Right off the bats
11/15/21 — Researchers at the NeuroBat Lab are learning more about the brain by studying the world’s only flying mammal.
Research
Back down to earth
11/15/21 — Materials science professor Ting Xu is re-engineering plastics for the age of sustainability.
Put to the test
11/15/21 — A method that uses a common machine learning algorithm can help detect cancer from a simple blood test, well before the first symptoms are present.
Leaps and bounds
11/15/21 — The extraordinary agility of squirrels is tied to the many split-second decisions they make while leaping across tree canopies.
Could liposomes be the unsung heroes of the pandemic?
11/12/21 — Berkeley News: Berkeley engineers attached SARS-CoV-2 “spike” proteins to the surface of liposomes, creating lab-made mimics of the deadly virus as part of a process to enable efficient testing of antibody therapies.
Bat study reveals secrets of the social brain
10/21/21 — Berkeley News: Research led by bioengineer Michael Yartsev provides the first glimpse into how the brains of social mammals process complex group interactions
Can bats help us design a better driverless car?
10/05/21 — Bakar Fellows: Bioengineer Michael Yartsev is translating bats’ neurological "rules of the road" into computational algorithms to guide development of navigation systems for driverless cars
Cold-hearted science: Supercooling technique advances preservation of human tissue
09/22/21 — Berkeley researchers revive human heart tissue that had been supercooled at subfreezing temperatures for days, showing promise of technique that could be a game-changer for organ transplants and medical research.
Lessons from Hurricane Ida
09/21/21 Berkeley News — Adda Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, associate professor of civil engineering and co-leader of an NSF-funded geotechnical reconnaissance team that traveled to Louisiana, shares her observations about the impact of Hurricane Ida
NSF awards $12.75M to renew natural hazards simulation center
09/20/21 — The four-year grant to the SimCenter supports research to understand and quantify the effects of natural hazards on buildings, lifelines and communities.
Engineers pursue novel way to tackle some of today’s hardest computations
09/07/21 — Bakar Fellows: Graduate student Tianshi Wang and EECS professor Jaijeet Roychowdhury invented a novel type of computer that rapidly and efficiently solves combinatorial optimization problems
New study shows how air pollution varies block by block
09/07/21 — Researchers used Google Street View cars to show that levels of air pollution vary not only by region, such as between urban and rural areas, but also by city street
With a damp TV, Berkeley engineers demonstrate the potential of a green energy harvester
09/06/21 — Researchers report that moisture-induced energy harvesting could be a potential new source of power, particularly in areas of naturally high humidity
New faculty cluster to focus on climate change, environmental justice
09/02/21 — CNR: Five assistant professors, including civil and environmental engineering's Maya Carrasquillo, will bring their disparate perspectives to research on battling the “climate gap”
How much wildfire smoke is infiltrating our homes?
09/01/21 — Berkeley News: Environmental engineers used crowdsourced data to measure indoor air quality during California’s wildfires.
How to make plastic truly biodegradable
08/31/21 — Professor Ting Xu and her students have come up with a solution for the global problem of single-use plastics: embed enzymes so that the unwanted plastic can self-destruct with a little heat and water
Microbatteries that make sense
08/31/21 — Bakar Fellows: EECS professor Kristofer Pister's research shows how embedding batteries on a chip could enable wearable sensors
LED material shines under strain
08/26/21 — Berkeley Lab: EECS professor Ali Javey's team has devised a simple tactic to increase the efficiency and brightness of LED devices
A driving force behind mixed-autonomy traffic
08/26/21 — Amazon Science: Alexandre Bayen's research, combining machine learning with big data, looks at how coordinated automation could improve traffic flow, boost efficiency and slash emissions
Using machine learning to detect early-stage cancers
08/16/21 — Berkeley researchers develop algorithm for method that identifies cancer from blood tests, well before first symptoms are present.