Q+A with Grace O’Connell
11/01/14 — Assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department since 2013, Grace O'Connell discusses her background, her first year at the college and her work in tissue engineering and spinal biomechanics.
Faculty
Great optics
11/01/14 — EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, named associate dean for strategic alliances in July, has introduced a robust toolkit of nano-optoelectronic circuit elements.
Sight for sore eyes
11/01/14 — Brian Barsky, professor of computer science and vision science, teamed up with colleagues at MIT to improve vision-correcting display technology; given an eyeglasses prescription, researchers can now pre-correct the display to enable that user to see the screen in sharp focus without glasses.
Rejuvenating old muscles
11/01/14 — Led by bioengineering professor Irina Conboy, Berkeley researchers found that oxytocin-the hormone associated with social attachments, childbirth and sex-may combat age-related muscle degeneration.
Evolutionary algorithms
11/01/14 — EECS professor Umesh Vazirani and his colleagues have developed an algorithm that helps demystify a paradox inherent in evolution, demonstrating that diversity results from the selection process, as well as genetic mutations.
Herding cells with electricity
11/01/14 — EECS professor Michel Maharbiz and bioengineering graduate student Daniel Cohen found that an electrical current can orchestrate the migration of a group of cells into a shape of their choosing.
Where vision meets know-how
11/01/14 — Take a look into mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang's XLab, where Zhang and his more than 30 postdocs, Ph.D. students and visiting scientists investigate the emerging field of metamaterials.
Farewell
11/01/14 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni
Lord of the microrings
10/31/14 Berkeley Lab — In a significant breakthrough in laser technology, scientists led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have developed a unique microring laser cavity that can produce single-mode lasing even from a conventional multi-mode laser cavity.
AI researchers say Elon Musk’s fears ‘not completely crazy’
10/29/14 Computerworld — Commenting on high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk provocative statement that artificial intelligence research is a danger to humanity, EECS professor and robotics researcher Stuart Russell says that "If we don't know how to control AI… it would be like making a hydrogen bomb. They would be much more dangerous than they are useful."
New tool for clean energy action: “SWITCH”
10/28/14 CleanTechnica — A new policymaking tool to better enable the shift to renewable energy has been developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, led by Dan Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy.
The robot in the cloud
10/27/14 New York Times — In a conversation with the New York Times' Bits blog, Berkeley Engineering professor, roboticist and new media pioneer Ken Goldberg discusses what he thinks will be one of the great technology breakthroughs of our age: the fusing of robotics and cloud computing.
Researchers find faster path for ferroelectrics
10/26/14 — Ferroelectric materials – commonly used in transit cards, gas grill igniters, video game memory and more – could become strong candidates for use in next-generation computers, thanks to new research led by Berkeley Engineering scientists and their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.
Study reveals molecular structure of water at gold electrodes
10/24/14 Berkeley Lab — In a research first, a team led by Miquel Salmeron, Berkeley Lab senior scientist and MSE professor, has observed the molecular structure of liquid water at a gold surface under different charging conditions.
New biomaterial has some nerve
10/14/14 — Berkeley bioengineers have taken proteins from nerve cells and used them to create a “smart” material that is extremely sensitive to its environment. This marriage of materials science and biology could give birth to a flexible, sensitive coating that is easy and cheap to manufacture in large quantities.
More Bay Bridge woes may validate concerns of span’s #1 critic
10/10/14 California magazine — Civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, one of the earliest and most vocal critics of the new Bay Bridge design, has been portrayed as a Cassandra, but these days he merely seems prescient.
Our cities’ water systems are becoming obsolete. What will replace them?
10/06/14 Vox — In an extensive interview with Vox, civil engineering professor David Sedlak, co-director of the Berkeley Water Center, discusses the challenges facing urban water systems, which evolved in response to three major crises but are now facing a fourth.
What could collapse the Golden Gate Bridge?
09/19/14 KALW — At the movies, the Golden Gate Bridge has been leveled by earthquakes, apes, even a mega-shark. But how would the iconic span fare in more realistic disaster scenarios? Civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl helps KALW radio figure it out.
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.
Defining development engineering
09/12/14 — Development engineers elude easy definition, but they are trained as multi-tooled tacticians creating holistic solutions to technical challenges that are interlaced with social and political complexities.