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AI & robotics

Huawei puts $1M into AI research partnership with UC Berkeley

10/11/16 TechCrunch — China's Huawei on Tuesday announced a $1 million partnership between its Noah's Ark Laboratory and the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab to perform basic research into machine learning, computer vision and other areas of artificial intelligence.
Jitendra Malik of UC Berkeley and Fei-Fei Li of Stanford

A lesson of Tesla crashes? Computer vision can’t do it all yet

09/21/16 New York Times — EECS department chair Jitendra Malik, a researcher in computer vision for three decades, doesn't own a Tesla, but he has advice for people who do. “Knowing what I know about computer vision,” he said, “I wouldn't take my hands off the steering wheel.”
EECS professor Stuart Russell

Toward human-centric A.I.

09/20/16 — Twenty years ago, Stuart Russell co-wrote a book titled Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, destined to become the dominant text in its field. Near the end of the book, he posed a question: “What if A.I. does succeed?”
Otto self-driving truck on highway test run

Uber Is betting we’ll see driverless 18-wheelers before taxis

09/08/16 MIT Technology Review — With its acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto, Uber is hoping for a shortcut in the race to profit from driverless vehicles. But research engineer Steven Shladover of Berkeley's California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology Program (PATH) sees challenges - real and perceived - in putting 40-ton trucks on the road with only software behind the wheel.
VeHICaL project approach graphic

NSF funds cyber-physical systems research

09/06/16 National Science Foundation — The NSF on Tuesday awarded $4.6 million to VeHICaL (Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems), a project led by by EECS professor Sanjit Seshia that seeks to "impact the way humans collaborate and interact with automation." Researchers include EECS professors Ruzena Bajcsy, Shankar Sastry, Bjoern Hartmann, Claire Tomlin, and Tom Griffiths.
BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, ties a knot after watching others demonstrate it.

Berkeley launches center to align AI systems with human values

08/29/16 — Berkeley artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. The primary focus of the multi-university center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans.
Two two VelociRoACH robots work together to climb a step

Roach-like robots run, climb and communicate with people

06/13/16 National Science Foundation — While the ability of insects to go just about anywhere can be disturbing at times, electrical engineer Ronald Fearing sees their talent as inspiration for a special breed of tiny robots that can travel rough terrain, follow instructions, and work together to save lives in a disaster.
Ken Goldberg and robot surgery

Would you trust a robot surgeon to operate on you?

06/02/16 IEEE Spectrum — The role of surgeons may change dramatically as more and more surgical tasks are automated within the next 10 years, says Ken Goldberg, a roboticist and professor of industrial engineering who recently programmed a da Vinci surgical robot in his lab to conduct surgical incisions.

Dean’s word: The future of intelligence

05/01/16 — Deep Learning technology has made a huge strides recently, advances built on pioneering research at Berkeley starting in the 1980s and carried on by a new generation of roboticists.
suitX exoskeleton

Affordable and lightweight suitX design honored

05/01/16 — The startup company suitX won a Robotics for Good competition this spring for their plan to adapt one of their exoskeleton designs to assist children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida or spinal muscular atrophy.
Rikky Muller

Life with machine: Robot relationships get real

05/01/16 — Three Berkeley professors studying artificial intelligence and robotics are testing how machines and humans come into physical contact, behave independently and interact with one another. The common goal: to create machines with the intelligence to better serve and work with human beings.
Photo illustration of how Lightsense LED array works to identify drones.

Making unmanned flight safe

05/01/16 — Responsible Robotics is creating new technologies that enable drone operators to easily comply with emerging Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

PiE brings robotics to budding young engineers

04/26/16 — Hundreds of Bay Area high school students gathered at the Lawrence Hall of Science over the weekend to pit robots they had built against one another in a competition hosted by Pioneers in Engineering (PiE), a Berkeley student mentorship program.
Robot by a mirror

Robots that act differently when you’re around

04/19/16 The Atlantic — Roboticist Anca Dragan, head of Berkeley's Interactive Autonomy and Collaborative Technologies lab, is working on algorithms that can help robots coexist with people in the real world.
Arduino Day at Jacobs Hall

Arduino Day: Underwater robots, R/C trains and more

04/08/16 Make — Arduino’s founders and fans gathered at Jacobs Hall on April 2 for Arduino Day, a worldwide celebration of the open-source electronics platform that allowed makers and enthusiasts to show off their projects, share ideas and participate in workshops.
Inside a self-driving car

Automakers go back to school for self-driving cars

03/16/16 Bloomberg Business — Automakers Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen, along with electronic companies Nvidia, Samsung, Qualcomm and Panasonic, are collaborating to fund artificial intelligence research at UC Berkeley, hoping this DeepDrive alliance can help them build the brains behind self-driving cars.