UC San Diego Named 18th in World, 6th in U.S.
by Two International University Rankings
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For a complete list of UC San Diego's rankings, visit our Campus Profile page.
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MAE Prof. Receives $39M Grant to Research the Integration of Renewables into California Energy Grid |
A team of engineers and computer scientists led by Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor Jan Kleissl will recreate the California energy grid on UC San Diego's campus thanks to a $39 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project, known as DERConnect, will construct a testbed that blends solar panels, wind turbines, smart buildings, electrical vehicle batteries and other "distributed energy sources" into the power grid to reduce carbon emissions and act as additional barriers to cybersecurity attacks. DERConnect (DER stands for distributed energy resources) will be the first integrated platform in the United States that matches the experimental evaluation and validation for distributed energy resources' technology, protocols and standards. Construction on the testbed will begin this academic year, and the team hopes to start testing the equipment by 2022 and showcase the project to external research groups and industry professionals as early as 2025.
Professor Kleissl, Principal Investigator on the DERConnect project, specializes in renewable energy and environmental flows and is the Director of the UC San Diego Center for Energy Research. Kleissl is a strong advocate of international education and serves as the co-Faculty Director in the Office of Study Abroad at UC San Diego.
Read the full article HERE.
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UC San Diego Safely Brings Students, Faculty and Staff Back to Campus for Fall 2020 |
In the months before Fall Quarter, UC San Diego leadership worked closely with public health and medical professionals to create a plan for phased repopulation of campus for the 2020-21 Academic Year. The plan, known as Return to Learn (returntolearn.ucsd.edu) is centered on three critical components in the effort to combat and contain the virus: testing, training and treatment. Beginning in Fall Quarter, UC San Diego began mandating masks and social distancing both indoors and outdoors, requiring students to be tested biweekly at easily available testing sites, reducing class sizes, de-densifying residencies to single occupancy and testing wastewater for the virus.
The plan has proven extremely effective, with only 43 students and 11 employees testing positive since late September. Dr Robert T. "Chip" Schooley, M.D., Professor of Infectious Diseases and Interim Faculty Director of Global Education, was instrumental in the formulation and implementation of the plan. As Dr Schooley emphasized, "I think the main message is that a university is not a dangerous place to be if you have the kind of program in place that includes masking and distancing as we do,"
UC San Diego continues to monitor the situation very closely to ensure the health of the entire campus community.
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UC San Diego Offers Grad School Prep to Students
in U.S. and Mexico
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Though many students' plans have changed since the pandemic started, UC San Diego is helping Mexican and U.S. students prepare for their futures. ENLACE, a program that provides opportunities for youth to engage in science and engineering while promoting cross-border friendships between the U.S. and Mexico has been offering free virtual courses to prepare students for applying to undergraduate and graduate programs. ENLACE runs through the CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems and is administered by the Center's Director and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor Olivia Graeve.
The undergraduate and graduate prep courses began this summer and were very popular, with more than 400 registrants for the graduate prep courses and 360 for the undergraduate. Due to the huge wave of interest, Professor Graeve decided to continue the graduate school prep courses through Fall. Each course has a particular focus, from finding the right program and writing a statement of purpose to networking and applying for fellowships.
ENLACE also runs a summer research program for Mexican high school students interested in STEM fields. The deadline to apply for next summer is February 12, 2021.
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Rodolfo Álvarez Sánchez Mexico
CONACYT- UCMEXUS
PhD, Structural Engineering
Though living in a place that is prone to earthquakes definitely has its disadvantages, for Rodolfo, this natural disaster is actually what drew him to UC San Diego. "I worked in industry and [academics] for several years in the city of Mexicali; because of that, earthquakes have shaped my interests. California has top universities in structural design and earthquake engineering such as UC San Diego." Rodolfo is a doctoral student in the Department of Structural Engineering and is studying the seismic response to reinforced concrete structural walls. In May 2019 he published his first paper on the topic entitled Nonlinear Cyclic Beam Truss Model for Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Coupled Structural Walls.
Rodolfo came with his family to UC San Diego in 2015. Being so close to the border, it has been easier for them to stay connected to family and friends in Mexico. Though his studies can be challenging, he still finds time for his family.
Rodolfo is very appreciative of his mentor, Professor Jose Restrepo, and for CONACYT-UCMEXUS. "Being a sponsored student gives you a great opportunity for working in the topic you really want to study and the advisor you really want to work with. Mexico has a very good program of scholarships in CONACYT-UCMEXUS, the opportunities are there, work hard and get it! It is possible to study even if you have family, I was able to do that thanks to the extra resources of Fulbright. "
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Applications are open for Fall 2021! For prospective applicants, please direct them to the Undergraduate or Graduate Admissions page to learn more about specific admissions requirements.
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Copyright *2020* *Global Education at UC San Diego* All rights reserved.
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