University of California, Berkeley Mechanical Engineering

ME PhD Student Hossein Heidari Wins Shark Tank Award at BASF Innovent 2018

Hossein Heidari, a PhD candidate in ME Professor Hayden Taylor’s lab, has won the $100,000 Shark Tank prize for “Best Innovative Technology” at BASF Innovent 2018. Heidari received the award for the Design for Nanomanufacturing lab’s work on “Computed Axial Lithography,” a volumetric 3D printing solution invented in the lab as a new paradigm in additive manufacturing. BASF is a leading chemical …

ME Alum Kenneth Armijo Receives 2018 Zia Award

Kenneth Armijo, an alumnus of the School of Engineering, was one of the recipients of the 2018 Zia Award on Sept. 29. Armijo earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2005 and his master’s and Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley, where he also earned business credentials.

ME Grad Student Garrett Corcoran Named ASC Scholar-Athlete of the Week

ME graduate student Garrett Corcoran was recently named the Athletic Study Center (ASC) Scholar-Athlete of the Week. ASC staff nominate and select scholar-athletes who exemplify UC Berkeley’s high academic standards. Corcoran was recognized by the ASC for “epitomizing the Berkeley standard of excellence via rigorous research, collegial competition, and purposeful pursuit.” Congratulations, Garrett! (Also included on the above image: …

Million Hands

“Million Hands,” a 2017 CITRIS seed-funded project that aims to build an open-source platform for customizable, functional, and low-cost prosthetic hands, has been making progress in developing 3D-printed prosthetic hands with more robust capability.

Sohn Lab Grad Student Olivia Scheideler Accepted Into MIT’s Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering Workshop

Olivia Scheideler, a graduate student in ME Professor Lydia Sohn’s Sohn Research Lab, has been accepted into the Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this Fall. The workshop is aimed at women graduate students and postdocs considering future careers in academia. The inaugural Rising Stars event is expected to draw 30 of the …

Lin Lab Engineers Develop Origami Electronics Using Cheap, Foldable Paper

Originally published in Berkeley ENGINEERING on 6/18/18 by Wallace Ravven,  Image by Xining Zang UC Berkeley engineers have given new meaning to the term “working paper.” Using inexpensive materials, they have fabricated foldable electronic switches and sensors directly onto paper, along with prototype generators, supercapacitors and other electronic devices for a range of applications. Research …

Now and Forever Berkeley Engineers

Originally published on 5/16/18 by Berkeley ENGINEERING Photo by Matt Beardsley This year Berkeley Engineering’s Commencement was a waypoint for several of the college’s major milestones. Not only did graduates from the college’s baccalaureate and graduate programs gather with their friends and family in the Hearst Greek Theatre to mark the completion of their degrees, …

ME Ph.D. Student Hossein Heidari Wins Young Researcher Award at μTAS 2017

ME Ph.D. student Hossein Heidari received the Young Researcher Poster Award at the 21st International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (μTAS 2017). The award, sponsored by The Society for Chemistry and Micro-Nano Systems (CHEMINAS), recognizes excellence among participants at the conference. Heidari’s award-winning poster focused on his work with ME Professor Hayden Taylor on …

ME Ph.D. Student Negar Mehr Wins WTS-OC Scholarship

ME Ph.D. student Negar Mehr has been awarded a Graduate Scholarship from the Orange County chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). WTS is an international organization “committed to excellence in the transportation industry and provides opportunities for member career advancement through the exchange of information, ideas, and experiences.” The award will be presented at the Annual …

MPC Lab Members Win 2017 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best Paper Award

ME PhD candidate Ashwin Carvalho and former PostDoc Stéphanie Lefévre, along with ME Professor Francesco Borrelli, have won the 2017 IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering Best Paper Award. The award, given by the IEEE Robotics Automation Society, recognizes the best paper published in the previous calendar year, and is judged on technical merit, originality, potential …

ME PhD Student Yumeng Liu Wins Outstanding Paper Award at Transducers 2017

ME PhD student Yumeng Liu, along with his fellow Lin Lab members Huiliang Liu, Yong Cui and Takeshi Hayasaka, have won the Outstanding Paper Award at the 19th IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Transducers 2017 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In the winning paper, Lin Lab members demonstrated “a new AC sensing scheme based on …

