Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering to aid back surgery

02/28/18 Berkeley Research — Lower back pain is not as common as the common cold, but it's close, and treating it surgically comes with significant risk. Grace O'Connell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is heading a project aimed at predicting which patients are most vulnerable to secondary fractures or disc degeneration following spinal fusion surgery.

Pandemic Resiliency team members Suyasha Gupta, Jasodhara Raj and Arnaud Bard de Coutance

Designing resiliency for the pandemic flu

02/23/18 Fung Institute — For their capstone project at the Fung Institute, a trio of master of engineering students are working on a software solution to combat the inefficiencies that currently impede efforts to report and track outbreaks of influenza.

Taking the stage

02/09/18 — Drew McPherson (B.S'17 ME) recently took the stage in San Francisco to give a talk at “People That Don't Normally Lecture.” He talked about the accident he had at 19 that left him paralyzed. He also talked about what came next: a desire to design and build things that help people meet a need.

Grace OConnell, Laura Waller and Avideh Zakhor

Honors for three Berkeley Engineering faculty

02/07/18 — Three members of the Berkeley Engineering faculty - Grace O'Connell from mechanical engineering and Laura Waller and Avideh Zakhor from EECS - have recently received awards from scientific societies honoring their contributions to research and innovation in their fields.

Animation of atomic motion in a 2-D material

Rotating ‘chiral phonons’ could enable new form of IT

02/02/18 Berkeley Lab — Researchers at Berkeley Lab, led by mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang, have found the first evidence of naturally occurring circular rotation in an atomically thin material, a phenomenon that could enable exotic and microscopic forms of electronics.

Ravi Prasher, with Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay in the background

Batteries to provide renewable energy anytime, anywhere

01/16/18 — Ravi Prasher, adjunct professor of mechanical engineering, and his Berkeley colleagues are searching for new battery materials to help store renewable energy so we can use it when we need it.

University of Hong Kong names Xiang Zhang as new leader

12/15/17 — Mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang has been named the 16th president and vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, among the most prestigious universities in Asia.

Case studies in forward thinking

11/01/17 — Nine Berkeley Engineering faculty members share some of their forward-looking work and how it might impact what's to come.

Tabla device to acoustically diagnose pneumonia

Chest sound waves

11/01/17 — The award-winning Tabla, a device that digitizes chest sounds for diagnosing pneumonia (and other ailments), began as a class project in Jacobs Hall.

No sense, no feeling

11/01/17 — Berkeley engineers are experimenting with bringing tactile feeling into virtual worlds, first with a glove called Tacto.

Shoestring theory

11/01/17 — Ever wonder why shoelaces come untied? Well, wonder no longer.

Needleless vaccines

11/01/17 — No more needles. Vaccinations can be done as easy as saying “ahh.”

Matthew Brueckmann on a ride at Great America

Behind the scenes with PREP

10/23/17 — Matthew Brueckmann (ME'15) found his calling early - he wanted to be an amusement park engineer. This summer, he returned to campus to lead a tour of California's Great America so that PREP participants could learn about the science and technology behind the scream-inducing machines.

Knotty circumstance: How that shoelace study went viral

09/25/17 California magazine — The study that would become a media sensation started innocently enough, when a 4-year-old naively asked her father (mechanical engineering professor Oliver O'Reilly), “Why do shoelaces come untied?”

Max Chilton with Berkeley Formula SAE students and their car

IndyCar driver Max Chilton spreads the gospel of STEAM

09/15/17 IndyCar — Speaking to a spirited group of students of all ages at Berkeley, IndyCar driver Max Chilton spread the word on the importance of STEAM - science, technology, engineering, arts and math - to successfully educate the leaders of tomorrow.

Students in an MET class raise their hand

New UC Berkeley program aims to fast-track path to Silicon Valley C-Suites

09/12/17 East Bay Times — UC Berkeley's new M.E.T. program, combining engineering and business degrees in just four years, is resonating with alumni, entrepreneurs, and the 2,500 smart, inventive and multitalented students who applied for the 40 seats in the inaugural class.

Student-designed medical device wins Fast Company award

09/12/17 — Tabla, a low-cost medical device to diagnose pneumonia, has won the student category of Fast Company's 2017 Innovation by Design Awards. Tabla was created by a trio of mechanical engineering and bioengineering students as a classroom project for the Jacobs Institute's Interactive Device Design course.

Students in the first M.E.T. class on the steps of Sutardja Dai Hall

Inaugural M.E.T. class prepares to study business and engineering

08/23/17 Haas News — The founding class of 40 students in the Management, Engineering, & Technology program arrived at Berkeley this week ready to learn from each other and from top faculty at both Berkeley Engineering and the Haas School of Business.

Christopher Ategeka: Health care access for all

08/22/17 PBS NewsHour — In a Brief but Spectacular video on PBS, Berkeley Engineer and entrepreneur Christopher Ategeka (B.S.'11, M.S.'12 ME) tells how he is using his influence to recruit health professionals to work in underserved parts of Africa.

Victorious CalSol team members surround their car, Zephyr, at the track in Austin, Texas.

CalSol finishes 1st at Formula Sun Grand Prix

08/17/17 Daily Californian — The CalSol student team has won the Formula Sun Grand Prix, an annual solar vehicle track race for college teams from around the nation. CalSol's four-year-old Zephyr took first place in the July race in Austin, TX, completing 228 laps with zero penalties.