Students

Building an LGBT community for STEM majors

04/02/13 — Despite the demands of schoolwork, mechanical engineering senior Paul Zarate has not only joined different student groups every year of his college career, but this past year he started his own. In 2011, Zarate founded the Berkeley chapter of Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM), a national organization dedicated to the professional development of LGBT students in STEM majors.

Decisions, decisions

11/05/12 — It has been a busy year for the developers of the new web app, Politify. It was only October of 2011 when Nikita Bier, then a political economy and business major, approached Jeremy Blalock, a second-year EECS student, to collaborate on an easy-to-use app to analyze public policy. They developed a non-partisan tool that enables voters to evaluate the costs and benefits of each presidential candidate's promised policies.

Dean’s word: Innovation by design

11/02/12 — Step into room 122 of Hesse Hall on a weekday afternoon, and you're likely to see more than 100 freshmen building-and then bending, melting and even breaking-their own product prototypes.

Fabricating the ApoCALypse

11/01/12 — CEE Steel Bridge team competed against 600 students from 47 engineering schools in May 2012 to win the national title.

Olympic-caliber engineer

11/01/12 — Olympic rower and mechanical engineering student Olivier Siegelaar relates his experiences as an Olympian and student-athlete.

Q+A on revolutionizing online education

11/01/12 — Computer science professor Armando Fox discusses Berkeley's partnership with the online education program edX.

Piggyback ride

11/01/12 — Berkeley Engineering students helped create CINEMA (CubeSat for Ions, Neutrals, Electrons and MAgnetic fields), a low-cost nanosatellite designed to piggyback aboard other NASA missions.

Picture-perfect translation

11/01/12 — EECS grad Chun Ming Chin and his team at Translate Abroad have created a mobile app that makes translating Chinese characters as simple as taking a photo.

MasterCard Foundation brings African students to Berkeley

09/26/12 — Civil engineering undergrad Lilian Kabelle is one of seven new students from Sub-Saharan Africa attending Berkeley this fall at no cost as part of The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. The $500-million initiative will provide some 15,000 talented yet financially disadvantaged young people in developing countries with full scholarships and comprehensive support for their high school and college educations.

Cal Energy Corps working worldwide on smart solutions

09/24/12 — Launched in 2011, the Cal Energy Corps provides undergraduates with practical research and experiential-learning opportunities through internships with partner organizations across the academic, corporate and nonprofit sectors. Modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps, the program aims to engage Berkeley students tackling alternative energy, climate change and sustainability issues around the world. This summer, 13 of the 32 Cal Energy Corps interns were Berkeley Engineers

2013 Siebel Scholars announced

09/10/12 Siebel Foundation — Nine Berkeley Engineering graduate students have been named 2013 Siebel Scholars. This year's cohort of 85 graduate students in the nation's leading business, bioengineering and computer science programs join a group of almost 800 in the program, which fosters leadership and academic achievement. Honorees receive $35,000 to complete their final year of study. Congratulations to this year's winners: In Bioengineering: Lukasz Jan Bugaj, Laura Rose Croft, Timothy Lamont Downing, Alex James Hughes and Debkishore Mitra; and in EECS: Yunlong Li, Antonio Lupher, Brandon Wang and Wei Wu.

Introducing Berkeley Engineer

06/26/12 — In mailboxes and in kiosks around campus, the college's venerable Forefront magazine, first published in 1970, is now Berkeley Engineer. The new name change, in the works for a year, better defines our sense of place and purpose and celebrates the human values that are at the core of our work.

UC Berkeley announces 2012 Bergeron Scholars

06/12/12 Wall Street Journal Market Watch — UC Berkeley has announced the 2012 Bergeron Scholars. This year's Scholars are the first women to benefit from the program funded by Sandra and Douglas Bergeron in Fall 2011. The Berkeley Bergeron Scholars Program provides scholarships, program support and mentorships to five undergraduate women each year pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Berkeley Engineering student chosen to carry Olympic torch through England

06/10/12 Inside Bay Area — Kylan Nieh, a UC Berkeley student from Fremont, is among 22 "inspiring Americans" chosen by Coca-Cola to carry the Olympic torch next month in Oxford, England. Nieh, an accomplished gymnast who once competed in the Junior Olympics, is now working toward degrees in computer science and business administration. He teaches a leadership and public speaking course at the Haas School of Business and is president of Nestle-sponsored Very Best in Youth Foundation, a program that spotlights teens who have affected other people's lives profoundly.

UC Berkeley Steel Bridge Team takes first place at Nationals

05/31/12 — The CEE Steel Bridge team and their entry, ApoCALypse, took first overall at the 2012 ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition held at Clemson University, South Carolina over the Memorial Day weekend. "We held our breath when they announced third place (Cal Poly), and when MIT got second, we started cheering like crazy--for them--and for us, because we knew we were first," said Sabrina Odah, bridge project manager.

Hats off to 2012 graduates

05/17/12 — The world is now wealthier by well over 1,300 newly minted Berkeley Engineers–a proud moment we celebrated on Saturday, May 12 with the college's 143rd commencement exercises in the Greek Theatre. In the morning, we saluted our master's and doctoral candidates, including the first cohort to graduate from the college's new professional master of engineering program. Commencement speaker Thomas Siebel, chairman of First Virtual Group, reminded graduates that “luck, they say, is where preparation meets opportunity. Be ready. Luck happens.” In our baccalaureate ceremony that afternoon, Marvell co-founder Weili Dai (B.S'84 CS) encouraged the graduates with her own story. Watch a slideshow of the festive events.

Texas Instruments gives $2.2 million to re-energize introductory electronics courses at UC Berkeley

05/10/12 Texas Instruments — Texas Instruments Incorporated has announced a $2.2 million gift to support engineering education at UC Berkeley. The university will use the gift to transform its traditional introductory Electronic Design Laboratory into a dynamic learning environment for undergraduate students. "This is a unique opportunity to introduce a new generation of engineering students to the fun of building things that matter," said Professor Costas Spanos. "We will do this by infusing the 'maker' ethic early into the learning cycle, and by creating a place that brings together state-of-the-art instructional labs, a student meeting place and student-run space for hardware hacking."