ME Doctoral Student Sonia Travaglini is Thinking Inside the Cardboard Box

Article originally published in the Berkeley Science Review By Sonia Travaglini How do you help someone thousands of miles away in an Indian slum fix their roof, or someone in the African urban jungle access cervical cancer screening? You might think of sending some money, or perhaps supporting some charitable agencies. But in recent years …

ME Graduate Student Chengzhi Shi & ME Professor Xiang Zhang Work to Bring High-Speed Communications to the Deep Sea

Photo Credit: Merilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab Could This Strategy Bring High-Speed Communications to the Deep Sea? Originally published by the Berkeley Lab News Center on June 27, 2017 by Sarah Yang 510 486-4575 A new approach to&nbspsending acoustic waves through water could potentially open up the world of high-speed communications to activities underwater, including scuba diving, remote ocean …

ME Professor Grace O’Connell Awarded Signatures Innovation Fellowship

ME Assistant Professor Grace O’Connell has been awarded the 2017-2018 Signatures Innovation Fellowship. The fellows program “supports innovative research by UC Berkeley researchers in the data science and software areas with a special focus on projects that hold commercial promise.” O’Connell was awarded the fellowship, with ME graduate student Bo Yang, a member of O’Connell’s …

ME Graduate Students Team Up in the O’Reilly Lab to Test Their Shoe-String Theory

Photo by Christopher Daily-Diamond Shoe-string theory: Science shows why shoelaces come untied By Brett Israel, Media Relations brett.israel@berkeley.edu, 510 643-7741 Berkeley – A new study by mechanical engineers at UC Berkeley finally shows why your shoelaces may keep coming untied. It’s a question that everyone asks, often after stopping to retie their shoes, yet one …

UC Berkeley Students and Bay Area Makers Join Global Movement to Collaborate and Develop Custom Solutions with People with Disabilities in 48-hour Makeathon

[Berkeley,&nbspMarch 17-19]&nbsp85 innovators and makers will gather at Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley for&nbspTOM:Berkeley, a three-day technology-development marathon where participants work together with people with disabilities to develop solutions for everyday challenges. Physical prototypes address the local need, and the designs will be published online to address the needs of others with …

Lin Lab Members Win Best Student Paper Award at MEMS 2017

ME graduate students Eric Sweet and Ilbey Karakurt, along with their fellow Lin Lab members Joshua Chen and Alison Long, have won the Best Student Paper Award at the 30th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems MEMS 2017 in Las Vegas, NV.&nbspTheir winning paper demonstrates “a fully-3D printed multi-input microfluidic concentration gradient generator, …

ME PhD Student Dongchi Yu Wins SNAME-2016 Graduate Paper Honor Prize

ME PhD student in Ocean Engineering, Dongchi Yu, presented a paper at the NorCal-SNAME Professional Meeting March 16, 2016 on his recent research on “Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Wave-Resistance Reduction of Asymmetric Di-Hull Systems by Exploiting Interference Effects”. The study concerns validating a theory that allows the ship designer to rapidly optimize the stagger …

ME Ph.D. Students Sarah Koehler and Negar Zahedi Mehr Win Best Paper Award

ME Ph.D. Students Sarah Koehler and Negar Zahedi Mehr have won the Best Paper Award at the 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The conference is the annual flagship conference of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society and welcomes articles in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems, dealing with new developments in …

Research on the Berkeley Autonomous Car Recognized by the US Secretary of Transportation

ME Professors Francesco Borrelli and Karl Hedrick, ME Ph.D. student Ashwin Carvalho, and Associate Director for Self-Driving Vehicle Development, Chan Kyu Lee, were in attendance for the US Department of Transportation’s DOT announcement of a new policy on Automated Vehicle Development. The group was invited by Anthony Foxx, the DOT’s Secretary of Transportation, to take …

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 …

ME Ph.D. Candidate Anju Toor Selected as Rising Star by Carnegie Mellon University

ME Ph.D. Candidate Anju Toor has been selected as a&nbspRising Star by Carnegie Mellon University, and will participate in the 2016 Rising Stars workshop.&nbspThis annual academic career workshop brings together the world’s brightest women Ph.D. students, postdocs, and engineers/scientists, for two days of scientific interactions and career-oriented discussions aimed at navigating the early stages of …