Engineering
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Research Shows How Self-Driving AI Can Be Hijacked With Nothing But Ink and Paper
A team at the University of California, Santa Cruz has published new research showing how visual-language AI models that help control self-driving cars can be exploited or hijacked with carefully coded real-world commands. Or, in other words, tricking them by holding up a sign.
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As Brain Organoid Science Grows More Complex, So Do the Questions
“If we can figure out ways in which living neural networks compute so efficiently, we would have a big breakthrough in terms of trying to find and develop a better architecture for artificial computing,” said Tal Sharf, an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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UCSC students develop website to support Seabright small businesses amid Murray Street Bridge overhaul
As the Murray Street Bridge overhaul disrupts Seabright traffic, students from University of California, Santa Cruz step up with a new website to spotlight local shops and keep the neighborhood thriving.
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The Winter Olympics feel like a 90s snowboarding game, and I’m here for it
The Guardian’s games reporter Keith Stuart recommends UC Santa Cruz professor Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s book “Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Can a Game Take Care of Us?” to his readers.
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Climate action moves forward despite Trump’s policy rollbacks. Will it be enough?
In addition to making current methods of travel more efficient, changes in the transportation sector could include providing the public with better options, said Anne Criss, director of climate and sustainability initiatives at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Baskin School of Engineering.
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Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Johns Hopkins showed that, in simulated trials, AI systems and the large vision language models (LVLMs) underpinning them would reliably follow instructions if displayed on signs held up in their camera’s view.
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Trove of Mexican genomes could help guide prescribing decisions
Risk of an adverse drug reaction may be influenced by specific Indigenous ancestry groups. Genetic studies using a broad population category such as “Latino” or even “Mexican” wouldn’t pick up these elevated risks, the researchers say. Yet that’s the level of detail usually available in large population-based gene banks, says Max Haeussler, head of the…
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Community unites to sustainably restore Santa Cruz’s iconic blue whale skeleton
The Seymour Marine Discovery Center, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Marco Rolandi’s lab, Halon Entertainment, and swellcycle are teaming up to restore and preserve Ms. Blue, an iconic blue whale skeleton.
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Chewing gum has a mysterious effect on the brain
In research on fidgeting, UC Santa Cruz Professor of Computational Media Katherine Isbister has found that people engage in fidgeting when they’re trying to pay attention to a task that’s taking a long time, or in a long meeting (even if at the annoyance of those around them).
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How a new system of drones and low-cost sensors can protect communities from air pollution
A project led by Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Javier Gonzalez-Rocha is using drone flights and new monitoring technologies to better understand when and where farmworkers are most severely exposed to air pollution.
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The Top 6 Biomedical Stories of 2025
IEEE Spectrum’s most popular biomedical stories of the past year centered both on incorporating new technologies and revamping old ones, featuring work from Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Katia Obraczka’s lab on using Wi-Fi to detect heartbeat.
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AI Wildfire Modeling Expands Beyond The West As Climate Risks Shift
Fire Oracle, one of the projects developed at the Reboot the Earth hackathon hosted by the United Nations and the UC Santa Cruz Baskin School of Engineering, uses machine learning to accelerate prescribed burn planning.