Materials science

Is spaghetti the key to building a better robot?

01/22/20 — Studying how spaghetti reacts to water might offer clues to how robots built from flexible materials can better mimic human movement, according to Oliver O'Reilly, professor of mechanical engineering.

New discovery makes it easier to design synthetic proteins that rival their natural counterparts

01/08/20 — Researchers have created a synthetic membrane that could transform fields including medicine, life sciences, alternative energy and environmental science.

Ceder peeks into the battery pipeline

12/16/19 Berkeley Lab — From cobalt-free to sodium-ion, Berkeley Lab scientist and MSE professor Gerbrand Ceder evaluates some of the most promising battery technologies in development.

A surprising twist

10/25/19 — Materials scientists have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that spiral like a card deck.

Piranha-proof fish scales offer inspiration for armor

10/17/19 UCSD — UC Berkeley and UC San Diego material scientists have discovered the secret to Arapaima gigas's impermeable armor. The scales on this Amazonian freshwater fish could serve as inspiration for stronger, lightweight and flexible synthetic armors.

Berkeley Engineering is #3 in U.S. News rankings

09/09/19 U.S. News & World Report — Berkeley Engineering's undergraduate program was again ranked third overall and the top public engineering school by U.S. News & World Report. Eight individual engineering programs were ranked among the top 5 in their respective fields, and all were in the top 10.

George Leitmann on rocket test track, Naval Ordnance Test Station, China Lake

Bancroft Library oral history, podcast highlight Berkeley Engineering achievements

08/01/19 — Berkeley Engineering's contributions to the rise of the semiconductor industry were featured in a recent library podcast, while mechanical engineering professor emeritus George Leitmann was interviewed for an oral history project.

Word cloud diagram of terms related to thermoelectric

Algorithms uncover hidden scientific knowledge

07/05/19 Berkeley Lab — A team of materials science researchers from Berkeley Lab and Berkeley Engineering has found that with minimal training, machine-learning text mining of the existing scientific literature can lead to new discoveries.

Crystal with a twist: scientists grow spiraling new material

06/19/19 — Materials scientists from Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that unexpectedly spiral like a nanoscale card deck.

Caleb Wright and Charles Yang at the U.N. Environmental Assembly in Kenya

Berkeley engineers propose solutions for reaching U.N. development goals

05/28/19 — Three UC Berkeley undergrads attended the U.N. Environmental Assembly in Kenya and saw their proposals included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Berkeley’s top graduate, engineer Tyler Chen, is an aspiring Elon Musk

05/10/19 — Tyler Chen, a joint major in materials science and bioengineering, is this year's winner of the University Medal, Berkeley's highest honor for graduating seniors. He's also an inventor, a black belt in taekwondo, and a relentless optimist.

Researchers capture an image of negative capacitance in action

01/14/19 — For the first time ever, an international team of researchers imaged the microscopic state of negative capacitance. This novel result could have far-reaching consequences for energy-efficient electronics.

Diagram demonstrating recycling carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals through a copper catalyst

Greener days ahead for carbon fuels

12/18/18 Berkeley Lab — Researchers led by Joel Ager, MSE adjunct professor, have discovered copper's potential as a catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into sustainable chemicals and fuels without wasteful byproducts.

New quantum material could take computers beyond semiconductors

12/03/18 — Researchers from Intel Corp. and UC Berkeley's MSE are looking beyond current transistor technology and preparing the way for a new type of memory and logic circuit that could someday be in every computer on the planet.

Illustration showing how waste heat could be used to generate energy

From waste heat to energy

11/14/18 — Researchers have developed a thin-film device that converts waste heat to energy, using pyroelectric energy conversion.

Cleaning up contamination

11/14/18 — Researchers have learned how to keep proteins active outside of the cell, leading to technology that can soak up chemical pollution.

Berkeley ingenuity keeps lithium-ion batteries at temps even Goldilocks would love

10/22/18 — Berkeley engineers have come up with a clever and inexpensive solution to automatically regulate the temperature of lithium-ion batteries. Their technology could expand the practical use of electric vehicles and consumer electronics in more extreme temperatures.

Fiona Doyle to retire

08/27/18 — Fiona Doyle, vice provost of graduate studies, longtime leader in the College of Engineering and campus, champion of student services and an influential pioneer in mineral engineering, will retire in June 2019 after a remarkable 36-year career at Berkeley. Read more about her many accomplishments

Evan Rambo at football practice in Memorial Stadium

Evan Rambo making plays in world of sports technology

08/13/18 San Francisco Chronicle — Cal football safety Evan Rambo teamed up with students from materials science and engineering, chemical biology and EECS to develop force-tracking wearable technology, a concept that won the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship of Technology' Collider Cup competition.

UC Berkeley to co-lead DOE center to study corrosion in nuclear reactors

08/06/18 — Berkeley engineers are co-leading a new DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center to study how extreme conditions such as radiation exposure and corrosion affect nuclear reactor materials. The new center, led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is called the Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes, or FUTURE.