News

Berkeley group digs in to challenge of making sense of all that data

04/09/12 The New York Times — Michael Franklin, a professor of computer science and director of the AMP Lab, talks about the challenges of working with Big Data in the New York Times. Last month, the National Science Foundation awarded $10 million to Berkeley's AMP Expedition.

High-tech titans: Gordon Moore and Andy Grove

04/06/12 National Public Radio — In a rare joint interview, Intel legends Gordon Moore (B.S. '50, Chemistry) and Andy Grove (Ph.D. '63, ChemE) discuss how their company has thrived over the decades and what they think of the current crop of Silicon Valley techies.

NSF grant funds computer-assisted programming project

04/05/12 Penn News — UC Berkeley engineers, led by computer scientist Ras Bodik, will join the University of Pennsylvania and seven other research institutions in a project to make computer programming faster, easier and more intuitive. Dubbed ExCAPE, the project is led by Penn and funded by a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Expeditions in Computing program.

Berkeley Engineering professor Ron Gronsky selected as one of Princeton Review’s 300 “Best Professors”

04/03/12 The Daily Californian — Materials science and engineering professor Ron Gronsky is among seven UC Berkeley instructors listed as the country's 300 best professors in a book published by the Princeton Review. "We developed this project as a tribute to the extraordinary dedication of America's undergraduate college professors and the vitally important role they play in our culture, and our democracy," said Robert Franek, senior vice president of content development and publishing at Princeton Review.

Berkeley leadership on America’s nuclear future

03/19/12 — With America's nuclear waste management program at an impasse, we have been anxiously awaiting word from President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future-with Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering Chair Per Peterson among its 15 distinguished members-on how to break the deadlock.

Smart sensors in the woods

03/19/12 — About 60 percent of the water used in California comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt. Monthly measurements help water managers estimate the amount of water held in the snowpack and allow them to allocate the state's most precious resource. Now, the Sierra Nevada is going high tech. Wireless sensors developed by Steven Glaser, professor of civil and environmental engineering, are being tested in an ambitious pilot project at the UC Merced Sierra Nevada Research Institute.

Replacing the Osterizer as standard lab equipment

03/19/12 — After a year in Asia and South America visiting research labs that lacked the basics, Lina Nilsson - a post-doctoral researcher in the bioengineering lab of professor Daniel Fletcher - and a team of engineering colleagues brainstormed about how to develop low-cost, accessible tools that could produce research-grade results. The team evolved into Tekla Labs, a cooperative of ten partners from Berkeley Engineering and UCSF. Their idea won first place for social entrepreneurship in the 2010-11 Big Ideas @ Berkeley contest.

Maker of resonators

03/19/12 — Most days (and nights), you'll find Ernest Ting-Ta Yen, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student, immersed in the complexities of his microelectromechanical systems research. The aluminum nitride resonators he builds, aimed at new cell phones and communications applications, are designed to help shrink mobile devices while increasing functionality. Happen upon him in his graduate student office at midnight, though, and you'll hear lovely strains of music. Yen practices from midnight to 2 a.m., the only hours available to this busy researcher.

UC Berkeley takes part in nationwide engineering initiative

03/14/12 ABC News — UC Berkeley participated in a nationwide motivational event organized by President Barack Obama to encourage students to pursue engineering degrees. The "Stay With It" campaign, put together by Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, is part of an effort to address the country's shortage of engineers and graduates with degrees in scientific fields in general.

Berkeley supports IT startups high atop the campus

03/13/12 Communications of the ACM — High above the University of California, Berkeley campus, in the tallest building for miles around, IT entrepreneurs are being given the opportunity to grow their startups in a new venue -- the four-month-old SkyDeck startup incubator/accelerator. At a university known for doing things differently and in its own way, UC Berkeley has dedicated 10,000 square feet of premium penthouse office space to supporting and mentoring IT-oriented startups.

Weili Dai named one of “150 Women Who Shake the World”

03/06/12 The Daily Beast — Weili Dai, Berkeley Engineering alumna (B.S. '84 CS) and co-founder of Marvell Technology Group, has been honored by Newsweek as one of "150 Women Who Shake the World." With her background in computer science and software development, Dai founded Marvell with her husband and his brother in 1995. Today the microchip maker's revenue tops $3 billion annually. Dai is one of the only women to head a top-500 tech company and is a prime example of a leader with an environmental conscience.

