News & Events

04-23-18

A new exhibit on the third floor of the Center for Student Services highlights teaching and learning at Caltech through six frames: Laboratory Learning, Field-based Learning, Informal Learning, Thinking at the Board, Classes and Demonstrations, and Acts of Writing. It encourages the viewer to travel from the austere classrooms of the early days of Throop University to the diverse scenes of Caltech today, and to explore the interrelationships as they echo across eras. [Learn more]

Tags: teaching

04-23-18

Hundreds of millions of people suffer from diabetes worldwide, putting them at risk for a creeping blindness, or diabetic retinopathy. Existing treatments, though effective, are painful and invasive, involving lasers and injections into the eyeball. Graduate student, Colin Cook working in Professor Yu-Chong Tai’s laboratory has invented a contact lens that when worn during sleep interrupts the process that destroys cells of the retina. He hopes his contact lenses will offer a solution that patients will be more willing to try because the effort involved is minimal, as are the side effects. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights MedE Yu-Chong Tai Colin Cook

04-20-18

To mark the start of Earth Week, Caltech hosted a two-day series of lectures about climate and climate change, which the organizers dubbed "climate school". The speakers included Professor Austin Minnich whose presentation focused on the myths and misconceptions associated with climate change. "Instead of asking for people to trust us, we should ask them notto trust and instead give them guidance for how they can check out what's going on for themselves," Minnich said. [Caltech story]

Tags: MCE Austin Minnich APh

04-19-18

Graduate student Erika Ye co-advised by Professors Austin Minnich, Garnet Chan, and Fernando Brandao, has been awarded a 2018 Google PhD Fellowship. The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students doing exceptional research in computer science and related disciplines. Erika is attempting to discover what current quantum computers can do that classical computers cannot. Currently she is focusing on computational chemistry—particularly, calculating the behavior of electrons in complex molecules, which ultimately could provide detailed information about reaction rates or how enzymes in cells work. [Caltech story]

Tags: honors MCE CMS Austin Minnich Fernando Brandão APh Erika Ye Garnet Chan

04-18-18

MedE graduate student, Colin A Cook, has won third place at the 2017-2018 TigerLaunch Finals for his pitch on a phototherapy contact lens he has been developing with his advisor Professor Yu-Chong Tai. TigerLaunch is a national entrepreneurship competition, dedicated to building student founder networks. It is the largest student-run competition of its kind with events in Chicago, NYC, Paris, Seattle, and Princeton.  It had over 300 applicants in 2017 and over $30,000 in prizes.  Colin learned about the competition and was encouraged to apply while taking Professor Ken Pickar's class E/ME 103: Management of Technology. [ENGenious feature on Colin Cook]

Tags: honors MedE Yu-Chong Tai Ken Pickar Colin Cook

04-16-18

Andrei Faraon, Assistant Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science, is the 2018 recipient of the Optical Society (OSA) Adolph Lomb Medal for his seminal contributions to on-chip quantum photonic technologies. The medal was established in 1940 and recognizes noteworthy contribution to optics at an early career stage. [Past recipients]

Tags: honors Andrei Faraon APh

04-10-18

Anne Zhou, a junior majoring in computer science, has been selected for this year's Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) Fellows Program. Zhou will spend her summer at DoorDash, an on-demand restaurant delivery service which is also employing drivers to deliver surplus food from restaurants and grocery stores to food banks. The KPCB Fellows focus on technical, design, and product challenges. Though Zhou does not yet know her specific project for the summer at DoorDash, she will likely work with one of three teams: the engineers who design apps and websites, the team that manages customer experience, or the technicians who build and maintain the company infrastructure. [Caltech story]

Tags: honors CMS Anne Zhou

04-09-18

Yizhao T. (Thomas) Hou, Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics, and his former postdoc Dr. Guo Luo are recipients of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) 2018 Outstanding Paper Prize for their paper entitled Toward the Finite-Time Blowup of the 3D Axisymmetric Euler Equations: A Numerical Investigation. The prizes are given for outstanding papers published in SIAM journals during the three years prior to the year of the award. [Read the paper]

Tags: honors CMS Thomas Hou postdocs Guo Luo

03-29-18

José Andrade, George W. Housner Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering; Cecil and Sally Drinkward Leadership Chair, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering; Executive Officer for Mechanical and Civil Engineering, has been awarded the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the highest civil engineering research award aimed at mid-career researchers who have made notable contributions to their discipline. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has recognized him, "for revolutionizing the field of granular geo-materials" by creating "rigorous multiscale modeling approaches based on scientific understanding of the mechanics and physics across scales and for defining new frontiers for the civil engineering profession including planetary exploration.” [Caltech story]

Tags: honors MCE Jose Andrade

03-23-18

Electrical engineering senior Michelle Wang, working with Professor Ali Hajimiri and Postdoctoral Scholar Alex Pai, has been selected to receive the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She will spend a year abroad working on a series of projects related to the augmentation of humanity through machines. "Prosthetics for children need to be flexible, durable, and need to be able to grow with the child so that they don't have to be replaced constantly," she says. "But beyond that, we want to find ways to make them proud of their prosthetics. We don't just want to give them mobility but dignity." [Caltech story]

Tags: EE honors Ali Hajimiri alumni Michelle Wang Alex Pai