News

Building a rescue roach

02/18/16 New York Times — Humans may never eliminate cockroaches, but they could learn enough from them to build robots that crawl through rubble to look for survivors or gather information after disasters, according to scientists at UC Berkeley's PolyPEDAL Lab.

CEO Liz Klinger and the Lioness vibrator

Like GPS for your sex drive

02/17/16 — Our phones are smart. Our cars are smart. And now, thanks to SkyDeck-based Lioness and its Berkeley Engineering grads, even vibrators can be smart, providing the data a woman needs to reach her destination free of detours, traffic tie-ups and road rage.

Getting more women into tech careers (and why it matters)

02/16/16 — In an EECS colloquium, Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe talks about how to increase the number of women in technology.

The Eel River in the Angelo Coast Range Reserve

The critical zone: Studying where all of life happens

02/16/16 — Sally Thompson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, directs an interdisciplinary group of researchers studying northern California's Eel River.

Ben Horowitz talks honesty, failure and secrets

02/12/16 Sutardja Center — Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz shared life lessons with students - including the likelihood that your great discovery will spring from a big mistake.

New app turns smartphones into worldwide seismic network

02/12/16 — UC Berkeley scientists are releasing a free Android app that taps a smartphone's ability to record ground shaking from an earthquake, with the goal of creating a worldwide seismic detection and warning network.

UC Berkeley and SuitX team, winner of UAE AI and Robotics for Good Award

SuitX wins $1M at “Robotics for Good”

02/10/16 Cult of Android — The suitX team designing medical exoskeletons for children with cerebral palsy, led by mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, won the $1 million international grand prize at the “Robotics for Good” competition in Dubai.

Berkeley to lead $25M nuclear security research consortium

02/09/16 — A new $25 million grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration puts UC Berkeley at the head of a multi-institution consortium focused on research that supports nuclear science, national security and nuclear nonproliferation.

Enlargement shows weak points in a thin polycrystalline graphene sheet

Graphene is strong, but is it tough?

02/09/16 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab scientists led by Robert Ritchie, professor of materials science and mechanical engineering, have determined that superstrong polycrystalline graphene is not very resistant to fracture, which could limit its usefulness.

Fiona Doyle, Shmuel Oren and David Sedlak

New members elected to the National Academy of Engineering

02/08/16 — The National Academy of Engineering elected five Berkeley engineers, including three current faculty, in this year's class of new members.

Cockroach robot squeezes though cracks

02/08/16 — Berkeley robotics engineers hope their new cockroach-inspired bot will be able to crawl through tiny spaces to find people buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Screenshot of ShakeAlert demo on smartphone

White House renews commitment to earthquake early warning system

02/03/16 — Buoyed by recent advances in technology, the federal government announced Tuesday that it is expanding its commitment to earthquake warning systems because they will save lives.

The paralyzed can walk again with this super-light robotic exoskeleton

02/01/16 Fast Company — The Phoenix, a lightweight exoskeleton developed under the guidance of mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, can provide an affordable way to walk again.

French tenis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga wipes sweat from his face during the Australian Open.

Wearable sensor can collect data from sweat

02/01/16 New York Times — Berkeley engineers have created a flexible, wearable sensor that can collect data about multiple chemicals in body sweat. The device could help people monitor conditions like dehydration and fatigue in real time, said EECS professor Ali Javey.

Berkeley-led consortium receives grant to research nuclear energy, security

02/01/16 Daily Californian — The multi-university Nuclear Science and Security Consortium, led by UC Berkeley and headed by nuclear engineering professor Jasmina Vujic, has received another $25 million federal grant to research nuclear energy and security, aimed at attracting young scholars to the field.

Five questions for development engineer Rachel Gerver

01/29/16 Blum Center — Rachel Gerver (Ph.D.'14 BioE), among the first generation of UC Berkeley students in development engineering, talks about her background and her interest in getting new medical technologies to market, where they can have an impact on patients' lives.

The road to sustainability

01/28/16 CNBC — In a new video series on sustainable energy, civil and environmental engineering professor Arpad Horvath compares the environmental footprints of emerging transportation technologies, from biofuels and high-speed rail to maritime shipping and aviation.

Let them see you sweat: Wearable sensors analyze perspiration

01/27/16 — Berkeley engineers have built a small, flexible device that can monitor levels of important body fluids simply by measuring sweat on a person's skin.

Boot camp participants practice active listening skills

Dilbert’s lessons in entrepreneurship (and failure)

01/27/16 Sutardja Center — Dilbert creator (and serial entrepreneur) Scott Adams shared stories of his successes and, more important, his failures with participants in the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship boot camp earlier this month.

11 body parts grown in the lab

01/26/16 LiveScience — A roundup of recent successes in cultivating human body structures ranges from fallopian tubes to 3D-printed ears to the heart muscle cells, grown in Berkeley bioengineer Jay Keasling's lab, that could speed the screening of drugs.