News

Toward human-centric A.I.

09/20/16 — Twenty years ago, Stuart Russell co-wrote a book titled Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, destined to become the dominant text in its field. Near the end of the book, he posed a question: “What if A.I. does succeed?”

Q&A on homebrewed drugs with John Dueber

09/20/16 — Bioengineering professor John Dueber talks about the risks and potential rewards of using yeast to convert glucose into a key opioid compound.

MET students brainstorming in Jacobs Hall

Grooming the entrepreneurial engineer

09/20/16 — The goal of the new M.E.T. program is to prepare future tech leaders by combining business savvy and engineering.

In startup sweepstakes, it’s Cal vs. Stanford

09/14/16 — In the tech entrepreneurship race, Berkeley alumni created the most companies over the past decade, while Stanford graduated the most company founders, according to the industry analytics firm PitchBook.

Macchi Bears outside McLaughlin Hall on the engineering quadrant

Berkeley again ranks well with U.S. News

09/13/16 — Berkeley remained the top-ranked public university, and engineering was again the #3 program overall and the top public engineering school, in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report annual list of “America's Best Colleges.”

Bikes, streetcars, buses and more vehicles on a San Francisco street

SF, UC Berkeley to continue collaborating on ‘smart cities’

09/09/16 — This year's bid by San Francisco and UC Berkeley failed to win the U.S. Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge, but the city and university have agreed to continue to jointly explore innovative urban transportation options, and ways that technology can improve city life in general.

Eight from Berkeley named 2017 Siebel Scholars

09/09/16 — Outstanding engineering graduate students were named to the prestigious Siebel Scholars Foundation's class of 2017.

Otto self-driving truck on highway test run

Uber Is betting we’ll see driverless 18-wheelers before taxis

09/08/16 MIT Technology Review — With its acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto, Uber is hoping for a shortcut in the race to profit from driverless vehicles. But research engineer Steven Shladover of Berkeley's California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology Program (PATH) sees challenges - real and perceived - in putting 40-ton trucks on the road with only software behind the wheel.

Student Katherine Rose Driggs Campbell in a driving simulator

$4.6 million grant to improve how automated cars, drones interact with humans

09/08/16 — As companies contemplate deploying self-driving cars, trucks and delivery drones, Berkeley engineers are embarking on a major project to improve how they interact with humans.

NSF funds cyber-physical systems research

09/06/16 National Science Foundation — The NSF on Tuesday awarded $4.6 million to VeHICaL (Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems), a project led by by EECS professor Sanjit Seshia that seeks to "impact the way humans collaborate and interact with automation." Researchers include EECS professors Ruzena Bajcsy, Shankar Sastry, Bjoern Hartmann, Claire Tomlin, and Tom Griffiths.

Adam Arkin on Big Data and big problems

09/02/16 — Bioengineering professor Adam Arkin digs deep on current and future efforts to to harness the genetic potential of the earth to solve problems in soil quality, water quality, plant productivity, nutrition, and human-impacted health.

Child plays a video game synced to a spirometer

Startup creates device to predict asthma attacks in kids

09/02/16 ABC-7 News — Charvi Shetty (B.S.'12 BioE), founder of Knox Medical Diagnostics, has introduced a video game that records respiratory readings from pediatric asthma patients using the company's pioneering portable spirometer and smartphone app.

BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, doing laundry

Could artificial intelligence help humanity? California universities think so

09/02/16 Los Angeley Times — Call it artificial intelligence with a human touch. This week, two California universities separately announced new centers devoted to studying the ways in which AI can help humanity.

Join us for Homecoming

09/01/16 — On homecoming weekend (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), the Berkeley campus and Berkeley Engineering host a fun-packed schedule of activities, ranging from classroom lectures and a design showcase to the homecoming BBQ and football game.

BRETT, the Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, ties a knot after watching others demonstrate it.

Berkeley launches center to align AI systems with human values

08/29/16 — Berkeley artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell will lead a new Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week. The primary focus of the multi-university center is to ensure that AI systems are beneficial to humans.

Welcome to The House

08/23/16 — Cameron Baradar (B.S'15 EECS) is launching the startup of startups in hopes of bolstering Berkeley's entrepreneurship community.

Wei Gao and his sensor wristband, and Sergey Levine

Seven Berkeley engineers named top innovators under 35

08/23/16 — Wei Gao, an EECS postdoc developing wearable sweat sensors to monitor health, and EECS assistant professor Sergey Levine, who helped pioneer “deep learning” for robots, are among seven Berkeley engineers on this year's list of top innovators under 35, compiled by MIT Technology Review.