News

Waymo CEO John Krafcik with one of the company

California clears the way for testing driverless cars, but concerns remain

11/14/17 LA Times — Steve Shladover, a research engineer with Berkeley's Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology, is worried that attempts to expand federal authority over autonomous vehicle operations may usurp state efforts to bolster safety standards.

A cellphone-based microscope for treating river blindness

11/10/17 — A smartphone-based microscope technology developed by Berkeley bioengineers has been used to help treat river blindness, a debilitating disease caused by parasitic worms.

Students learn to ‘think like a hacker’

11/09/17 EdScoop — Through a partnership with HackerOne's bug bounty platform, students in EECS professor Doug Tygar's computer science class are gaining real-world experience in cybersecurity and ethical hacking - with the potential for real-world payoffs.

Byron Zhang with some of the Watsi team during a visit to a medical partner in Tanzania.

Coding better healthcare

11/07/17 — Byron Zhang (B.S'15 EECS) is using computer science to make health care more accessible in developing economies.

Berkeley startup to train robots like puppets

11/07/17 — Robots today must be laboriously programmed by writing computer code, but imagine donning a VR headset and virtually guiding a robot through a task instead. That's the vision of EECS professor Pieter Abbeel and three of his students.

A ‘stillsuit’ for cities

11/06/17 — Berkeley water expert David Sedlak, a professor of civil & environmental engineering, says cities may soon have to develop their own version of the science fiction novel Dune's "stillsuit" to recycle wastewater for drinking.

Chelsea Finn, Sergey levine and Pieter Abbeel working on a robot that uses deep learning software.

Building AI that can build AI

11/06/17 New York Times — As the tech industry hunts for new ways to quicken the development of artificially intelligent machines, Berkeley researchers are focusing on machine-learning algorithms that will help robots learn new tasks based on things they've learned before. "Computers are going to invent the algorithms for us, essentially," says EECS professor Pieter Abbeel.

Ultrafast magnetic reversal points the way toward speedy, low-power computer memory

11/03/17 — Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside have developed a new, ultrafast method for electrically controlling magnetism in certain metals, a breakthrough that could lead to speedier, more energy-efficient computer memory.

Major progress in realizing new type of lithium cathode

11/02/17 Berkeley Lab — A team of Berkeley Lab scientists led by Gerbrand Ceder, professor of materials science and engineering, have reported major progress toward making lithium battery cathodes with so-called “disordered” materials.

Bot-spotting college kids, doing what Twitter won’t

11/01/17 Wired — Berkeley computer science undergrads Ash Bhat and Rohan Phadte are doing what they say Twitter won't: sorting out and tagging the angry propaganda bots designed to undermine, destabilize and inflame American political discourse.

Farewell

11/01/17 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering alumni

New campus hotspot

11/01/17 — With mugs in hand, the college community gratefully welcomes a new café on the ground floor of Etcheverry Hall.

VR maker named to “30 under 30” list

11/01/17 — Han Jin, founder and CEO of Lucid VR, was recently named to Inc's “30 under 30” list.

Alumni notes

11/01/17 — News and photos of Berkeley Engineering alumni from decades past.

The future of engineering education

11/01/17 — Executive Associate Dean Phil Kaminsky writes about how the emerging triad of technology, entrepreneurship and design are being used to reimagine how engineers are prepared.

Case studies in forward thinking

11/01/17 — Nine Berkeley Engineering faculty members share some of their forward-looking work and how it might impact what's to come.

Forward thinking

11/01/17 — Dean Sastry, faculty keep the focus on tomorrow in new Berkeley Engineer

Dean’s word: Future bound: Partners wanted

11/01/17 — Dean Sastry ponders what's in store for the future here at the college, and how to connect that vision to reality.

Inventing the future

11/01/17 — In a Q&A with Berkeley Engineer, Dean Shankar Sastry outlines his vision for the future of the college and beyond.

Tabla device to acoustically diagnose pneumonia

Chest sound waves

11/01/17 — The award-winning Tabla, a device that digitizes chest sounds for diagnosing pneumonia (and other ailments), began as a class project in Jacobs Hall.