 and his family. The UC Office of the President will also provide a $500,000 match to the family’s gift, creating a $2 million endowed chair in total.

“I want to give back by creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that will help other engineering students into the future,” said Prem Jain, who attributes much of his success to the mentorship, education and opportunities he received while a student in UC Davis’ College of Engineering. “Part of the legacy of this gift will be demonstrating the importance of giving back and hopefully to inspire others to do the same.”

The Jain family gift was inspired after Prem Jain shared his story at the Graduate Studies Commencement in 2017.

In his speech, he spoke of coming to the United States with just $7 in his pocket as an immigrant student from India. From there, his perseverance and dedication to entrepreneurial endeavors led him towards a rewarding career, including his renowned “spin-in” work with worldwide IT business giant, Cisco.

“We envision more graduate engineering students coming to UC Davis with an idea—much like our father did—and having the resources to implement it,” said Prem Jain’s eldest son and alumnus, AJ Jain ’03, who graduated from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

The chair holder will have experience working with venture capitalists and will help translate students’ fundamental discoveries into commercially viable, socially useful and beneficial products.

Prem Jain and his family saw the creation of the endowed chair as a timely opportunity with the recent founding of the College of Engineering Student Startup Center, a “think tank” for prototyping ideas and partnering across the university and beyond.

Prem Jain credits his wife, Sandhya, for much of his success and is grateful for her support throughout his journey. He also speaks about being true to his values, which are founded in the Jain tradition of India and include Ahimsa, honesty, humility and giving to others.

Photo: Karin Higgins/UC Davis

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Engineering Startups Recognized at Sacramento Region Innovation Awards

By Bonnie Dickson

FOUR COMPANIES WITH TIES TO THE UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING were among the winners and finalists recognized at the third annual Sacramento Region Innovation Awards on Nov. 1. Eight winners and 13 finalists were recognized during awards, which recognize regional innovation across eight categories.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Chair and Professor M. Saif Islam’s company, Atocera, Inc. and Biomedical Engineering Professor Tingri Pan’s company, TacSense, Inc. won in the categories of Advanced Manufacturing and Hardware and Electronics, respectively.

Atocera is developing low-cost, microfabricated blades for tissue cutting and hair removal applications. The tiny blades have promising applications for cataract and other surgeries where single-use blades are preferred. Prototypes of the blades were developed in the UC Davis Integrated Nanodevices and Nanosystems Research Laboratory by Islam and his research team.

TacSense created a sensitive and flexible tactile artificial intelligence technology known as Flexible IonTronic Sensing (FITS). The technology uses proprietary ionic materials to establish an ionic-electronic interface in response to various tactile stimuli. FITS provides real-time, highquality noise-immune tactile/force signals in a mechanically flexible, optically transparent and ultrathin package.

“This award has proven that TacSense has successfully overcome many of the early barriers that all startups face,” Pan said. “We’re becoming well known for our next generation tactile sensing technology and becoming a prominent contact for big name companies looking to expand their current technology in tactile applications.”

Chirp Microsystems, Inc., a TDK Group Company founded by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor David Horseley and smart-parking solutions app, JAPA, founded

by UC Davis computer science alums Mathew Magno and Charles Chen were recognized as finalists.

The Sacramento Region Innovation Awards program was founded by Stoel Rives LLP and is facilitated by the firm’s attorneys and professional staff. Nearly 100 nominations were evaluated by a selection committee consisting of local leaders from civic, business, academic and technology sectors.

Photo courtesy of Tingrui Pan

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HUMAN IMAGES From World’s 1st Total-Body Scanner Unveiled EXPLORER recently cleared FDA approval, expected to arrive in Sacramento this spring

By Dorsey Griffith

One of the first human scans shows a 61-year-old male, 65 kg; 164 cm; 7.8 mCi. Photo Courtesy of Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai.

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EXPLORER, the world’s first medical imaging scanner that can capture a 3D picture of the whole human body at once, has produced its first scans and has obtained 510(k) clearance by the Food and Drug Administration.

The brainchild of UC Davis scientists Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi, EXPLORER is a combined positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner that can image the entire body at the same time. Because the machine captures radiation far more efficiently than other scanners, EXPLORER can produce an image in as little as 1 second and, over time, produce movies that can track specially tagged drugs as they move around the entire body.

The developers expect the technology will have countless applications, from improving diagnostics to tracking disease progression to researching new drug therapies.

The first images from scans of humans using the new device were shown at the Radiological Society of North America meeting, held last November in Chicago. The scanner was developed in partnership with Shanghai-based United Imaging Healthcare (UIH), which built the system based on its latest technology platform and will eventually manufacture the devices for the broader health care market.

“While I had imagined what the images would look like for years, nothing prepared me for the incredible detail we could see on that first scan,” said Cherry, distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering. “While there is still a lot of careful analysis to do, I think we already know that EXPLORER is delivering roughly what we had promised.

Badawi, chief of nuclear medicine at UC Davis Health and vice chair for research in the Department of Radiology, said he was dumbfounded when he saw the first images, which were acquired in collaboration with UIH and the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai.

“The level of detail was astonishing, especially once we got the reconstruction method a bit more optimized,” he said. “We could see features that you just don’t see on regular PET scans. And the dynamic sequence showing the radiotracer moving around the body in three dimensions over time was, frankly, mind-blowing. There is no other device that can obtain data like this in humans, so this is truly novel.”

Badawi and Cherry first conceptualized a total-body scanner 13 years ago. Their idea was kickstarted in 2011 with a $1.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, which allowed them to establish a wide-ranging consortium of researchers and other collaborators. And it got a giant boost in 2015 with a $15.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The funding allowed them to team up with a commercial partner and get the first EXPLORER scanner built.

Cherry said he expects EXPLORER will have a profound impact on clinical research and patient care because it produces higher-quality diagnostic PET scans than have ever been possible. EXPLORER also scans up to 40 times faster than current PET scans and can produce a diagnostic scan of the whole body in as little as 20 to 30 seconds.

Alternatively, EXPLORER can scan with a radiation dose up to 40 times less than a current PET scan, opening new avenues of research and making it feasible to conduct many repeated studies in an individual, or dramatically reduce the dose in pediatric studies, where controlling cumulative radiation dose is particularly important.

“The tradeoff between image quality, acquisition time and injected radiation dose will vary for different applications, but in all cases, we can scan better, faster or with less radiation dose, or some combination of these,” Cherry said.

For the first time, an imaging scanner will be able to evaluate what is happening in all the organs and tissues of the body simultaneously. For example, it could quantitatively measure blood flow or how the body takes up glucose everywhere in the body.

Researchers envision using the scanner to study cancer that has spread beyond a single tumor site, inflammation, infection, immunological or metabolic disorders and many other diseases.

“I don’t think it will be long before we see at a number of EXPLORER systems around the world,” Cherry said. “But that depends on demonstrating the benefits of the system, both clinically and for research. Now, our focus turns to planning the studies that will demonstrate how EXPLORER will benefit our patients and contribute to our knowledge of the whole human body in health and disease.”

UC Davis is working closely with UIH to get the first system delivered and installed at the EXPLORER Imaging Center in leased space in Sacramento, and the researchers hope to begin research projects and imaging patients using EXPLORER as early as June 2019. The UC Davis team also is working closely with Hongcheng Shi, director of nuclear medicine at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai to continue and expand the scope of early human studies on the scanner.

Simon Cherry, distinguished professor of biomedical engineering and Ramsey Badawi, chief of nuclear medicine at UC Davis Health and vice chair for research in the Department of Radiology, led the design of EXPLORER. Karin Higgins/UC Davis

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Long-term monitoring of one of the world’s most famous lakes

By Bonnie Dickson

LAKE TAHOE is the largest freshwater lake in Sierra Nevada Mountains and the second deepest body of water in the United States, second only to Crater Lake in Oregon. It’s known for its pristine beauty and unparalleled clarity, having some of the clearest water of any lake worldwide.

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) has been on the front lines of monitoring Lake Tahoe’s waters and famous clarity for decades, with continuous monitoring records dating back to 1968.

