New Conversational AI Tool Uses Trusted Medical Protocols to Help People Decide When to Seek Care

April 23, 2026

A new chatbot could reliably help people decide what to do about their symptoms — and do so based on guidance that is both medically sound and easy to understand. Designed to improve self-triage, it could help reduce unnecessary hospital visits and ensure that those who need care seek it sooner. Full Story

Six New Projects Are Empowering Early-Career Engineering and Computer Science Faculty

April 23, 2026

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

MRI and Augmented Reality for Better Back Pain Surgery Wins at Research Expo 2026

April 21, 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

AI-enhanced Microscopy Produces Crisp, Real-time Video Inside Live Cells

April 20, 2026

Using artificial intelligence, engineers have developed a new way to watch the inner workings of living cells in real time. The process both captures images that are twice as sharp as conventional microscopes and is fast enough to play as smooth video. Full Story