NEWS: UC Tech Awards 2025 showcase courage and boldness in transforming technology across the UC System 

UC Tech Awards winners as a group

June 30, 2025All Articles

On June 26, 2025, the University of California honored two individuals and twelve teams from various UC entities with the 2025 UC Tech Awards at the UC Tech Conference, hosted at the UC Riverside Conference Center. Founded in 2001, the annual UC Tech Awards Program celebrates individuals and teams within the university’s technology community for their significant contributions to advancing UC’s mission through innovative tools and approaches. The community will soon begin the next cycle, preparing for the UC Tech Conference scheduled for summer 2026, with a tentative awards submission deadline of April 1, 2025.

Teams and individuals competed across seven award categories, each highlighting a key skill or value that drives technological advancement across the UC system — including the AI Impact Award, Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology, IT Security Award, Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Award, Mojgan A. Amini Operational Excellence Award, Design Award, and the Sustained Impact Award.

2025 Tech Award winners 

The 2025 award winners showcase the diversity and excellence of the UC system, spanning multiple locations, technical disciplines, and real-world challenges — from AI-powered healthcare and population health to robust cybersecurity, sustainable operations, and innovative design. Select each link below to explore the award applications and discover how these individual and team achievements are advancing UC’s mission and making a positive impact at the local, state, national, and global levels. 

2025 UC Tech Awards winners – 14 winners listed by award type 

1. Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology:  

  • Golden Award: UC Health Milk Bank Automation – UC San Diego Health/UC Health: UC Health Milk Bank leverages automation technology to expand to new markets and solve the need for a globally unique identification of milk donations to support traceability and biovigilance of pasteurized donor human milk. This technology will result in improved patient safety and expand equitable access of donor milk to vulnerable populations. 
  • Silver Award : UC Systemwide Statement of Legal Residence – UC Systemwide: UC residence status determines what tuition a student would pay at the University if they are admitted and choose to enroll. The UC system, serving a diverse population across the state and beyond, faced a significant challenge in accurately and efficiently determining student residency for tuition purposes. The UC Systemwide Statement of Legal Residence platform and process allows UC applicants to secure a residence status at time of admission. The primary goal was to create a centralized, standardized, and user-friendly system that would streamline residency. 

2. Design Awards 

  • Golden Award:  UC Irvine Spark – UC Irvine: UC Irvine Spark is a first-of-its-kind student success application that leverages user-centered design, new methods of data integration and governance, and ongoing campuswide collaboration to provide tailored support for a diverse student body, helping students reach their personal definition of success. 

3. Mojgan A. Amini Operational Excellence Award 

  • Golden Award: UCSD Health Mobile Team – UC San Diego Health: UC San Diego Health’s Mobile Team transformed their underperforming MyUCSDHealth mobile application into the #3 highest-rated hospital app in the United States. Over a three-year effort (2020–2023), the team redesigned the app’s core user experience, drastically improved stability, integrated advanced telemedicine capabilities, and prioritized digital accessibility. Key outcomes include over 245,000 video visit encounters, a 1,250% increase in downloads, a doubled App Store rating (from 2.4 to 4.7 stars), and more than $45.9 million in mobile-generated healthcare revenue. This operational transformation improved patient satisfaction, expanded access to care, and strengthened UC San Diego Health’s digital reputation as a leader in mobile health technology. 
  • Silver Award: Real-Time Wildfire Impact Mapping for UCLA – UCLA: UCLA’s Enterprise Data Analytics Reporting & Analytics team created three dashboards to track and provide support to impacted employees and students from the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles 

4. IT Security Award 

  • Golden Award: UC Berkeley MSSEI Workgroup  – UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley’s MSSEI Workgroup was a cross-campus group of IT professionals that worked collaboratively for nearly two years to incorporate the security controls from UC BFB IS-3 and its standards into Berkeley’s Minimum Security Standards for Electronic Information (MSSEI) for campus implementation. This was a complex project that required balancing systemwide policy with operational realities, campus values, risk tolerance, and alignment with industry best practices. Success required dedication, perseverance, each individual’s unique expertise, consultation and engagement with campus and systemwide subject matter experts, and a shared commitment to developing actionable, achievable requirements. The resulting standards have helped to mature information security policy and IT risk management for the entire campus and have also benefited other UC Locations. 
  • Silver Award: Aegis Risk Management System –  UC Davis: The Aegis Risk Management Application is a centralized tool built on the CNPRC Hydra platform to enhance risk assessment, tracking, and mitigation at UC Davis. Designed to serve the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), the Office of Research, and eventually other campus departments, Aegis integrates security frameworks, automates compliance workflows, and delivers real-time visibility into risk status—streamlining processes and strengthening overall risk management across UC Davis. 

