Farewell
11/01/16 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni
Faculty
$1.5 million to study language development, via bats
10/26/16 — Seeking insight into the neurobiological basis of language learning, the New York Stem Cell Foundation has granted a $1.5 million Robertson Neuroscience Investigator award to Michael Yartsev, assistant professor of bioengineering, for his novel studies involving bats.
Wildfire management vs. suppression benefits forest and watershed
10/24/16 — An unprecedented 40-year experiment in Yosemite National Park, led by a team of Berkeley civil and environmental engineers, strongly supports the idea that managing fire, rather than suppressing it, makes wilderness areas more resilient to fire, with the added benefit of increased water availability and resistance to drought.
Dubon named to UC Davis chancellor search committee
10/04/16 University of California — MSE professor Oscar Dubon, Berkeley Engineering's associate dean for equity and inclusion and student affairs, has been named by UC President Janet Napolitano to join an advisory committee helping in the international search for a new chancellor to lead UC Davis.
Toward human-centric A.I.
09/20/16 — Twenty years ago, Stuart Russell co-wrote a book titled Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, destined to become the dominant text in its field. Near the end of the book, he posed a question: “What if A.I. does succeed?”
Q&A on homebrewed drugs with John Dueber
09/20/16 — Bioengineering professor John Dueber talks about the risks and potential rewards of using yeast to convert glucose into a key opioid compound.
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.
Adam Arkin on Big Data and big problems
09/02/16 — Bioengineering professor Adam Arkin digs deep on current and future efforts to to harness the genetic potential of the earth to solve problems in soil quality, water quality, plant productivity, nutrition, and human-impacted health.
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.
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.
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.
Head-Gordon leads Berkeley partnership to improve scientific software
08/04/16 — A nine-university partnership headed by Virginia Tech has launched the Molecular Sciences Software Institute, an NSF-funded program to improve software for the molecular sciences. Bioengineering's Teresa Head-Gordon is the institute's lead scientist at UC Berkeley.
MSE professor emeritus Kal Sastry dies at 74
07/19/16 Daily Californian — Kal Sastry, a materials science and engineering professor emeritus remembered for his unique life philosophies and his love for the Berkeley community, died July 15. He was 74.
CEE professor emeritus Robert Wiegel passes away
07/19/16 — Robert Wiegel, a coastal engineering pioneer, distinguished civil and environmental engineering professor and former acting dean, died on July 14. He was 93.
Remembering Joonhong Ahn, professor of nuclear engineering
06/22/16 — Professor Joonhong Ahn died in Japan on Sunday, June 19, 2016. Professor Ahn's research broadly encompassed the entire nuclear fuel cycle. He was a leading expert on Asian nuclear power and traveled frequently to the Asia-Pacific region advising governments and industry, alongside his extensive academic collaborations.
Finding chemo
06/17/16 Berkeley Science Review — New cancer treatments come in tiny packages, like the 3HM nanocarriers being developed by materials science professor Ting Xu and her collaborators to protect drugs during their journey through the bloodstream to brain tumors.
An energy strategy that can take the heat
06/08/16 Berkeley Research — Working with Chinese colleagues through the Clean Energy Research Center for Water-Energy Technologies, nuclear engineering professor Per Peterson is exploring the use of superhot molten salts to boost efficiency in both nuclear and solar energy production.
The faith and science of Georges Lemaître
06/02/16 America — Karl van Bibber, nuclear engineering chair, cosmologist and practicing Catholic, discusses his own work and that of priest-scientist Georges Lemaître, father of the Big Bang theory.
Development engineering journal launches
06/02/16 SciDevNet — The online journal Development Engineering, which covers technological solutions to extreme poverty, launched at a recent conference in Switzerland. Civil and environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil is co-editor in chief.
This is how cities of the future will get their energy
05/23/16 Washington Post — In a paper written for Science magazine, UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources, public policy and nuclear engineering Daniel Kammen explores the potential for using renewable energy technologies in urban areas to promote low-carbon, resilient and livable cities.