International

Young engineer’s smart prepaid meter helps remote villages gain access to electricity

12/09/13 dnaindia.com — When Yashraj Khaitan traveled to remote villages in India in 2009 as a member of Engineers without Borders, he came back with the idea for Gram Power, a company that provides remote areas with on-demand, reliable electricity through affordable prepaid purchases modeled on cellphone recharge plans.

Berkeley Engineering in Shanghai – FAQ

11/15/13 — Questions and answers on agreement between UC Berkeley College of Engineering and Shanghai Zhangjiang Group Co., Ltd.

College of Engineering opens innovation center in Shanghai

11/15/13 — A new center now open in Shanghai will strengthen the College of Engineering's research and educational partnerships with academic and industry colleagues in China. The Shanghai Zhangjiang Berkeley Engineering Innovation Center, or Z-BEI, was formally launched in a Nov. 15 ceremony presided over by officials from UC Berkeley, Zhangjiang High-Tech Park and the Shanghai-area government.

Helping dissenters evade foreign eavesdropping

11/05/13 San Francisco Chronicle — Yahel Ben-David, a computer science doctoral student, has been working with other Berkeley Engineering researchers to create an Android application that will allow activists and citizens to communicate anonymously even when oppressive governments try to shut down communications channels.

Luck, smarts lead from Uganda to UC Berkeley

10/22/13 San Francisco Chronicle — The amazing journey of Christopher Ategeka, who went from teenage orphan and human scarecrow in Uganda to mechanical engineer at UC Berkeley (two degrees down, one more in the works), winning honors and prizes, founding a nonprofit and a biotech company, even giving a TED talk.

Dean Sastry appointed to United Nations scientific advisory board

10/04/13 UNESCO — On Sept. 24, the first day of the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced his decision to create a Scientific Advisory Board to inform international decision-making on sustainable development. Dean S. Shankar Sastry will serve as one of two U.S. representatives on the 26-member board, which includes leading figures in the natural, social and human sciences. “We must strengthen the interface between science and policy,” said Ki-moon, “so that the latest scientific findings are reflected in our high-level policy discussions.” Ki-moon made the announcement during the inaugural meeting of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, a platform created to realize the vision adopted at the UN's Rio+20 conference in 2012. He has entrusted UNESCO's Director-General to establish the advisory board.

Paris, San Francisco choose Inria and CITRIS to conduct ‘smart city’ research

04/05/13 CITRIS — The mayors of Paris and San Francisco recently signed an agreement focusing on the digital economy and smart cities, and designated France's Inria (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) and UC's CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) to carry out joint research on the topic.

From Kenya to California

03/05/13 — Growing up in western Kenya, Lilian Kabelle had always dreamed of going to Berkeley-only 10,000 miles, an acceptance letter and the means stood in her way. Now, as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar, Kabelle is attending Berkeley at no cost as part of a $500 million education initiative to provide full scholarships for students in developing countries who exemplify a “give back” ethos.

The worldwide reach of Berkeley Engineering

03/05/13 — Global problems demand global cooperation. To tackle a wide range of challenges, from clean energy and intelligent infrastructure to cost-effective healthcare delivery, we are launching ambitious research and teaching partnerships with a number of international colleagues.

A new loo

02/07/13 — Answering a challenge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve sanitation in developing countries, environmental engineering professor Kara Nelson and postdoctoral researcher Temitope Ogunyoku have developed a toilet that safely disinfects waste. Their hand-cranked pHree Loo yields “safe sludge” that does not endanger human health.

ShanghaiTech, Berkeley launch 5-year collaboration

11/13/12 ShanghaiTech — ShanghaiTech University and UC Berkeley have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to launch a collaboration in education, culture, and scientific research over the next five years. The first stage of the project will involve Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences faculty from Berkeley sharing core instructional resources and research methodology with their Chinese counterparts.

Arsenic water filter recognized with international prize

10/09/12 Berkeley Lab — A team led by Ashok Gadgil, Berkeley Engineering professor and head of LBNL's environmental energy technologies division, has received the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. The prize recognizes his team's advances in developing an effective and economical way to treat arsenic contamination in groundwater.

MasterCard Foundation brings African students to Berkeley

09/26/12 — Civil engineering undergrad Lilian Kabelle is one of seven new students from Sub-Saharan Africa attending Berkeley this fall at no cost as part of The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. The $500-million initiative will provide some 15,000 talented yet financially disadvantaged young people in developing countries with full scholarships and comprehensive support for their high school and college educations.

Cal Energy Corps working worldwide on smart solutions

09/24/12 — Launched in 2011, the Cal Energy Corps provides undergraduates with practical research and experiential-learning opportunities through internships with partner organizations across the academic, corporate and nonprofit sectors. Modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps, the program aims to engage Berkeley students tackling alternative energy, climate change and sustainability issues around the world. This summer, 13 of the 32 Cal Energy Corps interns were Berkeley Engineers

Berkeley Engineering’s Ashok Gadgil honored for bridging innovation and humanitarianism to help millions globally

05/02/12 Business Wire — Dr. Ashok Gadgil is the recipient of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of his steady pursuit to blend research, invention, and humanitarianism for broad social impact. Gadgil is a chair professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at UC Berkeley, and director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

African project aims to innovate in educational robotics

05/01/12 IEEE Spectrum — Roboticists in Africa and in the United States have launched an initiative to enhance robotics education, research, and industry in Africa. The African Robotics Network (AFRON) wants to mobilize a community of institutions and individuals working on robotics-related areas, strengthening communication and collaboration among them. One of the co-founders of AFRON is Ken Goldberg, an IEEE Fellow and professor of robotics at UC Berkeley. Goldberg was born in Nigeria, where his parents were teachers.

UC engineering dean has high hopes for Chinese partnership

01/09/12 Contra Costa Times — S. Shankar Sastry has something in common with Olympic divers. Poised high above a pool of budgetary cuts and institutional obstacles, Sastry -- dean of the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley -- recognizes that success for a barrier-busting joint initiative in China will be determined by his department's ability to metaphorically tuck and rip into the future fabric of higher education. Sastry hopes new technology for education will be achieved through a collaboration between UC and the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

Berkeley engineer reduces violence against Darfuri women through better cooking technology

01/03/12 San Jose Mercury News — Zam Zam refugee camp in North Darfur is home to 200,000 refugees fleeing the civil war in Sudan. Women in the camps cook over open fires and then walk for miles through dust and desolation to search for firewood. Every wood-collecting trip exposes women to rape by Sudanese militiamen. UC Berkeley's Ashok Gadgil thought the women of Darfur deserved better cooking technology. So he not only worked with the women to develop a better stove, he also created a local market for it.

‘Rayce’ down under

11/29/11 — For the first time since its founding in 1990, CalSol, Berkeley Engineering's solar car team, competed in the international World Solar Challenge (WSC). Held in October in Australia, the WSC drew 37 solar-powered cars to a weeklong “rayce” crossing 3,000 kilometers of the barren Outback from Darwin to Adelaide. CalSol's Impulse team members posted these reports from the field.

Berkeley reveals plan for academic center in China

11/16/11 The New York Times — The University of California, Berkeley announced this week that it plans to open a large research and teaching facility here as part of a broader plan to bolster its presence in China. The public university said the Shanghai center would cater to engineering graduate students and be financed over the next five years largely by the Shanghai government and companies operating here. The program is expected to begin in July 2012.