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CEO Liz Klinger and the Lioness vibrator

Like GPS for your sex drive

02/17/16 — Our phones are smart. Our cars are smart. And now, thanks to SkyDeck-based Lioness and its Berkeley Engineering grads, even vibrators can be smart, providing the data a woman needs to reach her destination free of detours, traffic tie-ups and road rage.
UC Berkeley and SuitX team, winner of UAE AI and Robotics for Good Award

SuitX wins $1M at “Robotics for Good”

02/10/16 Cult of Android — The suitX team designing medical exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, led by mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, won the $1 million international grand prize at the “Robotics for Good” competition in Dubai.
Enlargement shows weak points in a thin polycrystalline graphene sheet

Graphene is strong, but is it tough?

02/09/16 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab scientists led by Robert Ritchie, professor of materials science and mechanical engineering, have determined that superstrong polycrystalline graphene is not very resistant to fracture, which could limit its usefulness.
Gleb Budman and Backblaze servers

The backup generator

01/19/16 Berkeley Haas — When Gleb Budman (B.S.'95 ME) and his co-founders launched Backblaze, an online-backup service, in 2007, they were determined not to raise capital. The bootstrapping gamble paid off, leading to custom-built servers that have made Backblaze a standout in the field.
Michael Carroll (Photo by Sharon M. Steinman)

Former ME professor Michael Carroll passes away

01/19/16 — Professor Michael Carroll, who taught mechanical engineering at Berkeley from 1965 until 1988 before becoming dean of engineering at Rice University, died January 17 in Houston, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease and cancer.
Lavanya Jawaharlal

Lavanya Jawaharlal on females of color in STEM

12/16/15 Blum Center — Mechanical engineering senior Lavanya Jawaharlal talks about her hopes that STEM Center USA, the nonprofit startup she founded with her sister, can help shatter the glass ceiling for women in STEM fields.
Mushroom-based stools

Making furniture from fungi

12/16/15 Scientific American — For three years, doctoral mechanical engineering student Sonia Travaglini has been studying inventor Phil Ross's mushroom composite as a sustainable alternative to wood, plastic and other materials.
Chenming Hu and Paul Wright

Three scientists elected to National Academy of Inventors

12/15/15 — The National Academy of Inventors has elected three UC Berkeley faculty members to its ranks in honor of their innovation and creativity leading to patented inventions that have made a tangible impact on society. The new members include Chenming Hu, an EECS professor in the graduate school, and Paul Wright, the A. Martin Berlin Chair in Mechanical Engineering.
Microscopic images of conventional and bidirectional freeze-casting

The artificial materials that came in from the cold

12/15/15 Berkeley Lab — Researchers led by Robert Ritchie, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering, have developed a freeze-casting technique that enables them to design and create strong, tough and lightweight materials comparable to bones, teeth, shells and wood.

Celebrating World Toilet Day, reinventing sanitation

11/17/15 — United Nations World Toilet Day on Nov. 19 is environmental engineering doctoral student William Tarpeh's main chance - a time to proselytize about all things sanitation. For mechanical engineering grad student Emily Woods, it's a boost for Sanivation, the company she co-founded to convert human feces into charcoal for a poor community in Kenya.
Discarded circuit boards ready for processing

Filtering the e-waste stream

11/16/15 — Alumnus Glen Langstaff (B.S'77 ME/NE) wants to use new technology to make disposing of old technology cheaper and more efficient. Here's how:

The problem with ‘help’ in global development

11/10/15 SSIR — To move beyond good intentions, the development paradigm must shift toward collaboration, community involvement, and empowerment, writes mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate Julia Kramer in a commentary for the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
The Jawaharlal sisters appearing on "Shark Tank"

Pi-Bot inventors score $200,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’

11/02/15 — Berkeley Engineering senior Lavanya Jawaharlal and her sister Melissa, both mechanical engineers, walked away from TV's investment reality show “Shark Tank” with a $200,000 deal that they will put toward taking their STEM robotics education concept nationwide.

Sophie’s super hand

11/01/15 — Born with symbrachydactyly, eight-year-old Sophie doesn't have fully developed finger bones in her left hand, but with the help of a CITRIS Invention Lab team, she is the new user of a 3-D printed super hand.
Diagram of smart cap function

Print and plug

11/01/15 — 3-D printers are expanding the possibilities for innovation with personal devices. To demonstrate the potential, mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin printed a spoil-detecting milk carton cap.
Electric field at the edges of a 2D excitonic laser resonator

Exciting breakthrough in 2D lasers

10/20/15 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab researchers, led by mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang, have developed an atomically thin excitonic laser, achieving bright light emissions at visible light wavelengths in what could be a major step forward for high-performance optical communication and computing applications.