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 …
Parallel Journeys, Lasting Legacies
When Reggie DesRoches assumes the presidency of Rice University on July 1, he will become the fifth Black leader of a top research institution. He will also be the third Black president in the 65-member Association of American Universities who attended the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, along with Gary May, now the chancellor of the …
ME Alum Ryan Shelby Receives Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni
ME Alum Ryan Shelby (M.S. ’08, Ph.D. ’13) has received the 2022 Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni. All recipients of the 2022 Achievement Awards will be honored tonight, Thursday, May 12, 2022 at the Berkeley Charter Gala. The Gala will take place at the Residence Inn Berkeley at 2121 Center …
Archie Williams: The Black Bay Area Gold Medalist, Pilot and Teacher Who Fought Racism Abroad and at Home
After winning the gold medal in the 400-meter race in the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Oakland-born Archie Williams was honored with a parade. But when he graduated from UC Berkeley with a mechanical engineering degree in 1939, he couldn’t get hired in his chosen field because he was Black. So he dug ditches for the East Bay …
Dream On
Hypothermia is one of the greatest factors in preventable infant mortality — particularly in low- and middle-income countries — contributing to the deaths of about one million newborns each year. Ideally, infants have skin-to-skin contact with their mother, but in some cases, that’s just not feasible. To help address this issue, civil and environmental engineering …
Nature’s unsung superheroes? Mushrooms!
While Fiat Vox is on summer break, we have been revisiting some of our favorite episodes. In this episode, first released in 2018, we talk with then-Ph.D. candidate Sonia Travaglini, who is now on staff at the Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership at Berkeley, about how we could use fungi to mitigate all sorts of …
The Art of Engineering: Berkeley Engineering alum blurs the line between art and science
Is engineering an art or a science? Most of us would place it firmly in the latter camp: with the careful application of specific rules and factors, it’s a broad discipline based on scientific and mathematic principles. But at least one Berkeley Engineering alumnus sees it differently. Alireza Lahijanian (B.S.’09, M.S.’10 ME) is the co-founder of …
Tam Union Board Renames Drake School for ME Alum Archie Williams
The trustees of the Tamalpais Union High School District have approved Archie Williams High School as the new name to replace Sir Francis Drake, the San Anselmo high school’s moniker for the past 70 years. The 5-0 vote on Tuesday, after more than an hour of public comment, followed last Thursday’s near-unanimous choice of Williams by the …
Cal Alumni Association Spotlight: Miller Allen
Alumni Spotlight Introducing… Miller Allen B.S. ’93, M.S. ’95 Ph.D. ’02 Mechanical Engineering I was born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland where I still live with my wife and two children. My parents, godmother, and uncle all attended Cal, and I wanted to attend Cal from as early as I can remember. I also …
ME Alum Negar Mehr Wins 2020 IEEE ITS Best Dissertation Award
ME Alum Negar Mehr has won the 2020 IEEE ITS Best Dissertation Award. The IEEE ITS Best Dissertation Award is given annually for the best dissertation in any ITS area that is innovative and relevant to practice. This award is established to encourage doctoral research that combines theory and practice, makes in-depth technical contributions, or …
The Clean Air Car Race Turns 50
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 …
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 …
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 …
ME Alumni Spotlight: Andrew & Mark Ansell
“I’m Andrew Ansell and my twin brother Mark and I graduated from Cal, each with simultaneous degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration, in December 2019. Funnily enough, we now both work at Microsoft, as Mechanical Engineering Program Managers for different Surface products. We’re also considering attending Stanford University, where we both got in as …
Artificial Intelligence Gives Stethoscopes a Much-Needed Upgrade
Over its 200 years of existence, the stethoscope has emerged as the ultimate symbol for the medical community. Dangling from the neck of a doctor or nurse, the acoustic device seems to bestow upon the wearer an instant veneer of competence and credibility. But here’s something people might find surprising, perhaps even shocking: the health …
ME Alumnus Darryll J. Pines Named President of University of Maryland, College Park
Pines (B.S.’86 ME), the current dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering, will start his appointment July 1.
