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.
News items about undergraduate students
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.
The Fast Track to Being a CEO-Engineer
A dual undergraduate program in engineering and business is gaining traction with students.
UC Berkeley College of Engineering launches a new course to help engineers become better communicators
A new undergraduate course called the Art of STEM Communication will be launched Spring 2019 at UC Berkeley. The course was created by the Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering (COE) Tsu-Jae King Liu and will be co-taught by her and freelance journalist Sonner Kehrt. The goal of this course is to train engineering students …
From UC Berkeley to Burning Man: Meet Alireza Lahijanian, the engineering graduate behind the giant sculptures
Every year, the flat desert of Black Rock Desert, Nevada, becomes a temporary city where artists and counterculture-seekers flock to attend Burning Man. Central to the festival experience are the multistory sculptures — which are monuments, kinetic or still, that provide artists with an outlet for “radical self-expression,” a key principle of Burning Man.
The HAB Project: A Platform for Space Research
Student group Space Technologies at Cal aim for 100,000 feet with their High Altitude Balloon launch.
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, …
The HAB Project: A Platform for Space Research
Article originally published on 4/20/18 in Berkeley ENGINEER Photo courtesy of STAC by Daniel McGlynn It’s early on Saturday morning. Right in the heart of campus, on Memorial Glade, a dozen students gather and prepare to launch a high-altitude balloon 100,000 feet into the atmosphere. They are part of Space Technologies at Cal STAC, a …
‘Engineering Student Group, Berkeley Hyperloop, Crowdfunds to Prepare for SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition ‘
Berkeley Hyperloop bLoop, a team of UC Berkeley engineering students, is currently raising funds to help prepare for the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. In January of 2016, bLoop was one of 22 teams chosen by SpaceX to compete in the 2018 competition. The group is currently raising funds via Berkeley Crowdfunding, which will be …
ME Student Groups Host Honda STEAM Connections Tour for Local Middle and High School Students
BERKELEY, Calif. Thursday, Sept. 15 — Sarah Dixon raised her hand to ask Max Chilton a question. First, the driver of the No 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Teams Honda posed a question to the middle school student from Berkeley, California: “I see your name on your jacket. Are you related to my teammate?” “That would …
ME Undergrads Take 3rd Place in NASA Aeronautics University Design Challenge 2016-2017
A UC Berkeley student team placed among the finalists awarded the top three prizes in the NASA Aeronautics Design Challenge 2016-1017. The competition, which drew entries from 26 different teams, evaluated the quality and feasibility of each submission: a design proposal for a commercial supersonic business jet that would theoretically meet NASA’s performance criteria and …
CalSol Comes in First Place at Formula Sun Grand Prix
Photo credit: Chris Cartland Campus solar vehicle team comes in 1st at Formula Sun Grand Prix Originially published in The Daily Californian on July 10, 2017 By Atira Nair | STAFF On Saturday, CalSol, a campus solar vehicle team, won the Formula Sun Grand Prix, or FSGP, an annual nationwide solar vehicle track race. The …
ME Undergraduate Student Ankita Joshi Wins KIDS FIRST: David L. Kirp Prize
ME undergraduate student Ankita Joshi has been awarded the 2017 KIDS FIRST: David L. Kirp Prize by the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California, Berkeley. The KIDS FIRST prize “rewards students engaged in new or ongoing work that demonstrates a commitment, whether in education or other domains, to creating …
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, March 17-19] 85 innovators and makers will gather at Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley for TOM: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 …
ME Undergrad Nicole Panditi Helps Lead 3D Printer Filament Reclamation Project
Story originally published on February 15, 2017 By Anne Brice, Berkeley News   UC Berkeley is a leader in 3D printing. From creating a prosthetic hand for an 8-year-old girl to a “smart cap” that senses spoiled food to large-scale cement buildings, engineers and designers on campus are pushing the technology to the limits, using it in ways never seen before. …