Nanotechnology

Using brain implants to tune the mind

04/07/17 Kavli Foundation — EECS and neuroscience professor Jose Carmena joined a discussion of how the federally funded BRAIN Initiative could advance brain implants as treatment for a variety of illnesses and disorders, including epilepsy, depression, Alzheimer's and PTSD.

Synthetic spider silk for sale in a $314 necktie

03/15/17 MIT Technology Review — Bolt Threads, co-founded by bioengineering grad David Breslauer (Ph.D.'10), is releasing its first commercially available spider-silk product: a $314 limited-edition necktie, spun from fibers grown in the startup's lab.

Kumar lab sheds new light on cellular stress fiber networks

02/17/17 — New research from Professor Sanjay Kumar's lab, led by bioengineering PhD student Elena Kassianidou, uncovers fundamental design principles of how cells and tissues define and maintain their structure, combining sophisticated micropatterning technologies to engineer cell shape, laser nanosurgery to cut individual stress fibers with light and probe their internal structure, and mathematical modeling.

Heart-on-a-chip

01/26/17 Futurism — Berkeley scientists, led by bioengineering professor Kevin Healy, have developed technology that allows you to grow a model of your organs on a microchip.

Berkeley Lab scientists use a nano-Auger electron spectroscopy instrument to measure the content of materials.

For this metal, electricity flows, but not the heat

01/26/17 Berkeley Lab — A study led by MSE professor and Berkeley Lab physicist Junqiao Wu finds that electrons in vanadium dioxide can conduct electricity without conducting heat - a law-breaking property that could lead to applications in thermoelectrics and window coatings.

simulation of ion channels in atomic detail

Head-Gordon leads Berkeley partnership to improve scientific software

08/04/16 — A nine-university partnership headed by Virginia Tech has launched the Molecular Sciences Software Institute, an NSF-funded program to improve software for the molecular sciences. Bioengineering's Teresa Head-Gordon is the institute's lead scientist at UC Berkeley.

Sprinkling of neural dust opens door to electroceuticals

08/04/16 — Tiny, implantable wireless sensors have been developed by a team led by EECS professors Michel Maharbiz and Jose Carmena. The dust-sized prototypes could stimulate and monitor internal nerves, muscles and organs, as well as introduce the possibility of "electroceuticals" to be used in a wide variety of treatments.

Cool composites

05/01/16 — The metallic alloy CrMnFeCoNi is being researched to study the mechanisms that make it one of the toughest at any temperature. The future applications to understanding how it works? Cryogenics and the potential to design even stronger reinforcing metallic materials.

Ana Claudia Arias in the lab with a student

Super small science

01/26/16 NSF/NBC — You may have nanotechnology in your pocket and not even know it. In a video feature on nanotechnology's everyday impacts, EECS associate professor Ana Claudia Arias talks about her work with flexible sensors.

Schematic of a laser beam energizing a monolayer semiconductor

Coming to a monitor near you: a defect-free, molecule-thick film

11/30/15 — A team of research engineers at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, led by EECS professor Ali Javey, has discovered a simple way to fix defects in atomically thin monolayer semiconductors using an organic superacid, opening the door to transparent LED displays, nanoscale transistors and more.

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.

Peidong Yang receives MacArthur ‘genius award’

09/29/15 — Peidong Yang, a UC Berkeley chemist and materials scientist who is trying to capture carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into a sustainable transportation fuel, has been named a MacArthur Fellow.

Self-sweeping laser could dramatically shrink 3-D mapping systems

09/03/15 — A new approach that uses light to move mirrors could usher in a new generation of laser technology for a wide range of applications, including remote sensing, self-driving car navigation and 3-D biomedical imaging. The engineering team was led by EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain.

The graphene switch

05/01/15 — New research holds promise for controlling graphene's properties, potentially opening new applications for its use.

New chameleon-like material

03/12/15 — Berkeley engineers led by EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain have created an ultra-thin film that can shift colors as easily as a chameleon's skin when pulled or twisted.

Optical antenna enables LEDs to rival lasers

02/04/15 Berkeley Lab — A Berkeley Lab team, led by EECS professor Eli Yablonovitch, has used an external optical antenna to greatly enhance the spontaneous emission of light from a semiconductor nanorod. This advance opens the door to LEDs that can replace lasers for short-range optical communications.

Great optics

11/01/14 — EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, named associate dean for strategic alliances in July, has introduced a robust toolkit of nano-optoelectronic circuit elements.

Schematic of a PT symmetry microring laser cavity

Lord of the microrings

10/31/14 Berkeley Lab — In a significant breakthrough in laser technology, scientists led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have developed a unique microring laser cavity that can produce single-mode lasing even from a conventional multi-mode laser cavity.

UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University launch research and graduate education partnership

09/06/14 — UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University have signed an agreement to establish a joint institute in the city of Shenzhen in South China to promote research collaboration and graduate student education. First areas of focus for the institute will be nanotechnology and nanomedicine, low-carbon and new energy technologies, and data science and next-generation Internet.

Nanolasers on silicon to provide faster data transmission

07/14/14 LiveScience — New technology in development at Berkeley Engineering promises to ensure that fiber optic networks will be able to keep pace with consumer demand for speed and seamless data flow. The work, led by EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, involves growing lasers (called nanoneedles) on silicon , the base layer of choice for electronic devices.