Homecoming

Please join us at Reunion and Parents Weekend at Homecoming (October 1-3, 2021) to celebrate the Cal community, connections and culture. This year, lectures will be virtual, while many other events will be held in person. You can visit the Homecoming website to learn more about the weekend’s activities, or read below about Berkeley Engineering’s Homecoming events.

Visit the central homecoming weekend website to register and view the campuswide schedule of events.

Friday, October 1

A Conversation with the Chancellor
2:10 – 3 p.m.| Hertz Hall

Join Chancellor Christ live for a campus update as well as a conversation with Professor Amy E. Herr on the unique ways that Berkeley supports innovation and leadership. UC Berkeley researchers are rising to meet the monumental challenges facing humanity. And as a powerhouse in entrepreneurship (Forbes No. 2 Start-Up University, 2020), Berkeley is uniquely poised to quickly turn even the most complex deep-science discoveries into solutions. Learn more about Berkeley’s boldest and most recent effort to boost researchers in this entrepreneurial undertaking: the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub.

Carol Christ
Chancellor

Carol T. Christ began her term as Berkeley’s 11th chancellor in 2017. A celebrated scholar of Victorian literature, she is also known as an advocate for high-caliber, accessible public higher education and a champion of women’s issues and diversity on college campuses. Christ spent more than three decades as a professor and administrator at Berkeley before serving as president of Smith College. At Cal, she works to foster community, improve the campus climate for people of all backgrounds, celebrate the institution’s long-standing commitment to free speech, strengthen Berkeley’s financial position, address a housing shortage, and develop a ten-year strategic plan for the campus.

Amy Herr
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor, Bioengineering; Executive Director, Bakar BioEnginuity Hub

Professor Amy E. Herr’s research group aims to create tiny “stethoscopes for cells” to measure disease biomarkers in individual human cells. She manages the interdisciplinary research group’s work on designing these microanalytical tools and applying the tools in close collaboration with physicians. Through both knowledge and clinical translation, Herr seeks to advance engineering to benefit humanity. Complementing her academic research is a third prong of translation: entrepreneurship. By leading the pioneering Bakar Fellows program and the new Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, Professor Herr aims to accelerate translation of discoveries by UC Berkeley’s faculty and scholars.

Saturday, October 2

Engineering Homecoming Kickoff!
9:10 – 10 a.m. | McLaughlin Hall Plaza

Engineering alumni, students, parents and friends are invited to join us for refreshments and informal conversation with our college deans, faculty and fellow members of the Berkeley Engineering community. Create your own homecoming souvenir at the Berkeley Engineering photo booth. We hope to see you there!

Moving the Needle: Berkeley Engineers in Service to Society
10:10 – 11 a.m. | Virtual via Zoom

Join us for a lively conversation between Dean Liu and three outstanding faculty members! From climate change to public health to artificial intelligence and so much more, Berkeley Engineering faculty are moving the needle to advance and improve the public good. This panel discussion will introduce you to three of them, and the research they’re doing will make you feel encouraged and hopeful about the state of our world.

Speakers

Dean Tsu-Jae King Liu will moderate this event. Dean Liu is internationally recognized in academia and industry for her innovations in semiconductor devices and technology, and is highly regarded for her achievements as an instructor, mentor and administrator. Dean Liu is the Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

Professor Ashok Gadgil and his collaborator, Vi Rapp, will discuss their work to develop a device that offers warmth to newborn infants, helping to prevent infant hypothermia. Gadgil holds the Andrew and Virginia Rudd Family Foundation Chair and is a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering with expertise in safe water and sanitation. He is also a senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where Rapp (Ph.D. ’11 ME) is an environmental technologies research scientist.

Professor Ting Xu will talk about how her lab has invented a way to make compostable plastics break down more easily with just heat and water, within a few weeks, solving a problem that has flummoxed the plastics industry and environmentalists. Xu is a professor of Materials Science and Engineering and an affiliate with the Kavli Energy Nanoscience institute.

Assistant Professor Rediet Abebe will discuss the design of algorithms for social good. Her research seeks to improve societal welfare, such as income shocks faced by poorer families due to a layoff or missed paycheck. Abebe is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a faculty researcher at the BAIR Lab, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and CITRIS. She co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit on a mission to diversify the AI profession.

Establishing and Maintaining a Black Presence and Voice in STEM
11:10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room B100, Blum Hall West

The Black Engineering and Science Alumni Club (BESAC) presents their third-annual Homecoming panel: “Representation: Establishing and Maintaining a Black Presence and Voice in STEM.” Panelists from academia and industry will discuss the importance of representation in their fields, advocating for equitable and inclusive applications of technology, distribution of resources, and opportunities for career advancement.
Hosted by Black Engineering and Science Alumni Club

Jacobs Open House
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. | Jacobs Hall, First Floor

Join the Jacobs staff and student leadership for an open house celebrating UC Berkeley’s Reunion and Parents Weekend at Homecoming! This is a great way to celebrate our return to campus and to learn more about the academic programming, design education, and opportunities available at Jacobs Hall. Stop by for one of our half-hour Makerspace tours at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., laser-cut your own name tag at a demo with our student supervisors, talk with student club leaders, and pop upstairs to learn more about our newly launched Master of Design program. For more information, visit the Jacobs Institute.
Hosted by Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation