News Archives - UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering

When Student Athletes are Also Engineers

As artificial intelligence, autonomous cars, intelligent robots, and space exploration dominate social media, science and engineering are now in style. And the students with the unique capability to find solutions that save the earth, make life easier, and help explain the inexplicable, are cool, especially if they are also elite athletes competing at the collegiate…

No robot can match a squirrel’s ability to leap from limb to limb — until now

Engineers have designed robots that crawl, swim, fly and even slither like a snake, but no robot can hold a candle to a squirrel, which can parkour through a thicket of branches, leap across perilous gaps and execute pinpoint landings on the flimsiest of branches.

‘An extra special place’: UC Berkeley alumni start a new chapter of their love story with the sweetest marriage proposal in Morrison Library

As a student at UC Berkeley, Helen Kirkby was no stranger to the libraries. Kirkby, who studied political science and history, remembers digging through the Free Speech Movement papers for a research project, poring over old newspaper articles on a microfiche reader, and studying medieval manuscripts from The Bancroft Library. Morrison Library, tucked within Doe,…

A. Carlos Fernandez-Pello, 2024 Recipient of the Alfred C. Egerton Gold Medal

In this second installment of a series of articles recognizing the combustion scientists who were honored with medals and awards during the 40th International Symposium – Emphasizing Energy Transition, we will be highlighting A. Carlos Fernandez-Pello (University of California [UC] Berkeley, United States), the 2024 recipient of the Alfred C. Egerton Gold Medal. Prof. Fernandez-Pello was selected to receive this…

New assistive device enhances grasping for people with spinal cord injuries

More than 15 million people worldwide are living with spinal cord injury (SCI), which can affect their sensory and motor functions below the injury level. For individuals with SCI between C5 and C7 cervical levels, this can mean paralysis affecting their limbs and limited voluntary finger and wrist flexion, making it difficult to grasp large,…

Wildfire scientist Michael Gollner on protecting the East Bay from disaster

As LA continues to burn and a blanket of smoke, ash and toxins covers Southern California, an atmosphere of dread hangs in the air over Berkeley and the fire-prone East Bay. Are we next? The lush landscape of forests with homes nestled into the Berkeley hills is beautiful to behold for many aspiring homeowners. But…

White House honors engineering faculty with early career awards

UC Berkeley engineering professors Grace Gu, Sergey Levine and Grace O’Connell have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. President Biden made the announcement this week.

New electromagnetic material draws inspiration from the color-shifting chameleon

Talk about inspo. The chameleon, a lizard known for its color-changing skin, is the inspiration behind a new electromagnetic material that could someday make vehicles and aircraft “invisible” to radar. As reported today in the journal Science Advances, a team of UC Berkeley engineers has developed a tunable metamaterial microwave absorber that can switch between absorbing,…

Health, housing and the path ahead: UC Berkeley researchers on the Los Angeles fires

The areas burning in L.A., such as the Santa Monica Mountains, have a long and extensive fire history. Malibu, for instance, has had over 30 wildfires in the last 100 years. Dense vegetation that regrows quickly fuels fires that can spread into neighboring population centers. When Santa Ana wind events occur, winds are channeled through…

New Big Ideas Lab episode explores how additive manufacturing is reshaping the future

Another groundbreaking innovation is Computed Axial Lithography (CAL), a Star Trek replicator-like process that builds objects using principles similar to a CT scan, but in reverse, and does so quickly and seemingly out of thin air. Hayden Taylor, associate professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, explained: “[CAL] allows us to print materials that are very low…

Four game-changing researchers in materials science

Grace Gu is taking inspiration from a wide range of places when she comes up with designs for composite materials that are more robust, adaptable and cheaper to produce than current forms. Turning to “the hidden gems of the mathematical world” to inform her designs has been especially rewarding, says Gu, who works as a…

NASA-funded project offers new insights into fire behavior in space

In the coming years, NASA plans to launch long-duration missions to the Moon and to Mars, where astronauts will spend weeks, months or even years living in spacecraft. Understanding fire behavior in these environments is important to ensuring crew safety, but flammability testing conducted on Earth does not always give a complete picture of how…

Meet the Newest Faculty to Join the Department of Mechanical Engineering

Over the past year, we’ve had four new faculty members join the Department of Mechanical Engineering – Professors Negar Mehr, Lining Yao, Ken Kamrin, and Claudio Hail. Negar Mehr received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering for UC Berkeley. Dr. Mehr’s research focuses on creating algorithms and mathematical models for autonomous systems to interact safely and…

Berkeley Engineering welcomes eight new faculty members

Claudio Hail, assistant professor of mechanical engineering Hail completed his Ph.D. at ETH Zürich in Switzerland. His research will focus on leveraging nanoengineered optical materials and micro/nanomanufacturing to address clean energy technologies and global challenges ranging from new concepts for space travel and manufacturing quantum hardware to advancing imaging/sensing devices.

