Did you know issues caused by corrosion are a critical concern for a ship's functionality and maintenance? In 2018, the Navy spent over $8.6 billion dollars addressing just corrosion problems. The ACTS (Automated Corrosion Testing System) team are here to tackle that by developing a corrosion testing machine that will subject various materials to the harsh environments that Navy ships sail. This will help us gain a better understanding of corrosion to reduce maintenance costs and increase our Navy’s presence.

Conventional guitar amplification and effects usually involves an amplifier and speaker setup with a separate effects pedalboard. For some musicians, hauling such a rig around may be impractical or out of their budget. AMPED aims to solve these issues by condensing such a setup into a two piece package that fits in your pocket. It employs digital signal processing and the natural resonance of the guitar body to amplify and add effects to any acoustic guitar with a pickup. Just clamp AMPED to your guitar and let it take care of the rest!

The Pentander insulin pump aims to revolutionize the insulin pump industry by being the first patch pump to utilize U500, a more concentrated form of insulin than the commonly used U100. Existing patch pumps only last up to 3 days, making maintenance difficult and expensive. Using U500 allows the Pentander pump to be smaller, lighter, and last longer. The delivery volumes for the Pentander pump need to be 5 times smaller than pumps on the market, so the Pentander team has come up with a two part design that involves both a passive pump and a regulator.

Currently, there is no accurate way to predict underwater ocean visibility conditions. This leaves SCUBA divers, snorkelers, free divers and marine researchers always guessing at what the conditions might be, which wastes time, effort and money when they inevitably guess incorrectly. VizNet’s goal was to solve this problem by developing a solar powered, self-sustaining marine buoy which can directly measure and upload real-time ocean visibility conditions to the internet. This is accomplished with a turbidity sensor specially calibrated to ocean diving conditions.

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a muscle disorder that affects 2-3 infants per 1,000 and will last a
lifetime. Oftentimes, affected children lack the muscle strength and control to stabilize
themselves. Our research concludes that the earlier the therapy is done for these
children the greater the impact in their lives. Currently, there is no good solution to allow
these children to sit upright during therapy and in their homes. The Gaucho Back team
is developing a device that will serve as a third hand for both therapists and the

Emerging drone technology has opened new doors in plant research. UCSB ecologists Dr. Carla D’Antonio and Dr. Ryoko Oono saw the opportunity to use drones to acquire plant samples from previously inaccessible areas such as the tops of trees or plants down in the valleys. Custom assemblies were created for the 3DR X8+ octocopter to allow the drone to collect plant samples. An arm with a circular saw is attached to the drone. With this, a new joint was created to allow for limited movement of the arm as well as to restrict the orientation of the saw.