Migdalia Sanchez, an undergrad mechanical engineering Cal NERDS student who was part of our cohort, shared some reflections on her experience, “As an Indigenous Zapotec woman in STEM, specifically in engineering, it is quite rare to find scholars and opportunities where my identity and passions intersect. It was wonderful to be able to have conversations …
News items about undergraduate students
ME Student Group, Berkeley Combat Robotics, Competes on BattleBots
BattleBots is a Discovery Channel TV show that has been running since the 90s on various networks and airs in over 150 countries; it’s the highest level of combat robotics, in which 250lb robots rip each other apart for a chance to win the coveted Golden Bolt. Just over two years ago, a few incoming …
Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair: October 17th – 21st
If you’re considering a graduate degree, you won’t want to miss our virtual Graduate Diversity Admissions Fair at UC Berkeley, Oct. 17-21! Learn more about our application process and meet with individual programs in 80+ sessions during the week. Register free: https://bit.ly/admitdivfair
Space Enterprise at Berkeley Sets Record with Flight of Fully 3D-Printed Rocket
Last month, ME Student Group Space Enterprise at Berkeley (SEB) conducted a successful flight and recovery of low-altitude demonstrator LAD-8, the world’s first fully 3D-printed rocket of its scale. The vehicle reached just over 8,000 feet above ground level and a top speed of 850 ft/s. In addition to proving a recovery system that supports …
From a mechanic in the Navy to mechanical engineering at Berkeley
Can you introduce yourself? My name is Rj Kelsey, and I’m a transfer student from Mountain House, California. What are you interested in studying, and why? Mechanical engineering. I was a mechanic in the Navy, and it kind of got me into the engineering world, so I went with that after I got out. How …
South LA grad earns $3.5M in scholarships, accepted to 39 universities, heading to Berkeley
SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Ever since Jaden Hunter was a little boy growing up in South Los Angeles, he’s always been focused on his education. This year he graduated at the top of his class from Crenshaw Arts Tech Charter High with 4.7 grade point average and was named co-valedictorian. “I felt good because my hard work …
Oliver O’Reilly, Victoria Plaut selected as 2022-23 vice provosts
UC Berkeley selected Oliver O’Reilly as the vice provost for undergraduate education and Victoria Plaut as the vice provost for faculty. Previously the interim vice provost for the same position, O’Reilly now serves the full role of supporting “diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and justice efforts” starting July 1, according to a campus press release. “I’m …
Join Us for a Commencement Celebration!
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is hosting a commencement reception on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, from 11:30-1:30PM in the Etcheverry Breezeway. The reception will be for graduating undergraduates, M.S and M.ENG graduates, and their families.
Fung Fellows: Austin Portinause, Conservation + Tech ’22
Austin Portinause is a Conservation + Tech fellow studying Mechanical Engineering. Here, he shares about how his experience in the Navy and enrolling in UC Berkeley, ultimately led him to the Fung Fellowship.
Berkeley Discovery: ME Undergraduate Student Lekha Duvvoori
Lekha Duvvoori is a senior Mechanical Engineering major and Linguistics minor with a passion for working with her hands. She’s been a member of CalSol, the UC Berkeley solar vehicle team since her very first semester. She was brakes lead her sophomore year and Engineering Director her junior year, overseeing the Mechanical, Electrical, and Solar …
Join Us as We Celebrate the 2021 Berkeley Engineering Graduates!
Congratulations 2021 graduates! The College of Engineering is hosting virtual commencement ceremonies for eligible students, their family and friends on Thursday, May 20. All undergraduate and graduate students graduating in Fall 2020, Spring 2021 and Summer 2021 are eligible to participate.
Announcing Sharjeel Laeeq as 2021 Jengyee Prize Recipient
Congratulations to Sharjeel Laeeq for winning the 2021 Jengyee Prize, Leadership for a Better World scholarship. Sharjeel is a graduating senior in Mechanical Engineering who recently helped a neglected town in Pakistan to install a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system to provide more clean drinking water to residents utilizing his own funds. He plans to further expand his efforts this summer. Sharjeel also serves as …
Led by ME Undergrad Christian Nisperos, Blockeley’s back, with an 1893 campus and a Bancroft Library archive
Last year’s mock commencement at Blockeley University, a fantastical virtual model of UC Berkeley created in the Minecraft video game, made headlines as an imaginative response to the COVID-era postponement of Berkeley’s 2020 graduation ceremony.
MicroKits Continue ME’s Hands-On Learning Tradition
When instruction suddenly switched from in-person to distance learning, ME faculty and staff worked together to plan, create, assemble, and distribute lab kits to students for their laboratory instruction.
