News

Sebastian Palluk and Daniel Arlow in a lab at the Joint BioEnergy Institute

New technique could speed synthesis of DNA

06/18/18 — A team of scientists in chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Jay Keasling's lab has made a breakthrough in the synthesis of new genes, offering promise for cheaper, faster and safer development of medicines.

Alvarez-Cohen to lead academic planning for campus

06/18/18 — Lisa Alvarez-Cohen, the Fred and Claire Sauer Professor of Environmental Engineering, has been named as Berkeley's next vice provost for academic planning, effective July 1.

Berkeley engineers develop origami electronics using cheap, foldable paper

06/18/18 — Berkeley engineers have developed a new way to fabricate working electronics onto plain paper, opening the doors to new sensors, supercapacitors and other electronic devices that are cheap and foldable.

Blockchain Fundamentals instructors Gloria Wang and Rustie Lin.

Course will make blockchain so clear ‘you can explain it to your grandma’

06/15/18 — A popular Berkeley DeCal course on blockchain - the complex, bewildering bookkeeping technology that underpins things like bitcoin - will soon be available free online to the public via edX.

Exterior of Skydeck offices in downtown Berkeley

Accelerating Berkeley startups at SkyDeck

06/11/18 TechCrunch — TechCrunch profiles SkyDeck, the UC Berkeley tech incubator that has developed an acceleration program to launch a series of successful startups, including Chirpo, LimeBike and Kiwi.

Mashup of historic photo of college buildings with curent photos of engineering students

Engineering the future (since 1868)

06/08/18 — Looking back over the college's past 150 years, and finding a legacy of innovation and public service that thrives to this day.

Roadway image showing bounding boxes over objects of note, like cars and traffic signals

Download the world’s largest self-driving dataset

06/07/18 Interesting Engineering — The Berkeley DeepDrive Industry Consortium has released an open-source dataset of 100,000 self-driving video sequences - largest of its kind - to the public in hopes of helping engineers develop autonomous vehicles.

Eric Schmidt calls for greater investment in public universities

06/04/18 — In an op-ed published in the Sacramento Bee, Berkeley Engineering alum and former Google exec Eric Schmidt (M.S. '79/Ph.D. '82 EECS) advocates for more government support of public universities, including the University of California. Schmidt, who is a member of the UC Berkeley Board of Visitors, points out that the investment in public universities has paid Californians back many times over.

Farewell

06/02/18 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni

Introducing FEMTech

06/02/18 — FEMTech is Berkeley's first interdisciplinary tech club for women and underrepresented students.

New & noteworthy

06/02/18 — Class notes and other updates about Berkeley Engineering alumni and faculty.

A new phase array radar installation in Midland, Texas

Space mapping

06/02/18 — LeoLabs' radar technology tracks space debris and determines if it is hazardous to satellites or other spacecraft.

Out of the GAIT

06/02/18 — Students in the Fung Fellowship are building digital health technologies to meet the challenges of aging.

Mashup of photo of McLaughlin Hall and the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Building (date unknown) with photos of current students

Then & now

06/02/18 — Over the past 150 years, Berkeley Engineering has created a legacy of innovation and public service.

Universities and the digital transformation of society

06/02/18 — Dean S. Shankar Sastry considers Berkeley's role during this age of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and the Internet of Things.

Solar power windows

06/02/18 — Researchers have created windows that automatically darken to block heat while also generating electricity.

‘Invisible’ displays

06/02/18 — A new development in LED technology may lead to “invisible” or vanishing displays.

Robot’s play

06/02/18 — Robots can manipulate objects they have never encountered before by building on previous play and observations.

Curing diseases with CRISPR

06/01/18 — Berkeley engineers are using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to advance cures for ALS and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Blockchain comes to campus

06/01/18 — Blockchain at Berkeley, a student group, is bringing together those interested in engineering, business and technology law.