Man wearing virtual reality head set points finger in the air with a male graduate student standing nearby looking at a laptop to guide the interaction.
A UC Irvine faculty member wears a virtual reality head set while graduate student researcher leads him through a demonstration of a UC Noyce Initiative-funded research project that seeks to use VR headsets to help facilitate physical therapy for stroke patients in the comfort of their own home. Photo credit: Fred Greaves

Collaboration Takes Center Stage at UC Noyce Symposium

UC Davis hosts third symposium for five-campus consortium

  • by Sarah Colwell

The room hummed with energy as clusters of faculty, researchers and students leaned into conversation, gesturing toward posters, exchanging ideas and making connections in real time.

Top down view of poster session in UC Davis conference center lobby
A poster session highlighting UC Noyce Initiative-funded projects kickstarted this year's symposium. Photo credit: Fred Greaves

At the UC Noyce Initiative Symposium, hosted Feb. 24 at the UC Davis Conference Center, the graduate student poster session quickly became the heartbeat of the day. What began as an informal part of the symposium soon evolved into a dynamic exchange of ideas across disciplines and campuses, offering a vivid glimpse into the future of research powered by collaboration.
From custom AI models designed to read brain scans for early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, to explorations of dark matter, to cybersecurity innovations and virtual reality tools for stroke rehabilitation, the projects on display reflected both the breadth and ambition of the UC Noyce Initiative. Each was distinct. Together, they told a larger story of what becomes possible when five UC campuses work in concert.

A convergence of ideas and people

The symposium brought together approximately 100 attendees from across UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Barbara. The day was an embodiment of “Power of 5,” according to event organizers. Vice chancellors for research from all five campuses were in attendance, as well as members of the Robert Noyce Trust, underscoring a shared institutional commitment to advancing digital innovation for the public good.

Five vice chancellors of research stand in group with member of Robert Noyce trust by UC Noyce Initiative banner.
Left to Right: UC Davis Vice Chancellor Simon Atkinson, UC Noyce Initiative Executive Director Bryan Kerner, Robert Noyce Trust Representative Timothy Hopkins, UC Irvine Vice Chancellor Aileen Anderson, UC San Francisco Vice Chancellor Harold Collard, UC Santa Barbara Vice Chancellor Rachel Segalman, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Katherine Yelick. Photo credit: Fred Greaves

Throughout the day, panel discussions and presentations explored core areas of focus for the initiative, including quantum information science, cybersecurity and privacy, and computational health. Yet it was in the unscripted moments between sessions, around posters, in hallway conversations that the symposium’s impact was most visible.

“These kinds of events are catalysts for collaboration,” one attendee noted, reflecting a sentiment echoed across the room. 

Research that spans disciplines and boundaries

The poster session highlighted not only the technical sophistication of the work underway, but also the interdisciplinary nature of UC Noyce–funded research.

Graduate students stood alongside faculty mentors, walking peers through projects that bridged engineering, medicine, physics and computer science. In one corner, a team demonstrated how machine learning could accelerate the interpretation of neurological imaging. Nearby, another group discussed advances in quantum systems, while across the room, researchers explored new approaches to protecting data privacy in an increasingly connected world.

“I’m very grateful to Noyce for bringing this expertise together,” said Edward Kim, Ph.D., postdoctoral scholar from UC Berkeley, capturing a recurring theme of the day – that the initiative’s value extends beyond funding to the networks it helps build.

Soheil Ghiasi, Ph.D. of UC Davis, emphasized that point more directly, noting that while financial support is critical, “the connections the Noyce Symposium makes possible are perhaps even more valuable for fostering innovation.”

Carrying forward a legacy of innovation

one female professor and four male professors stand together in front of UC Noyce Initiative back drop. Man in middle wearing glasses hold up quantum computer chip toward the camera.
Left to right: Marina Radulaski of UC Davis, Hartmut Haeffner of UC Berkeley, Maxim Shcherbakov of UC Irvine and Andrew Jayich of UC Santa Barbara are part of an inter-campus and interdisciplinary research team that is receiving UC Noyce Initiative funding to support their quantum information science project. Photo credit: Fred Greaves

That spirit of collaboration is rooted in the legacy of Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel and a pioneer of the integrated circuit, and Ann S. Bowers, a trailblazer in the early days of Silicon Valley. For researchers working at the frontiers of science and technology, the Noyce legacy is both inspiration and challenge

“What we want to do for quantum is like what Robert Noyce did for integrated circuits,” said Hartmut Haeffner, Ph.D. of UC Berkeley, drawing a direct line between past breakthroughs and future possibilities.

Building what comes next

As the symposium moved into its afternoon sessions, momentum carried into a series of breakout discussions and panel Q&As that invited deeper engagement across the UC Noyce Initiative’s core research areas: quantum information science, cybersecurity and privacy, and computational health.

These conversations created space not just to showcase progress, but to surface shared challenges and opportunities. Among the most consistent themes was a collective desire to strengthen infrastructure for collaboration. Specifically, the need for a UC-wide cloud environment that would allow researchers to securely share and analyze large-scale data across all five campuses.
 The ability to move large data sets seamlessly and securely was seen as essential to accelerating discovery. It was a practical idea, but one rooted in the same spirit that defined the day – that the most meaningful advances will come from working together.

Six people sit on stage in chairs engaged in conversation in front of conference room of people. One person is speaking, five are listening.
Vice Chancellor for Research at UC San Francisco, Harold Collard, leads the Computational Health panel discussion featuring UC Noyce Initiative researchers (left to right) Sanjit Seshia, Brittnay Dugger, Chen-Nee Chuah, Soheil Ghiasi and Nina Miolane. Photo credit: Fred Greaves

As discussions wrapped and attendees began to depart, the sense of momentum was unmistakable. New connections had been formed, ideas had been tested and possibilities had begun to take shape.

“This is exactly what the UC Noyce Initiative was designed to do,” said Executive Director Bryan Kerner. “Bring together exceptional minds across disciplines and campuses and create the conditions for innovation that none of us could achieve alone.”