Research

Better breast cancer screening

11/14/18 — Using microfluidic technology, researchers can distinguish cells that are central to breast cancer development.

Calorie burner

11/14/18 — Scientists found the specific biochemical pathway that activates brown fat and causes the body to burn more calories.

Burned stump at the Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite National Park.

Fire & water

11/14/18 — Restoring natural fire regimes to California's mountains could be a win-win-win: more water, improved biodiversity and a reduced risk of catastrophic fires.

Assembling an ionocraft microrobot under a microscope

Microrobots fly, walk and jump into the future

11/14/18 — Researchers led by Kris Pister are overcoming significant technical hurdles to push the boundaries of robotic miniaturization.

Blood-oxygen sensor made of an alternating array of printed light-emitting diodes and photodetectors

Skinlike sensor maps blood-oxygen levels anywhere in the body

11/07/18 — A new flexible sensor developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can map blood-oxygen levels over large areas of skin, tissue and organs, potentially giving doctors a new way to monitor healing wounds in real time.

Berkeley computer theorists show path to verifying quantum supremacy

10/30/18 — Berkeley computer theorists have shown that there is merit behind a method of verifying quantum supremacy, a term that describes a quantum computer's ability to solve a problem that is prohibitively difficult for any classical algorithm.

Turning cars into robot traffic managers

10/29/18 — Berkeley transportation researchers are addressing the emerging era of smart vehicles with a project that uses machine learning to manage traffic where autonomous, semi-autonomous and manned vehicles share the road. They presented their project, called Flow, at the Conference on Robotic Learning.

Berkeley researchers to help develop trustworthy machine learning systems

10/24/18 — Berkeley engineers, led by computer sciences professor Dawn Song, are part of the new Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning funded by the National Science Foundation. The NSF center, led by Pennsylvania State University and announced today, will focus on developing secure systems in the era of machine learning models. The center will receive $10 million over five years.

Berkeley ingenuity keeps lithium-ion batteries at temps even Goldilocks would love

10/22/18 — Berkeley engineers have come up with a clever and inexpensive solution to automatically regulate the temperature of lithium-ion batteries. Their technology could expand the practical use of electric vehicles and consumer electronics in more extreme temperatures.

human stem cell-derived cardiac microtissue grown on a fiber-based scaffold

Can common heart condition cause sudden death?

09/28/18 Gladstone Institutes — Kevin Healy's bioengineering lab combined their tissue engineering with the Gladstone Institute's genome editing techniques to create a “diseased heart micro-tissue” model. The new tool will help explore how common environmental stress affects normal and abnormal heart tissue.

Diamond dust boosts magnetic field detection

09/10/18 — Berkeley engineers have created a device that dramatically reduces the energy needed to power magnetic field detectors, which could revolutionize how we measure the magnetic fields that flow through our electronics, our planet and even our bodies.

Aerial view of cleanup project at Savannah River Site

Algorithm provides early warning system for groundwater contamination

08/30/18 Berkeley Lab — National laboratory researchers led by Berkeley Lab's Haruko Wainwright, a new associate adjunct professor of nuclear engineering at UC Berkeley, have developed a low-cost method for real-time monitoring of groundwater pollutants using commonly available sensors.

AI-altered video makes it look like you can dance

08/27/18 Engadget — Experimenting with deep learning systems, a team of Berkeley computer science researchers is using artificial intelligence to make dancers look more skillful. The project uses algorithms to pass dance moves via video from a skilled dancer to a virtual skeleton to an amateur subject.

UC Berkeley to co-lead DOE center to study corrosion in nuclear reactors

08/06/18 — Berkeley engineers are co-leading a new DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center to study how extreme conditions such as radiation exposure and corrosion affect nuclear reactor materials. The new center, led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is called the Fundamental Understanding of Transport Under Reactor Extremes, or FUTURE.