ME Undergraduate Spotlight: Gissell Jimenez
Meet Gissell Jimenez, a third-year undergraduate student here in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley.
Click to learn to more about Gissell’s interest in biomechanical engineering, and her passion for tutoring and the ME Scholars program.
ME Undergraduate Spotlight: Bryant La
Meet Bryant La, a third-year undergraduate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering here at UC Berkeley with a 4.0 GPA.
Bryant is a first generation student and he is proud to be from Oakland. He is a valuable member of our community, serving as the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He grew up just east of Lake Merritt and is an alum of Oakland High School.
BART Summer Internships Give Students Real-World Experience in Public Transportation
Jennie Nguyen’s summer internship with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) let her stretch her computer science skills with real-world experience, architecting a new faregate patron sensor solution and coding the sensors to work in the new faregates “It definitely gave me experience that I couldn’t get in the classroom alone,” said Nguyen, a senior in …
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 …
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 …
Join Us Remotely on May 19th for a Celebration of the Berkeley Engineering 2020 Graduates
We invite all graduates, their families and friends and the college community to join us remotely on Tuesday, May 19th.
In the Same Boat: Rower Matthew Mesman Demonstrates Teamwork in the Classroom
The same enthusiasm and determination Matthew Mesman displays in the boat, he also demonstrates in the classroom. A mechanical engineering major on the Cal men’s rowing team, Mesman recently completed his ME 102B project – a team assignment in which he and fellow classmates devised and built a paper recycling machine. CalBears.com recently spent time …
California Mechanics for the Greater Good Design Competition
This semester, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the McDonald family (Evan – BA Arts & Arch 1989, MA Arch 1994, MBA 2000, and Christy, BA Fine Arts 1989), the department held a competition among ME102B design projects entitled “California Mechanics for the Greater Good Design Competition.” ME102B is a senior level capstone design course, …
UC Berkeley Department of Mechanical Engineering Ranked #2 Undergraduate ME Program
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley has been ranked the #2 undergraduate Mechanical Engineering program in the 2020 U.S. News and World Report’s annual list of “America’s Best Colleges.” The College of Engineering at UC Berkeley was also ranked the #3 engineering program overall and the top public engineering school. Go Bears!
Transfer Mike Nash: Mountain Bike Racing Got Me into Engineering
“I’m a junior, and I’m 28, so I took a little bit of time off of school. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in college. I was racing mountain bikes. I was a professional — I raced downhill. When you’re in a race, you get a bunch of different sponsors. You get …
Berkeley Engineers Propose Solutions for Reaching U.N. Development Goals
Last year, three UC Berkeley undergrads won a competition co-hosted by the MIT Climate CoLab and the United Nation’s Environment Program (UNEP), which sought ideas for achieving the U.N.’s sustainable development goals by 2030.
ME Student Gracielita Mendoza-Beginez Gives Speech at Undergraduate Engineering Commencement
On Tuesday, May 21, ME student Gracielita Mendoza-Beginez took to the podium as the student speaker for the Berkeley Engineering undergraduate commencement ceremony. Mendoza-Beginez shared her own experience as a first-generation, low-income Latina engineering student and encouraged her fellow graduates to address the lack of diversity in engineering. “Representation in STEM matters, and we have …
Berkeley Engineers off to change the world
Nearly 700 undergraduate students and 800 graduate students gathered with their families and friends at the Hearst Greek Theatre yesterday for the College of Engineering’s annual commencement ceremonies. During both events, speakers called on graduates to draw on their Berkeley education to promote equity as well as innovation.
Heat-powered hat
Pranav Vaidhyanathan, an electrical engineering and computer sciences student, remembers summer blackouts in his hometown of Chennai, India. It wasn’t unusual for electricity to be out for as long as 20 hours. Mechanical engineering student Alex Yamada could commiserate. Growing up on Oahu, Hawaii, Yamada remembers how the island would frequently lose power — especially after a big …
Engineering’s 2019 commencement speakers
Gracielita Mendoza-Beginez (B.S.’19 ME) will be this year’s undergraduate commencement speaker. A first-generation college student, Mendoza-Beginez initially came to Berkeley to pursue a degree in environmental science from the College of Natural Resources. But midway through her freshman year, she realized that she had an interest and talent for engineering and worked hard to transfer into …
Meet the future engineers
About 350 students from across the East Bay descended on the Berkeley campus last weekend for Engineering for Kids (E4K), a one-day science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) event for low-income fourth- to sixth-grade students. The annual event is organized and hosted entirely by Berkeley students.