5. Yvonne Tevis UC Collaboration Award 

  • Golden Award: UC Campus Privacy Officers – UC Systemwide: The UC Campus Privacy Officers group has worked tirelessly across the system and with a diverse group of collaborators to reshape privacy across the entire system. Because of their efforts, the culture of privacy has shifted, and the community is much better protected and prepared than 3 years ago. 
  • Silver Award: UC Emergency Management GIS Systemwide Facility Data Layer Automation Team – UC Systemwide: The UC Emergency Management GIS (Geographic Information System) Systemwide Facility Data Layer Automation project provides UC Emergency Management (EM) and Business Continuity (BC) staff with access to a trusted UC systemwide facility dataset they can use to map UC facilities and their proximity to emerging hazards/threats. The project team designed and implemented an automated workflow that collects and unifies facility data from every UC location into a single data product. It produces the most accurate and complete dataset of UC facilities, updates monthly, and is accessible in a systemwide GIS platform with built-in tools for overlaying potential threats/hazards. 

6. AI Impact Award 

  • Golden Award: UCSF Versa AI Tiger Team – UCSF/UCSF Health: Versa is a secure, AI-powered platform developed at UCSF through cross-team collaboration, transforming workflow automation, research, and productivity across healthcare, education, and administration. Led by the AI Tiger Team, Versa supports thousands of users while ensuring responsible AI adoption, positioning UCSF as a leader in AI-driven innovation. 
  • Silver Award: Population Risk Model Redesign Project –  UCLA Health: UCLA Health’s Population Risk Model was redesigned to optimize the end-to-end process to meet a business need to run the model monthly, instead of quarterly, so the model prediction is based on current data and the impact of the intervention can be more quickly assessed. Additional enhancements were also made to the process to align with a Machine Learning Operations Framework and adherence to the organization’s Responsible AI Program. 

7. Sustained Impact Award 

  • Golden Award: Eric T. Martin – UC Riverside: Eric Martin’s 23-year career at UC Riverside (UCR) demonstrates consistent excellence in project management, impactful contributions to the university’s technology landscape, and a commitment to innovation and improvement. His leadership and expertise have modernized critical operations, streamlined processes, and enhanced UCR’s technological capabilities. 
  • Silver Award: Laurel Skurko – UC Office of the President: For 10 years at the University of California, with the last three at UC Office of the President/UC Tech, Laurel has strengthened the UC Tech community by leading innovative engagement and content strategies. Known for her customer-centric approach, marketing innovations and cross-functional collaboration with 100’s of members of the UC Tech community, she has helped tech employees grow their careers while advancing UC’s digital transformation. 

All 2025 UC Tech Award Nominees – All 52 nominations, listed by location 

Select each link to access the award application/nomination and learn more about the team’s achievements.  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

UC Berkeley 

UC Davis 

  • Larry L. Sautter Award for Innovation in Information Technology: Platform Team 
  • Mojgan Amini Operational Excellence Award: Deep Dive 

UC Davis Health 

UC Irvine 

UC Irvine Health 

None submitted 

UC Law  

None submitted 

UC Merced 

UC Office of the President/UC Systemwide 

  • Sustained Impact Award (for individuals only): Laurel Skurko (2025 Winner) 

UC Riverside 

  • Sustained Impact Award (for individuals only): Eric T. Martin (2025 Winner) 

UC San Diego 

UC San Diego Health 

UC Santa Barbara 

UC Santa Cruz 

None submitted 

UCLA 

UCLA Health 

UCSF 

UCSF Health