VOLUME 47, ISSUE 53
MONDAY, MAY 12, 2014
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
CAMPUS
HEALTH CLINIC FOR THE HOMELESS
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Che Cafe Closes Doors for On-Site Renovations
Center for Wearable Sensors Set to Open Non-invasive sensors will monitor the patient’s cholesterol, blood glucose and heart rate in real-time. BY Justine Liang
senior staff Writer
PHOTO USED WITH PERMISSION BY DANIEL YEE
Health Frontiers in Tijuana, a UCSD medical school program, utilizes medical student volunteers to provide free healthcare to underserved individuals in Tijuana, Mexico.
fulfill their 100-hour global health field experience requirement. During the academic year, these student interns volunteer every other week at the health clinic. During the new summer program,
The UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering is creating a new Center for Wearable Sensors, officially scheduled to launch in June or July 2014. Jacobs School of Engineering Dean Albert Pisano and nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang are leading efforts to create the center. The goal of the center is to increase collaboration between researchers and faculty while supporting the local economy through the development of wearable sensors that monitor medical conditions in real-time. “We want to recognize the talent of our engineering faculty and support the education and technology development in California and globally because of our unique combination of experts from across multiple disciplines,” Wang said. The center consists of roughly 15 to 20 faculty members from multiple disciplines such as nanoengineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science. Wearable sensors can include sensors on clothes, temporary tattoos, patches or even implants. One of the goals is to make these wearable sensors and electronics as low-powered and energy-efficient as possible. Professor Patrick Mercier, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, leads one of the research focuses. “We want to make sensors so low-powered that they don’t need to be recharged,” Mercier said. “We have been looking into various ways to harvest energy, whether it’s through body heat, motion, sweat or radio waves.” According to Mercier, the research hopes to build technology that betters people’s lives and will accelerate the development of sensors so that multiple sensors can be combined and streamlined. “Here’s a car analogy: 20 years ago, cars didn’t have sensors, and you wouldn’t know that it was broken until smoke came out. Now, vehicles have over 100 different sensors, of which many alert for major issues before they actually happen,” Mercier said. “That’s the same concept as wearable sensors.” The sensors would be worn at all times and constantly read out values of blood glucose, cholesterol, or heart rate. These vital signs would then be recorded and sent to doctors in their offices, allowing for quick diagnoses. “All this data brings about the major issue of privacy,” Wang said. “We must address the fact that the data must be protected as needed.” Most public concern is rooted in the rapidly advancing technol-
See CLINIC, page 3
See SENSORS, page 3
FeATURES, PAGE 6
SMART BODIES
a positive shift in tech
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
University Centers plans on spending over $800,000 during the 2014-15 Fiscal Year to ensure that the Che Cafe facility is compliant with safety standards. Improvements include adding a fire alarm system and fire sprinklers. Photo by Taylor Sanderson/Guardian.
opinion, Page 4
BASEBALL WINS CCAA UCSD PERFECT IN TITLE TOURNEY sports, Page 12
FORECAST
MONDAY H 84 L 64
TUESDAY H 90 L 69
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY H 92 L 68
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H 92 L 67
VERBATIM
From the moment we lay our wondering eyes on them, they force us to realize that we are not in fact the center of the universe...”
- Kelvin Noronha THINKING CAPS
OPINION, PAGE 4
INSIDE Lights and Sirens............. 3 Quick Takes..................... 4 BridgeCrest...................... 7 Calendar........................ 11 W. Water Polo................. 12
U
BY Gabriella Fleischman
CSD’s Che Cafe will be closed during the next academic year while the building undergoes infrastructure renovations. University Centers Advisory Board Chair Sammy Chang told A.S. Council during its May 7 meeting that the facility need the constructural changes to be in compliance with safety regulations. During the renovation, the Che Cafe Co-operative — the current tenant of the Che Cafe facility and responsible party for planning events and maintaining operations at the cafe — will still organize events which will take place at Porter’s Pub over the next year. “We need to try to balance the reserves. University centers started accumulating all these random projects, so now we’re running a deficit,” Chang said at the May 7 meeting. “The fire marshal will close down the Che Café if the school doesn’t comply with all the expenses.” According to the facility report, the renovations will cost $1.5 million to complete in one fiscal year. University Centers spent $43,210.75 in the 2013–14 fiscal year on additional exit doors, outlets, signage (such as for exits, capacity limits and smoking), lock replacements and so forth.
News Editor
University Centers plans to spend $854,212 toward the Che Cafe during the 2014–15 fiscal year on restroom renovations, fire sprinklers and alarms and operational expenses. Operational expenses are expected to cost $15,000 annually. A draft of survey data on the priorities and use of University Centers resources showed that 83 percent of responders answered that they never attend shows at Che Cafe when they visit Price Center or the Student Center. Thirty-nine percent voted operating the Che facility as “very low priority,” while 37 percent selected “low priority.” Opponents of the Che Cafe closure launched a change.org petition on May 13 called “Save the Che from Closing!” The petition had 2,775 supporters at press time and proposed that Che Cafe remain operating until the university has enough funds to renovate the cafe. “The proposal to relocate the Che Cafe was given without underlying proof and documentation that the space is unsafe,” opposers claimed in the petition. “The repairs cited have been in their current condition without any health and safety incident for years, with the University never mentioning it until now as a reason to shut down even after the 2010 Facilities Report.”
readers can contact gabriella fleischman
gfleisch@ucsd.edu
STUDENT LIFE
Mexico-Based Health Frontiers Internship Extended to UCSD Undergraduate Students for Summer 2014 UCSD-operated free health clinic in Tijuana offers summer internship to students of all majors and an internship to students in the global health minor during the academic year. By Gabriella Fleischman
news editor The UCSD-operated free health clinic, Health Frontiers in Tijuana, will offer two seven-week undergraduate summer internship ses-
sions open to students of any major. The HFiT program began offering undergraduate student internships in Winter Quarter 2014; however, these opportunities during the academic school year are only open to students pursuing global health minors, who can use the program to