Development engineering

Photo showing three of the 11 members of the Yankho women’s co-op (left), the backbone of and inspiration for Umodzi, along with Brian Ndongera (third from right), an advisor to Umodzi, Mathews Tisatayane (second from right), founder and president, and Sean Mandell, co-founder and CEO.

Berkeley engineer brings sustainable development to Malawi

01/13/23 — Mathews Tisatayane (M.DevEng’22) applies his knowledge of development engineering and social entrepreneurship to provide fellow Malawians clean energy and new economic opportunities

Photo of the Master of Development Engineering Class of 2022.

Development Engineering master’s program celebrates first graduating class

12/22/22 — Berkeley's newest engineers — the first in the country to receive the M.DevEng degree — reflect on the importance of working together to develop global solutions

Berkeley researcher checks new arsenic treatment technology with Dennis Hutson looking on.

Bringing arsenic-safe drinking water to rural California

09/21/22 — Berkeley engineers have created a simple, low-cost arsenic treatment system to help low-income communities access safer water (With video)

Ashok Gadgil wins inaugural Zuckerberg Water Prize

04/05/22 — Award recognizes his outstanding vision and lasting global impact in water research

Richard Blum speaking at the dedication of the Blum Center for Developing Economies

Richard Blum, UC benefactor, passes away

03/01/22 — Statement from Blum Center leaders mourns death of Berkeley alumnus and champion of development engineering

Dream on

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

American Indian Graduate Program commencement

NSF awards $10M to higher ed alliance to increase Indigenous participation

08/06/21 Blum Center — Berkeley's Blum Center for Developing Economies will be a primary beneficiary, expanding its food, energy and water systems work in Native American communities

Student teams partner with armed forces to improve disaster response

06/24/21 Blum Center — Prototypes developed through a Blum Center for Developing Economies class tackle language, diplomacy and distance barriers

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

Patents for Humanity honors Berkeley-designed infant warmer

11/05/20 — An infant-warming device developed by civil and environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil and a Berkeley Lab colleague received an honorable mention

Ashok Gadgil and Ph.D. student Dana Hernandez, right, test new technology at Gadgil’s lab.

Safe to drink

11/05/20 — Professor Ashok Gadgil has found an affordable, scalable way to remove arsenic from drinking water.

Paige Balcom and Peter Okwoko wearing face shields.

Engineering Ph.D. student turns recycled plastic into face shields for Ugandan medics

04/10/20 Berkeley News — Paige Balcom is co-founder of Takataka Plastics, which has its roots in Berkeley's Big Ideas Contest.

ESS turns 10, Bechtel becomes a welcome center

10/07/19 — New center will help visitors and students learn what the college has to offer

Joseph Charbonnet and his Grad Slam presentation

Berkeley water engineer lands 2018 ‘Slammy’

05/04/18 Graduate Division — At the UC-wide Grad Slam competition on May 3, environmental engineering doctoral student Joseph Charbonnet brought home the first-place ‘Slammy' - and $9,000 in prize money - for his three-minute talk on using manganese-coated sand to capture, clean and re-use stormwater.

Cheap, efficient cookstoves are small-tech solution with big payoff

02/13/18 — Ashok Gadgil, professor of civil and environmental engineering, redesigned a simple technology - the wood cookstove - to help women in refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan. The inexpensive and efficient Darfur stove not only reduced the danger of gathering firewood in the war-torn region, it also reduced health and climate risks from excessive smoke.

Byron Zhang with some of the Watsi team during a visit to a medical partner in Tanzania.

Coding better healthcare

11/07/17 — Byron Zhang (B.S'15 EECS) is using computer science to make health care more accessible in developing economies.

Simple sanitation, a Q&A with Ashley Muspratt

09/12/17 — Over 90 percent of wastewater generated on the planet every day is dumped into the environment without any treatment. CEE alum Ashley Muspratt is working on a solution.

Christopher Ategeka: Health care access for all

08/22/17 PBS NewsHour — In a Brief but Spectacular video on PBS, Berkeley Engineer and entrepreneur Christopher Ategeka (B.S.'11, M.S.'12 ME) tells how he is using his influence to recruit health professionals to work in underserved parts of Africa.

Roofing material made from recycled cardboard on a home in Ahmedabad, India

Thinking inside the cardboard box

06/30/17 Berkeley Science Review — Traditional aid programs import finite resources that require an agency to distribute and maintain. Blum Center development engineers are changing the game by helping communities use their own resources, knowledge and people-power to solve their problems, says mechanical engineering alum Sonia Travaglini.

Photo illustration: Brita filter pitcher in forest

Nature’s Brita filters

04/19/17 Salon — CEE professor Ashok Gadgil, co-lead for the Berkeley Lab's Water-Energy Initiative, talks about engineering new solutions to solve the water crisis using simple, cheap and abundant ingredients, like wood, sunlight, even human waste.