Civil engineering

CHart showing SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater in Contra Costa County

Bay Area wastewater data suggests COVID hasn’t peaked everywhere

01/27/22 — SFGate: While indicators suggest COVID-19 cases are on the decline across the Bay Area, wastewater analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 at Berkeley Engineering professor Kara Nelson's lab suggests that three areas of the region may have yet to peak.

Illustration of water recycling, showing insects, wetland plants and glass of potable water

How building wetlands could recycle the world’s water

01/21/22 — Kicking off Season 2 of the Berkeley Voices podcast, water engineer David Sedlak explains how ever-thirstier California can fight back against climate change by learning to recycle the water we use

Cesunica Ivey to lead EPA project to reduce wildfire smoke exposure

12/20/21 — EPA: Award to support engagement and better communication of health risks of underserved and marginalized groups in California’s San Francisco Bay Area.

Video clip of Kara Nelson in water testing lab

Berkeley team detects omicron in Bay Area wastewater

12/09/21 — ABC7 News: A team led by Kara Nelson, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has identified the COVID-19 variant in samples of sewage from two California sites, one of them in the Bay Area.

Dream on

11/15/21 — Researchers have developed a low-cost, non-electric, reusable warming device that can reduce infant mortality rates.

San Francisco skyline seen through brown haze

Where there’s smoke

11/15/21 — On wildfire days, taking steps like closing up houses and using indoor filtration can cut the infiltration of PM2.5 particulate matter into homes by half.

Block by block

11/15/21 — Research shows that levels of air pollution vary not only by region, such as between urban and rural areas, but by city block.

UC Berkeley alum Reginald DesRoches named president of Rice University

11/12/21 — DesRoches is the seventh Berkeley Engineering alumnus to become the head of a university in the past four years

Wide view of site of Center for Smart Infrastructure

UC Berkeley and EBMUD announce new Center for Smart Infrastructure

11/01/21 — Engineers and utility partner to address most urgent infrastructure challenges of the century

Lessons from Hurricane Ida

09/21/21 — Adda Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, associate professor of civil engineering and co-leader of an NSF-funded geotechnical reconnaissance team that traveled to Louisiana, shares her observations about the impact of Hurricane Ida

NSF awards $12.75M to renew natural hazards simulation center

09/20/21 — The four-year grant to the SimCenter supports research to understand and quantify the effects of natural hazards on buildings, lifelines and communities.

New study shows how air pollution varies block by block

09/07/21 — Researchers used Google Street View cars to show that levels of air pollution vary not only by region, such as between urban and rural areas, but also by city street

Five new hires in the Climate Equity and Environmental Justice cluster

New faculty cluster to focus on climate change, environmental justice

09/02/21 — CNR: Five assistant professors, including civil and environmental engineering's Maya Carrasquillo, will bring their disparate perspectives to research on battling the “climate gap”

Stock photo of light shining through a window revealing smoke

How much wildfire smoke is infiltrating our homes?

09/01/21 — Environmental engineers used crowdsourced data to measure indoor air quality during California’s wildfires.

A driving force behind mixed-autonomy traffic

08/26/21 — Amazon Science: Alexandre Bayen's research, combining machine learning with big data, looks at how coordinated automation could improve traffic flow, boost efficiency and slash emissions

NIST staff members examine pieces of concrete removed from the debris pile

Berkeley-affiliated experts lead probe of Florida condo collapse

08/26/21 — National Institute of Standards and Technology investigation leaders include CEE alumni Judith Mitrani-Reiser and Glenn Bell and professor Jack Moehle

Modeled simulation of Florida condo collapse

Mosalam provides key analysis of Surfside condo collapse

08/18/21 — Civil engineering professor Khalid Mosalam used 3-D modeling and simulations to assess the tragic collapse of a high-rise Florida condominium for a Washington Post investigation.

Search and rescue personnel work on the debris pile at the Champlain Towers South collapse site.

Engineers piece together Champlain Towers probable collapse sequence

06/29/21 Engineering News-Record — Structural engineering professor Jack P. Moehle joins other experts in assessing what happened in the deadly Florida collapse

Having faith in your journey, despite the turmoil

05/13/21 — Civil engineer and CalNerd Jose Magana, uprooted from his life in El Salvador, overcame arduous life experiences to graduate from Berkeley

A newborn infant receives supplemental warming while getting skin-to-skin contact with the mother

Infant-warming device proven safe, effective

04/29/21 Berkeley Lab — Technology developed by Ashok Gadgil's team shows a big drop in infant mortality in Rwanda hospitals