News

Sight for sore eyes

11/01/14 — Brian Barsky, professor of computer science and vision science, teamed up with colleagues at MIT to improve vision-correcting display technology; given an eyeglasses prescription, researchers can now pre-correct the display to enable that user to see the screen in sharp focus without glasses.

Muscle cells before and after addition of oxytocin

Rejuvenating old muscles

11/01/14 — Led by bioengineering professor Irina Conboy, Berkeley researchers found that oxytocin-the hormone associated with social attachments, childbirth and sex-may combat age-related muscle degeneration.

Evolutionary algorithms

11/01/14 — EECS professor Umesh Vazirani and his colleagues have developed an algorithm that helps demystify a paradox inherent in evolution, demonstrating that diversity results from the selection process, as well as genetic mutations.

Herding cells with electricity

11/01/14 — EECS professor Michel Maharbiz and bioengineering graduate student Daniel Cohen found that an electrical current can orchestrate the migration of a group of cells into a shape of their choosing.

Freedom phones

11/01/14 — EECS Ph.D. student Yahel Ben-David and alum Barath Raghavan lead the De Novo Group, a research team developing the Rangzen smartphone app, designed to support dissenters and protect identities.

Body mechanics

11/01/14 — Berkeley engineers are building better bodies, one part at a time.

Where vision meets know-how

11/01/14 — Take a look into mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang's XLab, where Zhang and his more than 30 postdocs, Ph.D. students and visiting scientists investigate the emerging field of metamaterials.

Alumni notes

11/01/14 — News and photos of Berkeley Engineering alumni from decades past.

Smart spoons

11/01/14 — Mechanical engineering grad Anupam Pathak started a company called Lift Labs that creates devices to assist people with Parkinson's and other tremor-related diseases.

Measuring DNA health

11/01/14 — Nuclear engineering grad Sylvain Costes and bioengineering grad have created an at-home kit that can measure DNA damage from blood samples.

Farewell

11/01/14 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni

Comments

11/01/14 — Friends, followers and readers: Thanks for your comments. Here is a recent sampling. Re: “Engineering social justice,” Berkeley Engineer, spring 2014 I was extremely happy to learn that an “engineering in society” course was still being taught at Cal. Looking back on my career and personal evolution, it’s that course I took back in 1978 […]

William Tarpeh at the Berkeley Water Center

Launching ‘dev eng’

11/01/14 — A new Ph.D. specialty in development engineering teaches students how to build, scale and evaluate technologies designed to combat extreme poverty and other complex international issues.

Schematic of a PT symmetry microring laser cavity

Lord of the microrings

10/31/14 Berkeley Lab — In a significant breakthrough in laser technology, scientists led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have developed a unique microring laser cavity that can produce single-mode lasing even from a conventional multi-mode laser cavity.

Devices: Portable spirometer

10/30/14 — Charvi Shetty is the CEO and founder of KNOX Medical Diagnostics, a company specializing in cloud-connected personalized care for asthmatics. With the support of the Foundry@CITRIS, she is currently working on building a better asthma-monitoring device.

Nuclear Engineering’s Hosemann to receive two TMS awards

10/30/14 — Peter Hosemann, associate professor of nuclear engineering, will be presented with a pair of awards at the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) meeting in March, recognizing both his accomplishments to date and his exceptional promise for the future.

Outback technology

10/29/14 — TIER scales sustainable technology - and tall trees - to bring cell service to rural villages.

AI researchers say Elon Musk’s fears ‘not completely crazy’

10/29/14 Computerworld — Commenting on high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk provocative statement that artificial intelligence research is a danger to humanity, EECS professor and robotics researcher Stuart Russell says that "If we don't know how to control AI… it would be like making a hydrogen bomb. They would be much more dangerous than they are useful."

White House announces executive actions to boost U.S. manufacturing

10/28/14 — Dean Shankar Sastry represented Berkeley at a White House meeting Monday announcing steps to strengthen U.S. advanced manufacturing, spur innovation and continue to make the nation a magnet for new jobs and investment.

Bullet train just a blur in California governor’s race

10/28/14 Los Angeles Times — Civil engineering professor Robert Bea, a pioneering expert in the field of risk analysis, comments on the relatively small role California's bullet train is playing in the state's gubernatorial election, and how that could become a problem down the line.