This long-term data collection has helped researchers understand and find solutions for many of the lake’s traditional problems caused by urbanization, deforestation and invasive species. In recent years, however, a different threat has also started to exert an influence on the region: climate change.

Using a combination of new and traditional approaches to monitoring Lake Tahoe, UC Davis researchers continue to explore solutions to both new and emerging challenges facing the lake.

A UC Davis research vessel trawls for invasive Mysis shrimp.

Photo: Tahoe Environmental Research Center ­18 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

“This doesn’t just benefit Lake Tahoe—the whole world is now using these temperature data,” Schladow says.

New approaches to monitoring and ecosystem management

Geoffrey Schladow, director of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, aboard UC Davis Research Vessel John Le Conte.

Photo: Bonnie Dickson/UC Davis

Real-time, floating research stations In the mid-90s, UC Davis researchers partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to install four permanent oceanographic buoys across Lake Tahoe. The goal of the floating research stations was to calibrate NASA’s earth-observing satellites and validate temperature measurements. These floating research stations have been invaluable for mapping and understanding long-term climate trends both regionally and globally.

“In the past, we didn’t really know how accurate some of NASA’s early satellites were,” says Geoffrey Schladow, director of TERC and a professor of civil and environmental engineering.

“A satellite might measure the surface water temperature at 19.8 degrees Celsius, but maybe it’s really 20 degrees.”

Though the difference may seem small, over time these discrepancies negatively impact researchers’ ability to measure and understand climate change and capture long-term temperature trends.

“Climate is changing the temperature of the world’s lakes and oceans by, say .2 of a degree, knowing the error could tell us whether the change is real or whether it is actually larger than we think,” Schladow explains.

TERC’s research buoys are equipped with the same instrumentation as NASA’s satellites, but unlike NASA’s satellites, the lake’s research buoys are inspected and calibrated every several months. Now, when NASA’s satellites fly 36,000 kilometers above Lake Tahoe, the buoys take the same temperature measurements at the exact same moment.

Researchers then compare the two measurements, determine if a discrepancy exists and recalibrate the instrumentation on NASA’s satellites. The result is more accurate and more trustworthy climate data.

Combined with traditional data recording, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), or gliders, are helping researchers capture the dynamic and spatial and temporal variability of Lake Tahoe.

These underwater robots are able to collect data every few seconds, day and night, and continuously monitor conditions at multiple depths in Lake Tahoe’s water column. This is especially useful during storms and upwellings—when nutrients are pushed from the bottom of the lake up to the surface—resulting in potentially toxic algae blooms. Continuous monitoring also helps researchers understand the processes that produce these trends. The research is led by Alexander Forrest, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis.

“From an engineering point of view, this is exciting, because once we understand the process, we can explore engineering solutions,” Schladow says. “We are acquiring new technologies to answer a whole new set of questions.”

Another recent example of the benefits of new approaches to monitoring is related to non-native Mysis shrimp. The organisms were deliberately introduced to Lake Tahoe in the 1960s as a food source for fish. Instead, the shrimp decimated the lake’s native zooplankton and dramatically changed the lake’s ecology.

Several years ago, TERC researchers linked a reduction in shrimp populations to improved water clarity. Within a year of shrimp populations decreasing, native zooplankton returned and Lake Tahoe’s water clarity nearly doubled, Schladow says.

Now, UC Davis researchers are using an advanced, boatmounted bio-acoustic system to detect and remove high-density Mysis shrimp clusters. Schladow expects the effort will reduce overall shrimp populations, improve water clarity and help restore some of the lake’s natural ecology—all long-term goals for the lake.

In the future, Schladow hopes to explore the possibility of driverless trawlers to collect shrimp at night. Schladow even has an idea for funding the autonomous program.

“We can even take the shrimp and use them as ingredients in things like pet food or omega-3 supplements. The program could actually pay for itself,” Schladow says.

Visit tahoe.ucdavis.edu to learn more about UC Davis research in Lake Tahoe.

