News

A Cal ‘Kinect-ion’

11/29/11 — In the fall of 2008, Jack Kang (B.S'04 EECS) was settling into a new marketing position at Marvell, a Santa Clara-based semiconductor company, when Microsoft came knocking with a mysterious assignment for the company. Working on an undisclosed product, the computing giant needed a team to design a complex chip for manufacture on a massive scale. “This project was very secretive,” recalls Kang. Many months into the development of a specialized microprocessor, he got his answer. The mystery chip was destined for Kinect, Microsoft's controller-free and immensely popular electronic game sensor device.

‘Rayce’ down under

11/29/11 — For the first time since its founding in 1990, CalSol, Berkeley Engineering's solar car team, competed in the international World Solar Challenge (WSC). Held in October in Australia, the WSC drew 37 solar-powered cars to a weeklong “rayce” crossing 3,000 kilometers of the barren Outback from Darwin to Adelaide. CalSol's Impulse team members posted these reports from the field.

The partnership at the heart of heart-monitoring technology

11/25/11 The Atlantic — We have the diagnostic tools to monitor our hearts thanks to the work of two creative and persistent men, Berkeley Engineering alumnus Bruce Del Mar (B.S.'37 ME) and Norman "Jeff" Holter. Their collaboration, which spanned two decades, produced a commercially viable heart monitor known as the Holter Monitor Test.

Cal engineering dean supports diversity plan

11/21/11 California Watch — S. Shankar Sastry, the dean of UC Berkeley's College of Engineering, expressed support today for a recommendation from a student group that the college create a recruitment and retention plan for women and underrepresented minority students. The move came after representatives from several engineering student groups presented a list of recommendations to increase diversity and equity in the college at a meeting of the college's executive committee.

Cal, Stanford students battle IBM supercomputer

11/17/11 CBS News — Two days before the Big Game, students from UC Berkeley and Stanford battled IBM supercomputer Watson in a game of Jeopardy. While Watson came in first in the "IBM Watson Stanford/Berkeley Jeopardy! Challenge," Berkeley placed second, only a thousand points short of Watson, the best performance yet of any student team against the supercomputer. Watch video.

Berkeley reveals plan for academic center in China

11/16/11 The New York Times — The University of California, Berkeley announced this week that it plans to open a large research and teaching facility here as part of a broader plan to bolster its presence in China. The public university said the Shanghai center would cater to engineering graduate students and be financed over the next five years largely by the Shanghai government and companies operating here. The program is expected to begin in July 2012.

Not your grandmother’s microscope

11/08/11 California Academy of Sciences — CellScope, a project initiated by UC Berkeley bioengineering professor Dan Fletcher and his students, has opened up the microscopic world to more people. The lightweight, mobile microscopes are not only being used in developing countries to diagnose disease, but also in classrooms to get kids excited about science.

A look at the women of Berkeley Engineering

11/08/11 Daily Californian — In this Daily Cal op-ed, Fiona Doyle, Executive Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, provides a thoughtful and far-ranging perspective on the participation of women and underrepresented individuals in the college.

Berkeley Lab research sparks record-breaking solar cell performances

11/07/11 Berkeley Lab — Theoretical research by scientists at LBNL has led to record-breaking sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies in solar cells. The researchers showed that, contrary to conventional scientific wisdom, the key to boosting solar cell efficiency is not absorbing more photons but emitting more photons. "A great solar cell also needs to be a great Light Emitting Diode," says Eli Yablonovitch, the UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering who led this research.

Campus works to improve atmosphere for women in College of Engineering

11/06/11 Daily Californian — A recent California Watch article that addressed sexism experienced by a UC Berkeley engineering student has prompted administrators in the UC Berkeley College of Engineering to examine discrimination in the male-dominated college. The article prompted a swift response from top administrators. The issue will be discussed at the next College Executive Committee meeting Nov. 21, according to Fiona Doyle, executive associate dean of the college.

