News

It that a flying saucer? Nope, it’s CalSol’s Zephyr

07/19/21 Bay Area News Group — The CalSol student team departs in a week for the Midwest, solar car in tow, to compete in the 5-day, 1,000-mile American Solar Challenge — the team’s first return to competition after more than a year sidelined by the pandemic

Firefighter in helmet amid wildfire flames.

Fighting wildfires with computing and data science

07/13/21 — Berkeley's Fire Research Group uses algorithms, machine learning, and simulation to improve fire prevention efforts.

New AI strategy enables robots to rapidly adapt to real-world environments

07/09/21 — Rapid motor adaptation system outperformed peers in navigating unfamiliar terrain

Peek inside flying bat’s brain uncovers clues to mammalian navigation

07/08/21 — Study by neuroscientists, bioengineers finds neural “GPS system” that tracks many mammals' present — and future — location

Award fuels female STEM leaders

07/02/21 Johnson & Johnson — Mechanical engineering assistant professor Hannah Stuart is one of six 2021 Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D scholars

Insect-sized robot scurrying through scattered pieces of brick.

Insect-sized robot navigates mazes with the agility of a cheetah

07/02/21 — Flexible, durable robot developed by mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin's team could become an asset for search and rescue operations

Search and rescue personnel work on the debris pile at the Champlain Towers South collapse site.

Engineers piece together Champlain Towers probable collapse sequence

06/29/21 Engineering News-Record — Structural engineering professor Jack P. Moehle joins other experts in assessing what happened in the deadly Florida collapse

STEM tomography image of a 3D-grown 100-200-nanometer crystalline disc.

Crystal impurity is sheer perfection

06/29/21 Berkeley Lab — 3D-grown material designed by Berkeley researchers could speed up production of new technologies for smart buildings and robotics

Randy Katz and Steven Chu flanking the U.S. Capitol dome

Researching while Chinese American

06/25/21 — EECS professor Randy Katz, vice chancellor for research, and former Berkeley Lab director and U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu will take part in a livestreamed June 30 congressional roundtable on ethnic profiling of Chinese American scientists

Time more important than funding for food assistance, study finds

06/25/21 School of Public Health — A paper co-authored by IEOR associate professor Anil Aswani showed that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients who had more available time were able to prepare higher quality meals

Student teams partner with armed forces to improve disaster response

06/24/21 Blum Center — Prototypes developed through a Blum Center for Developing Economies class tackle language, diplomacy and distance barriers

Berkeley engineering students pull off novel chip design in a single semester

06/17/21 — In an advanced circuit design course, 19 students with no prior experience in chip design went from basic introductions to tape-out by the end of a four-month period, resulting in a novel chip that will be manufactured this summer.

Weiss/Manfredi rendering of aerial view of the Gateway. Note: design is provisional and in development.

Trio of $25 million gifts accelerates transformation of computing and data science

06/07/21 — Gifts will support construction of the Gateway, the planned hub for collaborative data science and computing education and research, and the creation of two new faculty positions

Are heavy metals toxic? Scientists find surprising new clues in yeast

06/07/21 Berkeley Lab — Joint study led by nuclear engineering's Rebecca Abergel maps potential toxicity of lanthanide metals used in medicine, electronics

Accidental billionaires

06/02/21 Forbes — How seven Berkeley artificial intelligence engineers who didn't want to make a cent are now worth billions

Freada Kapor Klein ’74 and Haile Shavers ’18

New gift will diversify next generation of STEM leaders

05/28/21 Light the Way — $5 million from Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor will fund scholarships for marginalized populations, to help science and technology “look like America”

EECS faculty featured as luminaries in Electron Devices Society podcast series

05/25/21 — Chenming Hu, Tsu-Jae King Liu and Leon Chua share insights from their lives and careers

EECS professor David Culler awarded Berkeley Citation

05/21/21 — The prestigious honor, one of the highest given by UC Berkeley, recognizes achievements that exceed the standards of excellence

2D transistor technology overcomes barrier to ever-shrinking computer chips

05/17/21 — Atomically thin semiconductor could be game-changing alternative to silicon

Three engineering faculty receive Young Investigator Award

05/17/21 — Alvin Cheung, Somayeh Sojoudi and Grace Gu to receive highly competitive grants to support their early-career research.