Photo above: Working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, TERC has a network of six research buoys that provide information that ensures Earth-observing satellites are measuring the Earth’s surface temperature correctly. Photo: Bonnie Dickson/UC Davis E N G I N E E R I N G P R O G R E S S / W i n t e r 2 0 1 9 19

SUPPORTING THE

By Trevor Stewart and Ashley Han

UC DAVIS PROFESSOR and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences Jay Lund explains the important role UC Davis engineers will play in solving water problems that plague societies across the globe.

Lund is a co-champion for the World Water Initiative Big Idea, along with Nicholas Pinter of earth and planetary sciences. Big Ideas are forward-thinking, interdisciplinary programs and projects that will build on the strengths of the university to improve California and the world. This initiative takes on global water challenges such as helping make clean water accessible to all, while supporting prosperity and the environment.

Q: Why is water such an interdisciplinary subject?

A: No matter how brilliant you are, you’re not going

to solve water problems by yourself. You can have the best engineering and the best calculations of the physics, chemistry and biology, but if you can’t get people to agree on how to operate and pay for a system, the system will fall apart. Physics, chemistry, biology, economics, engineering and political science are all important. Integrated water management is the only kind of effective water management since the beginning of water systems thousands of years ago.

No successful water system exists that doesn’t bring these perspectives together.

Expert engineers also must be able to bring in people and operations from an interdisciplinary standpoint, because no water problem was ever solved by one person. Probably the most important aspect of solving water problems is bringing people together. ­20 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

Q: Why should engineers be excited about working on water-related problems?

A: Engineers will always be central to solving

water problems. Everybody is going to look to us first when issues arise, whether it is maintaining existing infrastructure, or building new structures or water facilities. And these problems are really fun to work on because they force you to pull together a lot of different ideas and a lot of different aspects of the problem. Engineering training is unusually good at helping you bring ideas from chemistry, physics, biology, economics and other fields together to come up with solutions.

Q: Can you give an example of a time where UC Davis engineering experts assisted in an important water issue?

A: We had a series of large projects regarding

the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta, bringing together several disciplines from several institutions. We analyzed strategic visions for the Delta, which is the heart of California’s water supply and a major part of its aquatic ecosystems.

Our books, reports and discussions helped policymakers deepen their understanding and talk more productively about the Delta’s future.

This work and discussions helped lead to positive water legislation passed in 2009. Some legislative staffers said that without our work and engagement, the legislation would not have occurred. It was great to see we had a tangible impact on policy.

scenarios they would otherwise not see if they were just reading a book or learning in a classroom.

Q: How are UC Davis engineers poised to be the next world water leaders?

A: We train engineers to have a good breadth of

different scientific disciplines. We have additional programs to educate engineering students in communications so they can write and speak well to communicate clearly with the public. It’s very important for engineers to work well with people, and we’re often encouraging engineers to work with other disciplines and different stakeholder groups.

Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences

Q: Why is hands-on learning important for engineering students involved in water research?

A: In water education, it is important to get your feet

wet. In many cases, we try to do that quite literally, where people go on field trips and rafting trips.

The expedition-oriented field classes that we’ve had in the past have been very effective. Students get to know people from all these different fields and departments, which is crucial since water is so interdisciplinary in nature. They also talk about management problems and policy problems nonstop for a period of a week to three weeks, depending on the excursion. It connects students to real-life

You don’t find this kind of interdisciplinary training for engineers everywhere. However, a successful engineer will spend their career working with a lot of different people, not just engineers. And, again, water is interdisciplinary in nature—it will take engineers, as well as people from many other disciplines, to come together to solve this global issue. UC Davis students are prepared to take on this challenge.

UC Davis’ Big Ideas are forward-thinking, interdisciplinary programs and projects that will build on the strengths of UC Davis to positively impact the world for generations to come. Visit the Big Ideas website at bigideas.ucdavis.edu for more information.

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STUDENT TEAM SPOTLIGHTS:

Engineering Students Tackle Global Waste, Clean Transportation and More INNOVATION AT THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING extends to its students, as well as our faculty and staff.

The university provides entrepreneurial-minded students with the resources they need to succeed through resources like the Student Startup Center, the Protoyping Labs and Startup Mentorship Accelerator (PLASMA) program, Venture Catalyst and the UC Entrepreneurship Academy through the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Students also use laboratory facilities such as TEAM and the Engineering Student Design Center to prototype the materials and devices they need to start their own companies.

