AI Archives - Berkeley Engineering

Winter 2024 magazine

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The purple/blue solution in this vial contains crystals of the berkelocene “sandwich.” (Credit: Alyssa Gaiser/Berkeley Lab)

Scientists Discover New Heavy-Metal Molecule ‘Berkelocene’

03/12/25 — Berkeley Lab: Breakthrough in heavy-element chemistry shatters long-held assumptions about transuranium elements

Aravind Srinivas (Ph.D.’21 CS), co-founder and CEO of Perplexity.

Berkeley alum wants to ‘make the planet smarter’

03/10/25 — Aravind Srinivas, co-founder of Perplexity, seeks to create a better AI chatbot

Silica nanoparticles affixed with a distribution of polystyrene chains (purple) self-assemble into hexagonal lattices. Depending on how the chains are organized on the particle surface, they tangle together (purple) or unravel (blue) when compressed.

A new way to engineer composite materials

03/06/25 — Berkeley Lab: Innovative polymer design combines strength with reversibility

Mechanical engineering student Will Siemens competing on pole vault.

When student athletes are also engineers

03/05/25 — ASME: Berkeley mechanical engineering students are excelling on and off the field, court and track

Breakthrough method enables rapid discovery of new useful proteins

02/28/25 — IGI: UC Berkeley engineers help develop computational approach to quickly search massive datasets and prioritize proteins to study

Mark Liu, former executive chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), speaking at a podium. To ensure American technology competitiveness in the long term, Liu is establishing the Technology Competitiveness and Industrial Policy Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

New UC Berkeley center to address American competitiveness in advanced technology

02/24/25 — The academic center will engage experts in technology, economics and policy from across academia, industry and non-profit organizations

Photo of Michael and Janelle Grimes wearing hard hats and shoveling dirt at the Engineering Center groundbreaking ceremony.

New Engineering Center to be named after UC Berkeley alumni Michael and Janelle Grimes

02/19/25 — The honor recognizes benefactors who have made outstanding contributions to the campus and its students

New AI breakthrough can model and design genetic code across all domains of life

02/19/25 — Evo 2, the largest AI model in biology to date, can accurately predict the effects of all types of genetic mutations

Headshots of Song Mei and Natacha Crooks.

Two EECS faculty earn Sloan Research Fellowships

02/18/25 — Natacha Crooks and Song Mei awarded prestigious honor for early career researchers

Kristin Persson, Stuart Russell and David Schaffer (left to right)

Three Berkeley Engineering professors named to NAE

02/11/25 — Kristin Persson, Stuart Russell and David Schaffer elected to the esteemed organization

The Dorsal Grasper assistive device, developed by UC Berkeley engineers, facilitates human-robot collaborative grasping. Its supernumerary robotic fingers on the back of the hand are grasping a tennis ball.

New assistive device enhances grasping for people with spinal cord injuries

02/10/25 — Dorsal Grasper provides an intuitive, collaborative grasping approach

EECS professor Sergey Levine poses for a portrait in his lab at Berkeley Way West in Berkeley, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.

UC Berkeley researchers in Sergey Levine’s lab devise a fast, precise way to teach robots complicated tasks

01/29/25 — Using AI, these robots learn skills with startling accuracy

Civil and environmental engineering professor Scott Moura demonstrates SlrpEV, a research project developing next-generation intelligent EV charging stations, at UC Berkeley

Batteries, buildings and beyond: Scott Moura combats climate change at scale

01/29/25 — CITRIS: Associate professor of CEE uses modeling and machine learning to optimize systems, develop energy-efficient infrastructure

Image depicting ACCEL-RT: Autonomous Cargo Carriers for Enhanced Logistics in Rural and Tribal Areas.

UC Berkeley PATH awarded $10M USDOT grant

01/27/25 — Funding will facilitate development and deployment of innovative autonomous vehicle technologies to improve freight logistics in rural and tribal communities

Carl Monismith, longtime professor and pioneering pavement researcher, dies at 98

01/21/25 — A Cal alum, he was profoundly dedicated to teaching, mentorship and the pursuit of scientific discovery

New engineering faculty, clockwise from top-left, Franco Zunino (CEE), Manxi Wu (CEE), Emma Pierson (EECS), Mengjie Yu (EECS), Alex Dimakis (EECS), Jiyun Kang (MSE), Claudio Hail (ME) and Zaijun Chen (EECS).

Berkeley Engineering welcomes eight new faculty members

01/21/25 — Professors in four departments started their tenure on Jan. 1.

The White House has announced that Grace Gu, Sergey Levine and Grace O’Connell (left to right) are among this year

White House honors engineering faculty with early career awards

01/17/25 — Grace Gu, Sergey Levine and Grace O’Connell have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)

Firefighters work to contain a grass fire that broke out in the Oakland Hills on Oct. 18, 2024.

Is the Bay Area prepared for major wildfires?

01/16/25 — Researchers use computer simulations to stress-test region’s disaster preparedness and virtual games to educate the public about wildfire safety

Brightly colored chameleon clutching leaves.

New electromagnetic material draws inspiration from the color-shifting chameleon

01/15/25 — Applications include defense, wireless communications, energy and smart infrastructure

Rendering of solar panels reflecting light from the sun

New research center to develop innovative solar power plant technologies

01/15/25 — UC Berkeley and Nextracker Inc. are partnering to launch the CAL-NEXT Center for Solar Energy Research