When Peter Sadowski was visiting potential grad schools in hopes of exploring ways to apply machine learning to scientific applications, he was told to talk to Pierre Baldi, Distinguished Professor of computer science at UC Irvine. “I joined Pierre’s lab that fall,” says Sadowski, who earned a B.S. in computer science from Caltech. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in computer science from UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). This October, Sadowski will return to UCI, where Baldi will introduce his former student as a guest speaker for the Southern California AI and Biomedicine Symposium 2023. Sadowski will discuss his work on AI systems that detect tumors from breast ultrasound imaging.

Now an associate professor of information and computer sciences at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Sadowski helps lead the AI Precision Health Institute, an organization he co-founded to reduce the burden of cancer in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. He also recently received an NSF CAREER award to explore using machine learning to help Hawaii adapt to climate change.

Strolling through the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building at UC Irvine on May 25, 2023, local industry leaders saw more than 40 projects on display — including innovative medical solutions, education technology for improved learning outcomes, and projects that could one day spark new startups. These capstone projects, developed over 20 weeks, showcased the knowledge and skills of students in UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS).

On June 20, 2023, UC Irvine held its final gradution ceremony as students from the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) started their procession into the Bren Events Center for the ICS Commencement Ceremony. “This is the last but certainly not least of the 11 ceremonies,” said Dean Marios C. Papaefthymiou in his welcoming remarks to the crowd of students, families and friends, and esteemed faculty.

VenusHacks 2023, UCI’s largest women-centric hackathon, took place from May 26-28 and concluded with resounding success. Organized in collaboration with Women in Computer Sciences and Hack at UCI, the hackathon brought together more than 200 participants from over 20 schools and 20 majors. With a mission to empower underrepresented groups and make computing more inclusive and diverse, VenusHacks 2023 provided a platform for students from all experience levels to engage in innovative projects.

How do you put into words the impact of the Onion Foundation? Since 2014, this private charitable foundation, co-founded by UC Irvine alumnus Fritz Onion, has given millions of dollars to more than 460 organizations in all 16 counties of Maine. Through grant funding, it has supported everything from arts programming for the general public and free music education for children, to healthy soil solutions for organic farmers and access to the outdoors for people with disabilities. Countless lives have been touched by this foundation.

Dylan Riffle’s technical expertise first emerged in elementary school when he started building video game servers for friends. By high school, he was developing Internet of Things (IoT) devices for Bioverse Labs, a company that leverages AI-powered technology to help farmers and governments monitor species in real time. Last year, as a computer science major in UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), Riffle and his teammates took first place in the 2022 Butterworth Competition for their online farmer’s marketplace, Leprendo. Here, Riffle talks about his various projects, rooted in his interest in exploring the intersections of computer science, biology and agriculture.