SkyDeck hopes to boost Berkeley-based tech startups

03/01/12 Berkeleyside — The Berkeley SkyDeck startup accelerator, with 10,000 square feet at the top of downtown Berkeley's tallest building, is a collaboration between UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, the Haas School of Business, the Vice Chancellor for Research office, Berkeley Lab, the City of Berkeley, the Downtown Berkeley Association, and the Chamber of Commerce. "This initiative is a perfect fit for a campus that is deeply engaged with and concerned about real-world challenges," said Graham Fleming, vice chancellor for research. "We have long needed a space to help support the activities of the campus' many outstanding entrepreneurs."

Marvell CEO Dr. Sehat Sutardja honored with UC Berkeley Outstanding Alumnus Award in Electrical Engineering

02/24/12 Wall Street Journal Market Watch — Marvell co-founder, chairman, president and CEO, Dr. Sehat Sutardja, has been named the recipient of UC Berkeley's Outstanding Alumnus Award in Electrical Engineering. The award presentation took place during the Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Annual Research Symposium 2012. "Through his engineering achievements, activism and support, Dr. Sehat Sutardja has made invaluable contributions to UC Berkeley and to the field of electrical engineering," said Professor S. Shankar Sastry, Dean of the College of Engineering. Dr. Sutardja received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley.

When the car is the driver

02/17/12 National Public Radio — This week the state of Nevada finalized new rules that will make it possible for robotic self-driving cars to receive their own special driving permits. Do people notice a self-driving car and gawk? "We get a lot of thumbs up," says Berkeley Engineering alum Anthony Levandowski (M.S.'03 IEOR), one of the leaders of Google's self-driving car project. Google's fleet of robotic cars has driven more than 200,000 miles over highways and city streets in California and Nevada.

PEER signs contract with Caltrans to continue research on the seismic performance of lifelines

02/17/12 Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center — The Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. has just signed a three-year research contract with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to carry out a comprehensive multidisciplinary research program on the seismic evaluation and performance of lifelines. This new funding from Caltrans launches a new phase of investigation for the PEER Lifelines Research Program.

Internet voting: Will democracy or hackers win?

02/16/12 PBS NewsHour — While it seems like everything can be done online these days, that's not actually the case when it comes to elections. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien explores the security, logistical and secrecy challenges of Internet voting. David Wagner, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley, joins the conversation.

Berkeley Engineering grad students design an ‘EcoFridge’ that uses 40 per cent less energy

02/10/12 BusinessGreen — Imagine an environmentally friendly household refrigerator that is affordable and helps break people's energy-wasting habits when they use the appliance. That is what team of UC Berkeley grad students in engineering and industrial design students from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico envisioned when they were asked by appliance manufacturer Mabe to develop a cost competitive fridge that is kinder to the environment than others available to consumers in Mexico.

Three Berkeley Engineering students named finalists for 2012-2013 Hertz Fellowship

02/09/12 Wall Street Journal MarketWatch — The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation has announced fifty finalists for the 2012-2013 Hertz Fellowship, chosen from over 600 applicants. Considered the nation's most generous support for graduate education in the applied sciences and engineering, the Hertz Fellowship is valued at more than $250,000 per student, with support lasting up to five years. Berkeley Engineering students David Barth (ME), Nicholas Boyd (EECS) and Sean Lubner (ME) have been selected.

The many faces of excellence

02/09/12 — Many pathways lead to education and a life's work in engineering, and we are committed to ensuring parity and opportunity each step of the way. I am very pleased to share news of several developments here in the College that are helping us to diversify the face of engineering.

College launches new energy engineering major

02/09/12 — The College of Engineering has launched a new major-driven largely by undergraduate interest-that focuses in a comprehensive way on the generation, transmission and storage of energy, with additional courses on energy policy. Beginning in fall 2012, the new interdisciplinary Energy Engineering major will be offered through the Engineering Science Program and extract from the best energy-related courses already offered by the College. “The objective of this major is to produce students who are well-rounded energy experts,” says Tarek Zohdi, mechanical engineering professor and chair of the Engineering Science Program.