Electrical engineering

Yashraj Khaitan, left, and Jacob Dickinson, co-founders of Gram Power, stand next to several solar panels in India

USAID is incubating start-ups to tackle poverty problems

09/17/14 Los Angeles Times — Seeking entrepreneurial solutions to poverty, the US Agency for International Development has bet a million dollars on Gram Power, the brainchild of two Berkeley Engineering grads who aim to bring electricity to rural India while slowing climate change at the same time.

EECS researcher creates controllable flying insects using TI technology

09/12/14 Texas Instruments — EECS associate professor Michel Maharbiz spends his days studying the "beautiful systems" of the insect world, and applying that knowledge to building the tiniest of flying objects.

8 grad students named Siebel Scholars

09/11/14 Siebel Scholars Foundation — Eight Berkeley Engineering graduate students - five from bioengineering and three from EECS - have been selected as Siebel Scholars for 2015, joining a class of 83 of the most talented students from the world's leading graduate schools.

Bakar Fellow Michel Maharbiz of EECS explaining neural dust

Bakar research fellows make their case in Silicon Valley

09/09/14 — Sixteen Bakar Fellows, including several Berkeley Engineering faculty members, recently presented their research ideas to a a packed room of potential investors on Sand Hill Road.

Out of many, one

08/25/14 The New Yorker — EECS professor, Alexei Efros built the AverageExplorer to study visual information. The software creates an average image after compiling thousands of similar Internet photos.

The 10 best universities for robotics in the U.S.

07/18/14 Business Insider — In a roundup of university robotics options from around the country, UC Berkeley lands at the top of the list, described as "an incredibly robust college for robotics that will likely meet your interests no matter what they are."

A class discovery platform: By students, for students

07/16/14 Forbes — Three Berkeley undergraduates, including EECS junior Noah Gilmore, have created an interactive website designed to help students choose classes. Called Berkeleytime, it gathers all of the school's curricular information in one place, allowing students to filter and sort by thousands of criteria.

Nanolasers on silicon to provide faster data transmission

07/14/14 LiveScience — New technology in development at Berkeley Engineering promises to ensure that fiber optic networks will be able to keep pace with consumer demand for speed and seamless data flow. The work, led by EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, involves growing lasers (called nanoneedles) on silicon , the base layer of choice for electronic devices.

Colleges work to engage women, minorities in STEM fields

07/10/14 U.S. News & World Report — Sheila Humphreys, director of diversity for Berkeley Engineering's electrical engineering and computer science department, talks about efforts in her department to encourage minorities and women breaking into the field.

Big to tiny robots on risky ground: You go first

06/13/14 Phys.org — Researchers at Berkeley Engineering's Biomimetic Millisystems Lab and ETH Zurich have suggested an approach for protecting expensive components in big robots when on difficult terrain: Send in little, inexpensively made robots ahead of them as scouts.

Named lecture series honors pioneer Ruzena Bajcsy

06/06/14 Technische Universität Darmstadt — The new Ruzena Bajcsy Lectures on Communications at TU Darmstadt honors one of the first women researchers in electrical engineering and computer sciences and a role model for women scientists and engineers worldwide. The lecture series invites leading women researchers to Darmstadt. Bajcsy's work in EECS focuses on tele-immersive environments, image processing and robotics.

So, where are my robot servants?

05/29/14 IEEE Spectrum — Four years after Berkeley engineers' video of a towel-folding robot went viral, IEEE Spectrum ponders what it will take to develop robots that can become true helpers and companions in people's homes. Berkeley roboticist Ken Goldberg says he doubts that ever-smarter machines will replace human contact, “but people aren't always available.”

CNEP researchers target brain circuitry to treat intractable mental disorders

05/27/14 — Neuroscientists, engineers and physicians from Berkeley and other university and industry partners are teaming up for an ambitious 5-year, $26 million project to develop new techniques for tackling mental illness by using devices implanted in the brain to target and correct malfunctioning neural circuits in conditions such as clinical depression, addiction and anxiety disorders.

Bakar fellows Ana Claidia Arias, John Dueber, Shawn Shadden and Laura Waller

Four Berkeley Engineering faculty among new Bakar Fellows

05/27/14 Berkeley Research — The Bakar Fellows Program's new fellows for 2014-15 include Ana Claudia Arias (EECS), who is working to improve MRI hardware; John Dueber (bioengineering), who uses synthetic biology to improve green chemistry; Shawn Shadden (mechanical engineering), whose research integrates medical diagnostic imaging with computational modeling; and Laura Waller (EECS), who develops new methods for optical imaging as head of the Computational Imaging Lab.

Javey among Berkeley trio shortlisted for prestigious early-career Blavatnik Awards

05/22/14 — Three UC Berkeley researchers - including Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences - are among 30 national finalists for the 2014 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.

Caviar delivers fave restaurant dishes to your door

05/14/14 Berkeleyside — New-to-the-East-Bay Caviar, a startup that delivers favorite foods from local restaurants that don't normally offer delivery, counts two Berkeley Engineering EECS developers - Andy Zhang and Richard Din - among its four foodie founders.

University Medal finalists Brooke Liang and Robin Shah

Two Berkeley Engineers among medal finalists

05/13/14 — Finalists for the 2014 University Medal, UC Berkeley's highest honor for graduating seniors, include Brooke Liang, a bioengineer from Ottawa, Canada, and Rohin Shah, an EECS major from Pune, India.

Science Goes to the Movies: ‘Transcendence’

05/12/14 National Public Radio — In a conversation with NPR's Science Friday, EECS professor Stuart Russell explains what it would take to “upload” a mind to the Internet, and what is really worrisome about strong artificial intelligence.

Former Berkeley engineers redefine music listening through shareable headphones

05/09/14 Daily Clog — Nelson Zhang and Richie Zeng, former EECS students and co-founders of Wearhaus Inc., recently launched their Wearhaus ARC headphones, which sync wirelessly with other music listeners, allowing users to discover new music and broadcast playlists.

Art imitates academia

05/01/14 — EECS professors Jose Carmena and Michel Maharbiz served as technical consultants to Transcendence film director Wally Pfister and answered questions about the film at a campus screening.