A tiny step into the final frontier
10/15/18 Medium — Six undergrad engineers are developing "SpinorSats" - each less than 10 grams, about the size of an Apple Watch - that they hope will be the smallest maneuverable satellites in space.
Mechanical engineering
In Chang-Lin Tien, a leader to emulate
10/03/18 — Chancellor Carol Christ reflects back on the legacy of Chang-Lien Tien, her predecessor and mentor, professor of mechanical engineering, builder of community and "an extraordinary leader."
Ravi Prasher to lead energy technologies at Berkeley Lab
07/19/18 Berkeley Lab — Ravi Prasher, adjunct professor of mechanical engineering, has been promoted to associate laboratory director for energy technologies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he previously headed the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division.
Alice Agogino wins top U.S. award for mentoring
06/27/18 — Mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino has been named winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, the government's highest honor for mentors in STEM fields.
Berkeley engineers develop origami electronics using cheap, foldable paper
06/18/18 — Berkeley engineers have developed a new way to fabricate working electronics onto plain paper, opening the doors to new sensors, supercapacitors and other electronic devices that are cheap and foldable.
Berkeley engineers squeeze cells through microtubes to detect cancer
04/17/18 — Research led by Lydia Sohn, professor of mechanical engineering, could greatly improve the speed and accuracy of cancer diagnosis by exploiting the different speeds with which cancerous and healthy cells move through micropores.
From pollution cleanup to building houses, what can’t mushrooms do?
04/02/18 — There are more than 5 million species of fungi, each eager to digest a particular waste product - sawdust, plastic, heavy metals - and turn it into new, natural and compostable material. In this Fiat Vox podcast, mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate Sonia Travaglini talks about her work with "nature's recyclers."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.