Here are just a few of the College of Engineering’ student creators who have used their education and campus resources to start their own companies. public transit to get to and from a summer engineering internship in San Francisco. He felt that sanitary public transit would lead to better public health, and that using his technology as advertising space would allow for businesses to invest in the health of their communities. The startup operates on what it calls the “Cleaner Transit Initiative,” a mutually beneficial partnership between VertX, transit systems and advertisers.

Xiaocun, Inc.

Sorbit Disposable diaper waste contributes to 3.4 million tons of landfill waste annually and are typically made of fossil-fuel derived plastics. Sorbit is a fully biodegradable diaper made out of bacterial cellulose grown from citrus agricultural waste. The material is soft, water-repellant on the outside and absorbent on the inside. The idea behind Sorbit was formed during a BioDesign class by team members Annie Wang, a second-year materials science and engineering student, Jolee NieberdingSwanberg, a first-year biomedical engineering student, Julie Xu, a second-year design and economics student and Sergio Gonzalez, a genetics and genomics alumnus.

VertX Advertising: Investing in Public Health VertX Advertising produces plastic handles for buses and trains coated with an antimicrobial solution. Wyatt Dike, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major, founded VertX in late 2017. He came up with the idea after commuting 4-5 hours per day on ­22 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G

Xiaocun helps the UC Davis Chinese student immigrant community live better and eat better as they adjust to life overseas.

Every year, over 300,000 Chinese students come to the United States, many of whom are seek support. Xiaocun, Inc. operates a Wechat-based mobile application that helps Chinese international students with daily activities that are difficult when you don’t speak the language or understand the culture, such as buying and selling used goods or subleasing and finding new apartments. Xiaocun was launched by Chinese international students who understand these pains customers face and the needs of the local market.

Japa Japa is a smart-parking startup that helps drivers steer clear of the headaches related to parking. The team launched in 2017 while participating in the College of Engineering’s ENG 2 “Intro to Entrepreneurship” course.

Japa works by using wireless sensors placed on parking spaces.

The sensors communicate through radio frequency to an antenna/ base station, which sends the data to the internet and Japa’s servers.

The data is then aggregated onto the mobile app and management platform. With a battery life of 7 to 10 years, each sensor can detect with 99 percent accuracy which spaces are open and send users directions to find them or pay for more time.

Japa also supports parking lot owners and management with a platform that shows the real-time analytics to determine violations, lot occupancy and other data. Reducing the amount of time drivers spend in search of parking also helps reduce carbon emissions of running vehicles.

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Percent of Women Faculty Among Top 50 Engineering Programs

– American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)

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Post-Harvest Coffee Research Center in the U.S.

Students

Full-Body PET/CT Scanner in the World, EXPLORER

Faculty

4,673

229

30% women 25.3% underrepresented groups 4.12 years – mean time to degree LEADR Student Support Center Engineering Design & Startup Centers

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Departments • Biological & Agricultural • Biomedical • Chemical • Civil & Environmental • Computer Science • Electrical & Computer • Materials Science • Mechanical & Aerospace

Total Faculty

Undergraduate Students

Members of the National Academies

1,189

$92.6 million

Graduate Students

in research expenditures (2017-18) (ASEE)

466 M.S. 723 Ph.D.

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Doing the Most for the American Dream – NY Times College Access Index

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Best Public U.S. University – Times Higher Education

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Campus Sustainability

Chancellor Gary S. May

– UI GreenMetric World Ranking

Electrical Engineer

Most transformative college in the country – Money

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Best Value College for Women in STEM (U.S.) – Forbes

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UC Davis College of Engineering One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616

engineering.ucdavis.edu facebook.com/UCDavisEngineering twitter.com/UCDavisCoE instagram.com/UCDavisEngineering youtube.com/UCDavisEngineering

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in the country for the percentage of women faculty among the U.S. News and World Report’s top 50 ranked engineering programs – American Society for Engineering Education

Read more about what we’re doing to promote women in STEM: http://bit.ly/eng-diversity