Research

Boubacar Kante, superimposed over an illustration of a BICSEL laser

Making lasers more efficient, versatile and compact

12/07/21 — With support from his Bakar Fellowship, EECS associate professor Boubacar Kante is preparing to fabricate a prototype of a new laser with a range of applications from microsurgery to satellite telemetry.

Photo illustration of Michael Yartsev and a flock of bats

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.

Illustration of hourglass, containing plastic transforming into compost

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.

microscope image of "spike-liposome" technique

Could liposomes be the unsung heroes of the pandemic?

11/12/21 — 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 — 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

Illustration of heart tissue in isochoric chamber

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 — 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.

Graduate student Tianshi Wang and Prof. Jaijeet Roychowdhury with their 2019 Bell Labs Prize

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

San Francisco skyline seen through brown haze

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

Five new hires in the Climate Equity and Environmental Justice cluster

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”

Stock photo of light shining through a window revealing smoke

How much wildfire smoke is infiltrating our homes?

09/01/21 — Environmental engineers used crowdsourced data to measure indoor air quality during California’s wildfires.

Frame capture from video about making plastics self-destruct

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

Sather Gate viewed through a flexed piece of transparent monolayer semiconductor material

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