News

Berkeley launches accelerator to support blockchain startups

01/29/19 — UC Berkeley is launching a new blockchain-focused accelerator. The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator will help entrepreneurs pursue ventures in the blockchain space, tap into the vast resources of the campus and Silicon Valley, and receive expert industry guidance to create high-value blockchain startups.

AI could identify you and your health history from your step tracker

01/29/19 USA Today — Manufacturers say data stripped of identifying information is no privacy risk. But UC Berkeley's Anil Aswani and UCSF's Yoshimi Fukuoka found that artificial intelligence can overcome that. Time to update health privacy laws.

Illustration of reserchers discussing fire response techniques

Modern technologies needed to prevent wildfires

01/23/19 Daily Californian — In an op-ed, mechanical engineering professor Tarek Zohdi writes about his new Fire Research Group's focus on actions needed to combat fire emergencies in both wildland and urban environments.

‘Ambidextrous’ robots could dramatically speed e-commerce

01/16/19 — In a new paper, Berkeley engineers build on 35 years of research with new algorithms that compute robust robot pick points, enabling robot grasping of a diverse range of products without training.

Researchers capture an image of negative capacitance in action

01/14/19 — For the first time ever, an international team of researchers imaged the microscopic state of negative capacitance. This novel result could have far-reaching consequences for energy-efficient electronics.

Clever clumsiness: Self-taught walking robot

01/09/19 Wired — Researchers from the Berkeley AI Research Lab and Google Brain have taught a robot to teach itself how to walk, through trial and error, in just two hours; the results "are as awkward as they are magical."

Ph.D. graduates taking a selfie at commencement

Minority STEM PhDs fare better with clear expectations, acceptance

01/09/19 — Women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields are more likely to advance professionally, publish more research and secure postdoctoral and faculty positions if their institutional culture is welcoming and sets clear expectations, according to a new study.

Illustration of the proposed WAND device, with two of the new chips embedded in a chassis located outside the head.

Wireless ‘pacemaker for the brain’

12/31/18 — A new neurostimulator developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain at the same time, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's.

Artificial intelligence opens health data privacy to attack

12/21/18 — Current privacy laws and regulations are nowhere near sufficient to keep an individual's health data private in the face of advances in artificial intelligence, according to a new study from IEOR professor Anil Aswani and his team.

Robots in the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab

These robots are learning the old-fashioned way—by playing

12/19/18 California Magazine — Unlike most robots, the ones in the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab haven't been programmed to perform a specific task. Instead, they've been programmed to learn new stuff by observation or through physical trial and error.

Diagram demonstrating recycling carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals through a copper catalyst

Greener days ahead for carbon fuels

12/18/18 Berkeley Lab — Researchers led by Joel Ager, MSE adjunct professor, have discovered copper's potential as a catalyst for turning carbon dioxide into sustainable chemicals and fuels without wasteful byproducts.

Illustration of metal carbides sparking a reaction that splits water into oxygen and valuable hydrogen gas

Jiggly Jell-O makes powerful new hydrogen fuel catalyst

12/13/18 — A cheap and effective gelatin-based catalyst, developed by mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin and his Berkeley research team, can generate hydrogen fuel from water just as efficiently as platinum, the far more expensive current standard.

Professor Joyashree Roy and project team member Sreeman Mypati tasting water from ECAR plant.

This innovation removes deadly arsenic from India’s water

12/12/18 The Better India — Everyday, tens of millions of people drink water that significantly increases their risk of cancer and other deadly diseases. UC Berkeley professor Ashok Gadgil amd Asian Institute of Technology's Joyashree Roy hope to fix that with an efficient and cost-effective system called Electrochemical Arsenic Remediation (ECAR) for removing arsenic contamination from drinking water.

Connie Chang-Hasnain named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

12/11/18 — EECS professor Connie Chang-Hasnain has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, an organization that champions the societal benefits of university research.

Eli Yablonovitch wins 2019 Franklin Medal

12/10/18 — EECS professor Eli Yablonovitch will receive the 2019 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering for his work in radio- and light-based technologies.

Sports Tech – The future of Cal Athletics

12/07/18 Berkeley Science Review — A new collaboration between Cal Athletics and the College of Engineering, puts athletes and engineers to work developing base technologies or applications that improve athletic performance.

Ion drive flight test points to radically different future for aviation

12/05/18 Forbes — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have conducted a successful 8-second flight test of an aircraft with an ion drive propulsion system, a larger version of the same cutting-edge technology that Berkeley engineers are using to fly centimeter-scale microrobots.