ME Alumnus Spotlight: Martin Sanchez Sendiz
Martin Sanchez Sendiz (ME 19′) was born in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Martin immigrated to the U.S. when he was four years old, arriving in South Lake Tahoe. Martin’s mother and father both worked in the hospitality industry in the resort town. Martin’s mother cleaned hotel rooms and his father worked multiple jobs as a prep …
ME Alumna Spotlight: Suzanne Singer
During Native American Heritage Month, Berkeley Mechanical Engineering spotlights a prominent Native American alumna, Suzanne Singer. Originally from Flagstaff, Arizona, Suzanne is a member of the Diné (Navajo) tribe. She earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona and her Masters and PhD from UC Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering. Since graduating, she …
ME Ph.D. Alum Xinyan Deng’s Hummingbird Robot Is Almost as Agile as the Real Thing
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 …
ME PostDoc Jeongmin Kim Wins 2019 PicoQuant Young Investigator Award at SPIE BiOS
The winners of the Young Investigator Award 2019 are Hugh Wilson for his talk “Tetherless and long-term single molecule FRET in an anti-Brownian trap” and Jeongmin Kim for his talk “Oblique lightsheet STORM for tissue samples.” Congratulations!
ME Alum Christopher Ategeka Talks Health Care Access for All
In a Brief But Spectacular video on PBS News Hour, Berkeley Engineer and entrepreneur Christopher Ategeka B.S.’11, M.S.’12 ME tells how he is using his influence to recruit health professionals to work in underserved parts of Africa.
ME Alum Anuj Chaudhary and a Team of Berkeley Undergrads Are Boosting the Intelligence of Your Apps
Photo by Noah Berger Article originally published by Berkeley ENGINEERING   The world according to Dot 10/24/2016, by Daniel McGlynn   Kunal Chaudhary and Rahul Ramakrishnan met one another a few years ago as Berkeley freshmen. They were part of Venture Strategy Solutions, a startup consulting club that gave them behind-the-scenes glimpses of how young companies …
ME Ph.D. Alum Daniel Kawano Receives Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award from ASEE
ME Ph.D. alum Daniel Kawano 2011 was awarded the Ferdinand P. Beer and E. Russell Johnston, Jr., Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award by the Mechanics Division of the American Society for Engineering Education ASEE in June 2016. Kawano is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and is a coauthor, with …
ME Doctoral Graduate Euiyoung Kim Wins 2016 Best Paper Award at the 2016 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference
ME Doctoral graduate Euiyoung Kim, along with his co-authors Jaewoo Chung, ME Teaching Professor Sara Beckman, and ME Professor Alice Agogino, won the 2016 Best Paper Award at the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ International Design Engineering Technical Conference. The topic of the paper, titled “Design Roadmapping: A Framework and Case Study of Planning …
While Preparing for Olympics, ME Alum Olivier Siegelaar Receives Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship
SIEGELAAR EARNS PAC-12 POSTGRAD SCHOLARSHIP 8/8/2016 11:22 AM | By: Anton Malko   This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a …
M.Eng. Alum Daniel Lim Helps to Create Sophie’s Super Hand
“I studied engineering for the past five years, and I thought this is the first project where I can directly improve someone’s life. When I saw Sophie’s picture, I wanted to do this.” – Daniel Lim M.Eng.’15   Click here to read the full story from the latest issue of Berkeley ENGINEER.
‘ME Alumnus Nick Kohut, Co-Founder of Dash Robotics, Creates Origami-Style Robots’
ME alumnus Nick Hohut, along with his team at Dash Robotics, has created the “”world’s first lightning-fast, origami-style robots that you can build yourself!”” The robots, named Kamigami, were created as an educational tool, furthering their mission of making STEM education accessible to everyone. According to Dash Robotics, Kamigami are “”perfect for those looking for a …
ME PhD Students’ Research from the Laser Thermal Laboratory Published in Nature Materials
Dr. Hojeong Jeon and doctoral student Sangmo Koo of the Laser Thermal Laboratory LTL reported their work on the functionalization of the surface of biological devices by ablative direct laser writing in the August 20 issue of Nature Materials. Patterned surfaces with nanoscale craters can control the cell ability to stick to surfaces. This in …
ME alumnus Christopher Ategeka Partipates in First-Ever White House Demo Day
On August 4, 2015, President Obama hosted the first-ever White House Demo Day, which “”focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, welcoming startup founders from diverse walks of life and from across the country to showcase their innovations.”” Christopher Ategeka, who graduated with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, was one of the lucky entrepreneurs …