Over the past few years, I’ve been watching my two older grandsons agonize over their career decisions. One of them has not quite settled on a choice. I see him pursuing one objective, and then another, only to change yet again.
The other grandson is just starting to focus on his path, realizing that the clock is starting to tick and that he’ll soon be making choices that will determine his initial foray into adult life.
A warming climate is making the Golden State more hospitable to dengue fever and the mosquitoes that carry it.
All the feels, and then some, were on display during UC Santa Barbara’s annual commencement festivities, which celebrated more than 6,700 students. Congrats, grads!
SANTA BARBARA — bioProtonics, an innovator in advanced medical imaging platforms and proprietary Magnetic Resonance Histology (MRH) technology, today announced the appointment of A. Burton Tripathi, PhD as Chief Executive Officer. Alongside this key leadership addition, the company has completed an initial closing of bridge financing, positioning it for accelerated clinical development.
The oldest eukaryotes that have been found lived exclusively on the seafloor and already used oxygen. The discovery overturns certain long-held assumptions about the group while corroborating others.
Read more about the discovery
The assistant professor of computer science has received a prestigious Early CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his project to advance watermarking.
We are all generally aware that the explosion of AI in our lives represents both a blessing and a threat. Some of the dangers are real, and some are imagined. We might also be conscious of the currently outsized impact that AI is having on white-collar careers such as computer programming.
But whereas the college-bound and college graduates are particularly acutely aware of the disruptive nature of AI, it’s beginning to dawn on many of us that the threat we’re sensing is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Researchers in Ania Bleszynski Jayich’s lab use a mechanical resonator to enable greater entanglement for potentially more powerful sensors.
Read more about the diamonds
SANTA BARBARA — The Community Environmental Council (CEC) released its 2021-2025 Impact Report, marking the conclusion of its most ambitious strategic plan and highlighting the power of community-driven climate action across the Central Coast.
The report reflects five years of progress advancing clean energy, climate-smart agriculture, and community resilience — despite significant challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting federal policies, and the loss of more than $1.5 million in anticipated federal climate funding.
About 10 years ago, we were promised a hands-free existence in our interactions with technology. No longer would we have to use our nimble fingers to laboriously type text into keyboards, either digital or physical, they told us. Now, the tech bros assured us, we would be able to use our voices to provide input to the vast network of devices in our homes, at work, or on the road.
Researchers join an international effort to better understand early biological influences on neurodevelopment.
Imagine a government that insists that we make America great again by driving updated, fancy versions of 1950s vehicles. By sabotaging the push to convert our transportation to electric-powered vehicles, the current administration in Washington, D.C., has, in effect, handed the keys of a prosperous kingdom to international competitors.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are not just a “green fad” dreamt up by radical liberals. While the U.S. demurs, the rest of the world realizes that the future of the planet, and of industry, rests on its ability to advance in the production of reasonably priced EVs for the masses.
At a partnership summit hosted by the nonprofit REACH, leaders from across Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties convened on campus with an eye toward collaboration and innovation.
SANTA BARBARA — Cottage Health has appointed Ryan Kelly, Ph.D., as its first Chief Innovation Officer, a newly established role designed to advance innovation across the health system and strengthen strategic partnerships.
The Santa Barbara County Active Transportation Dashboard brings together bike and pedestrian safety data to reveal patterns, trends and hotspots for collisions and near-misses across the county.
In an approach that can be used on populations managing endemic diseases, researchers link real-life climate and weather data to a large multinational cohort of HIV patients to illustrate the effects of extreme weather on people with the infectious disease.
Read more about the findings
With a new NSF award, computer science associate professor Prabhanjan Ananth will study the foundations of quantum computing as a cryptographic tool.
SANTA PAULA — Flock Safety, the provider of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) to law enforcement, has announced, through audit logs within their ALPR platform, it has confirmed access by out of state law enforcement for a period of time. As a result, Ventura County Law enforcement agencies, including the Santa Paula Police Department, had their ALPR networks inadvertently accessible by out of state law enforcement agencies. Flock Safety has accepted accountability and implemented plans to address the issue.
New research co-authored by Roark Chao demonstrates a new micro–light-emitting diode design that improves both efficiency and beam directionality.
The book by Mario T. García, a distinguished professor of Chicano/a studies and of history, is the first comprehensive text on Rupert García’s life and art.
The campus ranks first among U.S. public universities, third among all U.S. institutions and seventh worldwide for scientific impact.
The new applied bachelor’s degree program was designed in close collaboration with regional employers and public-sector partners to address growing demand for skilled cybersecurity and network operations professionals. Graduates will be prepared for high-wage, high-demand roles securing critical infrastructure, defense, healthcare, manufacturing, finance and emerging technologies across Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.
The English professor discusses how AI judgement, good or bad, can reflect knowledge and social values when implemented in our personal, work and public life.
CAMARILLO — California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) is launching a fully online Bachelor of Science in Computer Science Degree Completion Program, expanding access to a high-demand, high-growth field. The new program is designed for working adults and transfer students seeking a flexible path to a four-year degree. Applications are open with the first cohort beginning in Fall 2026.