New research center to develop innovative solar power plant technologies

UC Berkeley Engineering and Nextracker Inc. are partnering to launch the CALNEXT Center for Solar Energy Research, with the goal of developing sustainable, next-generation solar power plant technologies to meet rising global energy demand. Funded by a $6.5 million gift from Nextracker, this collaboration will support a leading-edge research program and planned state-of-the-art test field.…

ME Professor Homayoon Kazerooni elected to the National Academy of Inventors

Kazerooni-Homayoon

Kazerooni, a leading expert in robotics and human-machine systems, is known for creating medical exoskeletons that have allowed those who have been paralyzed to stand and walk.

New model sheds light on how wildfires spread through communities

California has already recorded more than 6,000 wildfires this year, underscoring the need for better mitigation strategies to reduce their devastating impact. Now, researchers have created a model that may shed light on how these fires spread through communities in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), enabling us to better assess the risks of wildfire and take steps…

Berkeley Engineering welcomes new faculty to campus

Ken Kamrin, associate professor of mechanical engineering Kamrin received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT. His research interests include theory and modeling of granular media, gas- and liquid-sediment mixture modeling, computational methods for soft media and multiphase problems, and analytical techniques and model reduction.

New $150 million research center to develop sustainable model for materials production

UC Berkeley will partner with the new Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials to develop a sustainable model for materials production to support the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Rio Tinto will contribute $150 million over 10 years to fund the center, which will be led by Imperial College London and act as a hub for…

ME Professor and Ph.D. Student’s Research Featured in Soft Robotics

Squishy Robotics, UC Berkeley’s BEST (Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities) Lab, and a NASA Ames co-author were on the cover of the June 2024 issue of Soft Robotics journal. The referenced paper was co-authored by Dr. Kyunam Kim, as lead author, with ME Professor Emeritus Alice M. Agogino and Dr. Adrian K. Agogino, a NASA Ames…

Berkeley researchers send 3D printer into space

Imagine a crew of astronauts headed to Mars. About 140 million miles away from Earth, they discover their spacecraft has a cracked O-ring. But instead of relying on a dwindling cache of spare parts, what if they could simply fabricate any part they needed on demand? A team of Berkeley researchers, led by Ph.D. student Taylor…

Winners of 2024 CITRIS Aviation Prize reach great heights

What would it take to connect the University of California’s campuses in Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz with a safe and sustainable system of air taxis, equipped to ferry students, faculty, staff and cargo across Northern California? That’s the question posed by the 2023–24 CITRIS Aviation Prize, the student design competition organized by CITRIS Aviation, a…

Researchers design soft actuators that mimic ‘bone-in-flesh’ structure of human limbs

Berkeley engineers have developed magnetically controlled soft actuators that mimic the “bone-in-flesh” structure of human limbs. Ultrafast and highly precise in their movements, these bioinspired actuators are easily made with low-cost, off-the-shelf components — qualities that may lead to their expanded use in soft robotics systems. In a study published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials,…

ME Undergraduate and Alumni Among Berkeley Engineering Commencement Speakers

Born and raised in the Philippines, Abhinav Subramaniam has worked with UC Berkeley’s Invention Corps on numerous projects—such as designing and building solar-powered refrigeration in rural areas—and was a member of the Model United Nations Team. After graduation, he plans to work with social impact-oriented startups and eventually pursue a master’s degree in public policy.

ME Undergraduate Lilly Etzenbach Among 2024 University Medal Finalists

In the remarkable diversity of the 2024 University Medal finalists, there is a striking theme: All of the finalists started their Berkeley studies in isolation, and through their undergraduate years, each found ways to build communities of study and service that were essential to their success. University Medal winner Christopher Ying has lived this story, and…

UC Berkeley innovators featured in ‘Pathways to Invention’ film

Are inventors born or made? Berkeley engineers explore that question in the award-winning documentary “Pathways to Invention,” set to premiere in May on PBS stations nationwide. The 60-minute special follows eight “modern inventors of diverse backgrounds and their journeys as they develop life-changing innovations.” Among those profiled are Berkeley alumni Paige Balcom (Ph.D.’22 ME), Corten Singer (B.A.’17…

ME Adjunct Professor Ravi Prasher Elected Lifetime Fellow of AAAS

Ravi Prasher

Six UC Berkeley researchers have been elected 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. The honorees, announced today (Thursday, April 18), are among 502 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.

Meet our new faculty: Tom Schutzius, mechanical engineering

Name: Tom Schutzius (he/him) Discipline: Mechanical engineering Degrees: B.Sc. in Mechanical engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago; Ph.D. in Mechanical engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Research interests: Through experimental investigations, we explore how surfaces and bulk materials can be (nano)engineered to enhance micro/nanoscale and interfacial transport, and based on our findings, we develop and fine-tune materials and…

Bioinspired design reduces drag and noise production for towed sonar arrays

Submarines and ships rely on towed sonar arrays (TSAs) for underwater exploration and security operations, but dragging these sensors through water, especially at high cruising speeds, creates excess noise that can mask target signals and compromise the sonar’s detection capabilities. Now, a team of Berkeley engineers is attempting to solve this problem with a little…

It’s Archie! Contest ends to name UC Berkeley’s new male peregrine falcon

Archie Williams, a Berkeley alumnus who ran fast enough to earn Olympic gold in 1936 and then flew U.S. Air Force planes during World War II has a new namesake — the new male peregrine falcon at UC Berkeley. Votes in a public contest that ended yesterday to name the raptor — Annie the falcon’s…