Makers

Students engineer solutions to industry challenges

12/16/15 — Three energy-related devices developed by students in the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership's Master of Engineering capstone project course are featured in a video from the Berkeley News team.

EnableTech: Engineering for accessibility

10/20/15 — The new EnableTech student group aims to develop creative solutions to minimize challenges presented by disability.

A new campus hub for design

08/26/15 — On August 20, Berkeley Engineering celebrated the opening of Jacobs Hall, the new headquarters for the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation.

Happy National Week of Making

06/17/15 — Berkeley engineers attended the National Maker Faire in Washington, DC and got the chance to meet other engineers, makers and government officials while showcasing recent projects.

Super-cute robot bug gets $1.4M to teach kids to code

04/27/15 Venture Beat — Dash Robotics, which began as a research project at Berkeley Engineering and CITRIS, has secured $1.4 million in seed funding to help refine and market its small bio-inspired origami robots that teach kids how to program while they play.

Jacobs Hall takes shape

02/25/15 — The mood was festive when the college community gathered to celebrate the placement of the final steel beam atop the new Jacobs Hall.

A hands-on demonstration of the newest Oculus Rift.

Maker hero: Alumnus Jack McCauley on Guitar Hero, Oculus and the future of making

12/19/14 Berkeley Innovators — Jack McCauley (EECS ’86), the inaugural speaker in the Berkeley Innovators Lecture Series, told a packed auditorium how his lifelong passion for tinkering brought him a path-breaking career in hardware engineering and design.

Scholars on scooters

08/14/14 — Students zip around campus on electric scooters while learning about energy, transportation and vehicle-to-grid systems in a new civil engineering class.

Engineering for all

06/18/14 National Science Foundation — In an article on how the "maker movement" shines a spotlight on DIY design and manufacturing, mechanical engineering professor Paul Wright talks about how more affordable tools, like 3-D printers and design software, are helping young inventors move rapidly from prototype to product.

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.”

Bot on a budget

05/01/14 — Lavanya Jawaharlal, with her sister Melissa, co-founded STEM Center USA and developed the affordable Pi-Bot robot kit to increase access to science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Cal human-powered vehicle crossing the finish line

Cal Human-Powered Vehicle team mends, but does not brake

05/01/14 California magazine — Things were looking bleak for the Berkeley Engineering Human-Powered Vehicle team last weekend, and the timing couldn't have been worse. Just a day before the big ASME regional race, their state-of-the-art vehicle, nicknamed Reuben, crashed and broke in two on the first practice run. Then came a bigger surprise.

Students show off design projects from TI lab

04/15/14 Texas Instruments — As the first anniversary of the Texas Instrument-funded Electronics Design Lab approaches, TI highlights some of the cool student projects -- from a tic-tac-toe board to an autonomous quadcopter -- that were made possible through this $2.2 million teaching lab and adjoining "maker lounge."

Berkeley and Stanford launch nanofabrication partnership with TSI Semiconductors

08/15/13 — The College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley announced that its Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory, along with Stanford University's Nanofabrication Facility, has initiated a virtual technology transfer exercise with TSI Semiconductors, LLC, a specialty foundry offering flexible technology development and advanced manufacturing solutions for projects ranging from the smallest to very large lot sizes.

Introducing the Dreambox

05/01/13 — Alum Will Drevno and partners created the Dreambox, a vending machine to make 3D printing more accessible.

Critical making comes to campus

05/01/13 — “Students are going to understand how to collaborate across disciplines while respecting and appreciating the viewpoints, values and concerns of others about a design,” Eric Paulos says. “I fundamentally believe that this is the future of the practitioner. They will have to know how to co-create things.”

Experiential ed.

05/01/13 — Many hands-on labs, shops and workspaces around campus allow students to learn by doing.

Greening the factory floor

05/01/13 — Berkeley graduate students and professors at the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability, led by mechanical engineering chair David Dornfeld, are guiding factory owners and builders to a green manufacturing future.

Berkeley Engineering grad students design an ‘EcoFridge’ that uses 40 per cent less energy

02/10/12 BusinessGreen — Imagine an environmentally friendly household refrigerator that is affordable and helps break people's energy-wasting habits when they use the appliance. That is what team of UC Berkeley grad students in engineering and industrial design students from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico envisioned when they were asked by appliance manufacturer Mabe to develop a cost competitive fridge that is kinder to the environment than others available to consumers in Mexico.

Berkeley bywords: Made in the U.S.A.

08/18/11 — When it comes to manufacturing know-how, Berkeley Engineering is the College of Big Shoulders. From minuscule chips to massive aircraft, we invent the tools and methods that power the assembly lines of American manufacturing.