The online program complements CSUCI’s on-campus Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and offers the same academic rigor, faculty expertise, and industry relevance. As a degree-completion program, it is intended for students who have already completed lower-division coursework—typically 60 or more transferable units or an associate degree.
Marine science professor Bob Miller helped create the first framework to identify and compare marine blackouts, which can severely impact kelp forests, seagrass beds and other light-dependent marine life.
While searching for exoplanets, scientists observe the first-ever impacts between large objects in a nearby star system.
Read more about the discovery
The $3.8 million grant supports professors Tamara Afifi and Nancy Collins in their research goals: extending lifespan and improving quality of life.
In a ceremony full of splendor, music and admiration, professors Michel Devoret and John Martinis, alongside their mentor, UC Berkeley physicist John Clarke, on Dec. 10 officially received their Nobel Prizes from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
VENTURA — The County of Ventura has been recognized with a 2025 Information Technology Excellence Award by Info-Tech Research Group, a national organization that highlights advancements in information technology governance, operations and service delivery across the public and private sectors.
Leonardi’s new book focuses on how people use innovative tools to organize more effectively, increase efficiency and improve knowledge sharing within organizations.
IN-PERSON EVENT: AI UNLOCKED: SHAPING THE FUTURE
November 7 @ 12:30 pm
Join the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Economic Development Collaborative to learn about how Santa Barbara County businesses are expanding the AI frontier, creating both challenges and opportunities for the workforce.
In the ancient past, up to around the end of 2022, I used to grapple with complex technical issues (for me, anyway) as I pursued some of my projects. When I first started building websites, for example, I often found myself stumped by some of the technical barriers that kept emerging in front of me.
When confronted with an intractable problem that appeared insurmountable, I found myself hunting for web pages that would illuminate me and provide the answers I was looking for. Sometimes I succeeded in ferreting out a solution to a dilemma that would sometimes take days to resolve because I often didn’t even know quite what to search for.
The innovative tool, designed specifically for non-expert users, improves airway access and raises survival odds in critical medical emergencies.
In the 1970s, in a more prosperous country, company “headhunters” were pursuing us even before we graduated from college. Sometimes we ended up with several job offers. Our “dilemma” was having to choose from among them.
I sympathize with today’s college graduates. Today, untold numbers of graduates are experiencing a superabundance of frustration as they submit, sometimes literally, hundreds of their résumés online to a wide range of companies.
SANTA BARBARA — From powering tsunami warning systems to supporting 24/7 food pantries, Unite To Light is pleased to announce eight new PowerPole installations which are set to transform how Santa Barbara County communities access reliable, renewable energy. Through a unique partnership with the James S. Bower Foundation and local battery tech startup Dragon Q Energy, the PowerPole is a compact, solar-integrated, off-grid solution providing electricity, battery storage, and internet connectivity, even in the harshest conditions.
“All young stars have these disks, but we’ve known little about their orientations with respect to the spin axis of the host stars,” said associate physics professor Brendan Bowler, senior author of a study published in Nature.
Have You Registered To Attend? Our 2025 Ventura County Agri-Tech Fair is just over a month away. It will take place on September 23, 2025, at The Holiday Inn North Oxnard (formerly the Marriott). The VC Agri-Tech Fair is the…
Corina Logan and her team tease apart the role of behavioral flexibility in great-tailed grackles’ ability to flourish in human-made environments.
Umbra is preparing to hire more people in Goleta as the company opened its new 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in June.
The Center for Economics of Social Issues at Cal Lutheran has fully updated its database with the most recent available data. This essential resource provides support to researchers, policymakers, nonprofits and government agencies in gaining a better understanding of the economic and social environment of Ventura County. The database includes information at a state and national levels, as well as Ventura County across its cities and zip codes.
Mehrabian, who served as the fourth engineering dean at UCSB from 1983-1990, was responsible for major growth and advancement of the relatively young college during his tenure.
The COSMOS project, with data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope, consists of all the imaging and a catalog of nearly 800,000 galaxies spanning nearly all of cosmic time.
Restoring Dunes to Protect Shores
Marine Science Institute researchers have found that restored dunes at Santa Monica Beach can help protect that section of California’s coast from the severe storms and sea-level rise that come with a warming ocean.
Watch to learn about dune restoration
The virtual sessions, which are open to anyone, will tackle topics like chatbots, AI in clinical medical practice and college students’ use of ChatGPT.
SANTA MARIA — Allan Hancock College welcomed more than 200 students, educators, industry leaders and community members to its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit on April 18 at the college’s Santa Maria campus.
The event, a first of its kind for the college, brought together experts from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, LinkedIn, Cal Poly, Moorpark College, Berkeley College and Hancock for a day of engaging discussions, keynote presentations, breakout sessions and panel conversations. Topics included AI trends, practical applications, ethical considerations and how artificial intelligence is reshaping education, employment, and everyday life.
Distilling more than a decade of ethnographic research, the book examines ongoing resource exploitation in Guatemala by multinational corporations that fund and operate hydroelectric projects.
Read more about the “invasion”
