The kingdom fungi contains some of the oldest known terrestrial organisms in the world. Sonia Travaglini, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, is studying the properties of part of this eclectic kingdom to find new sources for sustainable composites.
Graduate Student in ME Professor Mohammad Mofrad’s Lab Wins First Place in the 2016 Image Contest of the Biophysical Society Meeting
ME Graduate student Zeinab Jahed, a member of ME Professor Mohammad R. K. Mofrad’s lab, has won the first place prize in the 2016 Image Contest of the Biophysical Society Meeting. The image, titled “Bacterial Networking,” shows a scanning electron microscopy of Staphylococcus Aureus bacterial cells forming networks on top of poly-dimethyl-siloxane PDMS micro-posts. Congratulations, …
Members in ME Professor Hayden Taylor’s Group Win Berkeley Cleantech University Prize
Members in ME Professor Hayden Taylor’s group, Liam Berryman and Lance Brockway, have won the “Berkeley Cleantech University Prize CUP“” – a competition put on by the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute BECI and Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative BERC, and sponsored by the Department of Energy DOE. After four months of mentorship and training from the competition’s dedicated mentors and …
ME Professor Homayoon Kazerooni’s Lab Advances as a Top 20 Finalist in “Robotics for Good” Competition
The Berkeley Robotics & Human Engineering Laboratory’s medical exoskeleton, Phoenix, and its specific use for children with Cerebral Palsy, was named as one of the top 20 finalists in the Robotics for Good competition. Phoenix was chosen from a pool of 664 entries, from 121 countries, in December of 2015. The competition and judging ceremony …
ME Professor Alice Agogino’s BEST Lab Featured on the Discovery Channel
The BEST Lab‘s tensegrity robot research was recently featured on the Discovery Channel’s nightly science magazine, the Daily Planet. The feature contrasted their sleek and faster Rev3 of the Berkeley Tensegrity Robot with Rev1. Both Rev1 and Rev2 use elastic cords and linear actuators to shape shift the tensegrity robot into punctuated rolling motion. Rev3 …
ME PhD Graduate Joon Sik Lee Appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs in Korea
ME PhD graduate Joon Sik Lee was recently nominated as the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs by South Korean President Park Geunhye. Dr. Lee completed his graduate work in heat transfer at Berkeley, and moved on to become a professor at Seoul National University, where he also served as Executive Vice President and Provost. He recently spent …
ME PhD Student Sui Yang Wins NKT Photonics Student Award
ME Professor Xiang Zhang’s PhD student, Sui Yang, won the NKT Photonics Student Award, in recognition of an excellent presentation at the MRS conference. Congratulations, Sui!
‘ME Professor Xiang Zhang’s PhD Student, Zi Jing Wong, Wins Jean Bennett Memorial Student Travel Grant at Frontiers in Optics Conference’
Congratulations to ME PhD student Zi Jing Wong on winning the Jean Bennett Memorial Student Travel Grant at the 2015 Frontiers in Optics conference. The grant was “”established in 2008, in memory of Jean M. Bennett, a highly decorated research physicist who was recognized for her contributions to the studies of optical surfaces and served as OSA’s …
ME Professor Mohammad R. K. Mofrad and ME Grad Student Mohaddeseh Peyro Reveal New Clues to How the Gatekeeper for the Cell Nucleus Works
ME Professor Mohammad R. K. Mofrad and ME graduate student Mohaddeseh Peyro, along with two other researchers, have released their findings today in a paper titled “Evolutionarily Conserved Sequence Features Regulate the Formation of the FG Network at the Center of the Nuclear Pore Complex.” The paper uncovers “new clues to how a molecular machine …
ME Students Drew McPherson and Kevin Haninger Team Up to Launch Design Group to Help Tackle Difficulties Associated with Disabilities
ME senior Drew McPherson and PhD student Kevin Haninger have teamed up with cognitive science student Francisco Peralta to launch EnableTech. EnableTech is a student organization that “”aims at providing assistive technologies to people with disabilities in the Berkeley community. These assistive technologies will be investigated, designed, and, if needed, prototyped by students interested in real …
‘ME PhD Student Zi Jing Wong Wins Best Student Paper Award at Metamaterials 2015, the 2015 IEEE Phototonics Conference & the CLEO Pacific Rim 2015’
ME Professor Xiang Zhang’s PhD student Zi Jing Wong, has won the Best Student Paper Award at the Metamaterials 2015 – Ninth International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics. The Congress provides “”a unique topical forum to share the latest results of the metamaterials research in Europe and worldwide and bring together the engineering, physics, and material …
ME Professor Reza Alam and Team Among Finalists for Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development
Congratulations to ME Professor Reza Alam, along with team members Devin Bisconer, Victor Pucci and Marcus Lehmann, on becoming one of the three final teams in the running to win the Odebrecht Award for Sustainable Development! The Odebrecht Award “invites university students nationwide to join us in the search for innovative technologies and methods to …
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 PhD Student Zi Jing Wong Wins Best Paper Award at SPIE Conference
ME Professor Xiang Zhang’s PhD student Zi Jing Wong, has won the Best Student Paper award at the 2015 SPIE Active Photonic Materials Conference. Wong’s award winning paper, “Single Mode Parity-Time Laser,” discusses: “The concept of parity-time PT symmetry exploits the interplay between the material loss and gain to attain novel optical phenomena such as …
ME Students in the Lin Lab Featured on ABC7 News
Students in ME Professor Liwei Lin’s Lin Lab were featured this week on ABC7 KGO, talking about their work on the “”Smart Cap.”” The 3-D printed cap uses electronics to sense spoiled food, for instance, in that carton of milk that’s been sitting in your refrigerator for too long… or is that just us?!   To view the …
ME Professor Alice Agogino & Students Win Best Paper Awards at ICED15
Congratulations to ME Professor Alice Agogino, and her students, on winning two Reviewer’s Favourite “”Best Paper”” Awards at this year’s International Conference on Engineering Design! Professor Agogino presented a paper on Euiyoung Kim’s doctoral research, “Design Roadmapping: Challenges and Opportunities” by Euiyoung Kim, Shun Yao, and Agogino. The paper won the first Reviewers’ Favourite Award, which are the top 10% of reviewed …
Students win First Place in Big Ideas contest
ME students Julia Kramer PhD student, Abhimanyu Ray MEng student, and Karan Patel MEng student, along with Betsy McCormick MBA student, Haas School of Business won First Place in the Global Health category in the Big Ideas contest for their proposal, Visualize: Saving Lives with Training for Cervical Cancer Screening. The proposal was partially developed through a capstone …
Zi Jing Wong awarded MRS Gold Graduate Student Award
ME graduate student Zi Jing Wong was recently awarded the MRS Gold Graduate Student Award at the 2015 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. The MRS Graduate Student Awards are intended to honor and encourage graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high order of excellence and distinction.