News

Berkeley ranks as #1 U.S. school for coders

12/16/16 HackerRank — In a contest to find the best college coders, run by HackerRank, a learning and competition community for programmers, UC Berkeley was the top-ranked American school and the only U.S. institution to crack the top ten globally.

Ikhlaq Sidhu (right) on the Breakfast program on New Zealand TV

Sutardja Center advances innovation and entrepreneurship Down Under

12/16/16 — As part of a keynote appearance at the Growing Entrepreneurs Summit in New Zealand, Sutardja Center Chief Scientist Ikhlaq Sidhu appeared on New Zealand television, speaking on whether entrepreneurs are born or made and explaining Berkeley's approach to developing entrepreneurs.

Alivisatos and Herr named National Academy of Inventors fellows

12/13/16 — Two Berkeley engineers - nanotechnology pioneer and materials scientist Paul Alivisatos and bioengineer Amy Herr - were among 175 distinguished academic inventors named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors, along with Berkeley chemical engineer Enrique Iglesia.

‘How might we’ design for dialogue?

12/12/16 — On the morning after the election, post-its beginning with the phrase, "How might we" covered a white board in a Jacobs Hall studio - products of an impromptu brainstorming session in Design Methodology - with questions that spanned a wide range of topics, from policy to issues of tolerance, safety and community.

Collegial airspace

12/09/16 — A fast-growing student group has taken to the skies, formalized unmanned aerial vehicle flying on campus and are set to launch an intercollegiate drone-racing league.

Cal’s first industrial engineer?

12/07/16 — In a talk titled “The Ingenuity and Courage of Lillian Gilbreth,” Purdue University professor emeritus Ferdinand Leimkuhler celebrated the pre-IEOR graduate for her engineering ingenuity and her efforts to get more women into the workplace.

Jacobs Hall ranks platinum for sustainability

12/07/16 — Jacobs Hall, home of the College of Engineering's Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, has won platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program.

How a grad student found spyware that could control anybody’s iPhone

12/07/16 Vanity Fair — Last summer, computer science Ph.D. candidate Bill Marczak stumbled across a program that could spy on an iPhone's contact list and messages - and even record calls. Illuminating shadowy firms that sell spyware to corrupt governments across the globe, Marczak's story reveals the new arena of cyber-warfare.

Wall-jumping robot is most vertically agile ever

12/07/16 — Roboticists have designed a small robot, known as Salto, that can leap into the air and spring off a wall, or perform multiple vertical jumps in a row.

Hashtagging the way to safer infrastructure

11/29/16 — Civil and environmental engineering professor Kenichi Soga delivered a CITRIS talk about using social media and sensor-laden environments to build smart infrastructure.

Young blood doesn’t reverse aging in old mice, study finds

11/23/16 — A new study from Berkeley bioengineering associate professor Irina Conboy found that tissue health and repair dramatically decline in young mice when half of their blood is replaced with blood from old mice.

The CalWave Power Technologies team with their prize check

CalWave rides Wave Energy Prize

11/18/16 University of California — Berkely Lab startup CalWave Power Technologies and its novel “wave carpet” earned second place (and a $500,000 prize) out of an initial 92 teams vying for the U.S. Department of Energy's Wave Energy Prize.

Modular exoskeleton will make more workers bionic

11/17/16 MIT Technology Review — SuitX, a startup founded by mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, has launched a trio of devices - backX, shoulderX and legX - that use robotic technologies to enhance the abilities of able-bodied workers and prevent common workplace injuries.

Launching the Fung Fellowship

11/08/16 University of California — With the launch this fall of the Fung Fellowship program, tech visionary Coleman Fung, public health and engineering leaders and curious UC Berkeley students joined forces to create a new educational paradigm.

Earthquake engineering pioneer Vitelmo Bertero dies at 93

11/08/16 PEER — Vitelmo V. Bertero, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, died Oct. 24. Bertero, 93, a pioneer in the field of earthquake engineering, taught generations of students over his career of nearly 50 years.

New home for Fung Institute

11/01/16 — The Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership marked its five-year anniversary this fall by opening expanded offices at Shires Hall.

Read the full issue

11/01/16 — The fall 2016 edition of Berkeley Engineer also contains stories about a student-built tiny house, a new materials database, next-gen batteries, neural dust sensors, greening cities, carbon-capturing concrete, mussel-inspired glue and more.