News

Affordable and lightweight suitX design honored

05/01/16 — The startup company suitX won a Robotics for Good competition this spring for their plan to adapt one of their exoskeleton designs to assist children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida or spinal muscular atrophy.

Madeline Foster-Martinez at the marsh organ she built at Richmond Field Station

Restoring tidal marshlands

05/01/16 — Are biosolids the answer to making tidal wetlands less vulnerable to storm surges similar to that of Hurricane Katrina? Doctoral student and Louisiana native Madeline Foster-Martinez is working to find out.

From waves to electricity

05/01/16 — The Theoretical and Applied Fluid Dynamics Lab will begin building a machine that may potentially convert enough ocean wave energy into enough electricity to supply millions of homes with electricity.

Election data Q+A

05/01/16 — Read a Q+A with Jasjeet Sekhon, senior fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, who uses massive data analysis to examine persuasion in elections and the effectiveness of digital advertising and personalized medicine.

Let them see you sweat

05/01/16 — Berkeley engineers are using sweat to measure metabolites and electrolytes to provide continuous, non-invasive monitoring of a user's body.

Say cheese

05/01/16 — Computer scientists are using machine learning techniques to analyze large collections of American high school yearbook photos by superimposing the changes in hairstyles, clothing and even smiles from over the last century.

Fingerprint scanner

05/01/16 — Fingerprint scanning technology is advancing to create three-dimensional images of a fingerprint to eliminate the risk of counterfeited two-dimensional images, offering more security.

Cool composites

05/01/16 — The metallic alloy CrMnFeCoNi is being researched to study the mechanisms that make it one of the toughest at any temperature. The future applications to understanding how it works? Cryogenics and the potential to design even stronger reinforcing metallic materials.

Photoluminescence of MoS2 monolayer: before (left) and after superacid treatment

Making monolayers work

05/01/16 — Berkeley engineers have found a simple way to fix the defects of monolayer semiconductors, leading to a dramatic 100-fold increase in the material's photoluminescence quantum yield.

Life with machine: Robot relationships get real

05/01/16 — Three Berkeley professors studying artificial intelligence and robotics are testing how machines and humans come into physical contact, behave independently and interact with one another. The common goal: to create machines with the intelligence to better serve and work with human beings.

Rising seas: A new look at resilient infrastructure

05/01/16 — A cross-disciplinary team of researchers is studying how sea-level rise will impact and disrupt the Bay Area using a variety of data modeling and analysis methods.

Thermoelectrics: An old, new tech

05/01/16 — Alphabet Energy is betting on a resurgence of thermoelectrics with new technology to convert energy lost as heat into clean, recycled power.

Photo illustration of how Lightsense LED array works to identify drones.

Making unmanned flight safe

05/01/16 — Responsible Robotics is creating new technologies that enable drone operators to easily comply with emerging Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

Alumni notes

05/01/16 — News and photos of Berkeley Engineering alumni from decades past.

Build Change founder addresses CEE Academy Class of 2015

05/01/16 — Elizabeth Hausler Strand delivered the 2015 Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Lecture about Build Change's progress in providing safer, earthquake-resistant buildings in developing countries.

Paul Jacobs, Kirsi Tikka, Tejal Desai and Dennis Discher

Alumni inducted into national academies

05/01/16 — Several alumni have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for their contributions to engineering research, practice, or education and the National Academy of Medicine for their contributions to the advancement of medical sciences.

The backup generator

05/01/16 — Backblaze, a cloud backup company that offers unlimited storage for a fee of $5 per month, is accelerating its growth to find, encrypt and save all of a user's files of any size or type to an off-site location.

Farewell

05/01/16 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni

$1M Hopper-Dean Foundation gift for diversity in CS

04/29/16 — The Hopper-Dean Foundation has donated $1 million to the EECS Department to support diversity initiatives in computer science. This expanded outreach effort, led by CS professor Dan Garcia, will touch thousands of students at Cal and high schools nationwide over the next two years.

Participants in the annual Bioengineering Honor Society High School Competition

Early research

04/27/16 — Berkeley's Bioengineering Honor Society recently hosted 22 high school teams for an annual competition designed to make engineering and STEM more accessible.