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11/01/14 — Friends, followers and readers: Thanks for your comments. Here is a recent sampling. Re: “Engineering social justice,” Berkeley Engineer, spring 2014 I was extremely happy to learn that an “engineering in society” course was still being taught at Cal. Looking back on my career and personal evolution, it’s that course I took back in 1978 […]

William Tarpeh at the Berkeley Water Center

Launching ‘dev eng’

11/01/14 — A new Ph.D. specialty in development engineering teaches students how to build, scale and evaluate technologies designed to combat extreme poverty and other complex international issues.

Schematic of a PT symmetry microring laser cavity

Lord of the microrings

10/31/14 Berkeley Lab — In a significant breakthrough in laser technology, scientists led by Xiang Zhang of Berkeley Engineering and Berkeley Lab have developed a unique microring laser cavity that can produce single-mode lasing even from a conventional multi-mode laser cavity.

Devices: Portable spirometer

10/30/14 — Charvi Shetty is the CEO and founder of KNOX Medical Diagnostics, a company specializing in cloud-connected personalized care for asthmatics. With the support of the Foundry@CITRIS, she is currently working on building a better asthma-monitoring device.

Nuclear Engineering’s Hosemann to receive two TMS awards

10/30/14 — Peter Hosemann, associate professor of nuclear engineering, will be presented with a pair of awards at the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) meeting in March, recognizing both his accomplishments to date and his exceptional promise for the future.

Outback technology

10/29/14 — TIER scales sustainable technology - and tall trees - to bring cell service to rural villages.

AI researchers say Elon Musk’s fears ‘not completely crazy’

10/29/14 Computerworld — Commenting on high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk provocative statement that artificial intelligence research is a danger to humanity, EECS professor and robotics researcher Stuart Russell says that "If we don't know how to control AI… it would be like making a hydrogen bomb. They would be much more dangerous than they are useful."

White House announces executive actions to boost U.S. manufacturing

10/28/14 — Dean Shankar Sastry represented Berkeley at a White House meeting Monday announcing steps to strengthen U.S. advanced manufacturing, spur innovation and continue to make the nation a magnet for new jobs and investment.

Bullet train just a blur in California governor’s race

10/28/14 Los Angeles Times — Civil engineering professor Robert Bea, a pioneering expert in the field of risk analysis, comments on the relatively small role California's bullet train is playing in the state's gubernatorial election, and how that could become a problem down the line.

Dan Kammen presenting SWITCH at Copenhagen sustainability conference

New tool for clean energy action: “SWITCH”

10/28/14 CleanTechnica — A new policymaking tool to better enable the shift to renewable energy has been developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, led by Dan Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy.

ES Squared Scholar Daryl Barth explains how to remove arsenic from drinking water.

GM Foundation funding connects students with community needs

10/27/14 — General Motors representatives joined members of Engineering Scholars as Engaged Scholars (ES)2 to celebrate the collaboration between the GM Foundation and Berkeley Engineering.

The robot in the cloud

10/27/14 New York Times — In a conversation with the New York Times' Bits blog, Berkeley Engineering professor, roboticist and new media pioneer Ken Goldberg discusses what he thinks will be one of the great technology breakthroughs of our age: the fusing of robotics and cloud computing.

Growing ferroelectric materials in a herringbone pattern

Researchers find faster path for ferroelectrics

10/26/14 — Ferroelectric materials – commonly used in transit cards, gas grill igniters, video game memory and more – could become strong candidates for use in next-generation computers, thanks to new research led by Berkeley Engineering scientists and their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.

Schematic of an electrochemical cell, with a gold electrode and water electrolyte

Study reveals molecular structure of water at gold electrodes

10/24/14 Berkeley Lab — In a research first, a team led by Miquel Salmeron, Berkeley Lab senior scientist and MSE professor, has observed the molecular structure of liquid water at a gold surface under different charging conditions.

Autonomous surgical robot cutting circle out of gauze

New research center aims to develop second generation of surgical robots

10/24/14 New York Times — With funding from the National Science Foundation and two private donors, Berkeley Engineering scientists will establish a research center intended to help develop medical robots that can perform low-level and repetitive surgical tasks.

Nuclear Engineering’s Slaybaugh to receive ANS Young Members Excellence Award

10/24/14 — Rachel Slaybaugh, assistant professor of nuclear engineering, will be awarded the American Nuclear Society's 2014 Young Members Excellence Award for her exemplary leadership in and contributions to the field of nuclear engineering.

prototype robot developed by engineers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Scientists consider repurposing robots for Ebola

10/23/14 New York Times — Robotics scientists, pondering the intriguing possibility of repurposing existing search-and-rescue robots to help contain the Ebola epidemic, are planning a nationwide series of brainstorming meetings, including one Nov. 7 at UC Berkeley.

Waller honored with Packard Fellowship

10/20/14 Packard Foundation — The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named Laura Waller, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, as a recipient of the 2014 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. The Fellowship was awarded to 18 innovative early-career scientists. Waller will receive a grand of $875,000 over five years to pursue her research.

American Physical Society honors Gadgil

10/14/14 Berkeley Lab — The American Physical Society has given its 2015 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award to Ashok Gadgil, professor of civil and environmental engineering, "for applying physics to a variety of social problems and developing sustainable energy, environmental and public health technologies."

New biomaterial has some nerve

10/14/14 — Berkeley bioengineers have taken proteins from nerve cells and used them to create a “smart” material that is extremely sensitive to its environment. This marriage of materials science and biology could give birth to a flexible, sensitive coating that is easy and cheap to manufacture in large quantities.