Electrical engineering

Student Katherine Rose Driggs Campbell in a driving simulator

$4.6 million grant to improve how automated cars, drones interact with humans

09/08/16 — As companies contemplate deploying self-driving cars, trucks and delivery drones, Berkeley engineers are embarking on a major project to improve how they interact with humans.

NSF funds cyber-physical systems research

09/06/16 National Science Foundation — The NSF on Tuesday awarded $4.6 million to VeHICaL (Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems), a project led by by EECS professor Sanjit Seshia that seeks to "impact the way humans collaborate and interact with automation." Researchers include EECS professors Ruzena Bajcsy, Shankar Sastry, Bjoern Hartmann, Claire Tomlin, and Tom Griffiths.

BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, ties a knot after watching others demonstrate it.

Berkeley launches center to align AI systems with human values

08/29/16 — Berkeley artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. The primary focus of the multi-university center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans.

Wei Gao and his sensor wristband, and Sergey Levine

Seven Berkeley engineers named top innovators under 35

08/23/16 — Wei Gao, an EECS postdoc developing wearable sweat sensors to monitor health, and EECS assistant professor Sergey Levine, who helped pioneer “deep learning” for robots, are among seven Berkeley engineers on this year's list of top innovators under 35, compiled by MIT Technology Review.

7 over 70: New thinking from older innovators

08/23/16 MIT Technology Review — A companion to Tech Review's annual 35 Innovators Under 35 list features seven innovators older than 70, including EECS professor Ruzena Bajcsy and EECS professor emeritus Michael Stonebraker, now at MIT.

Best of engineering and business, in one

08/23/16 — The M.E.T. Program, our exciting new partnership with the Haas School of Business, will guide students to earn two full B.S. degrees - one in engineering, one in business.

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.

entry gate at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ

How AT&T shaped modern art

08/09/16 Little Atoms — Bell Labs, a trailblazer of scientific innovation, was also a playground for some of the leading avant-garde artists of the 1960s and '70s, thanks to an artist-engineer collective forged by Berkeley professor Billy Klüver (M.S.'55, Ph.D.'57 EECS).

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.

New Berkeley undergraduate program to develop innovative tech leaders, entrepreneurs

08/01/16 — The Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program, a new undergraduate offering that integrates the study of engineering and business, is designed to give students a seamless understanding of technology innovation, preparing future leaders who will create real-world impact.

Women in Technology Round Table participants

Women in tech: Taking matters into their own hands

07/22/16 Medium — Facing the dearth of women in senior positions in the field, the Women in Technology Leadership Round Table encourages participants to measure what they want to change, and to be bold.

Voice commanad prompt on an Android phone

How secret voice commands in YouTube could hijack your phone

07/18/16 PCWorld — EECS Ph.D. student Nick Carlini, professor David Wagner and a team of Georgetown University researchers have revealed how secret commands could use voice-control tools like Siri and Google Now to take over your smartphone.

Tsu-Jae King Liu named to Intel board

07/13/16 Fortune — Intel has added Berkeley Engineering associate dean and EECS professor Tsu-Jae King Liu to its board of directors, marking just the second woman on the chipmaker's governing body.

Scott Aaronson answers every ridiculously big question

06/14/16 Scientific American — In a virtually limitless Q&A with science journalist John Horgan, EECS alumnus and MIT professor Scott J. Aaronson (Ph.D'04 CS) weighs in on everything from simulated universes and the Singularity to shtetls and free will.

Two two VelociRoACH robots work together to climb a step

Roach-like robots run, climb and communicate with people

06/13/16 National Science Foundation — While the ability of insects to go just about anywhere can be disturbing at times, electrical engineer Ronald Fearing sees their talent as inspiration for a special breed of tiny robots that can travel rough terrain, follow instructions, and work together to save lives in a disaster.

We can’t prevent AI changing the world but we can stop robots cooking cats

06/07/16 TechRepublic — EECS professor Stuart Russell on the dramatic changes he believes artificial intelligence will bring about, and the thorny problem of making sure smart machines have our interests at heart.

On the road to driverless cars

05/24/16 Berkeley Science Review — How Berkeley research, including foundational work by PATH plus recent advances in engineering and computer science, is fundamental to industry progress on automated transportation.

President Obama awards national medals to Alivisatos, Hu

05/20/16 — President Barack Obama honored two UC Berkeley faculty members at the White House, awarding chemist Paul Alivisatos with the National Medal of Science and electrical engineer Chenming Hu with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Carlo Séquin, Anca Dragan and Paul Alivisatos

A college of arts AND sciences

05/11/16 — UC Berkeley is rich in both celebrated and hidden artistic talent, including a trio of engineering professors: computer scientist and geometric sculptor Carlo Séquin, roboticist and Lindy hop dancer Anca Dragan, and research vice chancellor and photographer Paul Alivisatos.

MOOC pioneer Armando Fox cited for leadership in education

05/05/16 Association for Computing Machinery — EECS professor Armando Fox, a trailblazer in technology-enhanced education and the Massive Online Open Courses field, has been selected to receive the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award from the Association for Computing Machinery.