Farid: Online disinfo now targeting COVID-19, Black Lives Matter
06/26/20 Futurism — Digital forensics expert and EECS professor Hany Farid lays out the greatest digital threats facing the country, and how to combat them
Public policy
Can tiny, invisible particles help stop the spread of nuclear weapons?
03/12/20 — Researchers are closer than ever to deploying technology that can help detect the illicit production of plutonium, a key fuel for nuclear bombs
Jack Moehle receives top earthquake engineering award
03/05/20 — The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute bestowed Moehle, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, with the George W. Housner Medal
Environmental engineering students win $25K grant from the EPA
02/20/20 — The team, supervised by Professor Ashok Gadgil, will use the money to develop ways to remove arsenic from drinking water in California.
French ambassador says global institutions needed to confront technology challenges
01/16/20 — Philippe Étienne said the quickening pace of technological change requires nations to immediately build “shared governance” of the internet through both existing and perhaps new global institutions.
Berkeley receives grant to grow public interest technology
10/07/19 — UC Berkeley received a $180,000 grant from the Public Interest Technology University Network to develop an innovative curriculum that encourages students to work across disciplines and understand the ethical, political and societal implications of technology.
Can cellphones help cities be more energy efficient?
09/23/19 — Berkeley Engineering, Berkeley Lab and MIT researchers have created a new tool that uses cellphone data to estimate building occupancy rates in urban areas, with the aim of optimizing energy use at a citywide scale - and helping to mitigate climate change.
Waze hijacked L.A. in the name of convenience. Can anyone put the genie back in the bottle?
08/21/19 Los Angeles Magazine — Traffic apps, like Waze, turned L.A. neighborhoods into "shortcuts." Los Angeles Magazine recently spoke to UC Berkeley's Alex Bayen and Susan Shaeen about how we got here and whether this trend can be reversed.
Government-funded research increasingly fuels innovation
06/20/19 — New research shows that cuts in federal funding for science might endanger the innovation that increasingly fuels the modern economy.
How can companies like Airbnb, Lyft or Uber help in disasters?
06/19/19 — Berkeley Engineering researchers suggest that emergency management agencies and local relief organizations should leverage Airbnb, Lyft, Uber and private citizens to ensure equity in emergency evacuations.
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 links up with Facebook, but wants to see tech giant’s accountability
05/17/19 — Stung by bad press and government investigations, Facebook is investing $7.5 million in a partnership with three universities - UC Berkeley, Cornell and Maryland - to develop new methods to improve detection of fake content, fake news and misinformation campaigns. At Berkeley, the work will be led by EECS professors Hany Farid and Alexei Efros.
The science of war games
05/01/19 — Researchers have built an online, multi-player video game to explore how nuclear weapons influence decision making in a conflict.
Berkeley research makes lead pipes safe
04/03/19 American Chemical Society — UC Berkeley researchers develop a rapid, cost-effective method to make lead pipes safe.
Activism 2.0: Coding against sex trafficking
01/30/19 — UC Berkeley's ongoing video series on the intersection of social activism and technology profiles recent CS doctoral graduate Rebecca Sorla Portnoff, who uses her computer security know-how to help catch sex traffickers.
Can the world change course on climate change?
10/15/18 — In an episode of the Knowledge@Wharton podcast, Berkeley professor of energy Daniel Kammen and Wharton's Brian Berkey discusses a new United Nations report warning that severe impacts of global warming are likely to occur by 2040.
Green energy is gold for California, U.S.
08/22/18 San Francisco Chronicle — In an op-ed column, energy researcher Dan Kammen writes about why he believes California should - and ultimately will - pass into law the “bold goal” of 100 percent clean, zero-carbon electricity by 2045.
Fighting human trafficking
06/01/18 — Algorithms can link online sex ads to bitcoin transactions, identifying human traffickers.
When geneticists talk sloppily about race
04/30/18 The Atlantic — Bioengineering professor Ian Holmes writes about how a geneticist's recent op-ed in The New York Times caused controversy when it used sloppy language to talk about the tricky relationship between race and genetics research.
Scarred by attack, student entrepreneurs fight global terror
04/30/18 — In the wake of the 2016 terrorist attack in Nice, France, that claimed the life of a classmate, Berkeley students in the European Innovation Academy technology entrepreneurship program have embarked on a new mission - fighting global terrorism through startups that are gaining traction far beyond campus.