News from Mechanical Engineering

New research by Berkeley engineers may soon make it more practical to use battery-powered vehicles and devices in extreme temperatures, such as icy-cold winters in Minnesota or stifling-hot summers in Death Valley. Led by Chris Dames, professor of mechanical engineering, the researchers developed a thermal regulator that can improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries outside of what’s …

Pranav Vaidhyanathan, an electrical engineering and computer sciences student, remembers summer blackouts in his hometown of Chennai, India. It wasn’t unusual for electricity to be out for as long as 20 hours. Mechanical engineering student Alex Yamada could commiserate. Growing up on Oahu, Hawaii, Yamada remembers how the island would frequently lose power — especially after a big …

A powerful new hydrogen fuel catalyst developed by Berkeley engineers relies on a surprising ingredient: gelatin, the same material that makes Jell-O desserts jiggle. Composed of nanometer-thin sheets of metal carbide, this catalyst works just as efficiently as platinum to generate hydrogen fuel from water, but at a much lower cost than the rare and …

The 2019 winner of the WiSTEM2D is Grace X. Gu. Part of the Mechanical Engineering faculty at UC Berkeley, Professor Gu has conducted pioneering work in the field of additive manufacturing, including recent work on a self-correcting 3D printer. 3D Printing Industry got in contact with Professor Gu to to learn more about this particular project, …

Hummingbirds are some of the most nimble fliers on Earth. Their speed and agility are spectacular, driven by the complex muscles that control their wings. This is a difficult system for robots to emulate, and in general, the small winged robots that we’ve seen have relied on compromises in control in order to be able …

Two years ago, Alice Agogino, a UC-Berkeley mechanical engineering professor, was working on a contract to build exploratory robots for NASA Ames. She had been recruited to help design what would eventually become a fleet of mobile, ultra-impact-resistant, remote-sensing robots that could protect sensitive scientific equipment during a drop from orbit onto the surface of …

Gracielita Mendoza-Beginez (B.S.’19 ME) will be this year’s undergraduate commencement speaker. A first-generation college student, Mendoza-Beginez initially came to Berkeley to pursue a degree in environmental science from the College of Natural Resources. But midway through her freshman year, she realized that she had an interest and talent for engineering and worked hard to transfer into …

The University of California, Berkeley and the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) are teaming up to establish a new educational program to accelerate the digitalization of infrastructure systems for sustainable energy. The partnership, finalized today, will help train technical DEWA professionals in state-of-the-art technologies relevant to modern infrastructure systems, particularly for electricity and water.

Robotic arm stacking layers of 2D tissues. (Photo courtesy of Gideon Ukpai, UC Berkeley)

Squishy Robotics was invited to demo at TechCrunch Robotics+AI on Thursday 18, 2019.

More than 113,000 people are currently on the national transplant list. And with a shortage of donors, this means that about 20 people will die every day while waiting for an organ, according to the U.S. Department of Health.

They’re the winners of the second annual Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Scholars Award, thanks to such amazing innovations as tattoos that can monitor changes in your metabolism. Meet them and their groundbreaking work.

About 350 students from across the East Bay descended on the Berkeley campus last weekend for Engineering for Kids (E4K), a one-day science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) event for low-income fourth- to sixth-grade students. The annual event is organized and hosted entirely by Berkeley students.

A dual undergraduate program in engineering and business is gaining traction with students.

Among the many advantages of automated vehicles that are often mentioned in media, energy saving is usually one of them. But how much energy can these vehicles actually save? A group of Master of Engineering (MEng) students at UC Berkeley is looking for the answer to this question.

Name: Kosa Goucher-Lambert Discipline: Mechanical engineering Degrees: B.A., physics, Occidental College, 2011; M.S., Ph.D., mechanical engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014, 2017 Research interests: I’m interested in all things design and product development. My research predominantly aims to develop new theories, models, and tools to understand and enhance designers’ ability to effectively solve challenging problems using a wide variety of …

ME Professor Masayoshi Tomizuka has been selected to receive the 2019 Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award. This award recognizes UC Berkeley faculty for their vital role in mentoring graduate students and training future faculty, and seeks to foster the qualities of excellence in mentorship that are so important to the Berkeley community. …

New UC Berkeley class has lofty goals for its students.

A new 3D printer uses light to transform gooey liquids into complex solid objects in only a matter of minutes.

Name: Hannah Stuart Department: Mechanical engineering Degrees: B.S., mechanical engineering, George Washington University, 2011; M.S., Ph.D., mechanical engineering, Stanford, 2013, 2018 Research interests: I’m interested in improving robot dexterity through building end-effectors with embodied intelligence and robustness, especially for challenging environments. This includes the design of novel grippers and hands; touch perception for autonomous or teleoperated interventions; and bioinspired …