AI & robotics

An illustration shows a ring of small purple particles, representing disease proteins, sitting on a surface. The ring is partially covered by a droplet of liquid containing enlarged cartoons of plasmonic particles.

From COVID to cancer, new at-home test spots disease with startling accuracy

07/08/25 — Novel technology uses the ‘coffee-ring effect,’ paired with plasmonics and AI, for rapid diagnostics

Berkeley engineers develop customizable, 3D-printed robot for tech newbies

06/25/25 — The open-source Berkeley Humanoid Lite provides an entry point into the robotics field

rendering of a blue dna helix with color blocks behind it

Cracking the code of life

06/17/25 — The Evo 2 machine learning model enlists the power of AI in the fight against diseases.

From silence to sound

06/11/25 — An AI-based method can synthesize signals from brain-computer interfaces into audible speech in near-real time.

Close-up of a 1cm wide drone with an inset picture of a researcher holding the drone on his fingertip

Insect-sized innovation

06/11/25 — Engineers have unveiled the world’s smallest wireless flying robot.

Drew McPherson and Hannah Stuart demonstrate the newest version of the Dorsal Grasper in the Embodied Dexterity Group’s lab at UC Berkeley.

Q+A on assistive devices

06/11/25 — The Dorsal Grasper enables grasping with supernumerary robotic fingers on the back of the user's hand.

Smarter searches

06/11/25 — Alum Aravind Srinivas is the co-founder of Perplexity, an AI-driven search engine that only provides results it can reference.

Anastasios Angelopoulos (L) and Wei-Lin Chiang, founders of Chatbot Arena.

Berkeley engineers’ crowd-sourced AI ranking system rises to the top

05/07/25 — Chatbot Arena, which allows users to rank and compare AI models, has quickly grown to 1 million monthly users

Podcast: ‘Locked in’ stroke survivor hears her voice again with help from AI

04/28/25 — Researchers describe using a brain-computer interface to restore Ann Johnson’s ability to speak

Ashmita Kumar, UC Berkeley M.E.T. student.

Ashmita Kumar’s startup aims to detect signs of stroke and save lives

03/31/25 — Using AI and an iPhone, Berkeley EECS student seeks to improve stroke health care

Closeup of gloved hands connecting a brain-computer-interface to the back of research participant

Brain-to-voice neuroprosthesis restores naturalistic speech

03/31/25 — AI-based model streams intelligible speech from the brain in real time

Macro shot of white insect-sized drone held in fingertips of a UC Berkeley researcher.

Berkeley engineers create world’s smallest wireless flying robot

03/28/25 — The bumblebee-inspired robot, less than a centimeter in diameter, can hover, change directions and even hit small targets.

Collage mage of squirrels jumping, landing and balancing on a narrow branch, and a robot in midair attempting the same feat.

No robot can match a squirrel’s ability to leap from limb to limb — until now

03/19/25 — UC Berkeley engineers and biologists design a robot that can stick a landing on a branch

Aravind Srinivas (Ph.D.’21 CS), co-founder and CEO of Perplexity.

Berkeley alum wants to ‘make the planet smarter’

03/10/25 — Aravind Srinivas, co-founder of Perplexity, seeks to create a better AI chatbot

Illustration of proteins as colorful, ribbon-like structures.

Breakthrough method enables rapid discovery of new useful proteins

02/28/25 — IGI: UC Berkeley engineers help develop computational approach to quickly search massive datasets and prioritize proteins to study

Mark Liu, former executive chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), speaking at a podium. To ensure American technology competitiveness in the long term, Liu is establishing the Technology Competitiveness and Industrial Policy Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

New UC Berkeley center to address American competitiveness in advanced technology

02/24/25 — TCIP: The academic center will engage experts in technology, economics and policy from across academia, industry and non-profit organizations

New AI breakthrough can model and design genetic code across all domains of life

02/19/25 — Evo 2, the largest AI model in biology to date, can accurately predict the effects of all types of genetic mutations

The Dorsal Grasper assistive device, developed by UC Berkeley engineers, facilitates human-robot collaborative grasping. Its supernumerary robotic fingers on the back of the hand are grasping a tennis ball.

New assistive device enhances grasping for people with spinal cord injuries

02/10/25 — Dorsal Grasper provides an intuitive, collaborative grasping approach

EECS professor Sergey Levine poses for a portrait in his lab at Berkeley Way West in Berkeley, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.

UC Berkeley researchers in Sergey Levine’s lab devise a fast, precise way to teach robots complicated tasks

01/29/25 — Using AI, these robots learn skills with startling accuracy

Civil and environmental engineering professor Scott Moura demonstrates SlrpEV, a research project developing next-generation intelligent EV charging stations, at UC Berkeley

Batteries, buildings and beyond: Scott Moura combats climate change at scale

01/29/25 — CITRIS: Associate professor of CEE uses modeling and machine learning to optimize systems, develop energy-efficient infrastructure