News

Paul Gray named to Silicon Valley Hall of Fame

04/17/15 Silicon Valley Engineering Council — Paul Gray (EECS professor emeritus, executive vice chancellor and provost emeritus) has been inducted into the Silicon Valley Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding professional achievement and significant contributions to Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area.

The cyber-biophysical research frontier

04/16/15 — Cyber-biophysical systems, our newest research field, integrates sensing, computational and communications networks with human biology.

UN honors nanotech pioneer

04/13/15 UNESCO — Connie Chang-Hasnain, Whinnery Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, was awarded a medal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in recognition of her innovative nanotechnology research.

Buddy-movie tech entrepreneurs

04/13/15 — From college classmates to tech entrepreneurs, EECS alums endure the dramatic stumbles of the startup script and are now ready for prime time.

Students race car with just a few drops of gas

04/08/15 ABC-7 News — A team of mechanical engineering students race through the streets of Detroit in a car that employs cutting-edge materials and tools - but very little gas.

Society of Women Engineers hosts new admits

04/01/15 — The campus chapter of the Society of Women Engineers invites newly admitted students to experience life at Berkeley for a weekend. (See video.)

Sheila Humphreys, Gary May and Lorraine Fleming

President honors 3 from Berkeley Engineering as outstanding mentors

03/31/15 White House — President Obama on Monday named Sheila Humphreys, EECS director emerita of diversity, as one of 14 recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Also honored were Berkeley Engineering alumni Gary May (M.S.'87, Ph.D.'91, EECS), engineering dean at Georgia Tech, and Lorraine Fleming (Ph.D.'85 CEE) of Howard University.

Electric vehicle batteries last longer than previously thought

03/30/15 Berkeley Lab — Scott Moura, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has co-authored a study with Berkeley Lab colleagues that may alleviate concerns over battery life in electric vehicles.

London plane trees on the Campanile esplanade

Mobile tour tells campus story via trees

03/30/15 — A free, smartphone-based guided tour, developed by CNR experts in partnership with a Berkeley Engineering alum's software company, highlights the campus's landscape and cultural history through 16 exemplary trees.

Synthetic coatings: Super surfaces

03/26/15 Nature — Characteristics adapted from lizards, ivy and other natural materials could help to engineer everyday objects with remarkable properties. Professor Phillip Messersmith, a Berkeley materials scientist and bioengineer, is studying mussel adhesive, which is ideal for securing objects underwater.

Michael Stonebraker wins $1 million Turing Award

03/25/15 MIT — MIT researcher Michael Stonebraker, who revolutionized the field of database management systems in his nearly three decades as a Berkeley EECS professor, has won the Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as “the Nobel Prize of computing.”

EECS professor Ana Claidia Arias demonstrates her wearable MRI wrap to Barbara Bakar and Arnold Silverman.

Bakar Fellows show off their discoveries to tech entrepreneurship world

03/25/15 — Sixteen UC Berkeley faculty, including many Berkeley Engineers, who are conducting commercially promising research supported by the Bakar Fellows Program traveled to San Francisco to deepen their connections with prominent venture capital firms, industry partners and entrepreneurs.

The waves of the future may bend around metamaterials

03/24/15 New York Times — In recent years, scientists have learned how to construct materials that bend light, radar, radio, even seismic waves in ways that do not naturally occur. A key pioneer of these metamaterials is Berkeley Engineering's Xiang Zhang, whose lab has created optical “superlenses” that may one day surpass the power of today's microscopes.

Paul Alivisatos to step down as lab director

03/24/15 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab Director Paul Alivisatos, who is also a professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry, on Tuesday announced his intention to leave his position once a successor can be recruited to lead the lab.

Aging wooden bridge needs all the support it can get

03/23/15 New York Times — Structural engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl has been hired as a consultant on a fight by local residents to save the Albion River Bridge - California's last wooden bridge on a coastal highway.

Tensegrity robots make headlines

03/23/15 BEST Lab — Tensegrity robots have been featured in a host of recent media articles. The spherical cable-and-rod structures are being developed by mechanical engineering professor Alice Agogino's team, working with NASA Ames and their collaborators, for tasks ranging from space exploration to home health care.

What’s the state of California’s water infrastructure?

03/20/15 KALW — On a program about California's water crisis, David Sedlak, professor of civil and environmental engineering, talks about the extensive system of levees, aqueducts and pipes supply water to 25 million Californians and three million acres of farmland.

Shawn Shadden (right) and PhD graduate student Amir Arzani

Bakar Fellow Shawn Shadden is using computer modeling to sharpen diagnostic tools

03/20/15 Berkeley Research — Bakar Fellow Shawn Shadden, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has developed computational strategies designed to serve as diagnostic tools to better inform treatment for medical conditions including stroke, heart disease and osteoporosis.

X-ray telescope image of the Bullet Cluster, providing evidence for dark matter

Heising-Simons Foundation supports Berkeley search for dark matter axions

03/18/15 — Dark-matter axion research at four U.S. institutions, led by nuclear engineering professor Karl van Bibber, is one of two new grants to UC Berkeley scientists from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

‘Smart bandage’ detects bedsores before they are visible to doctors

03/18/15 — Berkeley engineers have created a “smart bandage” that uses electrical currents to detect tissue damage from pressure ulcers, or bedsores, before they can be seen - while recovery is still possible.