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PiE wins big

05/13/13 — Pioneers in Engineering (PiE) is a Berkeley student group that runs a mentorship program to engage teenagers in science and technology. April was a busy month for PiE. They won $25,000 in a national competition sponsored by Ford and Zipcar. Then, only days after an event held on campus to celebrate that big win, PiE held a competition of their own-they hosted a robotics challenge game for two dozen high school teams.

Chair man

05/01/13 — Coleman Fung, founder of OpenLink, a global company that develops financial and risk management software, endowed two new chairs in the College of Engineering in 2012.

Laying the CS pipeline

04/02/13 — EECS alum Kevin Wang has one objective in mind. “The ultimate mission is to have schools with computer science programs that are sustainable and can run themselves,” he says. That's why Wang has partnered with Microsoft to start the nonprofit Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS). The organization matches volunteer tech professionals with classrooms in their communities.

Building an LGBT community for STEM majors

04/02/13 — Despite the demands of schoolwork, mechanical engineering senior Paul Zarate has not only joined different student groups every year of his college career, but this past year he started his own. In 2011, Zarate founded the Berkeley chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), a national organization dedicated to the professional development of LGBT students in STEM majors.

From Kenya to California

03/05/13 — Growing up in western Kenya, Lilian Kabelle had always dreamed of going to Berkeley-only 10,000 miles, an acceptance letter and the means stood in her way. Now, as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar, Kabelle is attending Berkeley at no cost as part of a $500 million education initiative to provide full scholarships for students in developing countries who exemplify a “give back” ethos.

Manufacturing: Innovation’s secret sauce

02/07/13 — Thanks to our new master of engineering program and other initiatives, we're educating a new generation of entrepreneurial engineers with transformative products and services in mind. But to drive these innovative ideas to market, they will need manufacturing know-how as well.

New bioengineering master’s degree approved

01/24/13 — Berkeley's Master of Engineering program now includes a track in bioengineering. The one-year program integrates engineering and entrepreneurship, preparing graduates for industry leadership. February 1 is the deadline to apply for fall 2013.

Berkeley’s exoskeletons a ‘Miracle of Nature’

12/03/12 BBC One — The new BBC show "Miracles of Nature," hosted by Richard Hammond, filmed a recent episode at Berkeley's Etcheverry Hall, where the crew explored the medical exoskeleton system being developed by mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni and his graduate students.

ShanghaiTech, Berkeley launch 5-year collaboration

11/13/12 ShanghaiTech — ShanghaiTech University and UC Berkeley have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to launch a collaboration in education, culture, and scientific research over the next five years. The first stage of the project will involve Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences faculty from Berkeley sharing core instructional resources and research methodology with their Chinese counterparts.
Inside a Gram Power-connected home in rural India

Prepaid power

11/01/12 — Two Berkeley alumni started a microgrid project to bring electricity to places too remote to have cost-effective connections to traditional utility-scale power grids.

Maker’s ed.

11/01/12 — In 2010, computer science alum Tony DeRose co-founded the Young Makers program to encourage children to learn on their own and to take ideas from conception to completion.

Alumni and corporate partners say thank you to Berkeley

10/16/12 Graduate Division — VMware could have honored software architect Michael Nelson (B.A'83 CS, Ph.D'88 EECS) with a gold watch and a handshake for his groundbreaking contributions to cloud technology. Instead, the firm endowed an $800,000 fellowship at Berkeley. In all, the Graduate Fellowships Matching Program has set up more than 60 funds campuswide – 13 of them in the College of Engineering alone.

MasterCard Foundation brings African students to Berkeley

09/26/12 — Civil engineering undergrad Lilian Kabelle is one of seven new students from Sub-Saharan Africa attending Berkeley this fall at no cost as part of The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. The $500-million initiative will provide some 15,000 talented yet financially disadvantaged young people in developing countries with full scholarships and comprehensive support for their high school and college educations.

Cal Energy Corps working worldwide on smart solutions

09/24/12 — Launched in 2011, the Cal Energy Corps provides undergraduates with practical research and experiential-learning opportunities through internships with partner organizations across the academic, corporate and nonprofit sectors. Modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps, the program aims to engage Berkeley students tackling alternative energy, climate change and sustainability issues around the world. This summer, 13 of the 32 Cal Energy Corps interns were Berkeley Engineers

Hyundai research agreement kicks off long-term partnership

09/02/12 Daily Cal — The first project of the Hyundai R&D Global Frontier Program establishes Hyundai Center of Excellence at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, world leaders in automotive engineering and technology research. Through this initiative, select Hyundai engineers will join top researchers at both universities to work on vehicle dynamics and integrated vehicle safety systems. The Center of Excellence will conduct research projects aimed at making Hyundai vehicles safer, better-handling, and more fun to drive.

Master of Translational Medicine approved

08/15/12 UCSF — The master of translational medicine program received its final approval from UC's Office of the President. The program, offered jointly by the departments of bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF, trains scientists, clinicians and engineers to bring innovative medical treatments into clinical use quickly and efficiently. Berkeley Engineering professor Song Li is co-director.

UC Berkeley announces 2012 Bergeron Scholars

06/12/12 Wall Street Journal Market Watch — UC Berkeley has announced the 2012 Bergeron Scholars. This year's Scholars are the first women to benefit from the program funded by Sandra and Douglas Bergeron in Fall 2011. The Berkeley Bergeron Scholars Program provides scholarships, program support and mentorships to five undergraduate women each year pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

VMware names Berkeley Engineering alumnus as first VMware Fellow to recognize exceptional leadership and technology contributions

06/07/12 Yahoo Finance — VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, has announced the appointment of two VMware Fellows, recognizing the continued and dramatic contributions by outstanding VMware people to its products, the company and the industry at large. As the inaugural VMware Fellows, Mike Nelson (Ph.D.'88 EECS) and Ole Agesen are being honored by endowments in their names of $800,000 each to UC Berkeley and Stanford University, their respective alma maters.