Mechanical flying cockroach unveiled at Cal lab

10/30/11 ABC News — Recently, the Department of Homeland Security issued a proposal for a disposable robot that could be used in search and rescue missions. This week, a lab at UC Berkeley unveiled a contender: a mechanical cockroach with wings. "What's really interesting here," says Ron Fearing, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, "is that we don't have things that fly really well, that fly like birds. And we don't have things that run really well, like a cockroach or a rat can. But combining the two, we can actually do more than with either of them by itself."

California turns to Chinese company, labor to build most of new Bay Bridge span

10/19/11 Public Radio International — Much of the actual construction of San Francisco's new Bay Bridge was actually done in China. The bridge was then shipped piece by piece to the port of Oakland for assembly. California officials have estimated that they'll save at least $400 million by relying on low-wage Chinese labor. UC Berkeley civil engineering professor William Ibbs says doing it this way makes a lot of sense.

Hybrid Wisdom Labs launches a speedy, scalable engine for visualizing customer insight

10/19/11 TechCrunch — Ken Goldberg, a professor of New Media, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley, launched an interesting new startup from the stage of The Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco today, called Hybrid Wisdom Labs. The startup, according to its founder, has emerged from "more than a decade of robotics and social media research at UC Berkeley."

Manufacturing: The road to economic recovery

10/17/11 — We have become a nation of traders, regulators and middle parties. But are we still a nation of designers and makers? In the 1950s, manufacturing contributed more than 25 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Today, that share has fallen to below 12 percent. China is rapidly overtaking the United States as the world's largest manufacturing nation.

Seeds of social change

10/17/11 — In Vietnam, less than five percent of women finish college-often because they can't afford the relatively small fees. Without skills, many young women have no choice but to take work that pays poverty-level wages. But thanks to a Seattle startup called Vittana, the brainchild of EECS alum Kushal Chakrabarti (B.S'04 EECS), some will benefit from a micro-loan that finances their education. "Education is the single most powerful tool we have to fight global poverty, enrich communities and transform lives," says Chakrabarti.

Field report from Nicaragua

10/17/11 — David Olmos (B.S'11 ME) spent his summer working with the nonprofit organization blueEnergy in Central America as part of an internship with Cal Energy Corps, a program launched in spring 2011 to help develop sustainable energy and climate solutions around the world. Now a graduate student in mechanical engineering, Olmos sent this report from the field.

Paving the way

10/17/11 — Often it's only an unexpected pothole or a bumpy road that draws our attention to pavement conditions. But for civil and environmental engineering professor Carl Monismith (B.S'50, M.S'54 CE), the ups-and-downs of pavement have been worth his ongoing consideration for the past 60 years. As the co-director of the Pavement Research Center (PRC), Monismith has been studying pavement design and technology since 1951.

The electric Leaf’s true believers won’t leave well enough alone

10/14/11 The New York Times — Within weeks after Nissan first began delivering the Leaf to buyers last December, do-it-yourselfers were looking for ways to make the new electric car -- an engineering marvel from one of the world's leading automakers -- even better. Among those applying their engineering skills to the task was Berkeley Engineering alum Gary Giddings, a passionate supporter of electric vehicles. "At this point in my life, my goal is to spend whatever time I have trying to help E.V.'s become successful," Mr. Giddings said.

Berkeley Engineering professor Lisa Pruitt wins A. Richard Newton Educator Award

10/12/11 Marketwire — The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology announced today the 2011 A. Richard Newton Educator Award, which recognizes teaching practices, techniques or innovative and new education approaches that attract girls and women to math, computing, and engineering. The first winner of the new award is Lisa Pruitt, professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley. Lisa Pruitt is deeply committed to ensuring the technological prowess of our society and economy, and works tirelessly and enthusiastically to invite and inspire a full spectrum of participants to pursue engineering endeavors.

ACM, IEEE Computer Society honor UC Berkeley professor Susan L. Graham for software development tools

09/29/11 Association for Computing Machinery — Susan L. Graham of the University of California Berkeley will receive the ACM-IEEE Computer Society Ken Kennedy Award for contributions to computer programming tools that have significantly advanced software development. Graham's research covers many areas of software, including human-computer interaction, programming systems, and high-performance computing. Her research collaborations have led to the construction of several interactive tools to enhance programmer productivity as well as programming language implementation methods that foster performance and software quality.