Retrospective coverage for October 19, 2026. First published October 26, 2026 06:07 -07:00 (Pacific time). This is an AI-assisted brief compiled from linked public source records; the coverage date is not the publication date.
UC San Diego's first class of artificial intelligence majors returned from summer internships with experience beyond designing algorithms, according to a university report published Oct. 19. The program welcomed its second undergraduate cohort this fall. UC San Diego report.
Leena Banga worked on a dashboard tracking more than 20 software projects at Synergie Tech Solutions and explored machine-learning tools for identifying project risks. Daniel Zhang, at Protillion Bioscience, focused on software infrastructure, including containers, automated testing and deployment.
Nicole Fong worked on predictive modeling for materials science at ChakraTech. Her account emphasized the need to check whether available data could support a proposed prediction, rather than assuming every question was ready for machine learning.
The university launched the major in 2025 through its engineering and data-science schools. The internship accounts offer an early view of how students are applying that training. Student accounts and program background.