New & noteworthy
11/14/18 — Class notes and other updates about Berkeley Engineering alumni and faculty.
News
Three named as top young innovators
11/14/18 — Alessandro Chiesa, Chelsea Finn and John Schulman were recognized on MIT Technology Review's list of “35 Innovators Under 35.”
New STEM podcast
11/14/18 — Bioengineering grad students launched the Double Shelix podcast to discuss the challenges women face in pursuing STEM careers.
Farewell
11/14/18 — Obituaries for Berkeley Engineering faculty and alumni
Shmuel Oren awarded Berkeley Citation
11/14/18 — Recently retired IEOR professor Shmuel Oren, now serving as a professor of the graduate school, has been awarded the Berkeley Citation, one of UC Berkeley's highest awards honoring individuals "whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence."
Skinlike sensor maps blood-oxygen levels anywhere in the body
11/07/18 — A new flexible sensor developed by engineers at UC Berkeley can map blood-oxygen levels over large areas of skin, tissue and organs, potentially giving doctors a new way to monitor healing wounds in real time.
Berkeley engineers selected to modernize the grid
11/02/18 — The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has selected eighteen teams, including two with Berkeley Engineering researchers, to participate in the Grid Optimization Competition. which aims to develop new management software for the nation's electricity grid.
Data science division to connect teaching and research across campus
11/01/18 — UC Berkeley is forming a new academic division, provisionally referred to as the Division of Data Science and Information, to facilitate interactions among researchers, students and faculty in a wide variety of disciplines.
Berkeley computer theorists show path to verifying quantum supremacy
10/30/18 — Berkeley computer theorists have shown that there is merit behind a method of verifying quantum supremacy, a term that describes a quantum computer's ability to solve a problem that is prohibitively difficult for any classical algorithm.
Turning cars into robot traffic managers
10/29/18 — Berkeley transportation researchers are addressing the emerging era of smart vehicles with a project that uses machine learning to manage traffic where autonomous, semi-autonomous and manned vehicles share the road. They presented their project, called Flow, at the Conference on Robotic Learning.
Berkeley Method gets students thinking like entrepreneurs
10/26/18 — A Berkeley-only leadership boot camp, led by the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, uses an innovative approach to teach students skills that are vital to entrepreneurial success.
Berkeley researchers to help develop trustworthy machine learning systems
10/24/18 — Berkeley engineers, led by computer sciences professor Dawn Song, are part of the new Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning funded by the National Science Foundation. The NSF center, led by Pennsylvania State University and announced today, will focus on developing secure systems in the era of machine learning models. The center will receive $10 million over five years.
Berkeley ingenuity keeps lithium-ion batteries at temps even Goldilocks would love
10/22/18 — Berkeley engineers have come up with a clever and inexpensive solution to automatically regulate the temperature of lithium-ion batteries. Their technology could expand the practical use of electric vehicles and consumer electronics in more extreme temperatures.
Data science, the ‘new Latin’ for students, in demand in Silicon Valley
10/19/18 SF Chronicle — Data science is one of the fastest-growing fields of study at Berkeley, but the field is in such demand that jobs far outstrip the supply of graduates in the Bay Area
As companies embrace AI, it’s a job-seeker’s market
10/16/18 Reuters — With artificial intelligence expanding into ever more applications, the number of students trained in AI hasn't kept pace with the demand for workers - a mismatch reflected at a recent UC Berkeley career fair.
A tiny step into the final frontier
10/15/18 Medium — Six undergrad engineers are developing "SpinorSats" - each less than 10 grams, about the size of an Apple Watch - that they hope will be the smallest maneuverable satellites in space.
New test rapidly identifies antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’
10/15/18 — A new test dubbed DETECT, co-developed by Berkeley bioengineers, can diagnose patients with antibiotic-resistant infections in a matter of minutes and help limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” which kill as many as 700,000 people worldwide each year.
Can the world change course on climate change?
10/15/18 — In an episode of the Knowledge@Wharton podcast, Berkeley professor of energy Daniel Kammen and Wharton's Brian Berkey discusses a new United Nations report warning that severe impacts of global warming are likely to occur by 2040.
Symposium open to all
10/11/18 CITRIS — Women in Tech: The future of AI (November 16 in Banatao Auditorium) will highlight the experiences of women in artificial intelligence and explore our collective future with representatives from established companies, startups, academia and the public sector.
Berkeley ranked #2 for blockchain
10/09/18 CoinDesk — A new survey ranks UC Berkeley second in the nation for blockchain education (and the only public school on the list). Berkeley was praised for its engineering prowess, its interdisciplinary courses and its vibrant on-campus community, including the Blockchain at Berkeley student group.