Infrastructure

Smart moves: California’s next-gen infrastructure

05/01/17 — Next-generation technologies are disrupting traditional ideas of infrastructure, which will soon be laced with sensor networks, machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimize efficiency, resiliency and sustainability.

Dean’s word: Inventing a better future

05/01/17 — The college is preparing to launch a new initiative, one with an audacious goal: to invent a better, more promising future for generations to come.

Worker examining the damaged Oroville Dam spillway

Serious design, construction and maintenance defects doomed Oroville Dam, report says

04/18/17 LA Times — In the first major assessment of the Oroville Dam spillway failure in February, civil engineering professor emeritus Robert Bea, co-founder of Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Analysis, has concluded that design and construction flaws, as well as maintenance errors, were to blame.

NSF’s $11M to fund natural hazards SimCenter

04/05/17 CITRIS — Structural engineering professor Stephen Mahin will lead a new center for computational modeling and simulation of the effects of natural hazards on the built environment, supported by a five-year, $10.9-million grant from the National Science Foundation.

A superfast lane for self-driving cars?

03/22/17 Fortune — Imagine a future where self-driving cars zip beside interstates at 120 mph, with absolutely zero congestion. That future could exist as soon as 2050, according to grad students Baiyu Chen (B.S.'14 CEE, M.S.'15 CEE, M.S.'17 EECS) and Anthony Barrs, whose Hyperlane idea was awarded top prize and $50,000 at the Infrastructure Vision 2050 Challenge.

Hashtagging the way to safer infrastructure

11/29/16 — Civil and environmental engineering professor Kenichi Soga delivered a CITRIS talk about using social media and sensor-laden environments to build smart infrastructure.

Building the Berkeley Hyperloop

10/24/16 — Berkeley Hyperloop, currently crowdfunding for a January 2017 launch, is taking on an ambitious design challenge — and it’s part of a rich ecosystem of Berkeley students applying classroom learning and hands-on design skills to real-world challenges.

Drawing of rural well-water treatment system

Berkeley startup helps people find out what they’re drinking

10/04/16 California magazine — SimpleWater, launched by a team of Berkeley engineers and entrepreneurs, offers a water-testing and product-recommendation service called Tap Score that helps users of private wells learn about and treat potential contaminants in their drinking water.

Eleanor Allen delivering her TEDx talk on access to water

Why water is a women’s issue

08/22/16 — Every year, half a million children die from drinking contaminated water. In a TEDx talk in Denver, Eleanor Allen (M.S.'97 CE) explains why access to water is a women's issue.

Postdoctoral researcher Florence Bonvin and David Sedlak use liquid chromatography as one of their tools to track chemical contaminants in water supplies

Hazards and opportunities in the pipeline

05/10/16 Berkeley Research — Environmental engineering professor David Sedlak, whose book Water 4.0 calls for a new revolution in urban water systems, is studying the fate of chemical contaminants in wastewater, seeking better ways to treat and clean the water we depend on.

Rising seas: A new look at resilient infrastructure

05/01/16 — A cross-disciplinary team of researchers is studying how sea-level rise will impact and disrupt the Bay Area using a variety of data modeling and analysis methods.

Watching snow melt

04/11/16 — The collaborative Sierra Net project builds wireless sensor networks in major California watersheds to modernize the way the state's water supply is measured.

A computer rendering of the Wave Carpet.

Making waves: Turning ocean power into electricity

03/15/16 — Ocean waves constantly generate energy. Berkeley engineers are trying to build a device to harness that power and convert it to electricity.

How to save water from California’s leaky infrastructure

03/07/16 California magazine — Thanks to outdated systems and structures, California's water managers don't know how much water the state truly has, how much we really use, or how much leaks from ancient pipes before it ever reaches a tap. Berkeley engineers like Paul Sagues (M.S.'80 ME) are working on ways to dry up that waste.

New app turns smartphones into worldwide seismic network

02/12/16 — UC Berkeley scientists are releasing a free Android app that taps a smartphone's ability to record ground shaking from an earthquake, with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic detection and warning network.

QuakeCAFE: A mobile wake-up call for Californians

12/16/15 CITRIS — No one likes to be reminded that there's a 99.7% chance that California will experience a major earthquake in the next 30 years. But a little preparedness can go a long way, and a new mobile-friendly website called QuakeCAFE can help.

Still shakin’ it

11/01/15 — The venerable Shake Table of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), the largest six-degrees-of-freedom table in the country, brings its illustrious past forward to continually improve seismic safety.

Build Change founder delivers CEE Distinguished Lecture

10/15/15 — Watch: Alumnus Elizabeth Hausler Strand, the founder and CEO of Build Change, is making homes safer, worldwide.

Photos of ruptured oil pipeline provide clues of spill cause

06/17/15 Washington Post — Photos of the pipeline that spilled oil on the Santa Barbara coast in May show extensive corrosion and suggest that a pressure leak tied to the restart of failed pumps caused the break, said Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor emeritus.

Aging wooden bridge needs all the support it can get

03/23/15 New York Times — Structural engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl has been hired as a consultant on a fight by local residents to save the Albion River Bridge - California's last wooden bridge on a coastal highway.