Civil engineering

Environment takes big hit from water-intensive marijuana cultivation

06/24/15 — A new study from the Nature Conservancy, co-authored by environmental engineers and other researchers from UC Berkeley, highlights the toll that the illegal cultivation of thirsty marijuana is taking on the environment, particularly on fragile watersheds.

Photos of ruptured oil pipeline provide clues of spill cause

06/17/15 Washington Post — Photos of the pipeline that spilled oil on the Santa Barbara coast in May show extensive corrosion and suggest that a pressure leak tied to the restart of failed pumps caused the break, said Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor emeritus.

For clean water

05/01/15 — Susan Amrose is building new technologies to address arsenic contamination in drinking water.

Smart scooter

05/01/15 — Modified Razor scooters are used in a cyber-physical system design course to how electric vehicles interface with the energy grid.

UC grad students deliver solutions, startups

04/24/15 University of California — Grad students from across the UC system will descend on Sacramento April 28 for Graduate Research Advocacy Day. Among them will be Berkeley civil engineering grad student André Carrel, who is studying how bus service reliability affects ridership.

CEE chair Madanat appointed dean of engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi

04/23/15 — Samer Madanat, chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering from 2012-present, has been named dean of engineering at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus, and will be leaving Berkeley in July.

Fenves named next president of UT-Austin

04/20/15 Texas Tribune — After more than three weeks as the sole finalist for the job, Gregory Fenves, former chair of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley, has been named the next president of the University of Texas at Austin.

Sheila Humphreys, Gary May and Lorraine Fleming

President honors 3 from Berkeley Engineering as outstanding mentors

03/31/15 White House — President Obama on Monday named Sheila Humphreys, EECS director emerita of diversity, as one of 14 recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Also honored were Berkeley Engineering alumni Gary May (M.S.'87, Ph.D.'91, EECS), engineering dean at Georgia Tech, and Lorraine Fleming (Ph.D.'85 CEE) of Howard University.

Electric vehicle batteries last longer than previously thought

03/30/15 Berkeley Lab — Scott Moura, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has co-authored a study with Berkeley Lab colleagues that may alleviate concerns over battery life in electric vehicles.

Aging wooden bridge needs all the support it can get

03/23/15 New York Times — Structural engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl has been hired as a consultant on a fight by local residents to save the Albion River Bridge - California's last wooden bridge on a coastal highway.

What’s the state of California’s water infrastructure?

03/20/15 KALW — On a program about California's water crisis, David Sedlak, professor of civil and environmental engineering, talks about the extensive system of levees, aqueducts and pipes supply water to 25 million Californians and three million acres of farmland.

Out of the shadows

03/12/15 — Mario Lio (B.S. '10 CEE) proves that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative, along with a lot of hard work and determination, can be life-changing.

Ashok Gadgil: The humanitarian inventor

03/09/15 IEEE Spectrum — Named one of IEEE Spectrum's Engineering Heroes for 2015, the civil and environmental engineering professor's work on water purification, cookstoves and arsenic removal has helped tens of millions of people worldwide.

Engineering is: Saving the world with cookstoves

KQED e-book explores engineering through cookstoves

03/02/15 KQED Quest — KQED's new Engineering Is… e-book series launches with the Berkeley Darfur cookstove, developed by environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil to improve the lives of refugees in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

In memoriam: William L. Garrison, civil engineer and transportation expert

03/02/15 — William L. Garrison, a professor emeritus of civil engineering and an expert in the ways innovation and technological change occur in the field of transportation, has died at age 90.

A drop to drink

02/18/15 — Susan Amrose, a lecturer in the civil and environmental engineering department, is developing a modular and scalable technology to remove arsenic from drinking water.

CEE’s Jon Bray elected to engineering academy

02/05/15 — Jonathan Bray, who holds the Faculty Chair in Earthquake Engineering Excellence, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to earthquake engineering and advances in mitigation of surface faulting,

Beyond clean water: A development engineer profile

01/13/15 Blum Center — Listening to a dry academic lecture on flood prediction while monsoons flooded a fifth of Pakistan sparked a humanitarian drive in Syed Imran Ali, now a Blum Center postdoc pursuing his vision of safe water delivery through development engineering.

The impact of falling oil prices on your wallet

01/05/15 WalletHub — In a recent Ask the Experts column, Robert Bea, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, discusses the precipitous drop in oil prices and its likely effect on the economy.

graduate student Aislan Foina discusses drones with Expo attendees

Students show off ‘autonomous vehicles’ at L.A. Drone Expo

12/16/14 — Berkeley Engineering students joined civil engineering professor Raja Sengupta at the first-ever Drone Expo in Los Angeles on Saturday, demonstrating their “unmanned autonomous vehicles” to a crowd of hobbyists and enthusiasts.