News

Revamped computer science classes attracting more women

02/18/14 San Francisco Chronicle — A gender flip in computer science classes -- with more women than men enrolled in an introductory course -- shows UC Berkeley at the vanguard of a tech world shift, beginning to see a payoff in efforts to attract more women to a field where they have always been vastly underrepresented.

Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Caltech unite to boost number of minority Ph.D. students, faculty

02/13/14 — An unprecedented alliance formed among four elite West Coast universities aims to remedy a seemingly intractable nationwide problem: Too few underrepresented minority Ph.D. students in the mathematical, physical and computer sciences and in engineering are advancing to postdoctoral and faculty ranks at top-tier research universities.

Congratulations to our colleagues

02/12/14 — As we start off the new year, I'm delighted to share with you some great news regarding several of my distinguished colleagues here at Berkeley Engineering.

Berkeley Lab scientist Baptiste Dafflon collects electromagnetic data

The underground: Studying the Arctic tundra

02/12/14 — Normally, scientists don't have to worry about a polar bear charging them at 30 miles per hour. But this can be a big safety concern for researchers in Barrow, Alaska, where geophysicist Susan Hubbard (Ph.D'98 CEE) studies the Arctic ecosystem to improve climate modeling.

CS junior buzzes his way into Jeopardy! college tournament

02/12/14 Daily Californian — UC Berkeley junior Kevin Shen, a mathematics and computer science double major, could win up to $100,000 as he represents his school in the Jeopardy! College Championship, airing this month on the TV game show.

Connor Landgraf with phone and stethoscope

Startup founded by students aims to revolutionize stethoscope

02/12/14 Daily Californian — Family doctors' iPhones may soon be incorporated into regular checkups to help monitor and detect heart conditions, thanks to a startup company run by UC Berkeley students and led by CEO Connor Landgraf (B.S.'13, M.Eng.'14 BioE).

A ‘game-changer’ for HIV/AIDS

02/12/14 — Second-year bioengineering doctoral student Sylvia Natividad-Diaz may have found a way around a persistent obstacle in the treatment of HIV/AIDS-identifying when an HIV-positive patient's condition is worsening before irreversible symptoms are evident. Having that information allows health care providers to deliver the right medications at the right time, leading to better outcomes.

BEARS CREATE

02/12/14 — The Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS) is part of an innovative research model launched in partnership with Singapore's National Research Foundation. The foundation is supporting 10 of the world's best research institutions with ample funding, space and opportunities to scale their investigations beyond the lab.

Tesla Team at the New York City finish line

Electric cars go cross-country

02/10/14 Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative — Santiago Miret, a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering, writes about range anxiety by electric vehicle owners, and how it has prompted a pair of recent coast-to-coast road trips by drivers of the Tesla Model S.

Pinning down malevolent cancer cells

02/07/14 Berkeley Research — Lydia Sohn, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is analyzing circulating tumor cells in the bloodstream of breast cancer patients, aiming to find new methods for early diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Her work has earned her recognition as one of five new Bakar Fellows on the Berkeley campus.

BioE’s Herr and Li are new AIMBE Fellows

02/06/14 — Bioengineering professors Amy Herr and Song Li have been named members of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows. The college is composed of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country.

Carlos Daganzo, J. Karl Hedrick and Jack Moehle

NAE adds three Berkeley faculty to its ranks

02/06/14 — Three Berkeley Engineering faculty - Carlos Daganzo (CEE), J. Karl Hedrick (ME) and Jack Moehle (CEE) - are among 67 new members and 11 foreign associates elected Thursday to the National Academy of Engineering.

UN Scientific Advisory Board aims to build ties between science and policy

02/04/14 UNESCO — At its inaugural meeting in Berlin Jan. 30, members of the United Nations Scientific Advisory Board, including Berkeley Engineering Dean Shankar Sastry, vowed to "pull our resources and wisdom together," strengthening cooperation between the scientific community and policy-makers "to put the world on a sustainable path."

Seafloor carpet catches waves to generate energy

01/28/14 — UC Berkeley mechanical engineers are developing a seafloor carpet system to capture ocean wave energy and convert it into usable electricity. The system could eventually help lower the cost of converting seawater into fresh water, easing the pressure during periods of drought.

Costas Spanos of EECS appointed new CITRIS director

01/27/14 Berkeley Research — Costas Spanos, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, has been named the fourth director of the multi-campus CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society). Spanos, who joined the Berkeley faculty in 1988, succeeds Paul Wright of mechanical engineering, who has led CITRIS since 2007.

Turkeys inspire smartphone-capable early warning system for toxins

01/21/14 — UC Berkeley bioengineers looked to turkeys for inspiration when developing a new type of biosensor that changes color when exposed to chemical vapors. They mimicked the way turkey skin changes color to create easy-to-read sensors that can detect toxins or airborne pathogens.

What if robots had whiskers?

01/21/14 Berkeley Lab — Researchers with Berkeley Lab and Berkeley Engineering have created e-whiskers – highly sensitive tactile sensors made from carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles that should have a wide range of applications including advanced robotics, human-machine interfaces, and biological and environmental sensors.

Undergrads tackle security projects to battle cyber criminals

01/16/14 USA Today College — In an era when billions are stolen by hackers every year, UC Berkeley and other universities are training students to be the next generation of cyber warriors.

CEE’s Sally Thompson on NSF-funded team studying watershed’s critical zone

01/15/14 — A team of UC Berkeley scientists, including Sally Thompson of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will receive $4,900,000 from the National Science Foundation to study the Eel River watershed in Northern California and how its vegetation, geology and topography affect water flow all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

Researchers launch ‘Kelp Watch’ to determine extent of Fukushima contamination

01/14/14 Berkeley Lab — California researchers, including nuclear engineering's Kai Vetter, have launched “Kelp Watch 2014,” a scientific campaign to determine the extent of radioactive contamination of the state's kelp forest from Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.