News Archives - Page 4 of 20 - UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering

Evolution on fast forward: Grace Gu engineers AI-optimized, bioinspired materials

“CITRIS is really unique because it facilitates new collaborations in the UC system,” said Grace Gu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a principal investigator (PI) at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS). “I wanted to explore a new…

Researchers develop innovative tool for measuring electron dynamics in semiconductors

At the heart of every mobile phone, laptop and autonomous vehicle is a tiny semiconductor whose properties and, ultimately, performance are determined by free electrons. Now, UC Berkeley researchers have developed a new way to measure these electrons that could lead to more energy-efficient semiconductor materials and electronics. As reported in Nano Letters, researchers demonstrated a…

New Faculty Spotlight: Thomas Schutzius

Meet the newest addition to the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s faculty, Dr. Thomas Schutzius! Dr. Schutzius joins us as an Assistant Professor in January 2023.

Click to learn more about Dr. Schutzius and his research.

ME Ph.D. student takes the road less traveled to UC Berkeley

For Ph.D. candidate and Chancellor’s Fellowship recipient Alexander Alvara, the path to UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering has been a long and winding road. As a teenager, he would help his six younger siblings get ready for school each morning, while his mother, a single parent, juggled two jobs. He never minded the extra responsibility,…

Berkeley Engineering alumni help achieve decades-long quest for nuclear fusion

On Dec. 5, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) achieved fusion ignition for the first time in history. This major breakthrough — in which a controlled fusion reaction produced more energy than was required to start it — was decades in the making. In the experiment, researchers directed powerful lasers emitting 2.05 megajoules…

CITRIS researchers to help Northern California communities reduce wildfire risk with dynamic modeling and serious games

With $2.5 million from the National Science Foundation, an interdisciplinary, multicampus University of California research team is partnering with agencies and community organizations in the Bay Area to help residents respond to natural disasters more quickly — and more safely. The 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and laid waste to more than 240…

Berkeley Lab Scientists Develop a Cool New Method of Refrigeration

Adding salt to a road before a winter storm changes when ice will form. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have applied this basic concept to develop a new method of heating and cooling. The technique, which they have named “ionocaloric cooling,” is described in a paper published Dec. 23 in…

Say Hello to the Toughest Material on Earth

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets…

Under the radar

Berkeley researchers have discovered a way to improve the wave-scattering abilities of piezoelectric materials, a finding that may lead to advances in noise cancellation, medical and stealth technologies. In a study published in the Journal of Applied Physics and selected as an editor’s pick, the researchers demonstrated that electro-momentum (EM) coupling, a newly discovered phenomenon…

Winning Silver Medal at Indy Autonomous Challenge Dallas Race — A Strong 2022 Finish for ROAR Racing and ROAR Academy

It can only be described as an understatement that winning a Top 3 ranking in 2022 season Indy Autonomous Racing has never been a topic discussed among our team members when we arrived at Dallas. We ARE a clear underdog, starting competing in AI racing events just in 2021 and going against a slew of…

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month, every month

Migdalia Sanchez, an undergrad mechanical engineering Cal NERDS student who was part of our cohort, shared some reflections on her experience, “As an Indigenous Zapotec woman in STEM, specifically in engineering, it is quite rare to find scholars and opportunities where my identity and passions intersect. It was wonderful to be able to have conversations…

The power of simplicity

When asked to describe her microfluidic device, Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Lydia Sohn keeps it simple. “Here’s what I tell my family: It’s like we’re taking a straw, and we’re drinking tapioca boba balls,” says Sohn, who holds the Almy C. Maynard and Agnes Offield Maynard Chair in Mechanical Engineering. “Some boba are bigger than…

Spotlight on Women in Engineering – Maritza Ruiz

Maritza is the director of process engineering at Velo3D and has been with the 3D printing company for nearly 5 years. As the director of process engineering, Maritza oversees the qualification of new metal alloys in the company’s Sapphire family of printers. She also develops new processes and techniques to improve the material properties of…

Patrick Cheng, MEng ’22 (ME): “You can’t grow without facing uncomfortable situations”

After graduating as a UCLA Bruin and working in industry for a couple of years, Patrick Cheng found he was destined to be a Golden Bear, joining UC Berkeley’s one-year Master of Engineering (MEng) program in 2021. There, he earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering with a concentration on the control of robotic and…

ME Student Group, Berkeley Combat Robotics, Competes on BattleBots

BattleBots is a Discovery Channel TV show that has been running since the 90s on various networks and airs in over 150 countries; it’s the highest level of combat robotics, in which 250lb robots rip each other apart for a chance to win the coveted Golden Bolt. Just over two years ago, a few incoming…

Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair: October 17th – 21st

If you’re considering a graduate degree, you won’t want to miss our virtual Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair at UC Berkeley, Oct. 17-21! Learn more about our application process and meet with individual programs in 80+ sessions during the week. Register free: https://bit.ly/admitdivfair

Goalkeeping Robot Dog Tends Its Net Like a Pro

The best professional football goalkeepers in the English Premiere League (we’re talking about the sport called soccer in North America) are able to save almost, but not quite, 80 percent of shots taken on goal. This is very good. But it’s not nearly as good as the 87.5 percent of shots that a 9kg quadrupedal robot…

Digging Deep: Inspired by nature, the burrowing mole crab robot is a feat of engineering with real-world applications

The unassuming Pacific mole crab, Emerita analoga, is about to make some waves. UC Berkeley researchers have debuted a unique robot inspired by this burrowing crustacean that may someday help evaluate the soil of agricultural sites, collect marine data and study soil and rock conditions at construction sites. In a study published today in Frontiers…

ME Professor Lisa A. Pruitt Releases Memoir

Congratulations to ME Professor Lisa A. Pruitt on the release of her memoir, Soul of Professor: Memoir of an Un-Engineered Life. “In the world of academia, Professor Lisa Pruitt had it all, being recognized with numerous awards for research, teaching, and mentoring over decades of educational pursuit. As her career rose, Lisa painstakingly created an…

ME Joint Professor Somayeh Sojoudi and ME PhD Student Elizabeth Glista Win “Best of the Best” Paper Award at the 2022 IEEE PES GM

ME Joint Professor Somayeh Sojoudi and ME PhD Student Elizabeth Glista have won a “Best of the Best” Conference Paper Award at the 2022 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting. The paper, titled “A MILP for Optimal Measurement Choice in Robust Power Grid State Estimation,” was selected by the Power System Operation, Planning, and…

Space Enterprise at Berkeley Sets Record with Flight of Fully 3D-Printed Rocket

Last month, ME Student Group Space Enterprise at Berkeley (SEB) conducted a successful flight and recovery of low-altitude demonstrator LAD-8, the world’s first fully 3D-printed rocket of its scale. The vehicle reached just over 8,000 feet above ground level and a top speed of 850 ft/s. In addition to proving a recovery system that supports…

From a mechanic in the Navy to mechanical engineering at Berkeley

Can you introduce yourself? My name is Rj Kelsey, and I’m a transfer student from Mountain House, California. What are you interested in studying, and why? Mechanical engineering. I was a mechanic in the Navy, and it kind of got me into the engineering world, so I went with that after I got out. How…

ME Assistant Professor Kosa Goucher-Lambert Receives ASME 2022 Young Investigator Award

ME Assistant Professor Kosa Goucher-Lambert has received the 2022 Young Investigator Award in Design Theory and Methodology from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This award recognizes sustained and meritorious contributions to research; education; service; training of researchers or practitioners; overall leadership in advancing the field; or any combination of these in the field of…

Haitian-American engineer makes history as first Black president of Rice University

Reginald DesRoches is riding a wave of successes in his academic career, Five years ago, the renowned civil engineer joined Rice University’s School of Engineering. He followed the auspicious start with the promotion to vice provost two years later. On July 5, the fifth anniversary of his arrival on campus, he started his first day…

South LA grad earns $3.5M in scholarships, accepted to 39 universities, heading to Berkeley

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Ever since Jaden Hunter was a little boy growing up in South Los Angeles, he’s always been focused on his education. This year he graduated at the top of his class from Crenshaw Arts Tech Charter High with 4.7 grade point average and was named co-valedictorian. “I felt good because my hard work…

ME Joint Professor Peter Hosemann Wins DOE Research Grants

ME Joint Professor Peter Hosemann is the lead PI of two winning Department of Energy research grants. The project entitled “High throughput mechanical testing of additively-manufactured materials,” sponsored by DOE NEUP, will develop new approaches to generate a large number of mechanical property and microstructural data on additively manufactured metals. These data will then be…

Fired Up for the Future

As another potentially devastating wildfire season begins, California is facing a shortage of wildland firefighters. To meet this challenge, the Marin County Fire Department and UC Berkeley have partnered to form FIRE Foundry (Fire, Innovation, Recruitment and Education), a program that recruits young adults from underrepresented communities for a career in fire service and trains them on…

David Schaffer: Research that takes risks must be supported

David Schaffer remembers sitting on his father’s lap as a child, curiously delving into science books and crafting mnemonic phrases that instilled in him the building blocks of biology. “He was a biochemist who would make up these silly rhymes that helped me remember microorganisms or parts of the body, like, ‘Your sternum can burn’em,’”…

Lisa Anne Torres receives 2022 Outstanding GSI Award in Engineering

The Graduate Division and Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Teaching and Resource Center recently presented Lisa Anne Torres with the Outstanding GSI Award in Engineering. The Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award honors over 200 UC Berkeley GSIs each year and recipients are nominated from within their teaching department. She received this award for the E295: Communications for Engineering…

Innovative Early-Career Engineers Selected to Participate in The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2022 Symposium of the National Academy of Engineering

Eighty-four highly accomplished early-career engineers have been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2022 U.S.-based symposium. Engineers who are performing exceptional research and technical work in a variety of disciplines will come together for the two-and-a-half day event. The participants — from industry, academia, and…