News

Synthetic biology could be big boost to interplanetary space travel

11/06/14 — Genetically engineered microbes could help make manned missions to Mars, the moon and other planets more practical, according to a new analysis by UC Berkeley bioengineers and NASA scientists.

Supercharging more electric cars risks crashing the grid

11/05/14 California magazine — U.S. electrical grids might not be ready for the new wave of electric vehicles expected within the decade. But the Smart Cities Research Center in civil and environmental engineering is working on data-driven ways to prevent a grid meltdown.

Barath Raghavan and Yahel Ben-David in a crowd of moving students

Join the crowd

11/01/14 — Follow the fall 2014 Berkeley Engineer magazine, now online.

Dean’s word: Engineering global solutions

11/01/14 — Globalized markets and leapfrog technologies, including mobile telecommunications, now offer opportunities to eradicate the root causes of global poverty.

The big picture

11/01/14 — EECS professor Alexei Efros seeks to bring large volumes of inaccessible visual data on the Internet to the public by filtering the information into more easily digestible nuggets.

Connor Landgraf and the digitally enhanced stethoscope

Devices: Smarter stethoscopes

11/01/14 — BioE alum Connor Landgraf has transformed the classic stethoscope into a tool with the potential to save lives and eliminate billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending.

Q+A with Grace O’Connell

11/01/14 — Assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department since 2013, Grace O'Connell discusses her background, her first year at the college and her work in tissue engineering and spinal biomechanics.

STEM pipeline: Girls in Engineering

11/01/14 — This summer, the college launched an outreach program for middle school girls designed to bring engineering to life and inspire the girls to pursue an education in the STEM fields.

Great optics

11/01/14 — EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain, named associate dean for strategic alliances in July, has introduced a robust toolkit of nano-optoelectronic circuit elements.

Sight for sore eyes

11/01/14 — Brian Barsky, professor of computer science and vision science, teamed up with colleagues at MIT to improve vision-correcting display technology; given an eyeglasses prescription, researchers can now pre-correct the display to enable that user to see the screen in sharp focus without glasses.

Muscle cells before and after addition of oxytocin

Rejuvenating old muscles

11/01/14 — Led by bioengineering professor Irina Conboy, Berkeley researchers found that oxytocin-the hormone associated with social attachments, childbirth and sex-may combat age-related muscle degeneration.

Evolutionary algorithms

11/01/14 — EECS professor Umesh Vazirani and his colleagues have developed an algorithm that helps demystify a paradox inherent in evolution, demonstrating that diversity results from the selection process, as well as genetic mutations.

Herding cells with electricity

11/01/14 — EECS professor Michel Maharbiz and bioengineering graduate student Daniel Cohen found that an electrical current can orchestrate the migration of a group of cells into a shape of their choosing.

Freedom phones

11/01/14 — EECS Ph.D. student Yahel Ben-David and alum Barath Raghavan lead the De Novo Group, a research team developing the Rangzen smartphone app, designed to support dissenters and protect identities.

Body mechanics

11/01/14 — Berkeley engineers are building better bodies, one part at a time.

Where vision meets know-how

11/01/14 — Take a look into mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang's XLab, where Zhang and his more than 30 postdocs, Ph.D. students and visiting scientists investigate the emerging field of metamaterials.

Alumni notes

11/01/14 — News and photos of Berkeley Engineering alumni from decades past.

Smart spoons

11/01/14 — Mechanical engineering grad Anupam Pathak started a company called Lift Labs that creates devices to assist people with Parkinson's and other tremor-related diseases.

Measuring DNA health

11/01/14 — Nuclear engineering grad Sylvain Costes and bioengineering grad have created an at-home kit that can measure DNA damage from blood samples.

Farewell

11/01/14 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni