The UC Board of Regents academic and student affairs committee discussed undergraduate academic initiatives within the UC innovation ecosystem.

The committee invited winners of the UC Grad Slam to present research during their bimonthly meeting at UCLA last Wednesday. The Regents also discussed the feasibility of online undergraduate degree programs and investments in software updates and future entrepreneurs.

The UC Grad Slam is a research-based professional development opportunity for graduate students, where ten winners from each campus present their work in under three minutes for a systemwide prize, according to the agenda for the Regents meeting.

“Grad Slam provides a valuable opportunity for students across campuses and disciplines to present their skills and showcase their research in a fast-paced competition that both enlightens and entertains,” said Chair of the Board of Regents Janet Reilly.

Iris Garcia-Pak, a medical and neuroscience doctoral student at UC San Diego, won the competition with a presentation titled “The Brain: An Exclusive VIP Club,” according to Newman and the written item. Garcia-Pak’s research revolved around how the blood barrier in the brain may prevent neuropsychiatric conditions, she said in her presentation.

Kacie Ring, a doctoral student in ecology, evolution and marine biology at UC Santa Barbara, was a winner of second place and the audience choice award with “Healthy Forests, Healthy Humans.” The presentation detailed that deforestation is tied to zoonotic spillover, which may result in consequences like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shannon Brady, a doctoral student in psychology at UC Riverside, placed third with “Thinking Out Loud: Is Self-Talk a Secret to Success?” which covered the benefits of talking oneself through difficult situations and frustration, she said in her presentation.

Each competition winner showcased their three-minute presentation during the meeting and spoke about their journey through the competition.

“This is one of the only times that I have been able to meet grad students from other areas and other parts of the campus,” Brady said.

Newman then shifted the meeting to discuss recommendations for strengthening the current UC Online program and the possibility of an entirely digital undergraduate degree program – without compromising on education quality or equitable access.

Steven Cheung, co-chair of the systemwide academic senate, summarized the UC system’s five foundational principles of online undergraduate degree programs before outlining four task force recommendations.

The task force recommended investing in data infrastructure, adopting and centralizing a set of common core assessments among all campuses, piloting an undergraduate degree program entirely online and creating a successor task force to oversee the implementation and performance of such programs, said Cheung.

“The 10-campus UC system has unrealized potential to become the pre-eminent higher education research center to innovate not only in instructional pedagogy and modality, including online education, but also in emerging areas of virtual and augmented reality technologies and artificial intelligence applications to education,” said Cheung – a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UC San Francisco – during the meeting.

Audrey Jacobs, a third-year student at UC Davis, said in a speech at the meeting that although the program would be beneficial for disabled and immuno-compromised students, other equitable considerations would also have to be addressed.

“In implementing this program, it is imperative that special attention be paid to the potential disparities for low-income and underrepresented minority students,” Jacobs said.

Newman then updated the regents on the progression toward implementing 14 recommendations made by the Regents Working Group on Innovation Transfer and Entrepreneurship May 2021 to conclude the meeting. The recommendations addressed the challenges in UC innovation transfer policies, practices, and technology infrastructure – specifically, the intellectual property management software, according to the item.

Newman highlighted the need to replace the current patent tracking system – in use for 35 years – with the Wellspring Sophia platform. The new platform would automate integrations and data processing, minimize manual workarounds and centralize reporting to meet federal and regents policy requirements along with enhanced IP commercialization, Newman said.

“To date, memorandums of understanding have been signed by all UC campuses except for UCLA, which is still pending a decision,” Newman said. “This broad support across the UC system underscores the importance of this initiative and the collective recognition of the need for a modernized IP management system.”

Newman outlined a three-year implementation timeframe and a new recharge advisory committee. The committee consists of representatives from all UC campuses who will set the dimensions of the cost allocation of this technology, she said.

The item included an update on the President Entrepreneurship Network Council’s “Proof of Concept” fund, presented by Paul Roben, associate vice chancellor for innovation and commercialization at UC San Diego and chair of the president’s entrepreneurship network council.

“(The POC fund) was identified by almost all of the campuses as being a top priority to get in place across the system, which would allow us to bring our technologies from a research setting into a commercial setting,” Roben said.

According to the item, existing POC programs report that the risk of failure in the early development stages dissuades traditional investors. Existing POC programs also report that 70 to 80 percent of applicants are rejected for lack of funding, according to the item.

“With the approval of the regents and President Drake, we got $2 million to establish a pilot fund across the campuses,” Roben said.

Each of the campuses has received $200,000 as initial funding, Roben said.

UCLA, UCSD, UCSF and UC Berkeley are currently at 50/50 investment matches due to their previously established POC programs, with the rest of the UC campuses set at lower scales, Roben said. Each campus has a five-year plan to reach the eventual 50/50 goal, he said.

Roben also described suggested activity and outcome metrics for each campus to measure the success of their POC programs, the application and approval process for each funding recommendation, and the eventual report deadline set in October 2025.

The item concluded with a proposed revision of internal bias assessments within the University as presented by Deborah Motton, executive director of research policy analysis and coordination.

To mitigate risks of conflicting interests within the UC system’s internal structure, the Form 700 disclosure process – which was previously used to identify possible bias within programming and internal strategy – will be expanded to include a broader population, Motton said.

“Although this strategy addresses issues of disclosure, disclosure is only one step in addressing conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment, and other steps including review of management of conflicts are needed,” she said.