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 …
Engineering Faculty, Students Mobilize to Help COVID-19 Efforts
As the coronavirus continues to sicken hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, and nearly 1 million worldwide, Berkeley researchers and students are contributing their time and expertise to combat the outbreak. From providing real-time localized information on infections to more efficiently resterilizing N95 masks, the engineering community is focusing on ways to inform the public …
Bay Area Innovates in Crisis: UC Berkeley Engineers Convert Sleep Apnea Machines to Ventilate Coronavirus Patients
After reading about New York City’s mayor begging for ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients, Bryan Martel in California saw a solution beside his bed: a device to help him deal with sleep apnea. Martel doesn’t use the gadget that helps him breathe better while sleeping. “They’re really uncomfortable,” the engineer said. But it dawned on …
UC Berkeley Engineering Faculty, Students Mobilize to Assist in COVID-19 Relief Effort
Students and faculty from the UC Berkeley College of Engineering are mobilizing to assist in the COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, relief effort. Various members of the college are working on projects related to several health aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects include finding ways to decontaminate N95 masks for reuse, converting sleep apnea machines …
Turning Sleep Apnea Machines Into Ventilators
With some simple modifications, consumer devices used to treat sleep apnea could be converted into life-saving ventilators for patients with COVID-19, according to a coalition that includes UC Berkeley engineers, emergency room doctors, critical care pulmonologists and military generals. The solution could help alleviate the critical shortage of ventilators as the number of COVID-19 patients …
Crimped or Straight? Lung Fiber Shape Influences Elasticity
The shape and architecture of collagen and elastin fibers can improve our understanding of lung diseases, including the one associated with vaping.
ME Assistant Professor Grace O’Connell to Receive 2019 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award
ME Assistant Professor Grace O’Connell has been selected to receive the ASME’s 2019 Y.C. Fung Young Early Career Award. The Early Career Award was established to recognize young investigators who are committed to pursuing research in the field of Bioengineering and have demonstrated significant potential to make substantial contributions to the field of Bioengineering. Professor O’Connell was selected for her …
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.
ME Assistant Professor Grace O’Connell Receives Prestigious NSF CAREER Award
ME Assistant Professor Grace O’Connell has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation NSF as a part of the Faculty Early Career Development CAREER Program. The CAREER Program is a foundation-wide program that offers the NSF’s “most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to …
ME Professor Alice Agogino and Grace O’Connell Awarded CITRIS Seed Funding for Their Work on 3D Printed Prosthetic Hands
ME Professors Alice Agogino and Grace O’Connell have been awarded the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute’s 2017 Core Seed Funding. The funding was awarded for their project “Million Hands: Prosthetic Hands for Children Through and Open Source Platform, 3D Printers and Sensors.” With this project, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Davis will …
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 …