News

PiE brings robotics to budding young engineers

04/26/16 — Hundreds of Bay Area high school students gathered at the Lawrence Hall of Science over the weekend to pit robots they had built against one another in a competition hosted by Pioneers in Engineering (PiE), a Berkeley student mentorship program.

How the daily commute is going to change

04/25/16 Wall Street Journal — Susan Shaheen, a researcher at the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley, says ride-sharing carpool services being developed by Uber and Lyft could help fix some of the "first-mile, last-mile" issues with U.S. transportation grids, providing shorter trips to and from public transportation systems.

Postdoc researcher Chinmayee Subban and Ashok Gadgil are refining an affordable water treatment technology to produce fresh drinking water from brackish water

The search for smarter energy and water strategies

04/25/16 Berkeley Research — Environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil, principal investigator for a $64 million joint U.S.-China research center, is seeking innovative ways to meet the energy and water needs of both developing and industrial societies.

Spinning a new market for synthetic silk

04/25/16 Foundation Capital — David Breslauer (Ph.D.'10 BioE), co-founder and and chief scientific officer at Bolt Threads, spoke at SXSW this month about what it takes to bring a technology like synthetic silk out of a lab and into a marketplace of your own creation.

Who’s the Michael Jordan of computer science?

04/22/16 Science — Semantic Scholar, an AI-driven search engine from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, has added a service that ranks researchers' influence. The top star among computer scientists, according to the new tool? Michael I. Jordan, an EECS professor at Berkeley and a pioneer of AI.

Birgeneau wins prestigious National Science Board award

04/22/16 — UC Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus Robert Birgeneau, professor of physics, materials science and engineering and public policy, has won the National Science Board's 2016 Vannevar Bush Award. He was cited for his extraordinary public service, scientific leadership, and relentless support for equity and inclusion in higher education.

Architects name Jacobs Hall a top green project

04/22/16 American Institute of Architects — In an Earth Day announcement, the AIA's Committee on the Environment selected Jacobs Hall as one of ten top examples of sustainable architecture and ecological design projects that protect and enhance the environment.

Two engineering professors elected to AAAS

04/20/16 — Professors Jay Keasling (chemical and bioengineering) and Scott Shenker (EECS) are among nine UC Berkeley faculty members elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the country's oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers.

Robots that act differently when you’re around

04/19/16 The Atlantic — Roboticist Anca Dragan, head of Berkeley's Interactive Autonomy and Collaborative Technologies lab, is working on algorithms that can help robots coexist with people in the real world.

Meet VC Jeremy Fiance, young Berkeley superconnector

04/18/16 Tech Crunch — Jeremy Fiance, 24, whose 2014 interdisciplinary studies degree combined engineering, design and business, is giving back to his alma mater in a unique way with the launch of the House Fund, a $6 million venture capital fund whose sole goal is to invest in startups coming out of UC Berkeley.

Bioengineering’s Yartsev among new Searle Scholars

04/15/16 — Michael Yartsev, an assistant professor of bioengineering, was one of three young UC Berkeley faculty members appointed Searle Scholars this week. He will receive $300,000 for the next three years to support his research into the neural basis of spatial habit learning using free-flying echolocating bats.

A time of celebration and sadness

04/12/16 — This spring we have come together as a community in celebration with engineering deans from across the country and in reflection as we mourn the passing of faculty colleague David Dornfeld.

Watching snow melt

04/11/16 — The collaborative Sierra Net project builds wireless sensor networks in major California watersheds to modernize the way the state's water supply is measured.

Improving the odds for kidney transplant success

04/11/16 — A student team was recently recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative University for their low-cost kidney transplant monitor.

David A. Dornfeld, professor, manufacturing expert, college leader, 1949-2016

04/11/16 — Faculty director of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and former mechanical engineering department chair was a leader in manufacturing engineering

Arduino Day: Underwater robots, R/C trains and more

04/08/16 Make — Arduino’s founders and fans gathered at Jacobs Hall on April 2 for Arduino Day, a worldwide celebration of the open-source electronics platform that allowed makers and enthusiasts to show off their projects, share ideas and participate in workshops.

From left, Xiang Zhang, Yu Ye, Jun Xiao, and Yuan Wang are part of a team of scientists that made a big advance in valleytronics.

Scientists push valleytronics a step closer to reality

04/04/16 Berkeley Lab — Scientists led by Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering, have taken a big step toward the practical application of “valleytronics,” a new type of electronics that could lead to faster and more efficient computer logic systems and data storage chips.

Clintons, CGI University at Berkeley this weekend

04/01/16 — Engineering undergrads Ankita Joshi (B.S.'16 ME) and Anh-Thu Ho (B.S.'16 BioE) are among more than 1,000 students gathering at Berkeley this weekend for the Clinton Global Initiative University, a chance to discuss pressing global issues and dig deep for creative solutions.

Bajcsy, Paxson honored as visionary faculty entrepreneurs

03/30/16 — EECS professors Ruzena Bajcsy and Vern Paxson have been selected as 2016-17 Signatures Innovation Fellows, receiving funding to pursue their commercially promising research to assess personal injury and recovery (Bajcsy) and network cyberattacks (Paxson).

Jacobs Hall honored for sustainability practices

03/28/16 Office of Sustainability & Energy — Jacobs Hall, new home of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, has won a 2016 Higher Education Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Best Practice Award for its efficient use and reuse of energy and water.