News

Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine

07/17/19 — UC Berkeley researchers just broke another record in photovoltaic efficiency, an achievement that could bring ultralight engines that power drones for days and deep space probes for centuries.

Adding touch to virtual and augmented reality

07/15/19 — A new device developed by Berkeley Engineering researchers could allow users to feel their way through an augmented and virtual reality experience.

Berkeley students get a global perspective of technology innovation

07/09/19 — Twenty UC Berkeley students - most with limited travel experience, including some who have never left the United States - went on a whirlwind educational tour of Singapore and the Philippines earlier this summer to learn firsthand how technology innovation and application is approached in countries outside of the United States.

Word cloud diagram of terms related to thermoelectric

Algorithms uncover hidden scientific knowledge

07/05/19 Berkeley Lab — A team of materials science researchers from Berkeley Lab and Berkeley Engineering has found that with minimal training, machine-learning text mining of the existing scientific literature can lead to new discoveries.

Anca Dragan and Javad Lavaei, Berkeley Engineering professors.

White House honors engineering faculty with early career awards

07/03/19 — Anca Dragan and Javad Lavaei have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Newly hired faculty members Alvin Cheung and Barna Saha were also honored.

New RIOS Lab to expand open-source ecosystem for dominant computer processor instruction set

07/01/19 — The Tsinghua-UC Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI) has launched a non-profit research lab to expand and elevate the capabilities of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors. The RISC-V International Open Source Laboratory, or RIOS, will involve the development of open-source hardware and software designs.

Berkeley professors named innovators under 35

06/25/19 — Two Berkeley Engineering professors - mechanical engineering's Grace Gu and EECS' Raluca Ada Popa - were included in MIT Technology Review's list of “innovators under 35” today. This honor is given annually to technologists whose work has great potential to change the world

College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design launch new Master of Design program

06/25/19 — The Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation will play a key role in the new Master of Design (MDes) program, an innovative advanced degree in design for emerging technologies.

Government-funded research increasingly fuels innovation

06/20/19 — New research shows that cuts in federal funding for science might endanger the innovation that increasingly fuels the modern economy.

Bats’ brains sync when they socialize

06/20/19 — A new UC Berkeley study from bioengineer Michael Yartsev is the first to observe synchronized brain activity in a non-human species engaging in natural social interactions. The finding opens the door to future study on how our brains process social interactions.

Crystal with a twist: scientists grow spiraling new material

06/19/19 — Materials scientists from Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have created new inorganic crystals made of stacks of atomically thin sheets that unexpectedly spiral like a nanoscale card deck.

Adobe Research and UC Berkeley: Detecting Facial Manipulations in Adobe Photoshop

06/19/19 Adobe — UC Berkeley and Adobe researchers have developed a method for detecting edits to images that were made using Photoshop's Face Aware Liquify feature. While still in its early stages, this collaboration between Adobe Research and UC Berkeley, is a step towards democratizing image forensics, the science of uncovering and analyzing changes to digital images.

How can companies like Airbnb, Lyft or Uber help in disasters?

06/19/19 — Berkeley Engineering researchers suggest that emergency management agencies and local relief organizations should leverage Airbnb, Lyft, Uber and private citizens to ensure equity in emergency evacuations.

Aaron Streets named Pew Scholar in biomedical sciences

06/14/19 — Aaron Streets, assistant professor of bioengineering, is one of 22 early-career researchers joining the 2019 Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences.

Using software to manipulate a video of President Obama speaking

AI researchers race to detect ‘deepfake’ videos: ‘We are outgunned’

06/13/19 Washington Post — EECS graduate student Shruti Agarwal and incoming professor Hany Farid argue that powerful new AI software has effectively democratized the creation of convincing “deepfake” videos, making it easier than ever to fabricate someone appearing to say or do something they didn't really do.

Cassie Cal makes campus moves on hovershoes

06/12/19 TechXplore — A new video by the Hybrid Robotics Group shows bipedal robot Cassie Cal riding in hovershoes down a few stairs, on uneven outdoor terrain, up and down steep inclines and leaning into a turn to navigate corners.

Berkeley students use AI to to help with disaster response

06/07/19 Consumer Technology Association — During a natural disaster, fast and efficient collection of information saves time and lives. With AsTeR, a platform developed by Berkeley MEng students, victims will get help sooner and firefighters will be able to assist a larger amount of people in a limited time.

Are we on the cusp of frictionless mechanical systems?

06/06/19 — Machines often require expensive maintenance or replacement because the physical contact of their moving parts creates friction that wears these components down. Now, Berkeley engineers have developed a novel approach to eliminate friction in mechanical systems.

A faster technique to purify elements

06/04/19 Berkeley Lab — Thanks to a new chemical separation method developed by nuclear engineering professor Rebecca Abergel, researchers now have a better way to attain actinium-225, a promising therapeutic isotope for cancer treatment.

Bar chart ranking graduating startup founders from US public universities

Berkeley grads dominate funded founders ranking

05/30/19 TechCrunch — Berkeley is far ahead of its peers in a new survey that ranks which U.S. universities have graduated the most founders of startups that raised $1 million or more in roughly the past year.