News

The robot in the cloud

10/27/14 New York Times — In a conversation with the New York Times' Bits blog, Berkeley Engineering professor, roboticist and new media pioneer Ken Goldberg discusses what he thinks will be one of the great technology breakthroughs of our age: the fusing of robotics and cloud computing.

Growing ferroelectric materials in a herringbone pattern

Researchers find faster path for ferroelectrics

10/26/14 — Ferroelectric materials – commonly used in transit cards, gas grill igniters, video game memory and more – could become strong candidates for use in next-generation computers, thanks to new research led by Berkeley Engineering scientists and their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.

Schematic of an electrochemical cell, with a gold electrode and water electrolyte

Study reveals molecular structure of water at gold electrodes

10/24/14 Berkeley Lab — In a research first, a team led by Miquel Salmeron, Berkeley Lab senior scientist and MSE professor, has observed the molecular structure of liquid water at a gold surface under different charging conditions.

Autonomous surgical robot cutting circle out of gauze

New research center aims to develop second generation of surgical robots

10/24/14 New York Times — With funding from the National Science Foundation and two private donors, Berkeley Engineering scientists will establish a research center intended to help develop medical robots that can perform low-level and repetitive surgical tasks.

Nuclear Engineering’s Slaybaugh to receive ANS Young Members Excellence Award

10/24/14 — Rachel Slaybaugh, assistant professor of nuclear engineering, will be awarded the American Nuclear Society's 2014 Young Members Excellence Award for her exemplary leadership in and contributions to the field of nuclear engineering.

prototype robot developed by engineers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Scientists consider repurposing robots for Ebola

10/23/14 New York Times — Robotics scientists, pondering the intriguing possibility of repurposing existing search-and-rescue robots to help contain the Ebola epidemic, are planning a nationwide series of brainstorming meetings, including one Nov. 7 at UC Berkeley.

Waller honored with Packard Fellowship

10/20/14 Packard Foundation — The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named Laura Waller, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, as a recipient of the 2014 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The Fellowship was awarded to 18 innovative early-career scientists. Waller will receive a grand of $875,000 over five years to pursue her research.

American Physical Society honors Gadgil

10/14/14 Berkeley Lab — The American Physical Society has given its 2015 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award to Ashok Gadgil, professor of civil and environmental engineering, "for applying physics to a variety of social problems and developing sustainable energy, environmental and public health technologies."

New biomaterial has some nerve

10/14/14 — Berkeley bioengineers have taken proteins from nerve cells and used them to create a “smart” material that is extremely sensitive to its environment. This marriage of materials science and biology could give birth to a flexible, sensitive coating that is easy and cheap to manufacture in large quantities.

More Bay Bridge woes may validate concerns of span’s #1 critic

10/10/14 California magazine — Civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, one of the earliest and most vocal critics of the new Bay Bridge design, has been portrayed as a Cassandra, but these days he merely seems prescient.

The Demilune walker team with their prototype

Devices: Ninja walker

10/07/14 — One team in Professor Amy Herr's senior capstone bioengineering course came up with an elegant solution to improve on walkers for the elderly and infirm that don't fit into tight spaces: the Ninja Walker.

Engineering improvements for the world

10/06/14 Washington Post — A new generation of development engineers, “dedicated to using engineering and technology to improve the lot of the world's poorest people,” is emerging around the world, write Dean Shankar Sastry and Lina Nilsson, innovation director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies, in a Washington Post op-ed article.

Our cities’ water systems are becoming obsolete. What will replace them?

10/06/14 Vox — In an extensive interview with Vox, civil engineering professor David Sedlak, co-director of the Berkeley Water Center, discusses the challenges facing urban water systems, which evolved in response to three major crises but are now facing a fourth.

Waller, others gain funding for interdisciplinary big-data research

10/02/14 — EECS assistant professor Laura Waller, who hopes to use new computational tricks to turn simple microscopes into cutting-edge imaging machines, is one of 14 researchers who will receive $1.5 million over the next five years as part of the the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Data-Driven Discovery Initiative.

Cellphone photographers in Cairo during the Arab Spring

Cybertools offer new channels for free speech, but grassroots organizing still critical

10/02/14 — Scholars from CITRIS, the Blum Center and EECS assess the ways the Internet and online tools have changed how social movements operate and communicate in the 50 years since the Free Speech Movement.

Mechanical engineering’s bright future

09/29/14 CBS SF Bay Area — Mechanical engineering chair David Dornfeld is interviewed by San Francisco’s CBS affiliate station about the state of the field and industry.

Spanish version of the California Report Card

09/24/14 — On National Voter Registration Day, CITRIS launched a new Spanish version of their California Report Card to introduce Spanish-speaking Californians, 30 percent of the state's population, to this high-tech civic engagement tool developed by Berkeley engineering faculty.

Lydia Sohn’s cellular research gains White House notice

09/22/14 Office of Science and Technology Policy — A post to the White House blog last week recognized mechanical engineering professor Lydia Sohn for her prize-winning submission to a foundation-sponsored competition seeking the most compelling ideas for revolutionary life science platform technologies. Sohn's idea? A low-cost, label-free platform to screen, and subsequently sort, single-cells for multiple surface markers.

PEER issues preliminary report on Napa quake

09/22/14 Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center — PEER has published a preliminary report on the Aug. 24 South Napa earthquake, drawing on the extensive observations of faculty, staff and students who were deployed to the region in the days following the magnitude 6.0 quake.

What could collapse the Golden Gate Bridge?

09/19/14 KALW — At the movies, the Golden Gate Bridge has been leveled by earthquakes, apes, even a mega-shark. But how would the iconic span fare in more realistic disaster scenarios? Civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl helps KALW radio figure it out.