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ME Professor Tarek Zohdi Receives Prestigious Humboldt Research Prize in the Area of Mechanics

ME Professor Tarek Zohdi has received the prestigious Humboldt-Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Prize). The prize, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of the German Government, recognizes renowned researchers whose “fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the …

UC Berkeley Researchers Find Pasta Can Help Build Assistive Robots

UC Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering Oliver O’Reilly and campus graduate mechanical engineering student Nathaniel Goldberg constructed a model showing changes in the shape of spaghetti after it is placed in water, which could help researchers create more human-like robots.

Is Spaghetti the Key to Building a Better Robot?

Look at some spaghetti and you might think lunch. When Oliver O’Reilly looks at spaghetti, he thinks about the future of robotics. Pasta and robots might not seem like natural bedfellows, but O’Reilly, a UC Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering, hopes his research can help engineers construct better models and designs for soft robots.

Mathematical Model Shows Why Spaghetti Curls When Cooked

Scientists, as they are wont to do, have analyzed the way spaghetti curls as it cooks. Researchers Nathaniel Goldberg and Oliver O’Reilly, of U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, used their noodles—we’re so sorry—to put together a mathematical model that accounts for gravity, density, elasticity, and rigidity in cooking “rod-shaped” noodles like spaghetti.

ME Professor Tarek Zohdi Named 2019 AAM Fellow

Tarek I. Zohdi is currently a Chancellors Professor of Mechanical Engineering, holder of the W. C. Hall Family Endowed Chair in Engineering, Chair of the Designated Emphasis Program in Computational and Data Science and Engineering (DE-CSE) at UC Berkeley and Chief Technology Officer UC Berkeley Fung Institute for Innovation. Previously, he has served as the …

ME Professor Tarek Zohdi Appointed Member-At-Large by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council of USNCTAM

ME Professor Tarek Zohdi has been appointed Member-At-Large by the U. S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council of the U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics USNC/TAM. The USNC/TAM was established in 1949 to represent the United States in international scientific activities relating to the field of mechanics. It is the focal …

ME Professor David Steigmann Wins 2017 Acta Mechanica Sinica Best Paper Award

ME Professor David Steigmann has won the 2017 Acta Mechanica Sinica AMS Best Paper Award for his paper titled, “Mechanical response of fabric sheets to three-dimensional bending, twisting, and stretching.” The AMS Best Paper Award was established to “foster original and innovative scientific research in the field of mechanics.” AMS is an international journal published …

Special Issue of “Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics” Honors ME Professor David Steigmann

The July 2015 issue of Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics celebrates the award of the International Levi Civita Prize 2013 and the Engineering Science Medal conferred by the Society of Engineering Science 2013 to ME Professor David Steigmann. The issue highlights Professor Steigmann as “a distinguished scholar having made fundamental contributions to diverse areas of continuum …