Devices & inventions

Jerome R. Singer, MRI pioneer, dies at 97

08/06/19 — Jerome R. Singer, professor emeritus and a pioneer in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), passed away in July. Singer taught and conducted research in the electrical engineering and computer sciences and the biophysics departments at Berkeley for 25 years.

New chip could lead to cheaper and better medical imaging devices and self-driving cars

08/06/19 — Berkeley engineers have created the fastest silicon-based, programmable two-dimensional optical phased array, which could improve medical imaging, optical communications and LiDAR sensors.

George Leitmann on rocket test track, Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake

Bancroft Library oral history, podcast highlight Berkeley Engineering achievements

08/01/19 — Berkeley Engineering's contributions to the rise of the semiconductor industry were featured in a recent library podcast, while mechanical engineering professor emeritus George Leitmann was interviewed for an oral history project.

Making the invisible visible

07/22/19 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley researchers have developed a new type of sensor network that is affordable and capable of tracking soot (black carbon). With more than 100 custom-built sensors installed across West Oakland for 100 days, the team created the largest black carbon monitoring network deployed in a single city.

Adding touch to virtual and augmented reality

07/15/19 — A new device developed by Berkeley Engineering researchers could allow users to feel their way through an augmented and virtual reality experience.

College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design launch new Master of Design program

06/25/19 — The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation will play a key role in the new Master of Design (MDes) program, an innovative advanced degree in design for emerging technologies.

ME grad student Hossein Heidari watches 3D printer creating a miniature of "The Thinker"

New 3D printer

05/01/19 — A new 3D printer uses light to shape solid objects out of a viscous liquid in a matter of minutes.

Heat-powered hat

05/01/19 — Berkeley students have created WeLumen8, a baseball cap with built-in LED lights powered by human heat.

Going to extremes

05/01/19 — Researchers have developed a thermal regulator that improves the performance of lithium-ion batteries in extreme temperatures.

Detecting superbugs

05/01/19 — DETECT is a test that can quickly identify strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by recognizing specific enzymes in urine samples.

Oximeter array printed on flexible plastic

Sensors get flexible

05/01/19 — Researchers have created a flexible sensor that can be used over large areas of skin, tissue and organs to detect blood-oxygen levels.

Alum’s breakthrough endometriosis test

05/01/19 — Heather Bowerman's company, DotLab, has developed the first non-invasive test for endometriosis.

Squishy robot navigating a pile of debris

Squishy robots can drop from a helicopter and land safely

04/24/19 — New soccer-ball-shaped robots, created by engineers at Berkeley and Squishy Robotics, can fall hundreds of feet and be no worse for wear, or shape-shift in order to crawl from one point to another.

Oki Karaoke founders Aayush Tyagi, Luofei Chen and Noah Adriany

Can’t sing? These undergrads have a karaoke booth just for you

04/16/19 — A trio of undergraduates, including M.E.T. freshman Luofei Chen and EECS junior Aayush Tyagi, have launched Oki Karaoke, a startup that hopes to bring soundproof karaoke pods, already popular across Asia, to the United States.

Meet Blue, the low-cost, human-friendly AI robot

04/09/19 — Blue uses advances in artificial intelligence and deep reinforcement learning to master intricate human tasks, while remaining affordable and safe enough that every AI researcher - and eventually every home - could have one.

Mass-producing biomaterials

04/08/19 — Researchers have developed a device that allows living tissue, bone, blood vessels and even whole organs to be printed on demand.

AI could identify you and your health history from your step tracker

01/29/19 USA Today — Manufacturers say data stripped of identifying information is no privacy risk. But UC Berkeley's Anil Aswani and UCSF's Yoshimi Fukuoka found that artificial intelligence can overcome that. Time to update health privacy laws.

Clever clumsiness: Self-taught walking robot

01/09/19 Wired — Researchers from the Berkeley AI Research Lab and Google Brain have taught a robot to teach itself how to walk, through trial and error, in just two hours; the results "are as awkward as they are magical."

Illustration of the proposed WAND device, with two of the new chips embedded in a chassis located outside the head.

Wireless ‘pacemaker for the brain’

12/31/18 — A new neurostimulator developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain at the same time, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's.

Ion drive flight test points to radically different future for aviation

12/05/18 Forbes — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have conducted a successful 8-second flight test of an aircraft with an ion drive propulsion system, a larger version of the same cutting-edge technology that Berkeley engineers are using to fly centimeter-scale microrobots.