San Diego-based business leader and philanthropist Aiiso Yufeng Li (Jeff) and his wife DongDong Li (Doreen) have made a new $3M gift to the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. The gift celebrates the Jacobs School’s ongoing efforts to empower researchers to translate their innovations to the marketplace.

Now in its 8th year, UC San Diego’s Accelerating Innovation to Market (AIM) program kicks off what promises to be yet another successful year with the announcement of its latest roster of awarded projects for 2025. This dynamic initiative, led by the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, focuses on expediting groundbreaking university technologies into market-ready solutions through resources and funding. Unique to this year, however, the total award pool leaped to an impressive $400,000, over 60% larger than in previous years, which then allowed the program to double the number of startups it could fund. The record increase was due in large part to the support of the University of California Office of the President, which graciously matched funding with the Entrepreneurship Council.

Six faculty from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been named 2025 Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity.