This summer, as thousands of Americans drive their lower-emission cars on the nation’s roads and highways, very few of them are aware that this month marks the 50th anniversary of a seminal event that paved the way to the invention of their vehicles. On August 24, 1970, Berkeley’s College of Engineering students participated in the …
UC Berkeley Team Advances Food Systems Research in New $20M NSF Center
A new research center funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will aim to improve U.S. food systems to address such issues as pandemic-driven food system security and safety; improving crop yield, quality and nutrition; decreasing energy …
ME Alumni Spotlight: Boeing
Howard McKenzie was named vice president and chief engineer for Boeing’s Global Services business unit in May 2020. He is responsible for leading the alignment of 7,000 engineers into one cohesive engineering function that supports commercial and government customers worldwide.
ME Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Debbie Senesky
Debbie G. Senesky is an Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and by courtesy, the Electrical Engineering Department. In addition, she is the Principal Investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory (XLab). Her research interests include the development of nanomaterials for extreme harsh environments, high-temperature electronics, and robust instrumentation for …
UC Berkeley Researchers Motivated by Society, Personal Interests, Scientific Community
Mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, who has developed marketable exoskeletons — wearable devices that assist people who have limited mobility — sees applied research as a more effective means of accomplishing his goals. “There are urgent technological problems that need to be solved since the results would be life changing,” Kazerooni said in an email. …
GLOBE Include Program: A New Model for Engagement
To enhance Berkeley’s mission: Teaching, Research, and Public service, the GLOBE Include Fall 2020 Program is an online program that provides opportunity to engage with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions through remote platforms. Transitioning to remote education offers a scalable approach to offer access to specialized courses. Students are able to engage in …
UC Berkeley researchers receive grant for biopreservation research, center establishment
UC Berkeley researchers — in collaboration with researchers from the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts General Hospital and UC Riverside — won a National Science Foundation award Aug. 4 of $26 million over the next five years to fund a new center for biopreservation research.
Alumni Advice: How to Maximize Your Job Search
Looking for a job can be a daunting task. But it can be made easier if you know your end goal and the steps in between. Here, I’ve compiled some takeaways and tips from my experience searching, networking, and interviewing. In particular, I have three separate areas of the job-searching process that I would like to …
UC Berkeley Team Creates Respiratory Devices From Sleep Apnea Machines
The coronavirus pandemic’s arrival earlier this year prompted Stephen McNally, a videographer for University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR), to jump on a call with campus researchers discussing how they could turn their labs into workspaces to tackle COVID-19. Faculty member Grace O’Connell agreed to let McNally come to her lab and shoot her team at work …
The Fung Institute Summer 2020 Alumni Magazine Is Out Now!
This year’s Fung Institute alumni magazine is focused on the steps towards resilience and leadership that we’ve taken together as a community in the time of COVID-19. In this issue: Fung Institute responds to COVID-19 Tips for effective remote teaming Student life snapshots Class Notes: Fung Fellowshup & MEng Alumni Updates
ME Professor Michael Frenklach Wins Jürgen Warnatz Gold Medal
ME Professor Michael Frenklach has been awarded the Jürgen Warnatz Gold Medal by the Combustion Institute. The gold medal recognizes exceptional scientific contributions having a major impact on combustion applications or combustion research; bestowed biennially to one scientist during the International Symposium on Combustion. The gold medal is named after Jürgen Warnatz (1944-2007), a former …
Professor Murat Arcak Awarded 2020 Automatica Paper Prize
ME and EECS Professor Murat Arcak has been awarded the 2020 Automatica Paper Prize by the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). Professor Arcak will receive the prize at the upcoming virtual IFAC World Congress for his paper, “Symmetry reduction for dynamic programming.” The Automatica Paper Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to the theory …
CVR Abnormalities Evaluated in HIV-Infected Women Using Quantitative Whole Brain ASL
A team of scientists from the UC San Francisco Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Neurology, and Division of Infectious Diseases along with the UC Berkeley Department of Mechanical Engineering and Subtle Medical, Inc. (Menlo Park, California) set out to assess whole brain and regional patterns of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) abnormalities in HIV-infected women using …
The EDG Lab Discovers How to Better Design Skin for Handling Wet and Submerged Objects
Real world environments, such as kitchens, present objects covered in viscous fluids: soap, oil, water, etc. Understanding and designing for slippery and submerged contact, where fluid lubrication is present, is a continuing challenge in the robotics community. Contact area, bending stiffness, and the presence of a viscous fluid affect friction. This work focuses on milliscale …
This Ugandan Startup Turns Plastic Waste into Construction Materials and COVID Face Shields
The team, led by a PhD student in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, created small machines that sort, shred, and melt the plastic so that it can be remade into construction materials and, most recently, reusable, locally made plastic face shields for medical workers who are fighting COVID-19.
Off the Scales: Fish Armor Both Tough and Flexible
Humans have drawn technological inspiration from fish scales going back to ancient times: Romans, Egyptians, and other civilizations would dress their warriors in scale armor, providing both protection and mobility. Now, using advanced X-ray imaging techniques, scientists have characterized carp scales down to the nanoscale, enabling them to understand how the material is resistant to …
ME Assistant Professor Grace X. Gu Selected as 2020 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer
SME, the professional association committed to advancing manufacturing professionals, academia and communities, today announces that 15 achievers have been selected to receive the 2020 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. The 2020 awardees, from the U.S. and Canada, have centered their research and management efforts around manufacturing processes, environmental sustainability, additive manufacturing, smart manufacturing, medical …
Winners of the Kaggle x Google Cloud & NCAA® March Madness Analytics Competition
The power of data and machine learning tools can help us understand and make decisions for just about anything — whether it’s regarding health, finance, or in this case, sports. This group of graduate engineering students — two Master of Engineering (MEng) and two Master of Science (MS) — at UC Berkeley saw the opportunity …
Q&A with the Capstone Winners of 2020 Fung Institute Mission Award
The Fung Institute Mission Award is given to the capstone team that best exemplifies the mission of the institute: “Shaping generations of technical leaders to innovate across boundaries.” Finalists are nominated by Fung Instructors, and winners are chosen by Fung Institute staff based on the project brief.. This award is presented to the Adapting Humanoid Robots …
Q&A with the Capstone Winners of 2020 Most Innovative Project
The Fung Institute’s Most Innovative Project Award is awarded to the capstone team that most effectively demonstrates the relevance of the problem they are trying to solve, the originality of their proposed solution, and the potential of their project’s impact. In this year’s online showcase, two winners were selected by MEng alumni, based on the …
Q&A with the Capstone Winners of 2020 Most Innovative Project
The Fung Institute’s Most Innovative Project Award is awarded to the Capstone team that most effectively demonstrates the relevance of the problem they are trying to solve, the originality of their proposed solution, and the potential of their project’s impact. In this year’s online showcase, two winners were selected by MEng alumni, based on the …
ME Assistant Professor Grace X. Gu Named 2020 MRS Communications Lecturer
The Materials Research Society (MRS), along with its publishing partner, Cambridge University Press, congratulates Grace X. Gu, along with Chun-Teh Chen, both of the University of California, Berkeley on receiving the 2020 MRS Communications Lecture award for their paper, Machine learning for composite materials. Published March 27, 2019 MRS Communications Volume 9, Issue 2 Gu …
ME PhD Graduates & Undergraduate Researchers Shield the Bay
Five UC Berkeley BESTies (Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. graduates – Jessica Granderson, Catherine Newman and Jaspal Sandhu – and undergraduate researchers – Resham Khanna in Cognitive Science & Psychology and Akhil Padmanabha in Mechanical Engineering) are producing face shields for Bay Area county hospitals and emergency response systems, to meet our local healthcare professionals’ need for personal protective equipment as we ramp up to the …
The Jacobs Institute’s Student Design Challenge Brings New Ideas to Address COVID-19
We are pleased to share the results of our COVID-19 Design Challenge, launched in early April as the second month of shelter-in-place orders began. Spear-headed by ME professor, Dr. Kosa Goucher-Lambert, the Design Challenge encouraged student teams to consider how design could address the current climate of the COVID-19 pandemic and the future challenges it would …
ME Graduate Student Rachel Rex Awarded 2020 GE Women’s Network Scholarship
ME Graduate Student Rachel Rex has been awarded the 2020 GE Women’s Network Scholarship from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The Scholarship Selection Committee reviewed over 1,500 applications this year, and awarded Rachel with the scholarship for her “outstanding academic achievement as well as strong engineering potential.” SWE Scholarships support those who identify as …