Devices & inventions

Scott Silva and Nicole Panditi with a pile of plastic 3-D printer waste.

As 3-D printing grows, so does need to reclaim plastic waste

02/17/17 — With more than 100 3-D printers on campus, at least 600 pounds of plastic trash is generated each year. Undergraduates Nicole Panditi, a mechanical engineering senior, and Scott Silva, a CNR junior, have a solution.

Heart-on-a-chip

01/26/17 Futurism — Berkeley scientists, led by bioengineering professor Kevin Healy, have developed technology that allows you to grow a model of your organs on a microchip.

Can fitness apps make us fit?

01/12/17 — Despite tens of thousands of fitness apps already on the market, IEOR grad student Mo Zhou has built another. But hers, currently being tested on UC Berkeley staff and students, aims primarily at determining which app features and functions are most effective in motivating physical activity.

Rahul Mehendiratta working on plastic filament recycling

Empowering communities through sustainability

01/12/17 Medium — Reflow Filament, cofounded by Fung Institute alumnus Rahul Mehendiratta (M.Eng.'14 ME), aims to create a new model for the 3D printing industry that empowers communities and encourages innovation in developing regions worldwide.

Wall-jumping robot is most vertically agile ever

12/07/16 — Roboticists have designed a small robot, known as Salto, that can leap into the air and spring off a wall, or perform multiple vertical jumps in a row.

The CalWave Power Technologies team with their prize check

CalWave rides Wave Energy Prize

11/18/16 University of California — Berkely Lab startup CalWave Power Technologies and its novel “wave carpet” earned second place (and a $500,000 prize) out of an initial 92 teams vying for the U.S. Department of Energy's Wave Energy Prize.

Modular exoskeleton will make more workers bionic

11/17/16 MIT Technology Review — SuitX, a startup founded by mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, has launched a trio of devices - backX, shoulderX and legX - that use robotic technologies to enhance the abilities of able-bodied workers and prevent common workplace injuries.

Neural dust

11/01/16 — Scientists have created a dust-sized ultrasound sensor that can be placed in the human body to monitor nerves, muscles, or even organs and potentially lead to new treatments for epilepsy or immune system disorders.

Mussel attached by protein-based tethers

Brand new glue

11/01/16 — Inspired by marine mussels, professor Phillip Messersmith is developing a new kind of glue to be used in fetal surgery.

The world according to Dot

10/24/16 — A team of undergraduates has found early success with a company that builds beacons to make the Internet of Things more intuitive.

Ali Javey and graduate student Sujay Desai with a vacuum probe station

Smallest. Transistor. Ever.

10/10/16 — For more than a decade, engineers have been racing to shrink the size of components in integrated circuits. Now, a research team led by EECS professor Ali Javey has surpassed a theoretical limit of physics and created the smallest transistor reported to date.

Berkeley research team and their autonomous car

Berkeley team recognized for autonomous car research

10/05/16 — ME professors Francesco Borrelli and Karl Hedrick, Ph.D. student Ashwin Carvalho, and Associate Director for Self-Driving Vehicle Development Chan Kyu Lee were in attendance for the U.S. Department of Transportation's announcement of a new policy on Automated Vehicle Development.

Child plays a video game synced to a spirometer

Startup creates device to predict asthma attacks in kids

09/02/16 ABC-7 News — Charvi Shetty (B.S.'12 BioE), founder of Knox Medical Diagnostics, has introduced a video game that records respiratory readings from pediatric asthma patients using the company's pioneering portable spirometer and smartphone app.

Anthony Levandowski (right) and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in the lobby of Uber’s headquarters

How robot lover Anthony Levandowski pioneered the driverless car

08/22/16 The Guardian — Anthony Levandowski (B.S.'02, M.S.'03 IEOR) is one the most influential engineers behind self-driving vehicles. Now that Uber has bought his latest startup, Otto, he talks about how it all started with a phone call from Mom.

mHealth researchers William Haskell (Stanford), Yoshimi Fukuoka (UCSF) and Anil Aswani (Berkeley IEOR)

How data can personalize mobile health

08/10/16 — IEOR professor Anil Aswani, in partnership with colleagues from UCSF and Stanford, is investigating how mobile health applications can help individuals live healthier lifestyles.

phasor measurement unit and EECS professor Alexandra von Meier

Detecting cybersecurity threats by taking the grid’s pulse

08/10/16 IEEE Spectrum — EECS professor Alexandra von Meier and power quality expert Alex McEachern set out to build an advanced power sensor for utility distribution grids, and accidentally produced a promising tool to protect those grids from cyber attack.

Sprinkling of neural dust opens door to electroceuticals

08/04/16 — Tiny, implantable wireless sensors have been developed by a team led by EECS professors Michel Maharbiz and Jose Carmena. The dust-sized prototypes could stimulate and monitor internal nerves, muscles and organs, as well as introduce the possibility of "electroceuticals" to be used in a wide variety of treatments.