College of Engineering Content

Total-Body PET Imaging Takes a Look at Long COVID

Andy Fell — August 28, 2025 - 9:59am

Using total-body PET imaging to get a better understanding of long COVID disease is the goal of a new project at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with UC San Francisco. The project is funded by a grant of $3.2 million over four years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

UC Davis Study Reveals Alarming Browser Tracking by GenAI Assistants

Andy Fell — August 18, 2025 - 12:09pm

A new study led by computer scientists at the University of California, Davis, reveals that generative AI browser assistants collect and share sensitive data without users’ knowledge. Stronger safeguards, transparency and awareness are needed to protect user privacy online, the researchers said.

A new brand of generative AI, or GenAI, browser extensions act as your personal assistant as you surf the web, making browsing easier and more personalized. They can summarize web pages, answer questions, translate text and take notes.

UC Davis and Proteus Space to Launch First-Ever Dynamic Digital Twin into Space

Andy Fell — June 25, 2025 - 10:12am

The Center for Space Exploration Research at the University of California, Davis, has partnered with Proteus Space to launch a US government-sponsored satellite into space with a custom AI-enabled payload in a brand-new, first-ever rapid design-to-deployment small satellite.

The team will launch the satellite and payload in October 2025 from Vandenberg, CA. From the time the project was fully approved, the design and launch will occur within an unprecedented 13 months. (The normal pace for small satellites is often measured in years.)

Tackling Nuclear Waste Challenges One Atom at a Time

Andy Fell — June 09, 2025 - 3:29pm

Nuclear energy is having a bit of a moment, with recent interest from big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta, which are pursuing nuclear energy as a sustainable and reliable source of power for their growing data centers.

EV Battery Recycling Key to Future Lithium Supplies

Andy Fell — May 29, 2025 - 9:02am

Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries are crucial for the transition to electric vehicles, and global demand for lithium is set to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. A new analysis from the University of California, Davis, published May 29 in Nature Sustainability, looks at how new mining operations and battery recycling could meet that demand. Recycling could play a big role in easing supply constraints, the researchers found.

New Two-photon Microscopy System Aims to See Into 'Impossible' Spaces

Andy Fell — April 28, 2025 - 3:20pm

Researchers at UC Davis have developed a fast and cost-effective two-photon microscopy system capable of imaging depths previously impossible to reach in scattering tissues, such as bone and the brain.

Combining Signals Could Make for Better Control of Prosthetics

Andy Fell — April 23, 2025 - 2:17pm

Combining two different kinds of signals could help engineers build prosthetic limbs that better reproduce natural movements, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis. The work, published April 10 in PLOS One, shows that a combination of electromyography and force myography is more accurate at predicting hand movements than either method by itself.

Veterinary Medicine Leads Rankings for Graduate, Professional Programs

Julia Ann Easley — April 07, 2025 - 6:46pm

The School of Veterinary Medicine brought home the campus’s top placement in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent rankings of professional and graduate programs, published Monday (April 7).

Holographic 3D Printing With Soundwaves

Andy Fell — March 26, 2025 - 2:50pm

In an operating room, doctors and technicians work on repairing a broken bone. There are no scalpels, no incisions — the skin is not broken.

No, this is not science fiction, but a potential application of a groundbreaking 3D printing method developed by Mohsen Habibi, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Davis.

Outside-In Signaling Shows a Route Into Cancer Cells

Andy Fell — February 04, 2025 - 9:08am

A new study shows how an anticancer drug triggers an “outside in” signal that gets it sucked into a cancer cell. The work, published Jan. 29 in Nature Communications, reveals a new signaling mechanism that could be exploited for delivering other drugs.

Many malignant cancers overexpress a protein called P-cadherin, which is embedded in the cell membrane. Because cancer cells have a lot of P-cadherin sticking out of their surface, the protein has been targeted for drug development.