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Nine members of the College of Engineering Class of 2012 have been recognized with Department Citations, denoting outstanding achievement in their respective majors.
UC Berkeley engineering researchers have developed floating robots that may help California in a number of scenarios. The sensors are equipped with GPS receivers and cellphone technology that provide data showing their exact movements in the waterway in real time. They can also deliver information on pollution, salinity and other variables. "The goal here is to be able to show the currents on a scale that was previously unknown, so we can understand better how the Delta works," UC Berkeley electrical engineer Alex Bayen said.
Viruses might eventually be able to power the very phone, computer or tablet you're reading this article on. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab have been able to generate power using a harmless human virus that can covert mechanical force into electricity. "In near future, we believe that we can develop personal electric generators," said Seung-Wuk Lee, a faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab and professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley.
Entrepreneur Weili Dai, the co-founder of Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and Berkeley Engineering alumna, may be the first woman to deliver the commencement address to a UC Berkeley College of Engineering graduating class. This commentary is excerpted from the speech she gave to the Class of 2012 on Saturday, May 12.
Texas Instruments Incorporated has announced a $2.2 million gift to support engineering education at UC Berkeley. The university will use the gift to transform its traditional introductory Electronic Design Laboratory into a dynamic learning environment for undergraduate students. "This is a unique opportunity to introduce a new generation of engineering students to the fun of building things that matter," said Professor Costas Spanos. "We will do this by infusing the 'maker' ethic early into the learning cycle, and by creating a place that brings together state-of-the-art instructional labs, a student meeting place and student-run space for hardware hacking."
The University of Illinois has chosen a noted nanotechnology scholar as its next provost. Ilesanmi "Ade" Adesida, dean of the UI's College of Engineering, is expected to assume the post on August 16. Born in Nigeria, Adesida has made the UI campus his home for 25 years. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from UC Berkeley.
A fleet of 100 floating robots took a trip down the Sacramento River today in a field test organized by engineers at UC Berkeley. The smartphone-equipped floating robots demonstrated the next generation of water monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies monitor one of the state's most precious resources. The Floating Sensor Network project, led by associate professor Alexandre Bayen, offers a network of mobile sensors that can be deployed rapidly to provide real-time, high-resolution data in hard-to-map waterways.
Berkeley Engineering alum Michael Grimes (B.S.'87 EECS), the head of Morgan Stanley's Menlo Park office, has become Silicon Valley's banker of choice for initial public offerings, and his firm is the lead underwriter of Facebook's IPO. "He was known as the whip-smart Cal Berkeley engineer who really understood technology," said Mary Meeker, who worked with Mr. Grimes at Morgan Stanley. "He's very creative and goes to meetings with the mind-set that the team needs to earn and re-earn the client's confidence at every turn."
A year ago, UC Berkeley's College of Engineering launched a leadership program for Silicon Valley engineers who wanted a deep dive in business and management but didn't want to commit to an MBA program. The Engineering Leadership Professional program has attracted engineers from Facebook, Cisco, Yahoo, Applied Materials and Network Appliances, among others. The program has been a big success, drawing 45 participants last year and 48 this year. "This is a hidden gem of a program," says Ikhlaq Sidhu, the curriculum designer and academic director of the program.
Dr. Ashok Gadgil is the recipient of the 2012 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Global Innovation in recognition of his steady pursuit to blend research, invention, and humanitarianism for broad social impact. Gadgil is a chair professor of Safe Water and Sanitation at UC Berkeley, and director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Roboticists in Africa and in the United States have launched an initiative to enhance robotics education, research, and industry in Africa. The African Robotics Network (AFRON) wants to mobilize a community of institutions and individuals working on robotics-related areas, strengthening communication and collaboration among them. One of the co-founders of AFRON is Ken Goldberg, an IEEE Fellow and professor of robotics at UC Berkeley. Goldberg was born in Nigeria, where his parents were teachers.
The Simons Foundation, which specializes in science and math research, has chosen UC Berkeley as host for an ambitious new center for computer science. The foundation’s $60 million grant to establish the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing underscores the growing influence of computer science on the physical and social sciences.
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